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HARDWOOD RECORD 



'Builders of Lumber History. 



NIMBEK XXIX. 



Henry C. Barroll. 



(See Portrait Supplement.) 



Henry C. Barroll of Chicago is a man who 

 has evolved an idea, or, more correctly speak- 

 ing, lias adapted an idea to a specific pui-pose. 

 He is at the head of the only banking institu- 

 tion of recognized standing in the United 

 States engaged solely in the loaning of money 

 on large operations in the lumber business. 



Mr. Barroll was born near St. Louis, Nov. 

 14, 1868, of Maryland and Virginia ancestry, 

 and since his early youth has been engaged in 

 the banking business. Although still young 

 in years he is old in financial experience. For 

 a number of years he was associated with 

 Blair & Company, the well-known bankers of 

 New York, and afterward with the great 

 banking and bond house of N. W. Harris & 

 Company of Chicago and New York, and 

 incidentally with other well-known banking 

 institutions. The particular feature of the 

 business in which he has had long and careful 

 training is the purchase and sale of municipal 

 and corporation bonds. He is an authority 

 on this subject, and latterly became an im- 

 portant factor in the business. 



Lumber is one of the principal staples 

 entering into every activity of civilized life 

 and its manufacture and sale constitutes one 

 of the four chief industries of the LTnited 

 States. From these facts Mr. Barroll de- 

 duced that by giving his specific attention to 

 the base of lumber values — the forest — he 

 could carve dut a unique and desirable special 

 feature in banking enterprises. He recog- 

 nized that more than a hundred years of set- 

 tlement had gradually depleted the forests of 

 this country, and that the steady growth in 

 population meant a constant increase in the 

 value of forest lands. He anal.yzed the finan- 

 cial history of timber investments for many 

 years past, and found that there was no com- 

 modity in the United States more stable in 

 price and more readily salable than good 

 timber lands, hence there was no security 

 upon which money • could be loaned with 

 greater safety. 



Mr. Barroll associated with himself Clark 

 L. Poole and Edward C. Cronwall, two young 

 men who had been brought up in business 

 with him, and organized the banking firm of 

 H. C. Barroll & Co. of Chicago. Since that 

 time he has devoted his entire energy to the 

 exclusive business of financing large timber 

 and lumber operations. His house follows 

 closely the instinct and training of its prin- 

 cipal in exercising what 'may be termed ultra- 

 conservatism in placing its loans, which are 

 made in the form of bonds secured by first 

 mortgages on large tracts of high-class pine 

 and hardwoods. Millions of dollars in these 

 timber bonds have been marketed among 

 banks, lumbermen and other investors, and 

 so well have the loans been safeguarded that 

 no case of default has ever occurred, and 

 every investment has proven highly satisfac- 

 tory. These mortgage bond issues have been 



made on a basis of not over fifty per cent of 

 the current market value of the timber prop- 

 erties. They are payable serially, a portion 

 of the principal every six months, and thus 

 indebtedness is constantly reduced and the 

 security constantly strengthened. 



No newly organized companies or new de- 

 velopment enterprises of any kind are ex- 

 ploited or financed by Mr. Barroll. He does 

 not loan to small concerns, nor on small 

 tracts of timber, but confines his operations 

 only to large, well-established lumber opera- 

 tions, whose management is distinctly suc- 

 cessful and where the timber is well located 

 and of good physics. He does not float stock 

 nor handle bonds or loans for any company 

 unless it has a high mercantile rating and a 

 good reputation in the trade. 



Since the organization of this banking 

 house, it has placed bond issues for the Long- 

 Bell Lumber Company of Kansas City, Mo.; 

 the Stearns Salt & Lumber Company of Lud- 

 ington, Mich. ; the Hudson Eiver Lumber 

 Company of De Bidder, La.; the W. R. Pick- 

 ering Lumber Company of Kansas City, Mo.; 

 the King-Ryder Lumber Company of Bon 

 Ami, La.; the Weed Lumber Company of San 

 Francisco, Cal. ; the Ozan Lumber Company 

 of Prescott, Ark.; the Rapides Lumber Com- 

 pany of Woodworth, La.; the Lufkin Land & 

 Lumber Company of Lufkin, Tex., and the 

 Stearns Lumber Company of Stearns, Ky. 

 The fact that the firm of H. C. Barroll & 

 Co. has had entrusted to it the handling of 

 bond issues for these great concerns is prima 



facie evidence of its reliability and standing 

 in the financial world. 



It goes without saying that this new de- 

 parture in financing large and important en- 

 terprises must inspire absolute confidence on 

 the part of investors ; the company issuing 

 the bonds must be well established and of 

 high credit ; its officers and managers must 

 be thoroughly experienced and in good stand- 

 ing among lumbermen. The lands upon 

 which the bonds are issued must be well lo- 

 cated ; must contain strictly virgin timber of 

 good quality; the amount of it must in 

 every case be determined by capable and well- 

 known estimators employed b.y the underwrit- 

 ing house; and the titles to the land must 

 be examined and approved by legal counsel 

 of high authority in such matters. Further- 

 more, the mortgage securing these bonds must 

 contain strict provisions to insure the regu- 

 lar deposit of an agreed amount per thousand 

 feet for all timber removed from the prop- 

 erty; these deposits to be applied to the pay- 

 ment of the principal of the bonds as the 

 several series become due. 



Under such methods and restrictions the 

 timber loans on first mortgage bonds handled 

 by H. C. Barroll & Co. have become popular, 

 not only with leading lumber manufacturing 

 institutions for increasing their capital, either 

 for operating or adding to their timber hold- 

 ings, but are in equally good repute with a 

 large and increasing clientage, who find in 

 this form of securities a sterling investment 

 for their surplus funds. Mr. Barroll has 

 carved out a new and unique feature of the 

 lumber business and the success which has 

 attended his work is a matter of congratu- 

 lation both to himself and to the trade. 



A Lumberman's Letters to His Son. 



Chicago, July 5. 



M}- Dear Son: — On the way back from the 

 mill your mother and I stopped off at Mem- 

 phis. Mamma has a prejudice against Mem- 

 phis and insisted upon going home to spend 

 the Fourth. She always did like the smell 

 of powder and she was creditably informed 

 that there wasn 't enough to be burned at 

 Memphis to cut any figure. Therefore she 

 shellroaded me and went home. 



On the basis of the price these Memphis 

 sawmill men are paying for logs I am half 

 inclined to believe that I would have been 

 better off to sell them mine than to build a 

 mill. There is certainly a lot of stock going 

 through the mills there that will not much 

 more than pay the saw bill. 



By the way, I disposed of the three cars 

 of niiscuts you made in starting up while 

 at Memphis. I did not get cash, but traded 

 them for several stacks of blue chips. Am 

 not quite as sore about the transaction as 

 though I had paid money for the buttons. I 

 wanted to get rid of the lumber anyhow. The 

 hands that Memphis bunch hold are simply 



marvelous! Those fellows can fill belly 

 straights and three-card flushes oftener than 

 the ordinary man can get a pair of trays. I 

 have had enough of that game, and shall not 

 try to ' ' get my money back. ' ' You need 

 not say anything to your mother about this 

 transaction, because I had a good deal of 

 diSiculty in explaining to her the 1ni?iness 

 necessity of leaving her on the way home. 

 She never did approve of my sitting into a 

 friendl.y game — unless I came out a winner. 



I suppose you know that Max Sondheimer's 

 restaurant has gone to the punk. Chicago 

 was an eas.y thing for Max, but there evi- 

 dently are quite a number of things at the 

 hardwood hub of Tennessee that Max doesn't 

 seem to be able to handle out with his old- 

 time finesse. Up here we all wish he would 

 get sick of Memphis and come back. The 

 town never has seemed like home since he 

 left it. Your affectionate Father. 



P. S. — No, I can 't approve of your making 

 a vacation trip to Atlantic Cit.v. A man 

 isn 't entitled to a vacation unless he has 

 earned it; and besides, there are too many 

 green veils down there! 



