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Builders of Lumber History 



NUMBER CV. 

 JOSEPH M. LOGAN 



(Sec Portrait Supiih'mcnt.) 



The subject of this sketch, whose jiortriiit is employeil ns tlie sup- 

 plement feature of this issue of Hardwood Eecord, is southern born 

 i'.ud southern bred, and has aehieved distinction in the manufacture, 

 purchase and sale of hardwood lumber in the East Tennessee region. 

 Joseph M. Logan was born October 6, 1871, at Knoxville, Tenn., of 

 Scotch-Irish and German parentage. He acquired his early education 

 at the public schools at Knoxville, and completed his school training 

 1 V being graduated from the University of Tennessee. Hi.s grand- 

 father, S. T. Logan, was a prominent jurist of Virginia, and his 

 father, Judge S. T. Logan, was a circuit judge of Tennessee. 



Mr. Logan started his business career by engaging in the selling 

 of lumber in September, 1895, which employment he continued until 

 the firm of Logan & Maphet, consisting of himself and Ed. Maphct, 

 H. S. Jlizner and T. R. Price, was formed in 1902. This concern 

 continued until 1907, when he bought out his partners and continued 

 in business on his own account for some time, and afterwards or- 

 ganized the Murpliy-Logau Lumber Company, which continued for 

 about eight months. In February, 1909, the Logan- JIaphet Lumber 

 Company was organized, of which H. S. Mizner became president, 

 C. C. Cannon, vice-president, Mr. Logan, secretary and treasurer, and 

 Ed. Maphet, general manager. This organization has continued up to 

 the present time. 



The Logan-Maphct Lumber Company operates sawmill plants at 

 Chilhowee and Clinton, Tenn., and is the owner of a considerable block 

 of hardwood timber near Ellijah, Ga. It has a grouping and dis- 

 tributing yard at Knoxville; maintains a yard at Kyle, Ga., and a 

 large wholesale yard at Cincinnati, O., under the management of 

 Ike M. Asher. 



During J!r. Logan's business career he has repeatedly operated 

 sawmills in various parts of the region contiguous to Knox^-illc, and 

 he and his associates not only produce a large quantity of lumber ou 

 their own account, but purchase stock outright as well. 



Perhaps the basis of Mr. Logan's special aptitude in achieving tlie 

 success he has in lumber operations has laid with his intimate knowl- 

 edge of timber qualities and his ability to . carefully determine the 

 character of growth, but he has particular attainments in the buying, 

 .•issorting and selling of lumber. While Mr. Logan puts forth most 

 of his efforts in the office end of the business, he finds time to get 

 out on purchasing trips and personal visits to the larger hardwood 

 buyers throughout the country whom he supplies with stock. 



Ijargely .attributable to his specific knowledge and industry is the 

 large and widel.v distributed business of the Logan-Maiiliet Lumber 

 Company. Insofar as specific knowledge of the timber resources of 

 the Knoxville district goes, Mr. Logan knows his Baedeker well, and 

 through this basis of knowledge of sources of logical supply lie is 

 able to secure the quantities and qualities of stock that ajipcal io the 

 discrimination of many of the largest and best consuming iiiii?iut:ic 

 turing concerns in the United States. 



The' Logan-Maphet Lumber Company occupies a liaridsiirtu' ollicc 

 building, erected especially for its uses, situated on a connnamling 

 bluff across the street from its Knoxville distributing yard, and this 

 IS the company 's general business headquarters, from which its saw- 

 milling and general lumber distributing and shipping business is 

 carried on. 



Mr, Logan has pronounced social characteristics. He is ]>rominenl 

 in the councils of the Benevolent Order of Elks. He is a member of 

 I he Cumberland Club and other leading social and fraternal orders of 

 Knoxville and of other cities. In July, 1897, he married Miss Mary 

 Cannon of Philadelphia, sister of the vice-president of the company. 

 The couple have two daughters, Maria Loui.w and Mary Jose)iliini'. 

 fourteen and three and a half years old, respectively. 



The business of the Logan-Maphet Lumber Company has perhaps a 

 distribution of gales so wide that few other institutions of a similar 



character can equMl it. Mr. Logan has paid especial attention to ile- 

 veloping a trade in the chief and fast-growing cities of the South, 

 which does not in any wise interfere with its widely extended trade 

 north (^f the Ohio river and as far east as Boston. This wide distri- 

 bution of lumber is made possible by the high type of the timber 

 growth of the section of which Knoxville is the center. Many astute 

 bu.vers are thoroughly conver.sant with the surpassing qualities of 

 the poplar, red oak, white oak, chestnut, birch, ash and other woods 

 of that region, and hence it is that the Logan-Maphet Lumber Com- 

 jiany, having a call on this source of supply, is able to meet the 

 requirements of the most exacting trade with fidelity and promptness. 

 Personally, j\Ir. I^ogan is more of an aristocrat than the average 

 type of lumberman, and has the peculiar distinction, unlike the average 

 successful lumber operator, of not having been born on a farm. His 

 forebears were nearly all professional people, but the lumber busi- 

 ness appealed to him move strongly, and he abandoned his legal train- 

 ing to enter the more prosaic and possibly more profitable enter- 

 prises involved in lumber manufacture, purchase and distribution. 

 Mr. Logan's institution is a very successful one, and as he is still 

 young in years, there is undeniably much in store for him, not only 

 in personal distinction, but in a monetary way in connection with the 

 lumber business of the eastern Tennessee and Western Morth Carolina 

 country, witli whiili lie is so well acquainted. 



BACK IN THE LUMBER BUSINESS 



Probably the hajipiest man in Kentuekv' right now, even includ- 

 ing the governor-elect and senators and congressmen whose election 

 is assured, is K. H. Vans:int of Asldand, Ky. — the tall ]inplar of 

 the Big Sandy — who has done such indefatigable work during the 

 past three or four months as chairman of the democratic campaign 

 committee, in dragging Kentucky back into the democratic column. 

 Like everything he undertakes, Mr, Vansant has entered heart 

 and soul into this campaign, and the results of his energies ar(> 

 thoroughly manifested in the outcome. 



Since E. H. Vansant 's immediate political work is ended, it 

 fairly may be anticipated that he will again get back in the 

 poplar and oak business, which naturally has received but scant 

 attention from him for some time, although "Uncle" Charley 

 Kitchen ami tlie boys around the shop have not been idle in the 

 lumber business. 



Vansant, Kitchen & Co. for some numtlis have been receiving 

 a daily train load of logs from their Breathitt county, Kentucky, 

 timber holdings, which rival in size and quality the pojdar that for 

 years they have been cutting off the Big Sandj', It is reported 

 that their stock of low grade lumber is down to a very low stage, 

 but that they have a handsome and well-balanced stock of high 

 and coinnion grades in bofh poplar aiid oak. 



PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD PLANTING TREES 



'I'hc r.iiiisylvnnia Company is the leading railroad corponitioii 

 of the country that has entered upon practical forestry pursuits. 

 In its forest nursery at Morrisville, Pa., it has thirty-six aero 

 of land devoted to nursery purposes, which affords a cajiacity of 

 1,0(1(1,000 trees. This year it has jdanted 4.')0,428 trees, which is 

 about 200,000 less than were planted last year, owing to the fad 

 that nearly all the ground had already been plante.l and the seed 

 lings were not yet large enough to be safely removed. 



The railroad comjiany is conducting its forest tree enterjirise on 

 conservative lines on the various lands owned by it, which will not 

 only jirovide a future tie and lumber supply for railroad use, but 

 serve as an object lesson to farmers, and provide an incentive to 

 iiiti'lligcnt forest development. 



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