HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



scarcely needed the wax of the balsam to 

 make it water-tight. ' ' 



The photograph from which the illiistra- 

 fion accompanying this article was taken is 

 of a sapling tamarack growing near Cadillac, 

 Mich. The illustration is typical of the char- 

 acter of the growth but does not exhibit the 

 splendid size often attained in regions one 

 to two hundred miles farther north. The 

 tree in the right foreground of the picture 

 is a baby white pine. 



Longfellow has depicted the Indian as a 

 being totally in harmony with Nature, using 

 her manifold gifts not ruthlessly and wan- 



tonly, as have his successors, but frugally and 

 gratefully. Thus Hiawatha, building his 

 canoe, after offering homage to the spirit of 

 the trees, took from each the material he 

 needed: 



Give me of your roots, O Tamarack ! 

 Of your fibrous roots, O Larch-Tree ! 

 My canoe to bind together, 

 So to bind the ends together 

 That the water may not enter. 

 That the river may not wet mo I 

 And tile Larch with" all its fibres, 1 



Shivered in the air of morning. 

 Touched his forehead with its tassels, 

 Said, with one long sigh of sorrow. 

 Take them all. O Hiawatha ! 



Guilders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER LI 



E. V. Babcock. 



((See Portrait Supplement.) 

 Graduates from that great lumber training 

 school — the state of Michigan — are to be 

 found in every section of the country. Even 

 the East has taken from it some of its most 

 successful lumbermen. In the front ranks 

 of the fraternity stands E. V. Babcock of 

 Pittsburg. 



Mr. Babcock was born January 31, 1864, at 

 Fulton, N. Y. He worked on his father's 

 farm in summer, and in winter attended 

 school, until he was seventeen years old, when 

 he began to teach. At the age of twenty-one 

 he followed Horace Greeley 's advice and 

 started west, with the earnest intention of 

 learning the lumber business. His first work 

 was with the Robinson Brothers Lumber Com- 

 pany, then of Detroit, Mich., now of Tona- 

 wanda, N. Y., as a lumber hustler, at the 

 nmnifieent salary of a dollar a day. Two 

 years later he secured a position as inspector 

 and shipper of white pine lumber for Henry 

 Stephens & Co. at St. Helens, Mich. A year 

 afterward he was engaged by Switzer & East- 

 wood of Bay City, Mich., to sell their white 



ard gauge railroad constructed, camps man- 

 aged by the company laid out, and thus the 

 thriving town of Ashtola had its beginning. 

 Tlie hum of saws has continued, without ces- 

 sation, night and day, year in and year out, 

 ever since. 



In 1901 the entire plant of Jas. Curry & 

 Son at Arrow, Pa., with sawmill, planing mill, 

 railroad, timber and in fact the entire settle- 

 ment, was added to the Babcock Lumber 

 Company's holdings; the sawmill capacity 

 was increased and additional contiguous tim- 

 ber purchased from time to time until 4.5,000 

 acres had been accumulated. The company 

 has at present an annual output of 40,000,- 

 000 feet of hemlock and 20,000,000 feet of 

 hardwood, the whole operation giving employ- 

 ment to over a thousand men. 



April 2, 1901, the Babcock Brothers Lum- 

 ber Company was incorporated in the state 

 of Georgia for the development of 33,000 

 acres of long leaf yellow pine timber, esti- 

 mated to cut 300,000,000 feet. With sawmill, 

 planing mill, dry kilns and the necessary 

 laborers on the ground, the town of Babcock 

 quickly sprung up in the heart of the tract, 



pine in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, • which is located in the southwestern corner 



Maryland and Nevr Jersey, which position he 

 held for three years. 



January 1, 1900, the present firm of E. V. 

 Babcock & Co. was established in Pittsburg, 

 Pu., with a capital of $3,000, F. E. Babcock, 

 a brother, being the other principal of the 

 concern. They carried on a car-load business, 

 adapted to the needs of that heavy manufac- 

 turing and retail district, but also conserva- 

 tively, with relation to the limited amount of 

 capital invested. The capital grew, iowever, 

 and along with it the coterie of customers. 

 In 1899 the annual sales amounted to 120,- 

 000,000 feet. From 1902 to 1906 the volume 

 of business increased to over l.'50,000,000 

 feet. 



In 1898, to supply the lumber for the in- 

 creased business, the Babcock Lumber Com- 

 pany was incorporated, with E. V. Babcock 

 as president, F. R. Babcock secretary and 

 treasurer, and O. H. Babcock and C. L. Bab- 

 cock, two younger brothers, stockholders and 

 active managers. Seven thousand acres of 

 timber land was purchased in Somerset 

 county, Pennsylvania, a sawmill built, stand- 



of Georgia. A year or tw-o later the town 

 was incorporated as a city by a special act 

 of the state legislature, and one of the most 

 up-to-date lumbering plants in the South can 

 be found there; in addition, there are electric 

 lights, waterworks, churches, school houses, 

 stores, Masonic Temple, and everything 

 necessary for the comfort and happiness of 

 the employees of the company, which owns 

 all the buildings. 



The Babcock Brothers Lumber Company has 

 extensive turpentine stills, hiaehine shop, ear 

 shop and thirty miles of standard gauge rail- 

 road in connection with the business; its an- 

 nual output is L'4,000,000 feet of kiln-dried 

 long leaf yellow pine flooring, ceiling, siding, 

 etc., with "Georgia rift" a specialty. Tlie 

 officers are F. E. Babcock, president; O. H. 

 Babcock, vice president; E. V. Babcock, sec- 

 retary and treasurer; M. A. Sexton, manager. 

 In its five years of activity the company has 

 purchased more timber than it has cut. 



During the first half of the present year 

 three deals have been consummated by the 

 Babcock interests. The Babcock Lumber & 



Land Company, E. V. Babcock, president, and 

 F. R. Babcock, secretary and treasurer, a mil- 

 lion dollar company, was organized and bought 

 46,000 acres of timber land in eastern Ten- 

 nessee, which the principals believe to be the 

 finest east of the Mississippi river; the larger 

 portion of it was purchased from the Smoky 

 Mountain Lumber, Land and Improvement 

 Company. This property is a virgin piece of 

 timber carrying 900,000,000 feet, of which 

 160,000,000 feet is poplar. The Babcock Lum- 

 ber and Land Company expects to develop the 

 projierty when the Babcock Lumber Company 

 has finished operations in Pennsylvania, and 

 proposes to build there the model lumber town 

 of America. 



At about the same time the Babcock Lum- 

 ber & Boom Company was organized in the 

 state of West Virginia, purchasing the hold- 

 ings and business of the Thompson Lumber 

 Company, the Blaekwater Lumber Company 

 and A. Thompson of Davis, W. Va., and of 

 Philadelphia, Pa. Of this new company E. 

 V. Babcock is president; O. H. Babcock, vice 

 president; and F. R. Babcock, secretary and 

 treasurer. With this property went sawmills, 

 forty miles of railroad, planing mill and box 

 factory, 9,500,000 feet of lumber on sticks, 

 8,-500,O0ff feet of logs in Blaekwater river, 

 and 46,000 acres of timber land, estimated to 

 cut 450,000,000 feet. The wheels of this en- 

 tire operation never stopped a minute during 

 the transfer. The output of the plant is 

 35,000,000 feet per annum, largely spruce. 



During the month of July a half interest in 

 the Tellico Eiver Lumber Company of Tellico 

 Plains, Tenn., was purchased by the Babeocks, 

 and the company reorganized with E. V. Bab- 

 cock, president; Lee Stout, vice president; F. 

 R. Babcock, secretary; and S. A. Smith, treas- 

 urer. This concern has a double-band mill, 

 planing mill and dry kilns at Tellico Plains, 

 and 49,000 acres of timber land, consisting of 

 poplar, oak, cherry, ash, chestnut, white and 

 yellow pine, estimated at 480,000,000 feet, 

 with an annual output of 30,000,000 feet. The 

 timber adjoins that of the Babcock Lumber 

 and Land Company on the south. These prop- 

 erties have the L. &. N. and the Southern rail- 

 roads for outlets. 



The output of the Babcock mills will con- 

 tinue to be marketed through E. V. Babcock 

 & Co., of Pittsburg, Pa. Every year since 

 the partnership of E. V. Babcock & Co. was 

 formed has been prosperous — each being bet- 

 ter than the previous one, and 1907 will be 

 no exception to this rule. 



In all these various interests E. V. Babcock 

 is the executive head, although he leaves most 

 of the details in the big business of E. V. 

 Babcock & Co. to his brothers, F. E. and O. H., 

 who are well qualified both as to experience 

 and ability to conduct its affairs. He is ably 

 assisted in the management of the Babcock 

 Lumber Company by his brother, C. L. Bab- 

 cock. 



E. V. Babcock & Co. have branch sales 

 offices in Boston, Philadelphia, and Johnstown, 

 Pa., and are contemplating opening others in 

 New York and Cincinnati, to assist in han- 

 dling the entire output of the ])lants, amount- 



