1 6 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



of oases, visually comparatively small, and 

 it also is occasionally found intermingled 

 with hardwoods and hemlock. 



There is no ("omprchcnsivo bndy of white 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



HUMBEK XK. 



WHITE PINE STUMP AND FOLIAGE, EAST 

 ERN TENNESSEE. 



pine remaining in the South at the present 

 time, and the great original white pine area 

 of Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin is well- 

 nigh a thing of the past. Northern Minne- 

 sota and the Dominion of Canada still con- 

 tain a good many thousand acres of virgin 

 •white pine timber, but a comparatively 

 small portion of this approximates the high- 

 class growth that was cut and converted 

 into lumber at an earlier date. 



White pine is essentially the king of 

 American soft woods, and of soft woods 

 the world over, so far as that goes. It is 

 undeniably the best known wood that this 

 country possesses, and it has been utilized 

 for more purposes than any other. Its uses 

 and usefulness are so broad as to preclude 



WHITE I'INE FOLIAGE ANIJ FHUIT. 



the possibility of enumeration, and whili' 

 substitution has taken place for many pur- 

 poses, there are some for which white pine 

 seems to be practically indispensable. 



WUliaui WUms. 

 i.S'ci' Portrait Supplement.) 



It is one of our American idiosyncrasies to 

 lielieve our men are the greatest exponents 

 of business on earth, and we seldom take 

 into lonsideratiou tlio racial or hereditary 

 MclvantngCB which go so far in the make-up of 

 uliat is called success. The business man may 

 have the tact of the Irish, the pertinacity of 

 tlie Knglish, the logic of the Scotch, or the 

 certain knowledge of the German; given 

 any one of these and tried by American 

 methods, he comes forth with the hall-mark 

 (i£ quality to which we point with pride. 

 The American business man may have been 

 born with one of these attributes, perhaps has 

 had others thrust upon him, but in his steady 

 Miarch up the ladder, he manages to acquire 

 thenv all. 



William Wilms of Chicago, the recently 

 elected president of the Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association of the United States, is 

 preeminently an American business man, al- 

 lliuugh he was born in Germany. Mr. Wilms 

 is full of the energy and ambition of youth. 

 He was born in Liibeck, Sept. 11, 1868, and 

 was educated in his native country. Leaving 

 school, he entered the service of a Scandi- 

 navian exporting house, and afterwards served 

 the year in the army without which no Ger- 

 man youth 's education is complete. To this 

 year's training he doubtless owes the fine 

 physique and erect carriage which distin- 

 guish him from most men devoted to busi- 

 ness. 



After his army experience Mr. Wilms felt 

 that he had not yet made the real selection 

 of his life work, and in 1893 he went to Cen- 

 tral America, where he was for several years 

 identified with mercantile and banking in- 

 terests. While in Guatemala he was recom- 

 jnended as the man to collect a large amount 

 of money for the Eeliance Lumber Company 

 of Beaumont, Tex., due it from the Guate- 

 nuila & Northern railroad. This led to his 

 liccoming identified in 1897 with the Eeli- 

 ance Lumber Company. His knowledge of 

 conditions in Central America made him a 

 most valuable factor in the concern untU it 

 liocamc a part of the Kirby Lumber Company. 

 Then the young man transferred his services 

 tij the United Lumber Company of Beaumont, 

 'I'ex., and later became purchasing agent for 

 S. Pearson & Son of London, which firm had 

 otTices at Vera Cruz and other points in Mex- 

 ico and Central America. 



Through a friend he was introduced to 

 ITerman Paepcke, president of the Paepcke- 

 I^icht Lumber Company of Chicago, who was 

 on the lookout for young men of promise in 

 his business. After an interview Mr. Paepcke 

 said to the young man, "I will give you your 

 chance, but you must be content to begin at 

 the bottom of the ladder." It is most sig- 

 nificant of the character of the Hardwood 

 .Manufacturers' Association's new president 



I hat although at this time he was earning a 

 good salary, he was able to see beyond the 

 small position and emolument greater things 

 than he could hope to gain from his present 

 state. He promptly accepted the offer and 

 took the lowest position in the office of the 

 Paepcke-Leicht Lumber Company — that of 

 bill clerk. His practical ability as an ac- 

 countant, organizer and salesman, with his 

 knowledge of seven modern languages and the 

 experience which living -in many countries 

 brings, made him of great value from the 

 first. 



With true German thoroughness he set 

 himself about the ta.sk of acquiring an un- 

 derstanding of lumber manufacture and grad- 

 ing and of all the other details necessary to 

 the proper conduct of a vast business which 

 manufactures and handles about 120,000,000 

 feet of hardwoods, mostly cottonwood and 

 gum, annually. In four years he rose from 

 his humble position to that of vice president 

 of the largest hardwood concern in the world. 

 He went into the woods, studied tree growth, 

 logging, sawmilling, seasoning and remanu- 

 facturiug into boxes, and concentrated his 

 enthusiasm, thought and energy upon his 

 business. Today he is a representative man 

 of his class. This the Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation accounted him when it conferred upon 

 him its presidency, as a tribute to his strict 

 integrity of method and direct manner of 

 keeping matters in hand. The southerner may 

 sometimes "reckon" on the course of lum- 

 ber conditions, and the northern lumberman 

 may ' ' guess " as to their fluctuations, but 

 the metliodical German mind speaks from ac- 

 tual knowledge — knowledge which does not 

 omit the smallest detail as unimportant in its 

 conclusions. 



In September, 1904, Mr. WUms married 

 Miss Lydia Paepcke, daughter of Herman 

 Paepcke. One son has been born to them. 

 Mrs. Wilms is as great a lover of trees as is 

 her husliand, and many of their outings are 

 passed in virgin forests, where the hard- 

 headed business man invites the witchery of 

 the woods to bring him respite from the hum- 

 drum and ever-busy life of the energetic 

 lumberman. 



Coming Association Meetings. 



February 11 Nutiuual Veneer *; Panel Muuu 

 facturccs' Association nt Auditorium Hotel, Chi 

 (•ago. 



February 21 and 22 Hardwood Dimension 

 Association, Grnnrt Hotel, Cincinnati. 



March 7 and 8 — Fourteenth annual meeting of 

 the National Wbolesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation ; place of meeting yet to be decided 

 upon. ^ 



May 3 and 4, 1906 — National Hardwood Lum- 

 lier .Association, Gayosn lli>|i'l, Memphis, Tenn. 



The saw. planing ami veneer mills, crate fac- 

 tory, railroad line and 00,000 acres of limber 

 land. Hie properly of W. a. Welles of Nocatee, 

 lla., have been acqulnd by D. G. McKethan 

 iind Alex. Page of .Taeksonvllle, Fla. Tlic ron- 

 sldiTnlliin was ?2.jO,000. 



