H. A. MtCOWEX. PRESIDENT PENKODJIH 

 HEX & McCOWEX, MEMPHIS, TEXX. 



L. .HKDEN. VICE I>I!I;SII>EXT PENUun 

 .TIKDEX & MCCOWEX. ME.MPIII.S, TEXX. 



I. X. PEXItOI), TI!E.\SrlJEU PKXKOl) .lU'H- 

 DEX & .McCOWEN, ME.MI'IIIS, TEXX. 



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One of the most important changes that have taken place in the 

 liardwood manufacturing field in a long while, briefly noted in the 

 last issue, is the organization of I'enrod-Jurden & McCowen of Mem- 

 phis, Tenn., which has been incorporated there with $350,000 capital 

 stock. H. A. McCowen, president of H. A. McCowen & Co., of Louis- 

 ville, heads the new company of which E. L. Jurden, vice-president of 

 the Penrod Walnut and Veneer Company of Kansas City, Mo., is 

 vice-president and secretary, while J. N. Penrod, president of the 

 Penrod Walnut and Veneer Company, is treasurer. 



The new company, which has leased the yard and offices formerly 

 used by the Bennett Hardwood Lumber Company of Memphis, has 

 purchased the sawmill, timber, timberlands, lumber and all other hold- 

 ings of the Penrod-Jurden-McCowen Lumber Company at Brasfield, 

 Ark., and has also purchased the veneer mill of the Penrod Walnut ami 

 Veneer Company at Helena, Ark. With these mills in operation and 

 the Memphis facilities, which will enable mixed cars of lumber and 

 veneers to be handled conveniently, the company is in a position to 

 take care of a wide range of consumers' requirements. 



The Brasfield mill, which was eom|ileted last August, took the place 

 of the jdant which was destroyed by fire in April, 1914. It is a large 

 and modern plant, being equipped with an 8' Filer & StoweU band- 

 mill, an 8' McDonough resaw, AUis-Chalmers rope set works, and 

 other up-to-date machinery. It has a capacity of 18,000,000 feet of 

 hardwoods a year, its output consisting of oak, gum, ash and elm. 



The Helena veneer miU is considered one of the most complete and 

 modern plants of its kind in the country. It produces rotary cut 

 white and red oak, gum, poplar, cypress, yellow pine, basswood cotton- 

 wood and other southern woods. Great stress has been laid upon 

 correct manufacture and handling, features being the use of a 150- 

 foot Philadelphia Textile drier and a 1.50-foot Smith plate roller drier, 

 insuring all stock being flat and uniformly dried. The rotary machines 

 in this plant include some of the largest ever manufactured, giving the 

 concern a wide range of sizes. 



H. A. McCowen, president of the new company, has long been a 

 prominent figure in the hardwood business. He started manufacturing 

 lumber at Halem, Ind., in 1892, and is president of the East St Louis 

 Walnut Company, as well as that which bears his name. These enter- 

 prises will, of course, be continued without change. J. N. Penrod, 

 treasurer of the company, is also a veteran of the Indiana, hardwood 

 field, the firm of Lesh, Penrod & Co. having been a prominent factor 

 at Goshen for many years. He took control of the Des Moines Saw- 

 mill Company of Kansas City in 1896, the name being changed to the 



Penrod Walnut and Veneer Company, of which he is president and 

 general manager. Mr. Jurden has' been in active charge of manu- 

 facture and sales for this company at Kansas City and Helena, and 

 is widely known in the veneer trade. He is now president of the 

 Commercial Gum Kotary Association, and has been prominent in the 

 walnut promotion campaign. 



Mr. McCowen and Mr. Jurden will be actively engaged in the con- 

 duct of the new company and will make their homes in Memphis. 

 Mr. Jurden will be particularly concerned with the operation of the 

 veneer mill at Helena, while Mr. McCowen will devote himself largely 

 to the Brasfield operation. Mr. I'enrod will continue to give all of his 

 time to the business of the Penrod Walnut and Veneer Company in 

 Kansas Citv. 



Boston Underwriting Expert Against Limiting 

 Use of Wood 



The Massachusetts Wholesale Lumber Association, Inc., held its 

 meeting on March 19 at the Boston City Club. The principal busi- 

 ness was consideration of the numerous drastic laws enacted and 

 proposed with the ob.ject of decreasing the use of wood in building 

 in order to diminish fire loss. Fred J. Hoxie, the noted underwriting 

 authority and engineering specialist, was guest of the association ancl 

 presented a paper on the subject, based on twenty-five years' experi- 

 ence in insurance inspection. The principles maintained comprise a 

 systematic campaign on the prevention and extinguishing of fires, 

 holding that wood, like many other articles of domestic and industrial 

 use, is dangerous only when insufficiently guarded and protected ; 

 that the safe and economical course to reduce loss was to compensate 

 for the combustibility of so many materials necessarily used in every 

 community by careful development of proper means of i>romptly and 

 effectually putting out unavoidable fires and reducing the causes of 

 origin and that any practice of substituting fire retardant and resist- 

 ing materials for the cheaper and more adaptable materials in com- 

 mon use was not only uneconomic but unsafe. He contends that the 

 interest of the community as well a* the lumbermen wouhl bo best 

 served by advocating in public such safeguarding factors as can be 

 established from time to time and thus allow the rent and tax payer 

 and the general consumer to use whatever is best suited to his condi- 

 tions. Such views originated by an expert should have a good effect 

 in relieving the public as well as the lumbermen of much unnecessary 

 adversity and still gain added and genuine security. 



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