HARDWOOD RECORD 



i.^ 



production, which sell their output on their 

 o»n account are tlie Euddoels-Orleaus Cypress 

 Company, under the able management of Tim 

 McCarty, and the allied Good Land Cypress 

 Company; the Hoyt & Woodin Cypress Com- 

 pany and the Hoyt & Woodin Manufacturing 

 Company, under the general management of 



W. H. Martz. 



* ^^ * » » 



The writer had a pleasant visit while at 

 New Orleans with Walter Wright and John 

 Williams of the New- Orleans Lumber Trade 

 Journal. Incidentally inquiring of the former 

 the best way to reach the plant of the Otis 

 Manufacturing Company, Mr. Wright kindly 

 vouchsafed the information that the most ex- 

 peditious way would be to catch a Tchoupi- 

 toulas car over on Canal street. Mr. Wright 

 failed to pronounce this word in the way it is 

 spelled, and was questioned as to the correct 

 system of orthography that surrounded it. 

 • ' I have only lived here eleven years, ' ' re- 

 plied Wright; "don't ask me to spell it." 

 The writer by means of the route outlined by 

 Mr. Wright eventually discovered the jilant of 



the Otis Manufacturing Company, but in do- 

 ing so also found two decidedly better ways 

 of getting to and from the plant than the one 

 indicated by the iiublisher of the Lumber 

 Trade Journal. 



* -X- * * « 



The sawmill of the Otis Manufacturing 

 Company is located on the levee of the Mis- 

 sissippi river above the city, and is a model 

 type of a single band mill for the sawing of 

 mahogany, the entire operation and plant 

 being handled in a manner that reflects great 

 credit on the abilities of Mr. Otis as a pro- 

 ducer of this most aristocratic of woods. 

 Every detail of sawmill, sheds, lumber yard 

 and office indicate system and a thorough 

 understanding of correct methods of manu- 

 facture, seasoning and selling. 

 ***** 



Manager Harrison of the Jefferson Sawmill 

 Company has transformed his sawmill into a 

 box factor}-, and at the present time is en- 

 gaged in converting a big yard full of Cot- 

 tonwood into shooks and packing boxes. 



Henry H. Gibson. 



"Builders of Lumber History. 



Herbert B. Leavitt. 



(See Portrait Supplement.) 



Someone has said that it is comparatively 

 easy to be a good biographer, but very diffi- 

 cult to live a life worth writing. 



It is a foregone conclusion, however, that 

 the readers of the Hakdwood Record during 

 the last year have found in every issue the 

 little history of a business life worth writing. 

 In each one there has been an illustration of 

 the many methods of success and one comes to 

 the conclusion after reading them that it is 

 not the men of thought, but the men of action 

 who are best fitted to push their way to wealth 

 and honor. The secret of all success in busi- 

 ness life lies in being alive to what is going 

 on around one, in adjusting oneself to condi- 

 tions and in knowing the wants of the time. 

 It is not enough to do the right thing; it 

 must be done at the right time and in the 

 right manner. This the successful business 

 man learns early and does almost uncon- 

 sciously. Whatever the unsuccessful man may 

 think about the good luck of others who have 

 outstripped him in the race, the history of 

 the life of every successful man exemplifies 

 what Lewes wrote in his ' ' Life of Goethe ' '■ — 

 ' ' Instead of saying that man is a creature of 

 circumstance, it -would be nearer the mark to 

 say that man is the architect of circum- 

 stances. ' ' 



Among these ' ' architects of circumstances ' ' 

 it is the pleasure of the Hardvtood Record to 

 place Herbert B. Leavitt of Chicago, whose 

 portrait marks the supplement of this issue. 



Even Dr. Osier can find no fault with Mr. 

 Leavitt, as he is still under the forty year 

 limit, having entered this world in June, 1868. 

 His parents lived at that time on a farm in 

 Boone county, Illinois, a few miles south of 

 the southern boundary of Wisconsin. When 



NUMBER XIX. 



he was eleven years old they removed to Che- 

 boygan, Mich. Young Leavitt remained there 

 until he was sixteen years of age, when he 

 came to Chicago and entered Souder 's business 

 college. 



Through his father, Oscar C. Leavitt, and an 

 uncle, Jerome Leavitt, the boy had heard much 

 about lumber, as both were millwrights well 

 known in the early days of the lumber indus- 

 try of the Northwest, having built some of 

 the largest sawmills in Minnesota and Michi- 

 gan. It was, then, almost as a matter of 

 course, that the young man should turn his 

 thoughts and energies toward the lumber 

 trade when deciding to leave school for a 

 business life, which he did when he was sev- 

 enteen years old. He secured a position with 

 Crandall, Schultz & Co., then engaged in a 

 large wholesale pine business at the place 

 where the Leavitt Lumber Company 's yards 

 and offices are now located. 



Very soon the firm formed an opinion as to 

 the abilities of its office boy, Herbert B. 

 Leavitt, and in a short time he was promoted 

 to a clerkship and very quickly grew into 

 greater responsibilities. In a few years he was 

 a factor with which to be reckoned in the 

 trade. In 1894 the firm of Crandall, Schultz & 

 Co. was dissolved, and the firm of Crandall 

 & Leavitt established. J. N. Crandall had 

 been in business for many years and had de- 

 termined to retire which he did to all in- 

 tents and purposes. In May, 1894, was 

 established a new yard one block north 

 of the former location. Here was also 

 equipped commodious office rooms, extensive 

 sheds and track facilities suited to the needs 

 of a business which, although making a spe- 

 cialty "of hardwoods, yet also handled large 

 quantities of yellow pine. In 1898 they in- 

 creased their yellow pine supplies by the pur- 



chase of lands near Warren, Bradley county, 

 Ark.; here they erected a sawmill with a ca- 

 pacity of 60,000 feet a day. In January, 1900, 

 Mr. Crandall sold his interest in this sawmill 

 and timber to M. F. Eittenhouse and J. W. 

 Embree. The company was incorporated as the 

 Arkansas Lumber Company, with M. F. Eit- 

 tenhouse, president, J. W. Embree, vice presi- 

 dent, Jerome G. Leavitt, brother of H. B. 

 Leavitt, secretary. Herbert B. Leavitt was 

 made general manager and treasurer. At the 

 same time Mr. Leavitt retired from the firm 

 of Crandall & Leavitt to devote his entire abil- 

 ities to the new concern. 



As general manager of the Arkansas Lum- 

 ber Company, Mr. Leavitt found the enervat- 

 ing climate at the mill, combined with the 

 most strenuous work, entailed too much for 

 his physical endurance and after an attack of 

 typhoid fever he resigned the position in Sep- 

 tember, 1903, and was succeeded by his 

 brother. After traveling several months in 

 search of health he at last determined that he 

 was well enough to enter again the industrial 

 arena, and in May, 1904, disposed of his stock 

 holdings in the Arkansas Lumber Company to 

 his partners and in conjunction with his 

 brother-in-law, Fred W. Black, secured a 

 tract of hardwood timber lying along the 

 upper tributaries of the St. Croix river in 

 Polk county, Wisconsin, and a mill and lum- 

 ber yard at Frederic. The land comprises 

 28,000 acres in compact body. It is 

 known as the last large tract of virgin oak 

 in Wisconsin. 



The oak, both red and white, however, is 

 but one half the total stumpage, the other 

 woods comprising basswood, birch, ash, soft 

 elm and white pine. The mill at Frederic is 

 up-to-date in every particular, and cuts about 

 50,000 feet of hardwood in ten hours. The 

 lumber yard at the mill covers twenty acres 

 of ground and there are three hundred men 

 employed in its operation. At that time the 

 firm retained the name of Wisconsin Oak Lum- 

 ber Company and established a yard on Center 

 avenue, near Thirty-fifth street, Chicago, with 

 four hundred feet of water front on the south 

 branch of the Chicago river. 



Early in 1905 .the Richardson & Leavitt 

 Company was established to manufacture and 

 l}andle southern oak. In August, 1905, the 

 Richardson & Leavitt Company and the Wis- 

 consin Oak Lumber Company were consoli- 

 dated and merged into the Leavitt Lumber 

 Company, with H. B. Leavitt, president; B. 

 F. Richardson, vice president, and Elmer H. 

 Adams, secretary. In December of last year 

 Jerome G. Leavitt severed his connection as 

 manager of the Arkansas Lumber Company 

 on account of ill health, and purchased a, con- 

 siderable interest in the Leavitt Lumber Com- 

 pany. After taking a much needed rest he 

 will assume his duties as treasurer of, the 

 new company to which office he was e.Ieeted 

 last month. 



The company has just leased a yard §50^600 

 feet at the corner of Twenty-second and'Laflin 

 streets, where it will establish a second, whole- 

 sale yard. This is a part of the yard formerly 



