HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Cincinnati's Greatness as a HardWood Market. 



Back in the early thirties two small saw- 

 mills pvaetieally represented the hardwood 

 industry of Cineinnati. Today the hard- 

 wood interes-ts of the Queen City are said 

 to l)e greater in proportion to general vol- 

 ume of business transacted than in any 

 other city in the United States. Last year 

 Cincinnati houses are credited with manu- 

 facturing and handling the 

 grand total of over one billiou 

 feet of hardwood lumber. 



Few people, unless they have 

 stopped to figure it out, have 

 any idea of the vastness of this 

 industry, of its sources of sup- 

 ply and phenomenal develop- 

 ment and expansion, to which 

 Cincinnati is to the manner 

 liorn. Tlie city is the logical 

 hub of tile lumber industry for 

 tlie northern, southern and east- 

 ern trade, located as it is be- 

 tween the pine, hemlock and 

 hardwood forests of Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, Minnesota and Can- 

 ada, and the great hardw-ood, 

 yellow pine and cypress regions 

 of the South. 



Cincinnati is the terminus of 

 five great railroad systems, tapping on the 

 east the rich forests and heavily wooded 

 mountain slopes of Virginia and West "Vir- 

 ginia; on the south, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Alabama, Georgia and the two Carolinas; 

 and on the southwest, Mississippi, Arkansas 

 and Louisiana, which pour into her lap rich 

 stores of oak, ash, gum, cypress and other 

 hardwoods. 



Many Cincinnati hunbcr houses have rep- 



Lagos and Sepeli woods. It is a curious 

 fact that mahogany lumber is cheaper in 

 Cincinnati than it is in New York, Liver- 

 pool, Marseilles or Hamburg, notwithstand- 

 ing that those points are the headquarters 

 of large ocean forwarding companies. Cin- 

 cinnati exports vast quantities of high-class 

 hardwoods, notably oak, ash, hickory, walnut 



CLixTox cuaxf;. de.^n or cincinx.vti lum- 



BER.MEX. 



resentativi's engaged in cutting mahogany 

 in Cuba, Mexico, South America, Central 

 America, and also several points in Africa, 

 from whence comes the rich and beautiful 



SAW AXD VIOXEER MILLS. CYPRESS LUMBER COMTAXV, SHEFFIELD. ALA. 



and yellow poplar, to many foreign points. 



The Ohio river is a tremendous factor in 

 contributing to Cincinnati's success as a 

 lumber market, as over 100,000.000 feet are 

 annually floated down from the timber 

 tracts .along the Ohio, Big Sandy, Guyan- 

 dotte, the two Kanawhas, Licking, Ken- 

 tucky and Green rivers. Cincinnati owes 

 the largest share of its furniture, carriage, 

 piano and wagon factories to its favorable 

 location w-ith respect to sources of supply. 

 C. Crane & Co. 



Oftentimes a destiny is decided by even 

 such a trifle as the turning of a straw. So 

 it was with C. Crane & Co. When Clinton 

 Crane, king of Cincinnati lumbermen, be- 

 comes reminiscent, which is not infrequent, 

 iie d<'lights in telling how he was forced 

 into the lumber manufacturing business, 

 mucli against his will. This was nearly 

 thirty years ago, and the circumstance that 

 wrought havoc in one quarter brought op- 

 portunity in another, as if in proof of the 

 oM saying, "It's an ill wind tlial brings 

 good to no one." To verify this statement, 

 only a view of the great stretch of bottom 

 land which constitutes a goodly portion of 

 Cincinnati's realtj' along the Ohio river, 

 now occupied by the- great sawmill and 

 lumber yards of C. Crane & Co., is neces- 

 saiy. But this is not all; the rest of the 

 company 's holdings is reached by crossing 

 the river and going uj) into West Virginia; 

 and until the 1.50,000 acres of timber land 

 on each side of the Guyandotte river have 

 been traversed, all of C. Crane & Co. 's pos- 

 sessions have not been seen. 



There was located at Xenia, O., some 

 thirty years ago, a small sawmill which sup- 



plied lumber to the firm of Cole & Crane, 

 which at that time was doing a very modest 

 jobbing business. Operations were un- 

 steady, and in due course Cole & Crane 

 found themselves with the Xenia sawmill on 

 their hands in lieu of cash. There was 

 nothing to do but to operate the mill them- 

 selves, so Clinton Crane loaded the sawmill 

 on a car headed for Cincinnati, 

 and set it up on the banks of 

 t lie Ohio, the site of the present 

 gigantic plant of C. Crane & 

 Co.. and began to saw lumber 

 at the rate of 40,000 feet daily. 

 The firm continued operations 

 under the title of Cole & Crane 

 Icir five or six years, when it 

 was changed to Crane & Co. 



In 1883 Crane & Co. bought 

 the Glenn mill, a little w-ay 

 down the river. Business in- 

 creased rapidly, and thereafter 

 they knew naught but success. 

 In 1885 a new mill was erected, 

 and in 1893 the concern bought 

 out their neighbors and competi- 

 tors. Baker & Hanley. Mill 

 after mill was erected, old 

 equipment was thrown out for 

 new, and everything in milling machinery 

 that reduced operating expenses, time and 

 labor added. In 1894 the firm was incorpo- 

 rated as C. Crane & Co., since wliiidi time 

 business has increased phenomenally until 

 at present writing the company operates 

 seven mills with a capacity of 300,000 feet 

 every ten hours. The logging equipment 

 is up-to-date in every particular. C. Crane 

 & Co. float all their logs, and by means of 

 ,a splendidly cii^aiiized system mauago to 



W. A. HEXXETT. .SOLON OF THE TUADE. 



keep a steady run of timber from the woods 

 to the mill. The company's line of produc- 

 tion includes poplar, oak, ash, chestnut, syca- 

 more, elm. .spruce and pine. 



