i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER LV 



J. V. Stimson. 



I .Sir I'lnlitnt Mi()(i/i 1)11 ll'.l 

 In iKinlwiuMl liis1..iy Hi' most luitnlilr sliiti' 

 „f the riiiim is Indiaiiii. i\ li:is ahviiys \<\o 

 .liu.ed— aii.l is still i.ro.lucing— the higlu-st 



types of liaiil" Is ij'''>"'"g' •'" *'"' ■^'H'" 



can coiitiiiiMit. 11 lias pcvliaps lar(;cly Kaiii.-il 

 this reputation fionv tin- .jiiality of its white 

 ,>ak. which is lenan!.-.! as siiperioi- to anv oak 

 ,'ver grown elsewliere in the world. 



It is not siiiKiilar. IliiTefoie, that a stati' 

 standinj5 jirei'minent in the jirodiietion of such 

 timber, and attording- sneh opportunities, 

 should also be prolific in the nuiking of luni- 

 berineu of ability and distinction. Jn thi^ 

 front ranks of men of this character native to 

 the state of Indiana, stands .1. V. Stimson, 

 of Huutingburg, whose portrait appears as 

 the supplement featuri' of this issue of HARD- 

 WOOD Becoru. 



J. V. stimson was born on a farm near 

 Martinsville, lud., in JS(il. just after the 

 breaking out of the Civil War. His fatlier, 

 E. F. Stimson, was born and reared in North 

 Carolina, and was of Scotcli extraction. His 

 mother was a descendant of one of the oldest 

 Holland Dutch families of northern New Jer- 

 sey, her father being Jacob Van Sickle, a 

 proud and aristocratic name. 



The boy worked on the farm almost con- 

 stantly between the ages of seven and sixteen, 

 attending the district school only about three 

 months in the year — usually from Christmas 

 time until about the end of March, or longer, 

 as the amount of money in the township 

 treasury for "educational purposes" would 

 permit the school to run. When he was six- 

 teen years old he left the farm and after 

 working for a few months at various "jobs" 

 took employment with the firm of McGregor 

 & Van Sickle, at a stave backer, located at 

 Martinsville; Mr. Van Sickle was his uncle. 

 yu-. Stimson may be said to belong to the 

 lumber fraternity by inheritance as well as 

 achievement, inasmuch as his grandfather, 

 Jacob Van Sickle, was one of the old- 

 time lumbermen of Indiana. He operated 

 one of the now antiquated sash sawmills, and 

 was one of the first exporters of walnut to 

 I'lurope from that state; he shipped his lum- 

 ber from his mill near Martinsville, via Frank- 

 lin, down to the Ohio river on the old Madi- 

 son Railroad, thence down the Mississippi to 

 port. 



The first buggy Mr. Stimsou ever handled 

 was a wheel barrow, delivering staves to a 

 machine at the plant of McGregor & Van 

 Sickle, wlio were engaged in tight barrel stave 

 and heading manufacture. He remained with 

 this firm continuously until his entry iuto 

 business on his own account, with the ex- 

 ception of one year spent at Normal school 

 at Danville, Ind., followed liy teaching a 

 district school during the winters of '81 to 



'^i. During the vacation jiciiod he invari- 

 ably returned to the stave- mill, learning to 

 estimate and purchase timber and staves, to 

 ojierate machinery and to handle men. 



When .Mr. \au Sickle eventually took our 

 till' entire liusiness, young Stimson aided him 

 ill clianging from the manufacture of staves 

 to hardwood lumber. This was in Issy, 

 and 1891 he became .-i j)artuer with his unch- 

 ill a jiortable sawmill located about ten miles 

 southwest of Martinsville. They moved the 

 mill to Heltonville, Lawrence county, Ind., a 

 village on what is now the Southern liidi.iii:i 

 Knilroad. The business pro.sperod in a small 

 way until July, 1894, when the saw and plan- 

 ing mills which had been added, together with 

 considerable lumber, were completely destroy- 

 ed by fire, with no insurance. .-Vlthough badly 

 crippled financially, the partners managed to 

 rebuild the jjlant. 



In 1895 Mr. Stimson sold his interest te 

 .Vlr. Van Sickle and his sons, and in Novem- 

 ber of that year located at Huntiugburg, lud., 

 and built a band mill at that point, which 

 he has continued to operate up to the pres- 

 ent time, and which business forms the nu- 

 cleus of all his other operations. Mr. Stim- 

 son has one of the best band mills on the 

 Ohio river at Owensboro, Ky., under the man- 

 agement of a brother — ^Dayton C. Stimson — 

 the business being conducted under the finn 

 name J. V. Stimson & Co. About two years 

 ago a mill was built near Askew, Miss., which 

 is now in charge of another brother, Harry 

 Stimson, and operated by The J. V. Stimson 

 Lumber Company. At that point is assembled 

 some of the finest stock of hardwood lum- 

 ber in the state of Mississippi. A younger 

 brother, A. E. Stimson, has been placed in the 

 lumber business in North Carolina, where he 

 is at the head of the Stimsou Lumber Com- 

 pany. 



Mr. Stimson has recently commenced tin- 

 construction of a veneer mill at Owensboro. 

 Ky., in connection with his other operations 

 at that point, and in another year exijsets 

 to be able to supply his large trade with 

 high quality quartered oak veneers. 



At the mills controlled by Mr. Stini.soii 

 mixed stocks of about Ci,0U0,00l) feet of hard- 

 \vood are carried, consisting of oak, poplar, 

 a.sh, hickory, gum, elm, walnut and cherry; 

 the southern mills also carry some cypress and 

 Cottonwood. Seventy-five per cent of the en- 

 tire output, however, is oak, and Mr. Stimson 

 caters particularly to the high grade quarter- 

 ed oak trade. About 14,000,000 feet of hard- 

 woods are manufactured each year, and 

 enough stumjiage is controlled in Indiana and 

 the South to keep the mills running for several 

 years to come. 



Mr. Stimson has no club affiliations, but is 

 a Knight Templar, thirty-second degree Mason 

 and shriner. He does not take an active part 

 in politics. His energies are devoted to busi- 



ness rather than to outside interests of any 

 sort, and he jiossesses the power of concentra- 

 tion to a markeil degree. In "sizing up" a 

 proposition it is characteristic of him to con 

 sider it from every possible viewpoint — finan- 

 cial, ])olitical, technical — and once he arrives 

 at a conclusion he sticks to it with a tenacity 

 which has never failed to carry him through. 



As an instance of Mr. Stimson 's foresight 

 and absolute nerve, may be cited the fact 

 that in 1896 he knew of a desirable piece 

 of timber, for which the owners thought they 

 should receive about .+18,000. Knowing that 



I uld not begin to gather up such a sum as 



that, but figuring that the financial troubles 

 which began in 1893 must be nearly at an 

 end. according to precedents established in the 

 past — he made an offer of .$10,000 cash for 

 the l.iiiil. The owners, being ardent "free- 

 traders. ' were much alarmed over the elec- 

 tion of McKiidey, and jirophesied that the 

 country was promptly going to rack and ruin; 

 so did not feel that they could afford to de- 

 cline even so small an offer. Mr. Stimsou 

 exhausted every possible resource, only to 

 find that he could raise but $5,000i Nothing 

 daunted, however, he so informed the owners 

 but added that if they would but grant him 

 ninety days' time, he would guarantee to 

 raise the balance or forfeit the .^.TjOOO already 

 paid. Although they demurred and pleaded 

 that a strictly cash deal had been agreed up- 

 on, they were so convinced in their own minds 

 that they were about to receive a handsome 

 present that they called in a lawyer and signed 

 the contract offered by Mr. Stimson. How 

 well the latter foresaw the "good times" 

 which immediately followed, and succeeded 

 in making good on his proposition, are best 

 told in the fact that he very soon realized 

 $35,000 on the deal, and placed himself "on 

 his feet" financially, so that he was able to 

 continue in business with confidence and im- 

 punity. 



Although so largely interested in lumber 

 affairs, Mr. Stimson is also a stockholder in 

 the Huntingburg bank and the First National 

 liank, both at his home town, and is one 

 of the original stockholders of the Anchor 

 [jife Insurance Company of Indiana which, 

 while comparatively new, is enjoying marked 

 prosperity. Mr. Stimson has always been ac- 

 tive in lumber association work ; he was presi- 

 dent of the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's 

 Association for two years and one of its or- 

 ganizers. He has also been actively identified 

 with the National Hardwood Association for 

 years. 



J. V. Stimson is, without doubt, one of the 

 most successful examples of the "self-made" 

 man which the lumber trade affords. Al- 

 though so ardent and ambitious a worker, 

 he modestly claims that whatever he may have 

 accomplished is largely due to the business 

 training and opportunities afforded him by 

 his uncle, with whom he was so constantly 

 associated from the time he left the farm 

 until he entered business on his owti account, 

 and to the strong influence exerted by "one 

 of the best mothers that ever a boy was 

 blest with"' — to quote his own words. 



