HARDWOOD RECORD 



V 



Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER 



Janies S. Garetson. 

 t»scc Portrait Supplement,) 



James Sylvanus Garetson, second son of 

 James L. and Sarah Harlow Garetson, was 

 born in Monroe City, 111., September 24, 

 1852. His early education was such as the 

 public school of that place afforded. His 

 father enlisted in the Union army at the 

 outbreak of the Civil War when Mr. Garetson 

 was but a boy, and the responsibility of sup- 

 porting the mother and younger members of 

 the family devolved upon his brothers and 

 himself. His first important duty was his 

 agency with the Adams Express Company; he 

 afterward served as train messenger for sev- 

 eral years. 



Owing to the ill health of his wife, Mr. 

 Garetson lived for some years in Eogers, 



LEAF, SEED AND FLOWER, AMERICAN' ELM. 



Ark., moving later to San Diego, Cal., where 

 she died. Returning to Missouri in 1891, 

 he associated himself with his younger 

 brother, Frank A. Garetson, and A. H. Grea- 

 son, in the firm of Garetson & Greason, do- 

 ing business as hardwood manufacturers at 

 Poplar Bluff, Mo. At that time the business 

 was conducted in a limited way, there being 

 but one mill, located at Fisk, Mo. 



In 1895 an office was opened at St. Louis. 

 with Mr. Garetson in charge, and in 1898 he 

 and his brother purchased the interest of 

 A. H. Greason, incorporating as the Garetson- 

 Greason Lumber Company. One year later 

 the company acquired the timber on a 

 tract of 80,000 acres of land, erecting a sec- 

 ond and larger mill, which was supplied by 

 a standard gauge railroad fourteen miles in 

 length, incorporated as the Butler County 

 Bailroad. 



From that time business grew steadily, 

 and in 1903 a new company was organized, 

 the Garetson-Hilton Lumber Company, with a 

 modern band and circular mill at Campbell, 

 Mo., and timber holdings sufficient to in- 

 sure an output of 60,000 feet of lumber per 

 day for several years. This plant turns out 

 a product of the highest class, principally 



XXXV. 



gum, and is under the direct management of 

 ]■'. E. Hilton, the selling being done through 

 tli'' (iaretson-Greason Lumber Company at 

 St. Louis. 



At the present time, in addition to the 

 lumber turned out by its own mills, the com- 

 pany has contracts with twelve hardwood 

 mills, besides keeping three buyers in the 

 field, in addition to a corps of car oak in- 

 spectors. Mr. Garetson 's duties as president 

 of the companies with which he is connected 

 require the closest personal attention, and in 

 the discharge of his obligations he spends 

 the greater part of his time away from home; 

 upon William W. Dings, the able secretary 

 of the Garetson-Greason Lumber Company, 

 devolves the active management of the St. 

 Louis office. The president, F. A. Garetson, 

 has retired from active business, owing to 

 ill health, and is now living in southern Cali- 

 fornia. 



In September, 1874, Mr. Garetson was mar- 

 ried to Caroline M. Griffith, who died in 

 1890. Three children were born — one son, 

 who died in infancy, and two daughters, 

 Katherine and Helen, the latter now Mrs. 



William W. Dings. In 1897 Mr. Garetson 

 married a second time, his wife being Mrs. 

 Katherine Bowes Beach. They have one 

 son. 



In politics Mr. Garetson is a Republican, 

 although in local issues he exerts his influence 

 for the election of the cleanest and best can- 

 didates. He is a member of several clubs 

 and an elder in the Presbyterian Church; 

 notwithstanding the fact that his time is so 

 fully occupied, he gives much attention to the 

 demands of church work. 



Probably his strongest characteristic, es- 

 pecially to those who know him intimately, 

 is his capacity for work and detail. There is 

 nothing in connection with the business too 

 great to be undertaken by him ; no detail 

 too insignificant to escape his attention. He 

 is a good talker, but a better listener; a man 

 who stands for what is absolutely clean in 

 business, and who demands the same from 

 every employee. 



Mr. Garetson is a strong believer in asso- 

 ciations, and his time and money are freely 

 given to the work and support of all move- 

 ments which tend to the upbuilding of the 

 hardwood industry. To him success has come 

 by reason of hard and intelligent effort, and 

 at the age of fifty-four he is in his prime, 

 with the promise of many years of activity. 



Construction ofHardWood Columns. 



During the last twenty-five years popular 

 architecture has drawn away from the 

 severely plain and simple methods of con- 

 struction in vogue about the close of the 

 Civil War and has given place to a more 

 decorative style, wherein columns play a 

 great part. The erection of immense hotels, 

 railroad stations, and municipal and govern- 

 ment buildings has made possible elaborate 

 schemes of interior decoration in rotundas, 

 foyers and corridors, in nearly all of which 

 pillars and columns, either distinct or in bas 

 relief, are given prominence. 



In building columns to supply the needs 

 evoked by the new specifications the industry 

 has been divided into what may be roughly 

 called two branches — the manufacture of 

 solid pieces and the making of built-up work. 



In the solid work the stock used is, of 

 necessity, cheaper, because the cost of the 

 valuable woods renders their use, for any but 

 tin' must expensive work, prohibitive, and as 

 the greatest number of ordinary solid col- 

 umns are intended for porches on houses of 

 moderate cost they are made of the more 

 common woods. Nevertheless, very good re- 

 sults are obtained from these woods; in parts 

 of the South especially pine columns are used 

 and treated with spar varnish which slums 

 the .natural grain. These solid or turned col 

 minis are ir/ade mi the machine, the log being 

 worked to size and afterward earried to the 

 driller or punching machine where a hole is 

 bored through the eenter to keep it from 

 w .■ 1 c| 11 n l^- 'it' Into they have been made from 

 veneer ' coring, at least one large concern 

 utilizing the heart of the logs for columns, 



after the veneer strips have been cut, by 

 boring holes in them. 



But solid columns sometimes split and also 

 lack the durable qualities of the built-up 

 work. They cannot be conveniently made in 

 very large sizes and, when the more valuable 

 hardwoods are required, the operation is too 

 expensive to be generally adopted. For high- 

 class work, therefore, when beauty of figure 

 and lasting qualities are sought, the work is 

 built up. 



Making and Gluing the Strips. 



In making the built-up work, which is 

 called solid or veneered as it is to be with or 

 without veneer, the usual method is to cut 

 the lumber in strips the required length and 

 width. The outer surface is then worked to 

 ;i slightly rounded form so that it may make 

 a part of the circumference and the sides of 

 tin- strips are planed to whatever lock device 

 is desired and patterned. The strips are also 

 tn|n'i'ed toward the end so that the finished 

 column will be smaller at the top than at the 

 base. When the strip has boon finished to 

 this form it is ready for the glue room, 

 although it goes first to the warming room 

 where it is heated to a certain degree to 

 facilitate the action of the glue which takej 

 more kindly to the wood when it is warm. 



The strips are built up on a long form. 

 Glue is applied and the pieces are sot end to 

 end, the lock joints sufficing to hold them in 

 position and in this way the entire column 

 is made, the stock fitting in snugly and 

 forming a firm, compact, rounded shape. To 

 I'm! her help the action of the glue the pieces 



