24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



'Builders of Lumber History 



(See Portrait Supplement) 



One of the best kuown and most forceful 

 individuals engaged in the lumber business in 

 Chicago is Edward E. Skeele, vice-president of 

 the Estabrook-Skeele Lumber Company, whose 

 portrait appears as supplement to this issue 

 of Hakdwood Record. 



Mr. Skeele was born September 7, 1863, at 

 Kenosha, Wis. He is of English ancestry, his 

 forebears having settled in New England be- 

 fore the Revolution. Mr. Skeele 's father was 

 J. H. Skeele, an old-time Chicago lumberman 

 of the house of J. H. Skeele & Co., which 

 operated in this market from 1875 to 1880, 

 inclusive. 



Edward Skeele came to Chicago as a lad 

 with his parents in 1869. He attended the 

 public schools, from which he was graduated, 

 and completed his education at Amherst Col- 

 lege, from which he was graduated in 1885. 

 When he was but fourteen years of age he 

 gained his first knowledge of the lumber in- 

 dustry working for his father during school 

 vacation, until the latter went out of business. 



Afterwards Mr. Skeele was employed by 

 the Michigan Lumber Company of Chicago, a 

 white pine house, for about a year, and for 

 five or six years he was engaged with the 

 ,A. F. risher Lumber Company, another white 

 pine institution of this city. Later during a 

 like period he was associated with S. ,R. Fuller 

 & Co. of Chicago. Four years, or until 1904, 

 he spent buying and selling lumber for the 

 big Paepcke-Leicht Lumber Company, whose 

 headquarters are in Chicago. Mr. Skeele ob- 

 serves that it was under the tutelage of Her- 

 man Paepcke, president of that institution, 

 that he had his best training as a lumberman. 



in 1904, together with T. S. Estabrook, the 

 Estabrook-Skeele Lumber Company was or- 

 ganized, which has become one of the domi- 

 nant factors in the hardwood jobbing bu.siness 

 of Chicago, and an important factor in the 

 manufacture of lumber as well. The Esta- 

 brook-Skeele Lumber Company handles from 

 forty to fifty million feet of lumber annually, 

 specializing in northern hardwoods, but it also 

 markets a considerable quantity of southern 

 hardwoods, white pine and hemlock. 



Mr. Skeele is a director in the allied manu- 

 facturing institution, the Newhouse Mill & 

 Lumber Company at Gould, Ark., which 

 makes a specialty of gum and oak. He is a 

 director in a second allied house, the Turtle 

 Lumber Company of Columbus, Miss., which 

 manufactures oak, hickory, gum, ash and Cot- 

 tonwood, and he is also a director in the 

 Gould-Southwestern Railroad, in which he and 

 his associates are prominently interested. This 

 is a standard-gauge road running from Gould 

 on the Iron Mountain road to Star City, the 

 county seat of Lincoln county, and is an im- 

 portant line some thirty miles in length, pene- 

 trating a rich section of the state. 



NUMBER L.XXXVIl 

 EDWARD E. SKEELE 



Mr. Skeele is married and has two children, 

 a boy and a girl. He lives in the handsome 

 Chicago suburb of Beverly HOls. 



It goes without saying that to build up a 

 business of the importance of the Estabrook- 

 Skeele Lumber Company and its allied institu- 

 tions, in the growth of which Mr. Skeele has 

 been so prominently identified, that there must 

 needs be something in the man 's make-up con- 

 siderably above the average. He has the repu- 

 tation among his associates in business, as 

 well as in the trade at large, of strict in- 

 tegi-ity and an ability to analyze very care- 

 fully the commercial possibility of every un- 

 dertaking. One friend describes him as a 

 ' ' born merchant. ' ' He has the happy faculty 

 of giving little attention to minor details, but 

 focusing his entire energies on important mat- 

 ters. A one, two, three or half dozen car pur- 

 chase or sale is not of much moment to him, 

 but a deal that involves one to three or four 

 million feet of lumber arouses his interest, 

 and to such trade he devotes his best energies. 



With his extensive acquaintance with lumber 

 producers and with the chief buyers of lumber 

 en Hoc, he has a close alliance, and their con- 

 fidence to that extent, that he makes a good 

 many purchases and sales involving large 

 sums of money. 



Mr. Skeele has but few fads. To a moder- 

 ate extent he is interested in golf, but much 

 more so in his home and family. He is a 

 close student of association affairs and is a 

 valued member of the Chicago Hardwood 

 Lumber Exchange, in which he at all times 

 advocates clean business and progressive 

 methods. In the trade he is equally distin- 

 guished as a buyer and a salesman, which 

 largely makes for his succe-^s in lumber mer- 

 chandising. 



It is with a good deal of pleasure that the 

 Record prints this brief sketch of Mr. Skeele, 

 that those who are not acquainted with him 

 may be able to better judge of the character 

 and worth of this upright and successful Chi- 

 cago lumberman. 



Utilization of HardWoods 



ARTICLE XXXIV 

 WOOD CARVING 



The wood carving art is centuries old; in- 

 deed, it is said that wood was the sculptor's 

 first material. Many intricate and beautiful 

 examples of the art are to be found among 

 highly esteemed relics in various old museums. 

 The products of the sixteenth century, during 

 which period the art was at its height, are 

 interesting as showing the development of 

 the art. 



The reason wood was early used as a mate- 

 rial for the sculptor was because its texture 

 and warmth, as one famous carver stated, 

 "was preeminently the comfortable material 

 for architectural furniture." It gives varia- 

 tion to the object besides grace and beauty. 



Marble and metal, in the early part of the 

 last century, replaced wood more because they 

 afforded a quicker and more economical means 

 of construction than for any other reason. 

 This has been particularly true in the United 

 States during the past thirty-five years, be- 

 cause of the rapid development of the coun- 

 try. There is a gradual change apparent in 

 this particular, however, in the better grades 

 of art. Metal always will be used in the 

 cheaper grades. 



There are many varieties of wood that can 



be, and have been, carved, but for general 

 purposes only about twenty kinds are now 

 used. These twenty are favorites because 

 they cut with a clean, sharp line and because 

 their grain is so straight as to enable them to 

 be worked with less trouble and risk of split- 

 ting than other woods. Among these woods 

 are oak, bog-oak, walnut, lime or linden, holly, 

 pearwood, chestnut, mahogany, pine, fir, Amer- 

 ican whitewood or basswood, cherry, sycamore, 

 satinwood, boxwood, ebony and cedar. 



Seasoning is of the greatest importance in 

 wood to be used for hand carving and wood 

 for this purpose is kept for a year or two to 

 insure its being thoroughly dry. Oak, so far 

 as is known, has been used for carving longer 

 than any other wood. It is hard, firm and 

 compact, glossy and smooth, with an even sur- 

 face. However, it requires a skilled workman 

 because of its hardness. Most of the carvings 

 of the Middle Ages, many of which are still 

 to be found in the churches and abbeys of the 

 older countries, were wrought from true 

 British oak. Bog-oak is often used for carv- 

 ing, particularly in Ireland, where, among the 

 peasantry, it is an important industry. This 

 wood is hard, close-grained and brittle and 

 finished with a smooth, glos.sy surface. When 

 finished it closely resembles ebony. Walnut 

 is also a favorite wood for this handicraft. 

 Carving is usually left in the natural tone of 

 the wood ; varnish and stains are rarely if 

 ever used. 



All carvings are made from special designs, 

 pencil drawings. The designs cover all arti- 

 cles of furniture, figures for churches, pedes- 



