24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



'Builders of Lumber History 



NUMBER LXXXVI 



Henry C. Yeiser 



{Sec Portrait Supplement.) 



Cincinnati stands high among the hard- 

 wood markets of the country. This en- 

 viable position is due in great part to the 

 large number of strong, progressive and 

 resourceful men connected with the hard 

 wood industry of the city. 



A recent addition to the trade of Ciucin- 

 iiati was Henry G. Yeiser, organizer and 

 president of the New Biver Lumber Com- 

 pany and president of the Globe-Wernicke 

 Company, another of Cincinnati's notable 

 business concerns. The latter institution 

 ranks among the largest of the office furni- 

 ture houses in the world, the hardwoods 

 used being both varied and of great quan- 

 tity. It was because of this fact that Mr. 

 Yeiser promoted the New Eiver Lumber 

 Company in order to facilitate and econo- 

 mize in the hardwood supplies for the furni- 

 ture concern. The lumber auxiliary fur- 

 nishes to the Globe-Wernicke Company 

 forty per cent of the hardwood used and the 

 rest of its product is sold on the open rharket. 



The New River Lumber Company has 

 office headquarters in, the Union Trust 

 building. It has mills at New Eiver and 

 Ndrma, Tenn. Its hardwood timber hold- 

 ings comprise approximately 60,000 acres 

 lying in Scott, Campbell and Anderson 

 counties, Tennessee. The timber includes 

 poplar, oak, chestnut, maple, hickory and 

 a little pine, all of exceptionally fine quality. 



The Norma mill is in charge of F. G. Nor- 

 cross, and the New Eiver mill of H. E. 

 Fuller. W. H. Hopkins, treasurer of the 

 company, has charge of the Cincinnati of- 

 fice, the general supervision of the affairs 



of tlie company being in the hands of the 

 president, Mr. Yeiser. 



There are several advantageous features 

 connected with the mills. The logs are 

 skidded to the line of the Tennessee rail- 

 way which runs through the center of the 

 properties. There is a branch line of 

 twenty-three miles connecting with the 

 main line of the Queen & Crescent railway, 

 affording excellent shipping facilities. The 

 Norma mill, which is quite new, has the 

 most modern equipment and convenient ar- 

 rangement, liaving three complete band 

 mills, one of which is kept almost contin- 

 ually on quarter-sawing. The plant has 

 electrical power and an unfailing water 

 supply. In the logging two steam loaders and 

 geared engines are employed. The company 

 carries 12,000,000 fe^t of lumber on its yards, 

 which are most conveniently arranged for 

 liandling and shipping. 



The company has erected one hundred houses 

 at Norma for the use of its employes and con- 

 templates other improvements in order that 

 its plant may have every working facility. 



Mr. Yeiser 's plan is a new departure for 

 concerns covering the office equipment field. 

 In fact, it is the only instanc^e where a 

 lumber plant is owned outright. But the 

 consumption of hardwood by the Globe- 

 Wernicke Company is so great that a plant 

 of its own was imperative. 



Mr. Yeiser is just the type of man to 

 meet and overcome difficult situations, and 

 he is not the sort to hesitate to take the 

 initiative. From the time (only a few 

 years ago) that he took charge of the Globe- 

 Wernicke Company until now, there have 



been many additions to the three factories, 

 each a correlative unit in the whole. He 

 thus placed the business right at the top. 

 His New River Lumber Company is simply 

 a continuation of the same policy, an ex- 

 emplification of a scheme inaugurated at 

 the beginning. He directs both institu- 

 tions, the lumber company being given a 

 position that will insure its permanency in 

 the trade. 



Mr. Yeiser is a man of strong personal- 

 ity, devoted to his business. He is easily 

 approached, a good listener, and expresses 

 his views in a clear, concise and convincing 

 manner. He is a master of detail, the most 

 minute factor of his vast manufacturing 

 enterprises being as familiar to him as to 

 the workman in whose charge the various 

 departments may be. A firm believer in 

 system, every phase of his business is thor- 

 oughly systematized and operated from the 

 main office. Mr. Yeiser advocates the adop- 

 tion of every effective labor-saving device, 

 which will facilitate the work of his em- 

 ployes in any way. 



This man, a comparatively new comer, is 

 now a valued and prominent member of 

 Cincinnati's hardwood trade. He is past 

 fifty-six years of age and evidently those 

 \ears have been well spent. Mr. Yeiser is 

 personally a very modest man and does not 

 seek the limelight. However, he does take 

 pride in the fact that the two companies 

 which he controls and which have a com- 

 bined capital of over $6,000,000, give em- 

 ployment to 2,000 persons and are of a class 

 seldom exceeded in American industrial 

 life. 



Mr. Yeiser is closely identified with Cin- 

 cinnati's commercial interests, and is a 

 member of the leading business organiza- 

 tions. One of his hobbies is gunning and 

 the stories of the number of targets he has 

 hit prove him a might_v good shot. 



Semi^Annual Southern Cypress Manufacturers' 



Association, 



One of the best attended meetings in 

 the history of the Southern Cypress Manu- 

 facturers ' Association was held at New 

 Orleans on November 17. The association 

 adopted a resolution standardizing odd 

 lengths; appointed a committee to take up 

 with traffic officials the matter of speedier 

 handling of overcharge and other claims; 

 adopted the report of its committee per- 

 taining to cutovcr lands to the effect that 

 it would bo preferable to retain cutover 

 lands for agricultural purposes rather than 

 to attempt reforestation. The meeting 

 adopted grading rules covering car siding, 

 roofing and lining, and dispatched consider- 

 able routine business. 



Twenty-eight mills were represented at 

 this semi-annual meeting, and the Chal- 

 mette Cypress Company of Arabi P. O., and 

 the Wardville Lumber Company of Wardville, 

 La., were elected to membership. 



Secretary George E. Watson's report, 

 which was accepted and put on the records, 

 is as follows: 



It is usual for Hit- secretary of an as,soL'iiaion 

 sucli as this to report at eacli meetiug wl\:it lias 

 been iiccompiisned since his last report. I intent! 

 departing from this custom for the reason tliat 

 our members already have been informed, by 

 bulletin and circular letter, of the workings of 

 our organization. If they have read what we 

 have sent them they know what we have done. 



The important things to consider now- are 

 those which are impending. In other woids, 

 those prol>Ioms which the manufacturer of lum- 

 ber must face in the near 'future should be dis- 

 cussed : there should he a full realization of their 

 importance and plans should be made to properly 

 meet them when they develop. We are prone to 

 look into the future only with regard to supply, 

 demand and prices, but we should go further, 

 for wo are now confronted with conditions of a 

 character such as we have never been called 

 upon to meet. We are placed in an anomalous 

 position which we should combat and we, as 

 lumbermen, arc oftener misquoted, misjudged and 



misunderstood than any other set of business men 

 oil top of the earth. 



I hold that this is mostly our fault. Secire 

 in the knowledge of our own honesty of pur- 

 Ijose, we have smiled at the things said of us 

 and have made no effort to correct erroneous 

 statements or to set the public right where it 

 has been wrong. We should have learned a les- 

 son from the lumber trust investigation and 

 from the tariff fight, but I am afraid we have 

 not. It is as true today as it was two years 

 .•^go that if we are called a trust we smile at the 

 olber fellow's ignorance and say nothing to en- 

 lighten him. 



In his own opinion the average citizen under- 

 stands the lumber business as well as do those 

 who have spent their lives at it, and the mere 

 fact that .vou have bought trees and the land 

 upon which they grow does not prevent him from 

 forcing his ideas upon the public as to how and 

 when these trees shall be cut, and the public 

 implicitly believe him. Is not it our fault if we 

 sit still and let the public receive its education 

 fi'om those wno know nothing of the subject? 

 Should we not add ourselves to the faculty and 

 do some of the teaching'? 



