HARDWOOD RECORD 



IS 



teemed for a variety of purposes. Many 

 mUlions of feet of it are being converted 

 into flooring and the "pure red" produet is 

 very highly esteemed for ornamental floors, 

 especially in modern house building. It has 

 not quite asi good wearing qualities as maple, 

 but still it stays in place even better than 

 does this famous flooring material. Nearly 

 all the large flooring factories of the north, 

 whose principal output is maple, have a 

 side line of beech flooring, and in the South, 

 — notably at Nashville — a considerable quan- 

 tity of the vrood is made into flooring. This 

 product differs considerably in texture and 

 color from its northern prototype, but still 

 affords an excellent and low priced flooring 

 material. Another great and growing use 

 of the wood is for interior woodwork of 

 cabinet furniture. It is an especially desir- 

 able material for drawer sides, end.? and 

 bottoms, for backing, as a base for veneer 

 work, and for an infinity of uses in furni- 

 ture making. For many years it has been 

 Ihe standard^ for plane stocks and tool 

 handles and for clothes pin production. The 

 uses of the wood are rapidly widening as the 

 price is relatively low. 



The beech is one of the truly beautiful 

 trees of the forest, and it is fortunate that 

 there is no one type which may alone be 

 legarded as beautiful. In the eyes of many, 

 the beech is as much to be admired as the 

 American elm or the augar maple. Certainly 

 in spring when it is covered with its stam- 

 inate blossoms, it is a splendid sight, and its 

 perfect leaves are seldom spotted or eaten 

 by insects. In the winter, also, it is particu- 

 larly interesting. Its beautiful bark then 

 appears very bright. After its fine leaves 

 have fallen, though many of them, pale and 

 dry, cling to the branches throughout the 

 winter, the structure of its massive head is 

 seen to advantage. Of all the trees of 

 America it is one of the most widely dis- 

 tributed. In the Canadian markets and those 

 of many of the middle and western states, 

 its nuts are gathered and sold in considerable 

 quantities. Tliese nuts are the favorite food 

 of both tlie red and gray squirrel, and these 



rodents collect them in considerable quanti- 

 ties during the late fall, and store them in 

 tree hollows for their winter's supply of 

 food. It often happens, in felling beech 

 trees in the winter, that shelled beech 

 nuts to the quantity of a quart or more will 

 be found secreted in some hollow by these 

 provident little animals. 



The European beech, fdgus sylvatica, is 

 often planted in this country as an orna- 

 mental ti-ee, and was for a long time con- 

 fused with _ the American species. However, 

 it may be known by its broader leaves with 

 their strongly crenate edges and by the 

 abundance of fine hairs on the under sur- 

 face. Often not until N^ovember do these 

 leaves begin to show their golden color, and 



BEIBCH FOLIAGE. SEED PODS AND 

 BURRS. 



gradually turn to russet brown. At this 

 time the American beech is completely 

 stripped of its foliage. Then there is 

 another variety of ornamental beech, fagus 

 sylvatica foliis atroruhentibus. the beautiful 

 copper beech with its shimmering masses of 

 richly-hued foliage, which is a variety of the 

 European species. In this growth there is 

 some strong pigment in the leaf sap which 

 gives the foliage its own deep, rich color. 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



irUMBEK V. 



William H. White. 



It is the privilege of the Haedwood Rec- 

 ord to publish as a supplement to this edi- 

 tion, the portrait of William H. White, of 

 Boyne City, Mich., a man known to the en- 

 tire hardwood trade as one of its most im- 

 portant factors. 



It has been said that artists often put in- 

 to the pictures more of themselves than of 

 the subject painted. The camera, however, is 

 not apt to idealize a man and so one finds in 

 the pictured face of Mr. White much of the 

 rugged stubbornness and dogged persistence 

 which has made him one of the most success- 

 ful hardnood men in the country. 



The characters of the "Captains of In- 



dustry ' ' are usually alike in one or two es- 

 sential particulars. They show a forcefulness 

 that is always dynamical. The strongest 

 blows of fate are not sufficient to deaden 

 energy, enthusiasm or purpose. This forceful- 

 ness is perhaps the strongest characteristic of 

 William H. White. He was born at Owen 

 Sound, Ont., April 12, 1857. Mr. White's 

 first venture in the lumber business was the 

 getting out of stave bolts. When he finished 

 his contract he found himself .$2,000 in debt. 

 Right here was laid the foundation of the 

 clean-cut business policy for which Mr. White 

 is noted. It took him three years of hard 

 work as foreman in a wood's mill to pay that 

 debt of $2,000, but he stood by his bargain. 



His next enterprise was the manufacture of 

 broom handles, which also was unfortunate, 

 and in 1883 he entered into the manufacture 

 of lumber, handicapped by a legacy of a six 

 hundred dollar debt from the broom handle 

 business. In 1884, in company with R. E. 

 Newville, who had been associated with him 

 in the broom handle concern, he contracted to 

 supply 500,000 feet of hardwood lumber — all 

 firsts and seconds — to a Detroit firm. To ful- 

 fill this contract money must be forthcom- 

 ing, and the firm contracted to pay $2 on 

 every thousand feet they marketed to a De- 

 troit man for advances to begin operations. 



Soon after this contract was fulfilled, also 

 at a loss, Mr. White entered into another 

 partnership to buy hemlock and elm, and al- 

 though there was little call for either the 

 woods in comparison with today's sales, yet 

 in less than a year the firm cut 2,800,000 feet 

 of different kinds of hardwood. This was 

 really the first profitable business venture of 

 ilr. White who, however, had never wavered 

 in his faith in himself or the commercial 

 value of hardwood. Mr. White bought out 

 his partner in 1885, and although he cut 500,- 

 000 feet less timber that year, yet his experi- 

 ence and the rising market netted him a profit 

 of 25 per cent more than his previous year's 

 work. 



In 1886 Mr. White really laid the founda- 

 tion for his present prosperity in the pur- 

 chase of the Sheboygan mill, and 240 acres 

 of timber land. After paying for the prop- 

 erty he sold a quarter interest to his brother, 

 .James A. White, and formed the present firm 

 of William H. White & Co. Two years later 

 two other brothers, Thomas and George W., 

 entered the concern. 



William H. White & Co. have now fifty 

 miles of railroad and a lake steamer, and by 

 means of their camp outfit, mills, railroad 

 and boat are able to convey their own lumber 

 from stump to market. The cut of the firm 

 in 1885 was 500,000 feet of lumber a year, 

 and the output now is 30,000,000 feet of lum- 

 ber, 25,000,000 of shingles and 100,000 rail- 

 road ties a year. 



William H. White & Co. have today about 

 50,000 acres of hardwood timber land and 

 that together with what they buy each year, 

 will make about twenty-five years' cut. There 

 is a movement on foot to extend the Boyne 

 City & Southeastern Railroad to Alpena, 

 which will make the main line and logging 

 branches aggregate about 140 miles in length, 

 opening up the best hardwood territory iu the 

 northern country. 



Boyne City is practically a "one man's 

 town, ' ' and the one man is William H. White. 

 He is half owner of William H. White & Co. ; 

 president and general manager of the Boyne 

 City Lumber Company; president and general 

 manager of the Boyne City & Southeastern 

 Railroad; president of the Boyne City Chemi- 

 cal Company; secretary of the Elm Cooperage 

 Company; treasurer of the Michigan Maple 

 Company; first vice president of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association; president of 



