HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER 



Frederick S. Underbill. 



(See portrait supplement.) 

 Frederick Saunders Underbill of the firm 

 of Wistar, Underbill & Co. of Philadelphia, 

 who is the subject of the portrait supplement 

 that accompanies this issue of the Hardwood 

 RECORD, offers an instance of that self-re- 

 liance and application to business which has 

 carried so many lumbermen to success. He 

 is the sun of John Underbill of Manchester, 

 England, who came to Canada and estab- 

 lished himself as an optician in Montreal, 

 afterwards achieving such success that he 

 was honored with the appointment of op- 

 tician to H. R. H., the Prince of Wales. 

 The mother of Frederick S. Underbill was 

 Annie Ireland Underbill, who although a 

 native of Belfast, Ireland, was reared, edu- 

 cated and wedded in Canada. The father's 

 business did not continue successful and 

 when reverses came he paid his obligations 

 in full and moved to Philadelphia where 

 he died about 1S79. F. S. Underbill was 

 the oldest of three boys and was educated 

 in the public schools of Philadelphia. On 

 the death of his father he left school to 

 aid in the support of the family but con- 

 tinued his education by study at home and 

 cniTcspondence courses with the Chautauqua 

 and other institutions. He first obtained em- 

 ployment as office boy at the Baldwin Loco- 

 motive Works; later he studied shorthand 

 and soon became stenographer for and as- 

 sistant to William H. Morrow, superintend- 

 ent of the extra part department of the 

 works. 



At every opportunity he changed positions 

 if be thought there would be some possible 

 benefit to himself, and ho was respectively 

 stenographer for George I. McKelway, drug- 

 gist, 1410 Chestnut Street; was stenographer 

 for Thomas Potter Sons & Co., oil cloth 

 manufacturers, and finally secured a posi- 

 tion with James Strong & Co., among the 

 most prominent and successful wholesale 

 lumber merchants of Philadelphia, who were 

 at that time operating a wholesale lumber 

 yard. He devoted himself conscientiously 

 to the work and soon mastered the details 

 of the business, taking special care to ob- 

 tain as much technical knowledge as .pos- 

 sible by handling and inspecting lumber in 

 the yard when his office duties permitted it. 

 He finally came to be intrusted with the 

 details of selling and ordering lumber by 

 Mr. Strong. 



Ten years of this work served to give a 

 broad and comprehensive knowledge of all 

 the phases of handling and selling lumber, 

 and at the expiration of that period spent 

 with James Strong & Co., Mr. Underbill 

 joined forces with K. Wyati Wistar, who 

 for eight or nine years had been a co-worker 

 under Mr. Strong and who had wide ex- 

 perience as inspector, yard foreman, and 

 traveling salesman. The new concern was 



XXXIX. 



a partnership and was known as Wistar 

 & Underhill. It immediately took a rela- 

 tively important position in the trade, ow- 

 ing to the confidence its members inspired. 

 The first year the work was done entirely 

 by tin' two partners assisted by a clerk, Mr. 

 Underbill traveling in nearby territory and 

 doing tin- correspondence and office work at 

 night. limine that year the firm secured a 

 strong tooth. ild and the lumber handled 

 averaged about eight million feet. The 

 business doubled the second year and has 

 hao a Steady increase of about eight million 

 feet a year since then until now it averages 

 about sixty million feet per annum. 



The business of the firm was at first most- 

 ly in hemlock and white pine with a small 

 percentage of hardwoods, but as time went 

 on this latter end of the business was grad 

 u.nlly increased until it became the chief de- 

 tail of the firm's trade and the especial 

 branch on which its importance is based. It 



LEAF AMi FRUIT OF BUTTERNUT. 



particularly pushes poplar, oak, and chest- 

 nut, handling in connection therewith maple, 

 beech, birch, red gum and basswood. The 

 firm is a widely recognized specialist in 

 quartered oak, and enjoys an enviable repu- 

 tation in this line, owing to the fact that 

 great care is given to the selection of the 

 products handled. 



In every department of its business, the 

 linn makes it a point to handle only that 

 lumber which is properly manufactured and 

 graded to better. Its various members pay 

 frequent personal visits to their mills to 

 see that the stock is being properly put out 

 and cared for. 



On February 1. 1905, the style of the firm 

 v as changed to Wistar, Underbill & Co. by 

 1 he admission of Thos. X. Nixon, who bad 

 traveled for the firm and had shown excep- 



tional ability as lumberman and salesman. 



Frederick Saunders Underbill was married 

 in 1SSG to Hannah W. Dukes of Tuckahoe, 

 X. J. 



Mr. Underbill is noted for the great inter- 

 est he takes in the various activities that 

 claim his attention. lie is an ardent church 

 worker, is a member of the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church and trustee of Lansdowne M. 

 E. Church; for some years he was Sunday 

 School superintendent and is still active in 

 aii departments of church work. He is chair- 

 man of the executive committee of Dela- 

 ware County Sunday School Union and re- 

 cently served as president of the Delaware 

 County christian Endeavor Union. 



In oiher walks of life bis interests aud 

 activities are no less keen. He 1- a member 

 of Washington Lodge, No. 59, A. F. & A. 

 M.; is a member of the American Forestry 

 Association; a member of the Board of Di- 

 rectors of the Lumbermen's Exchange, Phila- 

 delphia; is secretary Measurer of the Phil- 

 adelphia Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 1 iation and his firm is a member of the 

 National Hardwood Lumber Association. 

 He also takes a deep interest in the work of 

 the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' As- 

 sociation. 



In politics he is a Republican, and during 

 the recent agitation for reform in Pennsyl- 

 vania took a prominent part in organizing 

 the Lincoln Republican party in Delaware 

 County and the state, lie is now a member 

 of both the county and borough committees. 



.Mr. Underhill, besides his connection with 

 the firm of Wistar, Underhill & Co. is also 

 treasurer of the Evergreen Lumber Com- 

 pany of Evergreen, X. C, an allied corpora- 

 tion whose chief output is longleaf and 

 shortlcaf yellow pine and cypress. 



The present success of Wistar, Underhill 

 iV Co. is due to the thorough lumber knowl- 

 edge and clean, active policy of -Mr. Under- 

 bill and his partners. The conspicuous part 

 accorded Air. Underhill in the various trade 

 movements and organizations devoted to the 

 lumber industry is at once a tribute to his 

 tact and an acknowledgment of his high 

 -landing among his fellows. 



The firm of Wistar. Underbill & Co. is 

 primarily a young men's concern and the 

 years of its existence are comparatively few. 

 It occupies an influential position in the 

 Philadelphia trade and there is no doubt, 

 considering the character of the men com- 

 posing it, that it is but at the beginning of 

 its success 



Gold Ring in an Oak. 

 While workmen were engaged in cutting 

 railroad ties in woods near Willoughby, Md., 

 they discovered a gold ring in the heart of 

 an oak. I 1 was in perfect condition, except 

 that the saw had disfigured its setting. The 

 theory that the ring was' lost in the woods 

 years ago, when the tree was but a sprout 

 of an acorn, and that i encircled 



about the young shoot, is doubtless the ex- 

 planation of the mystery. 



