24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. 

 The large square lobes in the middle and the 

 triangular basal section are very noticeable. 



Glossary of Technical Terms Used 



Ament : A spike of flowers of one sex, usually 

 falling from the tree in one piece. 



Bilaterally developed : Developed along a cen- 

 tral axis : similarly on both sides. 



Calyx: The usually green exterior part of a 

 flower, generally joined to the stalk. 



Glabrous : Smooth. 



Hirsute : Coarsely hairy. 



Lobe : The division of an organ. 



Mast : The fruit of the oak, beech and other 

 trees. While such trees produce some fruit 

 every year, it is only at regular intervals 

 that the crop is profuse. These periods vary 

 with different trees. 



Medullarv rays; The familiar "flashes" or 

 "mirrors" shown in quarter sawing some 

 woods. They are used by the tree as store- 

 houses for starch. 



Monoecious : Having both sexes on the same 

 specimen. 



Obtuse : Hlunt or rounded at the apex. 



Ovate : Shaped like the outline of a hen's egg : 

 having the broad end at the base. 



Persistent: Staving on through the winter. 



Petiole : The stalk of a leaf. 



Pistillate: Referring to a dower without male 

 organs. 



Ring-porous wood : Having annual rings made 

 distinct by large pores in the spring wood, 

 denser summer wood alternating. 



Sessile: Without any stem or stalk. 



Staminate : Denoting flowers without female or- 

 gans. 



LEAF FORM OF POST OAK. 



'Builders of Lumber History 



NUMBER 



WILLIAM A 



(See potrait supplement.) 



There is without doubt no one connected 

 with the hardwood industry of this country, 

 who is wider known and whose life work is 

 more closely interwoven with its history and 

 its associations than William A. Bennett of 

 Cincinnati, O. 



After this sweeping assertion, a little per- 

 sonal history in its support might not prove 

 uninteresting to the coming generation of 

 lumbermen, as well as those who are now its 

 most active representatives. 



W. A. Bennett first saw the light of day 

 in the little town of Dover, Mason County, 

 Ky., January 8, 1854. Mason County is 

 famous the world over as the center of the 

 great tobacco producing belt of Kentucky. 

 Young Bennett attended school in Mason 

 county, and continued to Kentucky Univer- 

 sity, where he finished his education. 



He then went to Cincinnati, and on 

 August 1, 1872, commenced his career as a 

 lumberman by entering the employ of C. W. 

 & S. G. Boyd, then the oldest and largest 

 hardwood operators of the Queen City. He 

 remained with the Boyds until January 14, 

 1884, when, with the late Charles Witte, 

 also employed by C. W. & S. G. Boyd, he 

 formed the copartnership of Bennett & 

 Witte, and opened an office at No. 8 Public 

 Landing, on the river front. Here the firm 

 remained until 1886, and then moved its 

 offices uptown to No. 9 West Fourth street, 

 in the Mitchell building, where it remained 

 until 1S94, when the present suit of offices 

 in the Methodist Book Concern Building, 

 No. 220 West Fourth street, was secured. 



The firm prospered and expanded, and in 

 order to meet more expeditiously the grow- 

 ing demands of its business, an office was 



L.XXXVIII 



. BENNETT 



opened at Memphis, Tenn., in 1901, with 

 George C. Ehemann, the bookkeeper of the 

 Cincinnati office, as manager, and a most 

 successful branch business 'established. 



Bennett & Witte have always been closely 

 identified with the hardwood business, and 

 in connection with their Memphis branch 

 have storage yards at that city. They also 

 operate a retail yard at Greenfield, Ohio. 



William A. Bennett was married on De- 

 cember 17, 1879, to Miss Alice E. Henry of 

 Clinton county, Ohio, and has one daughter, 

 Miss Julia A. Bennett. He resides in Avon- 

 dale and is fond of his family and home, 

 where conditions are ideal. 



Notwithstanding the demands of his own 

 business, Mr. Bennett's supreme delight in 

 life seems to be in lending a hand to others. 

 He is never so happy as when giving advice 

 on knotty and almost insurmountable prob- 

 lems occurring in the lives of his fellow 

 business men. He is approachable at all 

 times and gives with a ready ear to all, but 

 he is not easily imposed upou. AVhoever 

 goes to him with a clear and well-defined 

 case finds a ready listener, but let a person 

 suggest one item that even approaches a 

 shady proceeding, and his dismissal is so 

 prompt that it makes his head swim. Al- 

 ways open, free and above board in all his 

 business transactions, he can see no reason 

 to go under cover on any project, and once 

 his ire is aroused the unfortunate who has 

 occasioned it will never forget the scoring 

 he has received. 



Mr. Bennett has always been deeply in- 

 terested in the progress of the hardwood 

 trade, aud has been identified with every 

 movement to bring about association and 

 intelligent discussion of all subjects that are 



interesting to those engaged in the lumber 

 business. He was one of the charter mem- 

 bers of the Cincinnati Lumbermen 's Club, 

 and was its second president, in 1897. He 

 was present and aided in the organization 

 of the National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 

 tion at Chicago, on April 8, 1898, and was 

 its president for three terms. He is a mem- 

 ber of the National Wholesale Lumber Deal- 

 ers' Association and is a member of the In- 

 diana Hardwood Association. 



Mr. Bennett was chairman of the commit- 

 tee of the National Hardwood Lumber Asso- 

 ciation which arranged for and carried out 

 the hardwood exhibit at the Paris Exposi- 

 tion in 1900. Through his instrumentality 

 the funds were raised, the project financed 

 and carried to a successful fruition, with the 

 hearty co-operation of John W. Williams. 



Mr. Bennett was elected president of the 

 Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce in 1907, 

 and refused a renomination owing to press 

 of private business. He is also a member of 

 the Cincinnati Business Men's Club, the 

 most influential business body in the state. 



Notwithstanding his long standing and 

 honorable career in business life, Mr. Ben- 

 nett shrinks from publicity, and while will- 

 ing at all times to aid with his knowledge 

 any matter of public welfare he always re- 

 quests that his name be not used. 



In conclusion, it may be well to add a 

 few words which show the esteem in which 

 Mr. Bennett is held by the business fra- 

 ternity and men of affairs in this vicinity. 

 On numerous occasions he has been called 

 upon by the courts to act as receiver for 

 various business enterprises whose methods 

 have led them to the bar for solution. It is 

 a noteworthy fact that on all such occasions 

 his work has been so successful that the 

 clouds have been cleared away and the busi- 

 ness restored to a sound basis. He was at 

 one time acting as receiver for three im- 

 mense enterprises, and the labor involved 

 was such as to seriously interfere with his 

 own private affairs, yet he stuck to his post 

 and successfully cleared them all. He was 

 called upon to act again by the courts, but 

 was compelled to ask to be relieved from 

 further duty as receiver, as he was sadly 

 in need of rest, and the court reluctantly 

 acceded to his request. 



Big San Francisco Hardwood House 



The Record is In receipt of the January stock 

 list of White Brothers, San Francisco, Cal. The 

 first page of this big list is embellished with a 

 picture of the big Japanese steamer M. S. Dollar, 

 discharging a cargo of oak logs from Mororan, 

 recently received by this concern. The stock Is 

 manufactured at Petaluma, thirty-seven miles 

 from San Francisco, where they also saw West 

 Coast mahogany, genezero, Spanish cedar and 

 primavera. 



White Brothers' list of stock and general 

 hardwoods is said to be the largest west of Chi- 

 cago. The house aims to carry everything there 

 is in hardwoods of both domestic and foreign 

 varieties. They are large buyers of lumber from 

 the Mississippi valley section. Included in their 

 stock is a complete assortment of oak and maple 

 flooring. 



