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Builders of Lumber History 



Nriiiuoit cvii. 

 WALTER E. HEYSEE 



(Nee Portrait ^^nitith nn )it.\ 



Walter E. Heyser of Ciiu-iuuali, O., tlio siibJcLt of this skotoli, 

 is a lumberman both by inheritance and training. He was born 

 in Jackson, Mich., in 187G, at which time his grandfather, Silas 

 Heyser, and his father, Winfield C. Heyser, were conducting a 

 wholesale and retail white pine business. His grandfather was 

 one of the pioneer lumbermen of the Wolverine state. 



At the age of ten years Sir. Heyser moved with his father to 

 Chattanooga, Tenn., where the elder Heyser erected a sawmill 

 and engaged in the manufacture of poplar from logs driven out 

 of the Little Tennessee, a tributary of the Tennessee river. 



Mr. Heyser abandoned his school training at the age of seven- 

 teen and started out for himself to learn all the ins and outs of the 

 lumber business from the stump up. The first position he held was 

 in a logging camp in the Great Smoky mountains in Tennessee, 

 near the Xorth Carolina line. After a year and a half there, 

 where he eventually became foreman of the logging camp, he 

 went out to the foot of the mouutains at Tellico Plains, Tenn., 

 where he spent some time in yard work, and learned inspection ami 

 the full details of the lumber end of the business. From Tellico 

 Plains he returned to Jackson, and took charge of the retail yard 

 of S. Heyser & Son. Two years later he entered into the whole- 

 sale and retail business with A. M. Walker, at .Jackson, under the 

 firm name of Heyser -Walker Company, where a profitable busi- 

 ness was maintained. It was at this period of his life that he in 

 any way became interested in polities, and at the age of twenty- 

 six years was appointed police commissioner of the city of Jack- 

 son, which position he held for two years. 



He sold out his interest in the Heyser-W'alker Company for the 

 purpose of entering exclusively into the wholesale end of the 

 trade. He associated himself with the T. B. Stone Lumber Com- 

 pany, Cincinnati, O., as a salesman, and after three years purchased 

 an interest and conducted the firm of Stone & Heyser at Memphis 

 for two years thereafter. During this connection he was vice- 

 I>resident and treasurer of the concern. A few years ago he sold 

 out his interest in Stone & Heyser to the T. B. Stone Lumber 

 Company, and with J. H. P. Smith purchased all the stock of the 

 Hardwood Lumber Company, which was then located at Ashland, 

 Ky. Of this concern Mr. Heyser became vice-president and treas- 

 urer, and the business was removed to Cincinnati. 



The Hardwood Lumber Company achieved a good deal of dis- 

 tinction and made a considerable amount of money by specializing 

 in the lumber end of the business of various automobile com- 

 panies. The comjiany shortly became by far the largest buying 

 concern ever known in lumber history for any exclusive line utiliz- 

 ing hardwoods, and at one time practically cornered the market 

 on wide Xo. 1 and panel poplar. The profits of the house for one 

 year during this period constituted quite a handsome fortune. 



In November. 19111, Mr. Heyser sold his stock in the Hani wood 

 Lumber Company and organized the W. TO. Heyser Lumber Com- 

 pany of Cincinnati, of which company he is president and seventy- 

 five per cent owner. Associated with him in this enterprise is 

 Ben Bramlage, the well-known banker of Cincinnati and Coving- 

 ton, as vice-president and treasurer, and W. 0. Thompson as sec- 

 retary. Mr. Heyser and his associates at that time purchased 

 seven acres of well-located land, lying alongsiile V)oth the Cinciii 

 nati, Hamilton & Dayton, and the Big Four railroads at Winton 

 Place, a Cincinnati suburb, on which has been erected a handsome 

 office building, and the entire acreage laid out substantially for a 

 modern grouping and distributing lumber yard. Here the main 

 office of the company is located. It also maintains a branch office 

 at Memphis, which is conducted as a purchasing department for 

 lower Mississippi valley hardwoods. This branch is in charge of 

 Weaver Hass, one of the stockholders of the company. 



—26— 



The W. E. Heyser Lumber Compauy has already built up a 

 large and profitable business. In fact, its first year has shown a 

 phenomenal growth for a new concern, and especially so consider- 

 ing that the year was not a very good one for even veteran houses, 

 but the W. E. Heyser Lumber Company has the reputation of 

 having made money from its very start. 



At its yard at Winton Place it carries one of the largest and 

 best assorted stocks of hardwoods in Cincinnati. It operates a 

 sawmill in the South, at which it is manufacturing about 3.5,000 

 feet of lumber per day. It also has several large contracts for 

 mill cuts. At this time it is carrying a stock of nearly 10,000,000 

 feet of all varieties of hardwoods. 



Mr. Heyser was married in Detroit eight years ago and has one 

 son, a boy six and a half years old. He and his family occupy a 

 handsome home in the exclusive residence district of Cincinnati. 

 Mr. Heyser is of a very social disposition, but does not devote 

 much time to social "stunts," for as he says 'he is too busy and 

 . too much interested in his work to give up much time for pleas- 

 ures of this sort. About the only recreation in which he indulges 

 is driving an automobile, which he employs more for business than 

 for pleasure. However, he is a member of the Cincinnati Business 

 Men's Clult, and takes an active interest in this organization. 



Mr. Heyser has the reputation of being a very astute lumber 

 buyer, but at the same time perhaps his reputation is chiefly 

 based on his exceptionally pleasing address, his ability to make 

 friends, and his surpassing attainments as a scientific lumber 

 salesman. He is remarkably popular with a host of wholesale 

 hardwood manufacturing consumers over a very wide range of 

 territory, and has achieved for himself and his company not only 

 a large and profitable business in the United States, but his Cana- 

 dian trade is jirobalily larger than that of any other manufactur- 

 ing or jobbing concern in the country. He has also obtained a 

 reputation for clean business methods that has assisted him in 

 no immaterial way to the attainments of the success he has had 

 in lumber pursuits. While Mr. Heyser has already had a very wide 

 experience and notable success in most every detail of lumber 

 affairs, he is still a young man and undeniably has a big future 

 before him. 



It is tlierefore gratifying to H.\ri)\vood KKconn to liave the 

 pleasure of presenting his counterfeit presentment as its supple- 

 ment in this issue in its series of Builders of Lumlier History. 



The Furniture Situation 



Tlir f'uriiiliue uianufacturing situation is a subject rather dif- 

 ficult to analyze at the present time. Manufacturers have had a very 

 good demand for several months in supplying goods for the holiday 

 season, and as a consequence have generally bwn fairly busy. 



Furniture producers are distinctly optimistic, and have made pre- 

 liminary plans in the way of the production of new furniture 

 designs for exhibition at the forthcoming expositions at Chicago 

 and (Irand Rapids, and have sanguine hojics that these shows will 

 develop ii handsome array of orders. However, the Inisiness results 

 of the expositions are still entirely conjectural. 



"The trend in the new leading .sample lines discloses a tendency 

 toward the reproduction of cl.'issic English jiatterns. Straight lino 

 ilesigns seem largely re]ircscn1ed in such assortments as have been 

 scrutinized up-to-date. ' ' 



Tlie foregoing statement is made by the American Fiirnitiiro 

 Manufacturer. This publication does not venture to express an 

 opinion either on the present status of trade or its immediate 

 |)rospecf», but it believes that the tangible improvement in many 

 lines of trade will show a reflection in the furniture business. 



