HARDWOOD RECORD 



37 



WILLIAll A. I'UELrS. PRESIDENT. 



CUAS. A. THELFS. CHAIRMAN OP BOARD. 



HENRY IDEMA, VICE PRKSIDENT. 



than to any other is due the fine character of 

 the splendid operation which has, within the 

 last few years, been installed in the northern 

 Wisconsin timber field. 



The secretary of the Hackley-Phelps-Bon- 

 nell Company is Otis A. Felger. Mr. Felger 

 was born in 1S65 at Genesee, 111., and is of 

 German-American birth. He was valedic- 

 torian of the class of 18S9 of the Northwestern 

 Normal School. His first employment was as 

 clerk in a general store in Geneseo. At the 

 age of twenty he entered the poultry busi- 

 ness. He taught commercial branches during 

 his school life and was a pedagogue for a 

 year after his graduation. He afterward en- 

 tered the employ of McNeil & Higgins. 

 wholesale grocers of Chicago, and eventually 

 became general clerk and railroad teller of 

 the National Bank of Illinois at Chicago. In 

 1892 he accepted a position with the Widdi- 

 comb Furniture Company of Grand Rapids. 

 Mich., and he added to his lumber experience 

 in the office work of a pine and hardwood 

 operation at Leroy. Mich., for some time 

 afterward. In 1S94 he assisted in organizing 

 the Thompson & Bonnell Lumber Company 

 and the Hackley-Bonnell Lumber Company. 

 which succeeded it, acting as secretary and 

 treasurer for both concerns. On the merging 

 of the interests of the Hackley-Bonnell Lum- 



ber Company with the Wisconsin Lumber & 

 Bark Company and the Grand Rapids Bark 

 & Lumber Company, Mr. Felger was chosen 

 secretary of the new corporation. Mr. Felger 

 was married in 1889 to Miss Bertha Spickler 

 of Geneseo. 111., and has three children. He 

 is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 

 church and is identified with various social 

 and business clubs of Grand Rapids. Be- 

 sides being interested in the Hackley-Phelps- 

 Bonnell Company he is also a stockholder in 

 several furniture manufacturing establish- 

 ments in Grand Rapids and vicinity. Mr. 

 Felger pays especial attention to the southern 

 operations of the Hackley-Phelps-Bonnell 

 Company. 



Portraits of other individuals associated 

 with the Hackley-Phelps-Bonnell Company ac- 

 companying this sketch are those of Treas- 

 urer John H. Bonnell, who has spent the 

 greater part of his life in Grand Rapids and 

 has been identified with the lumber business 

 for many years; Henry Idema, vice-president 

 of the company, who is a well-known banker 

 and capitalist of the Furniture City; and 

 Dudley E. Waters, a director of the company, 

 who is also a well-known Michigan banker, 

 being president of the Grand Rapids National 

 Bank, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



Another portrait is that of W. N. Sayles. a 



director of the company, who generally cares 

 for the Michigan interests of the corpora- 

 tion. Mr. Sayles was born in Kalamazoo 

 county. Michigan, in 1858. He spent his boy- 

 hood in Oceano county, where as a young 

 man he taught school. He has followed the 

 lumber business practically all his life and 

 has been identified with the enterprises of 

 the Messrs. Phelps for the past fifteen years. 

 The general sales manager of the Hackley- 

 Phelps-Bonnell Company, whose picture is 

 also presented, is Charles W. Fish. Mr. Fish 

 is a Canadian by birth and parentage and 

 has spent his life in the northern Michigan 

 woods. He commenced his lumber career 

 with the G. W. Jones Lumber Company of 

 Appleton, Wis., at Elcho, and was afterward 

 engaged in business on his own account In 

 the Fish & Mullen Lumber Company, of 

 which he was president. He has been identi- 

 fied with the Hackley-Phelps-Bonnell Com- 

 pany since 1895. He is married and has three 

 children. Mr. Fish is achieving exceptional 

 distinction in his particular field of manager 

 of sales. It is his earnest endeavor to analyze 

 very carefully the special requirements of 

 every one of the numerous customers of his 

 big corporation, and is handling the Indi- 

 vidual wants in such a painstaking way that 

 once a customer is gained he remains a cus- 



CORNER OF HELENA, AUK., VAUli. 



