14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



inches in diameter. This is wasteful, and 

 the Bureau recommends the application of 

 more conservative lumbering to these lands. 

 This simply means that the mature trees of 

 all species shall lie logged carefully, and that 

 in taking them out the young, immature trees, 

 tally those of ash and hickory, of which 

 there is also a small quantify, shall be care- 

 fully preserved and left to grow until they 

 reach merchantable size, or a diameter of 

 about twenty inches, [f this e, the 



owners of the land can count on a second 

 crop of valuable timber before the land may 

 be required for Canning. 



Of course under such .1 system of manage- 

 ment the (ores! must bi protected from fire. 



The practice now is to burn out the under- 

 th periodically. That destroys all the 

 small tires. Forest management and fires 

 eannol exist together, but there appears to 

 be no necessity for setting these fires, and 

 since the ground is nearly always moist, there 

 is little danger of their being started acci- 

 dentally. 



The whole question of the profitable man- 

 ent of these forest lands lies within the 

 control of the owners. Instead of reaping 

 one harvest, as thej new do, it will be al- 

 most as eas\ in secure successive crops so 

 long as tin- land remains unavailable for 

 fanning. When thai time comes the forest 

 must give way permanently. 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER XII. 



John J. Rumbarger. 

 John Jacob Rumbarger 6f Philadelphia, 

 whose portrait tie Hardwood Record is 

 delighted to present as the supplement to 

 this issue, is third in the line of lumber- 

 1 f the Rumbarger name. He is named 

 for bis grandfather John, who rafted logs 

 in the western pari of Pennsylvania and 

 on the Susquehanna river and its trib 

 ries, and his father Jacob, who also rafted 

 logs and eventually left Pittsburg, going 

 down the Ohio to Cincinnati and into Indi- 

 ana, where by "snaking logs" he saved 

 enough to buy a team and a small mill. 



The Rumbarger family, of which John is 

 the third sun, lived in Kingston, End., when 

 lie was born. They moved to Greensburg, 

 nine miles from Kingston, when the boj was 

 three years old, ami two years later made 

 another change to 1 farm in Beanblossom 

 township. It was here that John J. Rum- 

 barger lived until he was fifteen years old, 

 1 ml each morning set off with his brothers 

 for the district school three miles away. 

 trudging along the tracks of the old Louis- 



ville, New All. any A Chicago railn.ad. No 

 excuse was :i [>t ■■■] I'nr absence |'r sehool 



ii% Jacob Rumbarger, and lunch basket in 

 ha nd, 1 hi boj - made their waj to t he litth 

 red schoolhouse in rain or shine. During 

 the winter the boys did the chori about the 

 house, milked the cows, carried in the wood 

 for the great fireplace, and in summer when 



■ 1 hauled the firevi ood 



mill to the in. use and worked the 

 '•n. 

 To his aturdj German stoi h John J. Rum- 



ie,i t lie energy and g I heall h 



that comes i" the country boy of good 

 habits. When he was fifteen years old the 

 famih lett Beanblossom and moved to Gos- 

 port. Owe. [nd., where the father 



1 tie had an ex- 

 11 which John Rum- 

 barger was graduated 'Alien he was eighteen. 

 His during this time were spent 

 the mill. Tl' ered 

 Depauw University at Greencastle, but left 

 in his junior seqi • of a se- 

 vere b ver. 



Rumbarger, Sr., made still another move 

 in search of hardwoods. At the end of a 

 railroad in Grant county, West Virginia, 



thn r four houses and a water tank had 



been christened Dobbin, and it was here 

 that the .1. L. Rumbarger Company was 

 I led and a mill erected. .John, the young- 

 est of the three boys, did almost everything 



a I t the place from running the lath and 



planing mills t., filing saws, although the 

 father, Jacob, and the brothers, Frank T. 

 'I Robert R., were associated in the enter- 

 prise. 



In 1887 John took charge of the general 

 store, in! in a year he started on the road 

 as general salesman tor the company, trav- 

 j from Portland, Me., to St. Louis. I'll. 

 mill turned out a large quantity of hard- 

 woods, spruce, hemlock and especially 

 cherry, ami tor years the tut her was known 

 as the "cherry king." \ft.r remaining 



axs on the road, John J. Rumbarger 

 was given charge of an office in Philadel 

 phia, which was decided necessary t ■ ■ the 

 large outlook and ever increasing business 

 of the Rumbarger company. Two small 

 offices were secured on the fourth floor of 

 the Harrison building, Fifteenth ami .Market 

 Streets, in which structure offices are still 

 maintained, though of necessity much larger. 

 The sawmill of the J. L. Rumbarger Com- 

 pany was sold in 1897, and it was then that 

 1 he Kumbarger Lumber Company was organ- 

 ized, with Jacon I.. Rumbarger as president, 

 Frank T., vice-president, John J., treasurer, 

 and Robert R., secretary. This company 

 was incorporated for the purpose of carry- 

 ing on a wholesale business. 



For several years the wholesale business 

 was sufficient to engage the attention of 

 lather and sons. With a reputation estab- 

 lished among the trad, through years ol as 

 sociation, the business grew at a rapid pace. 

 Then it was that the need of a mill and in- 

 dependent stocks came as a forcible re- 

 minder and resulted in the purchase, in 1900, 

 of the Coketon Lumber Company, of Coke- 

 ton, W. Va., where a tract of timber was 

 held and a mill in operation. This plant is 

 still run. The Coketon Company has made 



several purchases of timber and now owns 

 8,000 acres in Randolph county. Four port- 

 aide mills are sawing in this tract, but the 

 output was largely increased by the com- 

 pletion last December of a modern band 

 mill with band resaw and planing mill, 

 it fishing Hawk. The Rumbarger Lumber 

 Company operates a mill at Skidmore Cross- 

 ing, Webster county, W. Va. This plant is 

 situated in a fine tract of splendid poplar 

 and other hardwoods. The Rumbargers, 

 father and sons, comprise another organiza- 

 tion called the Snowbird Lumber Company, 

 which owns 22,000 acres of hardwood and 

 hemlock timber land in Graham county, 

 X. < '. Sinee the beginning the Rumbarger 

 companies' business has shown a steady 

 growth. 



Devoted to his business and family, Mr. 

 Rumbarger does not ordinarily participate 

 with enthusiasm in secret society work, al- 

 though he is a Mason, an Odd Fellow and a 

 Pythian. He joined Potomac Lodge, No. 

 108, I. O. O. F., at Dobbin, W. Va., sixteen 

 years ago and retains his membership. He 

 is a member of Shekinah Lodge, No. 246, 

 A. I'. & A. M., and is a Knight of Pythias, 

 and is also attached to Lambda Chapter, 

 Phi Gamma Delta, which fraternity he 

 joined while in college. 



John J. Rumbarger is a man whose some- 

 what stocky figure and well-set shoulders 

 ipeak of splendid health. His face, with 

 its 1 hatch of wavy black hair that is just 

 beginning to show touches of silver, is al- 

 ways smiling, and his dark eyes twinkle 

 with good nature or shine with interest and 

 energy at a business proposition. He always 

 has a cheery word for an acquaintance and 

 :i kindly on.- Cor a friend, and the "jolly" 

 sounds Letter because of the soft southern 

 ae.ent which he has acquired from long 

 residence and association in the South. 



An intimate friend, speaking of Mr. Rum- 

 barger the other day, said: "I think per- 

 haps the traits of character which have con- 

 tributed most to the business success of John 

 Rumbarger are determination and enthusi- 

 asm." This was demonstrated in the work 

 he accomplished for the Concatenated Order 

 of Hoo-Hoo in Philadelphia and vicinity. 

 for years the -otiser\ at i\ e Philadelphia lum- 

 bermen had declined to be interested, when 

 Mr. Rumbarger was made vicegerent snark, 

 and in one year initiated seventy-four lum- 

 bermen in the order. He carries this same 

 enthusiasm and determination into his busi- 

 ness and succeeds in imbuing all his subor- 

 dinates with enough of it to carry out his 

 plans. He is a consistent member of the 

 \|eth,..iist church. 



Five children have blessed the home of 

 Mr. Rumbarger. In LS8S he was married 

 to Mattie A. Williard of Mt. Vernon, O.; 

 two sons were born to them — John and 

 Bradley. Mrs, Rumbarger died in 1894. 

 Several years later Mr. Rumbarger married 

 Virginia A. Ryan of Philadelphia, and 

 Dorothy, Joseph and Virginia Rose have 

 Come of this union. 



