14 



THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



IMiIANA WHITE IJAK LOGS. 



TRINITY RIVER. TEXAS, WHITE OAK LOGS. 



Talking Oak ' ' proclaims his gratitude for 

 the knowledge it has given him of his 

 sweetheart, Olivia: 



And I will work io prose and rhj'me. 



And praise Ihee more in both 

 Than bard has houor'd l>eeoh or lime. 



Or that Thessaiian growth. 

 In whifh liie swarthy ring dove sat. 



And mystic sentence spolce : 

 And more than England honors that. 



Th.v Inmous brother oak, 

 "Whi'ipin ihe younger Charles a'jode 



Till all ihe paths were dim. 

 .\nd f:iv below the Roundhead rode 

 And bummed a surly hymn. 

 The genus Quercus alba is one of the most 

 stately trees that glorify the American for- 

 est. In the springtime this great gray thing 

 puts forth leaves as tender tinted and pink 

 as any Immble woodland flower. With tlie 

 first chilling frosts of the autumn, the leavon 

 become of a ruddy hue, deep and vinous; 

 and after withering drop from tlie trees at 

 the beginning of winter. 



Th great American forests of white oak 

 are sadly depleted, still it remains the most 

 important hardwood growth on this conti- 

 nent, ami for many years to come there is a 

 supply adecjuate to the demands of com- 

 merce. As compareil with the (juality of this 



magniticent timber, the price which it com- 

 mands is too low, and soon a readjustment 





I'.l.llll.M. LEAF AND AIORN OK WHITE OAK. 



of values will obtain that will place the 

 wooil on a very much higher price plane. 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



Xl'JIBEK II. 

 Kufus H, Van Sant. 



Well known to all the hardwood lumber 

 trade of the country and especially to users 

 of poplar lumber is Rufus H. Van Sant of 

 Ashland, Ky. In such high repute is he held 

 among the nu'mbers of the Hardwood Manu- 

 facturers' Association of the United State;:, 

 that at lis annual meeting in Cincinnati in 

 .January, 1904, he was selected as its presi- 

 dent, to which position of trust and honor 

 he was re-elected at its meeting at Xashvilln 

 this week. 



Mr. Van Sant was born in Morgan county, 

 Kentucky, in ]8.i'2, on a farm which is now 

 the site of the town of .Martinsburg, tlliott 

 county. lie comes from old Virginian stock; 

 his father was a farmer, stock trader and 

 small sawmill man. Early in life the boy 

 learned the responsibilities of life, for when 

 he was but sixteen his father died, leaving 

 him the head of the family, consisting of bin 

 mother and four children. Mr. Van Sanli 

 during the next eight years not only main- 

 tained the family, but between teaching and 

 attending school alternately succeeded in edu- 

 cating himself. By appointment he was then 

 made deputy clerk of I'Hliott county, and 



subsequently elected clerk, an office which 

 he held tor six years. 



His first real lumber experience com- 

 menced in ]H81, near I^eon, Ky., where ha 

 bought logs and had them manufactured into 

 lumber. Then he went out on the road and 

 sold his product. He remained in this work 

 until 1.S94, when he moved to Ashland, Ky., 

 and formed the corporation of R. II. Van 

 Sant & Co., of which he was president for 

 five yeai-s. In 18S19, in connection with 

 Charles Kitchen, John W. Kitchen and 1). .1. 

 Taft, he organized a new corporation under 

 the name of Van Sant, Kitchen & Co. Of 

 this concern Mr. Van Sant Viecame president 

 and general manager, Charles Kitchen, an 

 experienced lumberman, became secretary, 

 .lohn W. Xitchen, his son, an expert woods- 

 man, was made treasurer and Mr. Taft, a 

 mill man of reputation and experience, be- 

 came vice president. Altogether, the coi:- 

 cern has made a very strong team, each 

 member being skilled in a jiarticular line of 

 the lumber business; in cruising ami buying 

 timber, logging, driving streams, in niami- 

 facture and sales. 



In 1903 the Ashland mill belonging to tho 

 cuiiipaiiy burned, but it has since been re- 



built on entirely modern lines as a double 

 band and resaw plant, and is one of the 

 moilel mills of the country. 



The poplar timber supply for the Van 

 Sant mills comes otf the headwaters of the 

 Big Sandy river for a distance of approxi- 

 mately 17.5 miles. The poplar timber prop- 

 erty owned by Van Sant, Kitchen & Co. lies 

 in Buckhannon, Dickerson and Wise counties, 

 Virginia. The logging to the streams is done 

 by tram roads, the longer ones being 

 equijiped with locomotives and the shorter 

 l(;g hauls are handled by horses. .Since the 

 coin[iany was organized it has produced up- 

 ward of 150,000,000 feet of lumber from 

 the big. high-class jioplar timber that 

 abounds at the headwaters of tlie Big Sandy 

 river. 



Besiiles the .Ashland operations of Van 

 Sant, Kitchen & Co., they are part owners 

 of the .T. W. Mahan Lumber Company, whose 

 operations are at Mahan. near Charleston, 

 \V. Va. This is a single band and resaw 

 jdant which produces both oak and poplar. 



Hufus II. A^an Sant is a man one would 

 single (Hit in a crowd, lie is six feet four 

 inches tall and weighs upward of 240 pounds. 

 Physically he is an anomaly among Ken- 

 tuckians. He has lilue eyes and his hair, 

 which as yet sJiows little gray, is light-brown. 

 He stands straight, and in many ways hag 

 the dignity of the tree from which he is 

 nicknamed, "the tall poplar of the Big 

 Sandv. ' ' He is a serious man, as are all 

 denizens of the rugged mountains of his na- 

 tive state. He seldom tells a story, but he 

 has some rare expressions which seem to con- 

 vey his meaning better than more acadeinie 

 English. While talking with a friend the 

 ether day and telling how a mutual acquaint- 

 ance had bored him, he quaintly said " Tiiat 

 man sat there and 'angered' me for two 

 hours." Mr. Van Sant has been very promi- 

 nent in lumber association work and has al- 

 ways stood for the highest standard of mor- 

 als in the trade. His hobby is universal in- 

 spection, and his pet aversion is the ear 

 trade scalper who manipulates grades so that 

 the consumer does not get the kind of lumber 

 which he buys. 



Mr. Van Sant is a valued member of the 

 ilciminant political party of the Blue Grass 

 state, and while he has never accepted any 

 political preferment, he could have almost 

 any office in the gift of his fellow citizens, if 

 lie would consent to accept it. He has been 

 ii meniber of the Democratic state central 

 ciMninittee for eight years. 



