28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



development of the building movement of the 

 past four years. This is the waiting season, and 

 developments as to labor, the price of material 

 and other matters may lead to much more ex- 

 tensive operations in the near future. While no 

 boom is in sight construction, in general, is in 

 a healthful condition. 



Feb., Feb., Per Per 



1907, 1908, cent cent 



' i!\ cost. cost. gain. loss. 



Atlanta ..$ 602,411 $ 301,549 "loo 



I:ri.li;i-]Miri Is. I.:. 143,200 ... 6(i 



Buffalo 381,700 472,075 ... 



Chicago 3,159,130 4,600,400 ... 31 



I'levohnul r.74.245 129,905 57 



Chattanooga .. 81.220 143.. 560 ... 4: 



Davenport 12,100 93,650 ... 54 



Dallas 204.070 142.752 43 



Denver 472.700 458,770 3 



Detroit 520.300 369,700 4:: 



Dulutta 7::. 72n 32,570 128 



Evansville 07,535 84,933 ... 20 



Hawisburg . . . 74.750 100,735 . . . 26 



Hartford 56,365 S23.070 ... 93 



Indianapolis . . 165.864 392.234 . . . .".7 



Kansas City... 602,215 464,255 20 



Louisville 157,250 684.805 . . 77 



Los Angeles . 1.086,115 1,082.875 



Milwaukee ... 156,749 337,582 ... 54 



Minneapolis .... 285,795 798.835 ... 69 



Memphis- 479,257 300,862 57 



Mobile 423,036 31,914 '.124 



Nashville 88,877 1211, 307 ... 31 



Newark 520,340 561,060 ... 7 



Manhattan .. 4,422,300 8,419,150 ... 47 



Alteration . 880,267 3,107,004 



Brooklyn ... 4,793,765 4,071,801 17 



Bronx 1,955,350 1,549,820 26 



Alteration... 42,785 131,675 ' 



New York 12,094.467 17.2S0.350 ... 30 



Omaha 172,370 147.050 17 



Philadelphia .. 987.455 3,063,720 ... 07 



Paterson 75,755 84,785 ... lo 



Portland 891,739 308,388 189 



Rochester 185,500 24O.740 ... 22 



St. Joseph 29,640 31,395 



St. Louis 1.703.492 1,636,263 4 



St. Paul 349.692 ] 40,10:: 140 



San Antonio . . 163,785 77,635 111 



Seranton lis. 700 96,850 23 



Seattle 1.300,412 321.848 304 



Spokane 107.050 322.776 ... 38 



South Bend ... 32,835 42,700 ... 23 



Syracuse 184,410 103,625 78 



Salt Lake Citv. 102,300 1:15.050 ... 47 



Toledo 108,170 201,010 ... 46 



Topeka 22.800 42.770 ... 47 



Tacoma 276.185 119,285 131 



Washington ... S20.427 010.155 ... 9 



Worcester .... 73.362 37,995 07 



Wilkesbarre .. 203,796 33,460 515 



Total J30.501.411 $38,419,511 ... 20 



Enviable Record of a St. Louis Hardwood 

 House. 



It is a far cry from the inception of a- small 

 lumber commission business, capitalized at 

 $2,500, to the successful evolution of a great 

 wholesale and manufacturing hardwood enter- 

 prise, with a capital and surplus of a quarter of 

 a million. However, this is what has been 

 accomplished by the principals of the Thomas 

 & Proetz Lumber Company of St. Louis within 

 the remarkably short space of ten years. 



Charles E. Thomas, founder of the company, 

 was born in St. Louis in 1S72 and became 

 identilied with the lumber business when a 

 youth, - spending several years in the employ of 

 the Russell-Massengale Commission Company as 

 salesman and later as secretary and treasurer 

 of the Central Mantel Company. In 1896 Mr. 

 Thomas spent some time looking over the lumber 

 field with the idea of returning to his original 

 work of selling hardwoods if he could find a 

 satisfactory position; but owing principally to 

 "hard times" was unsuccessful in this attempt. 

 Not to be daunted in his determination to 

 reenter the lumber business, he turned t<. his 

 brother in-law, Mr. Proetz, for aid, and with the 

 modest capital of $2,500 formed the Thou, 

 Proetz Lumber Company, of which he was 

 manager. 



At first the concern did a commission business 

 strictly, but soon branched out and opened a 

 yard at St. Louis avenue and the Wabash tracks. 

 Two years later another yard was opened at 

 Dock and "Hall streets. In the year 1903, In 

 order to handle the rapidly increasing trade 

 more conveniently and capably, the company 

 purchased nearly nine acres of ground at Hall 

 and Angelrodt streets in the lumber district of 

 north St. Louis and consolidated its yard inter- 

 ests a1 that point, taking up its office on the 



CHARLES E. THOMAS, PRESIDENT THOMAS 

 & PROETZ LUMBER CO. 



same site. Here the company has an ideal 

 location, facing the Mississippi: spur tracks, 

 furnishing connection with the railroads, enter 

 the yard, thus providing it with every facility 

 for handling lumber by rail or river. 



In February. 190G, the company took over an 

 up-to-date hardwood mill at Belzoni, Miss., and 

 incorporated the Belzoni Hardwood Lumber Com- 

 pany .to operate it. They made extensive im- 

 provements in the mill, and purchased a logging 

 fleet, composed of a 12x50 quarters boat, two 

 derrick boats equipped with Lidgerwood hoisting 

 machinery, a twin-screw steamboat and three 

 24xl50-foot barges. The plant consists of a 

 Sinker-Davis band mill; a thoroughly modern 

 planing mill containing seventeen machines, 

 capable of turning out a wide variety of work : 

 and a shingle mill. The manager of the opera 

 tions at this point is Raymond Brattain, a 

 member of the Belzxtni company who was lor 

 several years in the employ of the Thomas & 

 Proetz Lumber Company as Inspector. The mill 

 cuts about 30,000 feet of lumber a day, prin- 

 cipally ash, Cottonwood, cypress, gum and oak. 

 At the beginning of the current year nearly 

 3,500,000 feet of lumber were in stock there, 

 with logs enough on hand to last at least until 

 the month of May. The Belzoni company's out- 



put is sold exclusively by the Thomas & Proetz 

 Lumber Company, which carries a fine stock of 

 between 5.000,000 and 6,000,000 feet of hard- 

 woods piled in its St. Louis yards. 



•To the ability and industry of Edward W. 

 Wieso, as well as to the founder, much of the 

 success and extension of the business of the 

 Thomas & Froetz Lumber Company is due. Mr. 

 Wiese entered Mr. Thomas' employ about 1897 

 as bookkeeper and stenographer, and four years 

 later acquired a linaueial interest in the concern. 

 He is now vice president of the St. Louis 

 company, and secretary and vice president of 

 the Belzoni Hardwood Lumber Company. 



Both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Wiese stand very 

 high in the esteem of not only their local 

 contemporaries, but also of manufacturers and 

 consumers throughout the wide field in which 

 they have commercial transactions. 



Death of John O'Brien. 



John O'Brien, president of the John O'Brien 

 Land & Lumber Company of Chicago, died at 

 his h.. no'. 452:'. Prairie avenue, on Monday, 

 February 25. For several years he had not 

 been in good health, and his large business 

 interests have been in the hands of his sons. 



Mr. O'Brien was born in Tralee, County 

 Kerry, Ireland, January 6, 1847. At the age of 

 nineteen he came to Chicago. He spent a 

 number of years in the employ of lumber con- 

 cerns, serving in various capacities and learning 

 the business thoroughly. His first venture for 

 himself was in 1885, when with P. J. Doyle he 

 started a yard on Armour avenue, under the 

 firm name of Doyle & O'Brien. Two years later 

 Mr. O'Brien bought out Mr. Doyle's interest, and 

 with George G. Wilcox and Mat. George Green 

 incorporated the O'Brien & Green Company, 

 which established a yard at the south end of the 

 Throop Street bridge. This concern, was capi- 

 talized at $75.0110. Some years afterward, on 

 the retirement of Mr. Green, the company was 



ganized under the name of the John O'Brien 



Lumber Company and removed to Throop and 

 Twenty-second streets. It conducted a general 

 wholesale and retail business at that location 

 until its timber resources began to, decline, when 

 the yard was closed out and the office removed 

 to the Chamber of Commerce. 



Between the years 1807 and 1903 the com- 

 pany made several extensive purchases of pine 

 stumpage in Wisconsin and vicinity and con- 

 ducted operations in Ashland. Washburn and 

 Duluth. handling out 500,000,000 feet of lumber 

 in that length of time. With its exhaustion, 

 Mr. Wilcox retired from the concern and Mr. 

 O'Brien and his sons formed the John O'Brien 

 Land & Lumber Company, capitalized at $300,- 

 000. They purchased 40,0i"i acres of hardwood 

 land with sawmill plant, logging railroad, etc., 

 in Mississippi, including the village of Phillip. 

 Here the business has been conducted success- 

 fully up to the present time. 



John O'Brien, Jr., and his brother Robert IV 

 are at the head of affairs of the Jno. O'Brien 

 I and & Lumber Company and hold important 

 offices. 



Mr. O'Brien leaves a wife and eight children. 

 The funeral took place on Thursday, February 

 28, :it Corpus Christi Church, Chicago; the 

 interment was at Calvary. 



EDWARD W. WIESE, VICE PRESIDENT 

 TIloMAS & PROETZ LUMBER CO. 



Mahogany Ties in Mexico. 



J. M. Neeland, vice president of the Pan- 

 American railroad, now open from a connection 

 with the Tehuantepec National near San Geron- 

 imo, Mex., to Pijijiapam, 161 miles, is reported 

 as saying that hardwood is used almost alto- 

 gether for ties, and that fully 12 per cent of the 

 ties thus far laid are mahogany. The chico 

 zaporte, from which chicle gum is extracted, is 

 also used. The intense hardness of this tree, 

 which increases with time after it is cut down, 

 makes it particularly valuable as a railroad 

 tie. 



