HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



NeWs Miscellany 



Gouveneur E. Smith & Co. 



Gouveneur E. Smith & Co. is one of the most 

 progressive manufacturing and wholesale lum- 

 ber firms of Xew York City, having reached, 

 through the indefatigable energy of Mr. Smith, 

 who is still a young man, a market status ex- 

 clusively in lumber, running above the million 

 dollar mark, which means the handling of more 

 than fifty million feet of lumber a year. 



At the age of sixteen Mr. Smith entered the 

 office of the late Wilson Godfrey, then located 

 at 101 Wall street, where he mastered in a short 

 time the intricate details of the lumber trade. 

 Developing at an early stage of his tuition a 

 decided aptitude and sagacity for outside work, 

 he was sent into the hardwood sections of Penn- 

 sylvania and West Virginia as an inspector and 

 shipper for the New York office. He remained 

 with the late, Wilson Godfrey as long as the 

 business continued, following which he started 

 on his own account in July, 1S9S, with an office 

 at 18 Broadway. About six years ago he moved 

 into the Whitehall building, at Battery Park. 

 The maintenance of three private offices at this 

 time affords ample proof of the continued expan- 

 sion of Mr. Smith's business. On January 1, 

 1909, the firm title was changed to Gouveneur E. 

 Smith & Co., and Stuart D. Walker and George 

 J. Dittmar, who had been with him for several 

 years, and who, prior to this association, had 

 been responsibly connected with the Chase Na- 

 tional Bank of New York, were received into 

 partnership. The firm has two active hardwood 

 mills near Asheville, N. C. and conducts a gen- 

 eral wholesale lumber business. These mills cut 

 125,000 feet per day and turn out oak, poplar and 

 chestnut, both in the form of long lumber and 

 in glued-up stock for woodworking. Maple, beech 

 and birch are shipped from West Virginia and 

 Pennsylvania, and in addition the company re- 

 ceives basswood, cypress lumber and shingles 

 by water or rail. Hemlock and North Carolina 

 pine and West Virginia spruce lumber and lath 

 are also manufactured at the two main mills. 

 Of these various lines of lumber Gouveneur E. 

 Smith & Co. handle upwards of 50,000,000 feet 

 annually, shipping chiefly to New York State, 

 Long Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New 

 England. The firm is also handling the entire 

 output of the Craggy Lumber Company of 

 Swannanoa,, N. C., consisting of ash, oak and 

 poplar, cut at the rate of 25,000 feet per day, and 

 the entire output, in dimension stock and glued 

 up table tops, of the Waynesvllle Wood Manu- 



facturing Company of Waynesvllle, N. C., to- 

 gether with such oak and other hardwoods as 

 they have to sell In the rough. Other concerns 

 with which contracts for mill cuts have been 

 made are the French Broad Lumber Company 

 of Asheville, N. C, and the Gladys Fork Lumber 

 Company of Gladys, West Virginia. 



The firm has a branch office at Asheville, N. 

 C, and one in Boston, S8 Broad street. Mr. 

 George Walker covers New York City and Long 

 Island, the New England territory is taken care 

 of by Mr. Savage, while New Jersey and part of 

 Brooklyn are entrusted to Thomas M. Young. 



Mr. Smith has a beautiful home at Oyster Bay 

 directly across from Sagamore Hill, and it has 

 been suggested that to this close propinquity 

 with our wonderful ex-president may be attrib- 

 uted that marked strenuosity which has ever 

 characterized the business career of this emi- 

 nently successful lumberman. Mr. Smith and his 

 two young partners are zealous Masons, and Mr. 

 Smith has enjoyed the honor of "sitting in 

 lodge" with the ex-Presldent in Matinlcock 

 Lodge, F. and A. M., at Oyster Bay. He is of 

 a winning personality and a pleasing appear- 

 ance, and is possessed of a healthy addiction to 

 recreative sports, being a member of the Cres- 

 cent Athletic Club of Brooklyn and the Seawan- 

 haka Yacht Club. He is a director in the First 

 National Bank of Mineola, L. I., a member of 

 the N. W. L. D. A. and chairman of the Trades 

 Relations Committee of that body. The firm is 

 enrolled on the membership lists of the National 

 Hardwood Lumber Association, and of the New 

 I'ork Lumber Trade Association. 



Semi-montlily Memphis Lumbennen's Club 



The regular, semi-monthly meeting of the 

 Lumbermen's Club of Memphis was held at the 

 Hotel Gayoso on Saturday, April 16. The 

 :ittendance was the largest in some time and the 

 meeting a thoroughly enjoyable one. The usual 

 luncheon was served. S. C. Major was in the 

 chair. 



Geo. C. Ehemann, chairman of the committee 

 on statistics, stated that he had received prac- 

 tically no further replies to the requests sent out 

 by his committee for information regarding the 

 amount of business done by the members of the 

 club. He insisted that this information be given 

 as soon as possible in order that the committee 

 might be in position to present an intelligent 

 statement of the volume of business done at 



Memphis. In this connection W. A. Bennett of 

 Cincinnati stated that if the club would agree 

 to weed out the names of those members who 

 failed to send in the desired information, he 

 thought there would be no difficulty whatever in 

 securing full returns at an early date. There 

 is some probability that this plan will be adopted 

 if the appeal made today by Mr. Ehemann and 

 President Major is not effective. 



A. L. Foster, chairman of the Kiver and IJail 

 Committee, reported on the plan for securing 

 more advantageous reshipping rate for Memphis. 

 He stated that his committee was seeking certain 

 information from the railroads as to the work- 

 ing of the plans in force at points north of the 

 Ohio river and that it would have no definite 

 report to make until these tariffs were obtain- 

 able. 



Mr. Foster also reported that his committee 

 had received from the Memphis Freight Bureau 

 a request that it work through the latter organi- 

 zation in its efforts to handle rate problems. He 

 stated that the Memphis Freight Bureau is fully 

 equipped to give valuable assistance to the com- 

 mittee and expressed his appreciation of the 

 offer which had been made by that organization. 

 It is more than probable that the committee 

 will accept the offer as it realizes that the 

 bureau can aid it materially in this work. 



E. E. Taenzer, chairman of the Information 

 Committee, reported that the members of the 

 club were not giving his committee the support 

 they should and that, owing to their failure to 

 do so, the committee had very little to report. 

 He brought out a great deal of discussion, the 

 outcome of which was the passing of a motion to 

 appoint a committee of three to investigate 

 some plan for obtaining information in regard 

 to the concerns with whom the club members do 

 business. W. A. Bennett of Cincinnati told of 

 the plans which were followed by the lumbermen 

 of that city and his information was regarded 

 .".s highly valuable and has formed some basis for 

 future procedure. The club realizes fully that 

 the information it should have regarding the 

 people to whom it sells is not anything like as 

 good as it should be and there will be. without 

 doubt, a plan formulated by which it will be 

 able to obtain more accurate and more personal 

 information in regard to the standing of the 

 firms to which members of the club here are in 

 the habit of selling. 



John W. McClure, who was recently elected 

 manager of the club's baseball team, appealed to 

 the members of that organization to make 

 prompt response to his recent appeal by letter 



GOUVENEUR E. SMITH, GOUVENEUR E. 

 SMITH & CO., NEW YORK CITY. 



STUART D. WALKER, GOUVENEUR 

 SMITH & CO., NEW YORK CITY. 



GEORGE J. DITTMAR, 

 SMITH & CO.. NEW 



GOUVENEUR 

 YORK CITY. 



E. 



