' xjyg^^ta^ac^TOC^^^ 



Builders of Lumber History 



iiu'aim^ 



NUMBER CXVIII 

 N. J. G. VAN KEULEN 



(See Portrait 

 N. J. G. Van Keulen of the Van Keulen & Winchester Lumber 

 Company, Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in the province of 

 Zeeland in Holland on February 2, 1864. The notable achievements 

 of the man and his eminent success in the lumber business are all 

 the more remarkable when it is considered that he not only came 

 from a family not possessed of very much of the worldly goods, 

 but that he was denied the privilege of spending his first few years 

 in school, and took up his residence in a strange land at the early 

 age of sixteen. Mr. Van Keulen went to school when a young boy 

 in Holland, but after coming to this country did not have an 

 opportunity to attend day school, but entered immediately into 

 the problem of making a livelihood for himself and mother. He 

 set about immediately to acquire a knowledge of the English 

 language, and to accomplish this took up a course of study at 

 night, and did a great deal of reading. The consequence was that 

 he soon became a master of English. At this time it occurred to 

 Mr. Van Keulen that the knowledge of Latin and Greek might help 

 in his study of English. His insight into the dead languages which 

 he thus acquired gave to him the idea that he might possibly take 

 up a professional career. This thought gradually budded into 

 a full-grown determination to be a medical man, and with this 

 end in view Mr. Van Keulen applied himself diligently to the 

 hard work of acquiring an education outside of working hours, 

 but the task became too severe, and he consequently entered into 

 his present business. 



Mr. Van Keulen 's father died when he was an infant. When he 

 and his mother came to this country they immediately located 

 '.n Grand Eapids, Mich., where on May 4, thirty-two years 

 ago, the present head of the Van Keulen & Winchester Lumber 

 Company started with the Phoenix Furniture Company in the 

 finishing room. He was always imbued with the desire to see as 

 deeply as possible into the reasons for any process, and his ability 

 soon attracted attention. It was not long before he was given 

 an opportunity of learning the cabinet-making business. In this 

 line he was busy for seven years, and while there built up the 

 foundation for his present successful commercial career. It is 

 probably his close knowledge of the lumber requirements of the 

 furniture business that has been responsible for Mr. Van Keulen 's 

 success in catering to that line of trade. But while he was busy 

 in the factory, he realized the importance of obtaining a com- 

 mercial training, and decided that a course in a commercial college 

 was about the only opportunity open for him. He was always 

 ambitious and thrifty, and accumulated sufficient money to carry 

 him through such a course. Consequently at the age of twenty- 

 three he enrolled in a commercial college in Grand Eapids, and 

 gave up his employment with the furniture company for a year. 

 At the end of that time he was offered a position in the lumber 

 office of Mead & Co., of Grand Eapids as bookkeeper. Here his 

 knowledge of lumber demonstrated its value to him immediately. 

 He was with this concern for two or three years in this capacity, 

 and in 1891 took a position with the Dennis Brothers Lumber 

 Company as bookkeeper and general office manager. Mr. Van 

 Keulen worked in this capacity for ten years, gradually accumulat- 

 ing responsibility and experience. 



On January 1, 1902, Mr. Van Keulen with George Wilkinson 

 started the Van Keulen- Wilkinson Lumber Company, a partnership, 

 for the purpose of jobbing hardwoods. The enterprise was highly 

 successful from its inception and Mr. Van Keulen now has cus- 

 tomers who started with him at that time. In December, 1903, 

 W. C. Winchester, George Wilkinson and Mr. Van Keulen incor- 

 porated, the latter assuming complete active control. This com- 

 bination was as eminently successful as the former partnership, 

 and continued a rapid and uninterrupted growth. Mr. Wilkinson 



Supplement ) 



died in 1910, and later the other two bought out his interest. In 

 December, 1910, the style was changed to the Van Keulen & 

 Winchester Lumber Company, under which style the present 

 business is conducted. The magnitude and scope of Mr. Van 

 Keulen "s lumber interests can be readily appreciated by those 

 well conversant with the lumber business in Grand Eapids. The 

 company has always followed a policy of catering closely to the 

 exact requirements of its trade, and in doing this has made some 

 extremely valuable mill connections. In 1910 the company leased 

 a large circular mill at Buckley, Mich., which plant cuts from 

 thirty to thirty-five thousand feet of lumber a day. The company 

 also had a mill at Falmouth, which it has operated for several 

 years, and another in the upper peninsula of Michigan, above 

 Manistique. The policy has always been to acquire manufacturing 

 interests whenever this could be accomplished under favorable 

 circumstances. It has further been the policy of the company to 

 keep cleaned up on its timber and to buy to meet requirements 

 rather than to tie up any considerable amount of cash in timber 

 holdings. 



The company disposes of from five to six million feet of its 

 own stock annually, and also wholesales a large amount of 

 hardwoods outside of this. A good deal of the trade is in hard 

 maple and beech, although everything in northern hardwoods is 

 handled. It has never been the policy of Mr. Van Keulen 's 

 interests to handle much stock from southern mills, although at 

 times they do job more or less oak and gum lumber. The business 

 has always been run on an extremely conservative basis and it 

 is a significant fact that in proportion to the size of its operations, 

 the Van Keulen & Winchester Lumber Company probably has 

 borrowed less than any other business of its size in the city. 



In a large measure the success of the enterprise in whicli Mr. 

 Van Keulen has been associated is traceable to his personal 

 intimacy with the requirements of the trade to which he sells. 

 He has entire active charge of all affairs of the company, and is 

 widely known as a man capable of disposing of hardwood lumber 

 in large lots where nobody else has a shadow of a chance. 



Mr. Van Keulen is an enthusiastic automobilist, and Kke many 

 other lumbermen is extremely fond of his home life. He recently 

 erected a fine new residence on North College avenue in the high- 

 class residence section of Grand Eapids, and in this he has installed 

 throughout quartered oak trim. 



Mr. Van Keulen was married twenty years ago. The couple 

 have one daughter who is now a freshman at Ann Arbor, and 

 another daughter eight years old. He is a- member of the Penin- 

 sular Club, of the Elks and also of the Knickerbocker Society of 

 Grand Eapids. 



Making Wood Sections 



There appear with an article in this issue of Haedwood Eecord 

 three illustrations of cross sections of wood magnified fifty diameters. 

 The process by which this is accomplished is known as photo- 

 micrography. Photomicrographs are made from very thin sections, 

 cut with a sliding microtome especially constructed for sectioning 

 wood. Small blocks, one-quarterof-aninch square, cut from green 

 material or from the interior of dry pieces, are used. The faces 

 of the blocks should represent sections as nearly cross, radial and 

 tangential as possible. In the lighter woods it is customary to 

 soften the blocks by boiling in water until thoroughly saturated. 

 In the harder woods the process is made easier by placing the blocks 

 in a solution of a hydrofluoric acid for a period of from ten days 

 to three weeks. After removal from the acid they are washed 

 and put in glycerine for several days, when they are ready for 

 sectioning. 



—25— 



