HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



George H. Huganir, formerly with Schofield Bros., is prosideut ; J. Fred- 

 erick Martin, secretary "Pennsylvania Lumbermen," (Eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania Retailors), vice-president; James P. Strong, formerly with the 

 Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company, Williamsport, Pa., secretary and 

 treasurer. A general wholesale lumber business will be carried on. 



Frederick S. Underbill of Wistar, Underbill & Nixon, rcfjarding the 

 business situation, says that a decided improvement in trading began in 

 December and signs are potent for a live business in the near future. 



J. H. Haines, for many years with the Philadelphia office of the Bab- 

 cock Lumber Company, has been made manager of this branch, succeed- 

 ing Charles G. Blake, who resigned January 1. The many friends of 

 Jlr. Haines will be sorry to Icurn that he is at present confined to bis home 

 with a slight attack of pneumonia. 



John J. Rumbarger, formerly with William Whitmer & Sons, Inc., has 

 associated himself with the Babcock house, and will look after the hard- 

 wood end in the eastern field, with headquarters at Philadelphia oflice. 

 Mr. Rumbarger announces that the Hoo-Hoo concatenation which was 

 declared for February will be postponed until March i:?. 



Charles E. Paxton of the Paxton Lumber Company, Bristol, Tenn., and 

 Lee Jack, representing the Arthur Brooks Lumber Company, Weston, W. 

 Va., were among the recent visitors to the local trade. 



Jacob L. Rumbarger, the veteran lumberman and original manufacturer 

 of quartered oak, is about to celebrate his seventy-ninth birthday, hale 

 and hearty. A jolly family party will do him honor on the occasion and 

 still wish him many more happy returns of the day. 



= < PITTSBURGH >. 



H. E. .\st of the Mutual Lumber Company, which has a big trade with 

 the automobile and manufacturing concerns, reports that 1914 was the 

 best year the company has ever had and that the manufacturing prospects 

 at present are very fine. This company had added to its force, M. W. 

 Aitkins, who will ha%'e headquarters at 152-1 Park building. Manager 

 Pettiot reports a nice increase in mill and factory inquiries. 



F. C. Jones, vice-president and general manager of the Nicola Build- 

 ing Company, one of the largest buyers of lumber in this section, died 

 of heart trouble recently at his home in Oakmont, an East End suburb. 



The Pennsylvania Lines West have announced that they will spend 

 $500,000 before May 1, 1915, in doubling their yard capacity and other- 

 wise improving their facilities at Midland, Pa. It is predicted that other 

 big railroad jobs soon to be undertaken mean that Pittsburgh will be a 

 big lumber distributing center to the railroads the coming year. 



The Western Lumber Company did more business the first twelve 

 days of this month than during the entire month of December. It has 

 a splendid line-up of the first-class manufacturing trade in Pittsburgh 

 and President W. W. Willson, Jr., is very hopeful for this year. 



The Ricks-McCreight Lumber Company reports a big increase in in- 

 quiries but does not look for great boom in lumber selling before March 

 1. Mr. Ricks of this company, who makes bis headquarters in Cleveland, 

 does not think that buyers are going to hurry up their purchases. 



The Fair Oaks Box Company is building a large addition to its plant 

 at Fair Oaks, Pa., twenty miles below Pittsburgh, on the Ohio river. 



The merger of four big manufacturing concerns in the Pittsburgh 

 district into the Kennedy-Stroh Corporation with a capital of $2,500,000, 

 means that this concern will be a big buyer in hardwood lumber. The 

 four concerns merging were the Kennedy Manufacturing & Engineering 

 Company, the Stroh Steel Hardening Process Company, the Best Manufac- 

 turing Company and the Lawrence Steel Castings Company. 



J. N. Woollett, president of the Aberdeen Lumber Company, reports 

 some improvement in the situation although there is nothing similar to a 

 boom in sight yet. Mr. Woollett is making bis usual annual trip to the 

 gum and cottonwood mills of the Southwest and has a splendid line of 

 stock ready for shipment. 



Edward H. W. Pfischner has been elected president of the E. T. Lippert 

 Saw Company of Millvale, a north side suburb, to take the place of the 

 late president, E. T. Lippert, who was founder and president. Mr. 

 Pfischner has been with the company for twenty-nine years and for the 

 past eight years has been manager. It was largely due to his aggressive 

 business policy that the company's big success resulted. 



^■< BOSTON >• 



At New Haven, Conn., the Cherryficld Lumber Company has been in- 

 corporated by C. L. Lynch of Springfield, Mass., Samuel C. Morehouse of 

 New Haven and Ralph H. Clark of Derby, Conn., with capital of .$275,000. 



On January 15 a meeting of the management of the Geo. W. Gale Lum- 

 ber Company was held at Boston and a definite outline of a plan to 

 carry the company on in the present conditions was adopted for submission 

 to the creditors. It Is hoped by unanimous acceptance of the details 

 ot the plan to straighten out the affairs of the concern. 



At the meeting of the Massachusetts Wholesale Lumber Association, 

 Inc., held at Youngs hotel, Boston, January G, the following officers were 

 elected: Henry B. Piskc, president; Frank Scbumaker, vice-president; 

 E. C. Hammond, treasurer ; Arthur M. Moore, secretary ; hoard of direc- 

 tors, the first three named officers and William E. Litchfield, William 

 Bacon, Martin A. Brown, Dean K. James, Henry B. Clark, F. O. Newton, 

 Walstein R. Chester and Morris A. Hall. The delegates elected to the 



Massachusetts State Board of Trade were H. W. Blanchard, Charles S. 

 Wentworth and W. R. Chester. A number of new members were admitted 

 and it is expected that the organization will rapidly expand and become 

 thoroughly representative of this branch of the trade in Massachusetts. 



=■< BALTIMORE >•- 



It is estimated that perhaps one-third of the entire ocean tonnage 

 employed before the war has been destroyed or requisitioned for the 

 uses of the various countries at war, a great shortage being created. 

 The heavy grain movement and the large shipments of various other 

 relatively well paying commodities have given the lines still in operation 

 a volume of business which enables them to make tbelr choice, selecting 

 what is most remunerative and discriminating against the other traffic. 

 It is felt that the rates will go still higher between now and next June, 

 and that the steamship lines want to be in a position to take advantage 

 of the rise by refusing contracts to fill up their ships at comparatively 

 low rates. 



A number of Baltimoreans attended the annual meeting of the Na- 

 tional Lumber Exporters' Association, held in Memphis, Tenn., Janu- 

 ary 21 and 22. The war has given rise to a number of problems that 

 were given careful consideration, inasmuch as they affect the business 

 of the exporters to a vital degree. The seizure of shipments and tbelr 

 diversion, as well as the matter of claims against the powers making 

 the seizures, the want of facilities for taking care of shipments, the 

 advance in ocean freight rates and other business claimed close atten- 

 tion. 



David T. Carter & Co., wholesale hardwood men, have removed from 

 the Calvert building to the ground floor of the Law building. The new 

 location affords more room and is free from some of the drawbacks that 

 attached to the old one. Mr. Carter states that the number of orders is 

 increasing and that buyers show more interest in the offerings. 



Information has been received here from Lynchburg, Va., to the effect 

 that the Virginia & West Virginia Coal Company has brought suit in the 

 United States court there against P. A. Deel and others over the right 

 and title to 146,10914 acres of timber and coal lands, mostly along the 

 Big Sandy river in Buchanan count.v, Virginia. The proceeding involves 

 the right of the General Assembly of Virginia to repeal a law which was 

 in force at the time the coal company acquired whatever rights it may 

 have in the tract. It appears that titles had become badly involved in 

 the county, and the General Assembly of 1912 enacted a law making It 

 legal for persons to produce certified copies of originals of the deeds, 

 where these had been lost or destro.vod in the records, in an effort to 

 establish clear title. The General Assembly of 1914 repealed this act, 

 and the authority to do this is questioned in the suit. It is understood 

 that if the case goes against the people now on the lands, and who have 

 been living on them for generations, other proceedings of a similar nature 

 will be instituted involving additional tracts. 



— =-< INDIANAPOLIS >■ 



Finley P. Mount of this city has been appointed receiver by the United 

 States court here for the M. Rumely Company and Rumely Products Com- 

 pany. The receiver was appointed to conserve the assets pending a 

 reorganization. 



The complaint of the Indiana Veneer and Lumber Company, Indianapolis, 

 that it bad been overcharged on shipments from Haynes and McGehee, Ark., 

 to Indianapolis by the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, the Southern and the 

 Vaudalia railroads was heard by Royal T. McKenna, an examiner for the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission, in this city January 13. It was alleged 

 the rate from Haynes should have been nineteen cents and from -McGehee 

 twenty cents instead of twenty cents and twenty-three cents, respectively, 

 which were charged. 



="< COLUMBUS >.= 



Robert T. Johnson, president of the Kuntz-Johnson Lumber Company of 

 Dayton, recently celebrated the seventieth anniversary ot his birth as 

 well as the thirty-second anniversary of the founding of the company. 

 About 150 of bis business associates enjoyed a banquet on the second 

 floor of the plant of the company. 



The Ohio Utilities Commission has granted a re-hearing in the tap 

 line case of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad and the 

 Lorain & Southern. In the first decision the commission held that an 

 industrial road, if chartered separately from the industrial concern owning 

 it can share in freiglit revenues on joint shipments. 



The Carpenter Contractor and Builders' Mutual Association of Cleve- 

 land has been chartered under the laws of Ohio without any capital 

 stock but for the mutual benefit of its members. 



The Copperstore Floor Company of Toledo, Ohio, has been incorporated 

 with a capital of $10,000 to manufacture flooring, by A. A. Bennett, L. E. 

 Merry, W. I/. Ashley, Henry Grolle and James Basley. 



The capital stock of the Marysville Lumber Company of Marysville, O., 

 has been reduced from $20,000 to $10,000. 



The Canton Mntorial Company of Canton, O., has been Incorporated with 

 a capital of $10,000 to deal in building materials, by R. F. Harloch, W. S. 

 Shertzer, J. C. Steiner, Joseph Hunter, Jr.. and H. C. Pontius. 



The Rusher & Cook Lumber Company of Lima, O., has been Incorporated 



