HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



George H. Chapman. 



{See Portrait Supplement.) 



George H. Chapman, the subject of the 

 sketch and portrait supplement presented 

 in this issue of the Hardwood Record, is 

 widely known in the lumber fraternity of the 

 middle Northwest, where he occupies the 

 responsible position of sales manager of the 

 North Western Lumber Company, one of the 

 strongest and largest concerns of that sec- 

 tion. 



He was born at Indianapolis, Ind., Jan. 

 30, 1867. His father was George H. Chap- 

 man, during his lifetime one of the leaders 

 of the bar iu that city and a veteran of the 

 Civil War, having by distinguished service 

 attained the rank of major general. His 

 mother before her marriage was Harriet Gil- 

 man. She is still living and makes her home 

 in New York. 



Mr. Chapman was not educated with a 

 view to making the lumber business his life 

 work. He attended the public and privati 

 schools in Indianapolis until he was seven 

 teen years old and then was enrolled as a 

 student in the Bose Polytechnic Institute at 

 Terre Haute, Ind., and was graduated from 

 there in June, 1SSS, with the degree of me- 

 chanical engineer. After leaving school he 

 took up the practice of his profession anil 

 for a few months worked for the Janney 

 Electric Company of Indianapolis. 



In March, 1SS9, he began his career in the 

 lumber business, taking a position with the 

 North Western Lumber Company. Since that 

 time he has been in the service of that com- 

 pany continuously, having at times worked 

 for the Sterling Lumber Company and the 

 Montreal Eiver Lumber Company, both of 

 which concerns are owned by the North 

 Western Lumber Company. 



Mr. Chapman's education in the lumber 

 business has been thorough. His first work 

 was helping graders at the Porters Mills 

 yard of the North Western Lumber Company 

 and during the first few years of his connec- 

 tion with the company was employed as 

 helper, grader and yard foreman. During 

 the latter part of 1890 he spent about six 

 months at Sterling, Wis., looking after ship- 

 ments of the Sterling Lumber Company, and 

 during 1S91 was in charge of the yard and 

 shipments of the Montreal Eiver Lumber 

 Company at Gile, Wis. From 1892 to 1899 

 he was assistant to George S. Long, sales 

 manager of the North Western Lumber Com- 

 pany, located at Eau Claire, and when Mr. 

 Long left the company on Jan. 1, 1900, Mr. 

 Chapman was advanced to the position of 

 Bales manager and was in charge of the Eau 

 Claire office until September, 1903, when he 

 removed the office to Stanley, Wis., and took 

 on the management of all the operations at 

 Stanley. He is now sales manager for both 

 the Stanley and Eau Claire plants and is in 

 charge of all operations at Stanley, Wis., 



NUMBER XXXVI. 



which is I lie main manufacturing point of the 

 company. 



The North Western Lumber Company, of 

 which .Mr. Chapman is sales manager, was 

 tnuudi'd some thirty years ago by D. E. Moon, 

 S. T. McKnight and Gilbert E. Porter. In 

 the beginning it had only a small circular 

 sawmill, but the operations have grown until 

 it is now one of the largest plants in any 

 section of this country. There are now two 

 modern mills and a planing mill, all equipped 



PRINT OF OVERCUP OAK LEAF. 



with the must modern and efficient machinery. 

 The company operates a two-band gang mill 

 a 1 Eau Claire. It also operates a plant at 

 Sterling, twenty miles from Stanley, which 

 lias a capacity of 50,000 feet every ten hours. 

 Besides his work in connection with the 

 North Western I, umber Company Mr. Chap- 



man is secretary of the Linderman Box & 

 Veneer Company of Eau Claire and also a 

 stockholder in it. 



Mr. Chapman's work for the North West- 

 ern Lumber Company has been of the most 

 substantial kind. Besides the duties of his 

 office he is identified with movements looking 

 to the good of the trade in general and is 

 an important factor in association work. 



He was married on Aug. 31, 1S98, to Har- 

 riet S. Hubbard at Eau Claire and has one 

 child, a boy. He is a Eepublican of the 

 strongest kind, an Elk and a member of the 

 Valley Club of Eau Claire. 

 The company owns and operates a logging 

 road with a main line forty-five miles long, 

 besides various branches known as the Stan- 

 ley, Merrill & Phillips Eailroad. 



Mr. Chapman's services to the North Wesl 

 em Lumber Company have been of the most 

 Substantial kind. He has brought to bear 

 on his work as sales manager the experience 

 and knowledge of many years of intelligent 

 activity in both the managing and selling 

 ends of the lumber business. 



In personality lie is alert, forceful and 

 clean-cut in all his statements, and these 

 qualities, combined with a comprehensive in- 

 sight into the broader problems that confront 

 the lumber industry, have made his advice 

 and cooperation invaluable in association 

 work. He is identified prominently with 

 movements looking to the good of the trade, 

 his own business methods being unassailable. 



Mr. Chapman, although occupying an in- 

 fluential position in the lumber world, is still 

 a young man, and all things point to a still 

 greater future for him in the trade. 



Besides his work in connection with the 

 North Western Lumber Company, Mr. Chap- 

 man is secretary of the Linderman Box & 

 Veneer Company of Eau Claire and a stock- 

 holder in it. 



Personally, George H. Chapman is a most 

 agreeable gentleman with a wide circle of 

 business and social friends. The liberal edu- 

 cation he received as a young man has been 

 widened and broadened by studious tastes 

 and he has always found time to display in- 

 terest in the activities of his fellow man out- 

 side of the narrower pursuits of business. On 

 Aug. 31, 1898, he was married at Eau Claire 

 to Harriet S. Hubbard and has one child, a 

 son. He is a Eepublican of the strongest 

 kind, an Elk and a member of the Valley 

 Club of Eau Claire. 



The Modern Furniture Factory. 



THE DRY KILN. 



The proper seasoning of lumber is a highly 

 important question in every line of woodwork- 

 ing, but it assumes an acute phase in furni- 

 ture manufacture. If the lumber worked up 

 in the furniture factories could be dried be- 

 yond the possibility of twisting or shrinking 

 the industry to-day would be on a plane of 

 craftsmanship superior to any ever attained. 

 Any skillful manufacturer of high-class stuff 

 will concede thai the violent extremes of heat 

 and cold, of moisture and dryness, that are 



encountered in the living rooms of most mod- , 

 ern houses are the greatest test of the dura- 

 bility of finished stock. The lasting qual- 

 ities of well-made furniture of the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries are due in 

 great part to the thoroughly seasoned condi- 

 tion of the wood that went into the pieces. 

 In most cases a cabinet-maker would not 

 touch stock that had not been air-dried for 

 from three to fifteen years, and even after 

 that kept on sticks in a warm room to insure 



