HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



^p George D. Emery. 



(See Portrait Supplement.) 



George D. Emery of Chelsea, Mass., the 

 greatest factor in the mahogany trade of 

 America, began to learn the lumber business 

 at the early age of fifteen, when he secured 

 a position as tally boy in a white pine yard, 

 at Buffalo, N. Y., belonging to Oliver Bug- 

 bee. Soon after, when Mr. Bugbee entered 

 the hardwood business, the tally boy was 

 promoted to the position of buyer, and trav- 

 eled through Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, lo- 

 cating stocks of oak and walnut, which were 

 forwarded to Toledo and accumulated for 

 shipment by lake to Buffalo, thence by canal 

 to Albany, which, in those days, was an im- 

 portant market for lumber. 



After nine years of this valuable experi- 

 ence and consequent gathering of knowledge 

 concerning lumber affairs, Mr. Emery en- 

 tered t-he manufacturing field, operating a 

 mulay sawmill in Noble county, Indiana, for 

 seven years. Skillings, Whitneys & Barnes 

 then secured his services for two years as 

 buyer, but he was anxious to get into business 

 for himself again, and did so, this time with 

 greater success. He built several mills and 

 opened headquarters at Indianapolis, where 

 he located a plant. His specialties were black 

 walnut and oak, and as they grew scarce in 

 Tndiana, Kentucky and Missouri, he sought 

 the timber as far south as Louisiana, Texas 

 and Arkansas. 



Mr. Emery was at that time the largest 

 producer of walnut in the United States, but, 

 after thirty-one years, he felt that the sup- 

 plies obtainable in that line were not ade- 

 quate to maintain his enterprise upon its 

 large scale for a much longer period of time; 

 so he looked about for a new branch of the 

 lumber industry in which to engage exten- 

 sively. Mahogany appealed to him as a 

 great and growing factor in the trade, and 

 he resolved that he would operate not upon 

 the usual lines of purchasing, importing and 

 distributing logs, but that he would com- 

 mence with the trees themselves and superin- 

 tend operations from the forest to American 

 markets. 



He accordingly invested something Uke a 

 third of a million dollars in this gigantic 

 enterprise, and although at times beset by 

 various difficulties, has proven his foresight, 

 good judgment and capable management by 

 the great results and success which he has 

 attained. 



Mr. Emery's mahogany operations are lo- 

 cated in Central and South America, and 

 bis company controls the entire concessions 

 for lumbering that valuable wood on the At- 

 lantic side of Nicaragua as well as large 

 holdings in Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and 

 Colombia. About one thousand men are em- 

 ployed in felling and shipping the trees ; only 

 about one hundred and fifty of them are 

 .Americans. Two steel vessels have been built 

 especially for carrying cargoes of mahogany, 



NUMBER Lll. 



each with a capacity of 1,100,000 feet of 

 round logs; thirty miles of standard gauge 

 railroad and an immense commissary depart- 

 ment are maintained in connection with the 

 foreign operations. 



The elder son, Herbert C. Emery, assumed 

 active control of these great interests in the 

 tropics at the age of twenty, and continued 

 to manage them until about 1900, when he 

 succumbed to the dangers of tropical climates 

 and, after a severe attack of fever, was 

 obliged to abandon the work. He is now 

 first vice president of the George D. Emery 

 Company, which has its home ofiSce and plant 

 in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston. This institu- 

 tion is the largest mahogany manufacturing 

 plant in the world. Mr. Emery, Jr., was suc- 

 ceeded in his work at the scenes of woods 

 operations in the tropics by S. D. Spellman, 

 second vice president of the house, who main- 



PRINT OP PERSIMMON LEAF, HALF ACT- 

 (UAL SIZE. 



tains headquarters in Bluefields, Nicaragua, 

 and attends to the lumbering and shipping of 

 consignments of the plant. This plant has a 



capacity of about 15,000,000 feet of lumber 

 annually and an immense output of veneers. 



The business is not now being actively con- 

 ducted by Mr. Emery and his son, as in 

 earlier days. The general policy of the com- 

 pany is controlled by the board of directors, 

 composed of Mr. Emery, Herbert Emery, 

 Charles A. Vialle, president of the National 

 Bank of the Republic of Boston; Charles W. 

 Noyes, a prominent lawyer of the same city, 

 and George L. Cade, treasurer, who has been 

 with the Emery company for many years and 

 has contributed largely to its success. TTie- 

 active management of affairs, under the 

 board of directors, is in the hands of Mr. 

 Spellman, at the scene of woods operations; 

 Mr. Cade, who has charge of finances and 

 general management, and Allen T. Puller, in 

 charge of lumber and sales, the two latter lo- 

 cated at Chelsea. 



Mr. Emery, while in good health for a 

 man who has just passed his seventy-fourth 

 birthday, is trying to enjoy in his later years 

 a little of the rest that he has so well earned, 

 and takes part in the business only in an 

 advisory capacity, as does Herbert Emery. 



Mr. Emery has been twice married, and 

 has two sons and a daughter. He is decidedly 

 domestic in his tastes, and inclines to quiet 

 home life rather than to active social duties 

 .-uid publicity of any sort; he is a member 

 of the Congregational church at Allston, an- 

 other suburb of Boston, where he resides. 

 Most of his spare hours are spent at home 

 in his Ubrary and garden. Politically he is a 

 Republican. 



In general appearance Mr. Emery is digni- 

 fied and imposing. He possesses the firm 

 mouth and square chin which denote firm- 

 ness and dogged persistence in the face of 

 obstacles and even defeat; in his business 

 career he has overcome difficulties which 

 the ordinary man would have considered in- 

 surmountable. His kindly manner and noble 

 character have won him many friends and 

 have endeared him to his employees. 



The Hardwood Record is pleased to pre- 

 sent Mr. Emery's portrait to its readers. 



The Coming Handle Meeting 



As heretofore announced in the Hardwood 

 Record, a meeting of handle manufacturers 

 has been called for Tuesday, October 8, at 

 the Great Northern Hotel, Chicago. The 

 urgent call for this meeting comes about 

 equally from manufacturers of hickory and 

 makers of ash handles. It has therefore been 

 resolved to devote the morning session of this 

 meeting to a joint gathering of these pro- 

 ducers for the purpose of listening to ad- 

 dresses from several people prominent in as- 

 sociation work. Tie gentlemen who have 

 promised to address this meeting have been 

 instrumental in the organization of associa- 

 tions in the lumber, veneer and box industries, 

 and can tell the visitors convincingly the ben- 

 efits that have been derived from association 

 work. They will also enlarge on the legal 

 points involved and tell the handle people ex- 



actly what they can lawfully do in this sort 

 of an organization, and what it will be neces- 

 sary to avoid. 



At the afternoon session of the meeting, 

 the hickory handle producers and the ash 

 handle makers will go into separate confer- 

 ences on the subject of the possibiUties of 

 association work in their two branches of the 

 trade, and if deemed wise, each will organize 

 a distinct association. Furthermore, it is 

 anticipated that all the other divisions of the 

 handle industry as well will eventually join 

 in a parent association to work for the com- 

 mon good of all the others. 



From the interest manifested in the hun- 

 dreds of letters received by the editor of the 

 Hardwood Record, it ir confidently expected 

 that there will be a large attendance at this 

 meeting. Every effort will be made to insure 



