HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



'Builders of Lumber History 



NUMBER XCII 

 Fred A. Diggins 



^Je>•e« Portrait Supplement) 



Fred A. Diggins of Cadillac, Mich., Tvas 

 born in July, 1862, on a farm near Harvard, 

 McHenry county, 111. He received a com- 

 mon school education at Harvard. In 1879 he 

 went to Hersey, Osceola, Mich., and entered 

 Grand Eapids Business College in 1880, 

 where he took a two years' course. After 

 graduation he accepted a position as book- 

 keeper with his brother, Delos F. Diggins. 



In 1886 he went to Cadillac, Mich., and 

 entered the private banking house of D. A. 

 Blodgett & Company, where he remained for 

 two years. On severing this connection he 

 engaged in the lumber business, operating as 

 P. A. Diggins & Co., which organization was 

 effected in 1888. He continued this enterprise 

 successfully until 1898, when he became asso- 

 ciated with Joseph Murphy in" the firm of 

 Murphy & Diggins, which is stiU carrying on 

 business at Cadillac under the same style and 

 has become one of the best known hardwood 

 and hemlock manufacturing houses of the 

 Wolverine state. 



Mr. Diggins has been a very successful 

 business man and has broadened his interests 

 from year to year. At the present time he 

 is treasurer of the Mitchell-Diggins Iron Com- 

 pany; secretary-treasurer of the Cummer-Dig- 

 gins Company; a director of the St. Johns 

 Table Company, and of the Cadillac State 

 Bank, all of Cadillac. He is largely interested 

 in timber lands in Montana and Washington, 

 and in various other business enterprises. 



While Mr. Diggins has never been particu- 

 larly prominent in state or national politics, 

 he has always been markedly interested in 

 local political affairs. He was elected mayor 

 of Cadillac in 1894, and was re-elected year 

 by year until he insisted upon being retired 

 at the end of 1900. 



Mr. Diggins was married in 1890 to Miss 

 Carrie E. Cummer, daughter of the late Jacob 

 Cummer and sister ot the late W. W. Cum- 

 mer. He has two beautiful daughters who 

 are attending a private school at Detroit. 



The foregoing is simply a brief outline of 

 Mr. Diggins' life, from which it can be seen 

 that his commercial career has been success- 

 ful in every way. He has always displayed 

 acumen in business affairs, and his success 

 has been uniform from his initial connection 

 with the industrial world. Personally Mr. 

 Diggins is of congenial disposition and pleas- 

 ing manner. He has marked ability in pub- 

 lic debate and is an ideal presiding officer. 

 His judgment and opinion are sought by his 

 Tjusiness and political associates. 



While Mr. Diggins is a close student of 

 business and notably lumber affairs and is a 

 hard worker, he finds time at frequent inter- 

 vals to indulge in his favorite recreation of 

 hunting and fishing. The open sporting sea- 

 son sees him with gun or rod in the forests 



of northern Michigan or in some other sec- 

 tion of the United States. He has the repu- 

 tation of being an excellent judge of tim- 

 ber and his purchases depend largely on his 

 own judgment in their selection. His know- 

 ledge of lumber affairs, especially . in the 

 North, is specific and accurate. He has always 

 bought timber of the highest type in that 

 region, and has the reputation of manufac- 

 turing lumber of excellence and of making 

 grades of a uniform and high character. 



Above all else Mr. Diggins has achieved a 

 reputation for integrity, calm and unbiased 

 judgment, fairness in all transactions and 

 forcefulness. Withal he has the reputation 

 of being a strenuous ' ' fighter. ' ' When he 

 puts his heart or his hand to any enterprise 

 he invariably forces it to a successful con- 

 summation. 



Just now it is particularly timely that this 

 brief sketch of Mr. Diggins should appear 

 in Hardwood Record. He is vice-president 

 of and an active force in the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association and at the forth- 

 coming annual meeting of this organization 

 to be held at Louisville, June 9 and 10, he is 

 the logical man for election to the office of 

 president. Mr. Diggins is not personally 

 seeking this position, but his friends and 

 admirers are simply insistent that this dis- 

 tinction be conferred upon him. For this 

 office he has the unqualified endorsement of. 

 the members of the Michigan Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association, of which he is 

 ex-president; of the members of the Chicago 

 Hardwood Lumber Exeha^ige, the Louisville 

 Hardwood Club, and hundreds of other indi- 

 viduals identified with the parent organiza- 

 tion. In this connection Mr. Diggins will 

 have such an opportunity as has never before 

 come to a leader in hardwood association af- 

 fairs: the opportunity of facilitating the 

 amalgamation of the entire hardwood trade 

 of the country in one harmonious body, not 

 only for the establishment of a universal code 

 of hardwood inspection, but for the general 

 betterment of the hardwood trade. 



The sentiment of the vast majority of 

 members of all the hardwood associations of 

 the country has now crystallized into a desire 

 for a universal base of hardwood inspection, 

 and a close community of interests among 

 hardwood men is necessary to the consumma- 

 tion of this desideratum. With Mr. Diggins' 

 broadmiudedness, commercial astuteness, 

 diplomacy and integrity, he will undoubtedly 

 he able to weld the sundry, but only slightly 

 divergent, ideas of the hardwood trade into 

 a harmonious whole. It is the belief of 

 Hardwood Record that Mr. Diggins is too 

 sagacious to miss such an opportunity, but 

 whatever he does will be done not for any 

 personal distinction, but for the general good 

 of the hardwood trade of the country. 



Program Annual Meeting National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association 

 The Recokd is indebted to P. F. Fish, secre- 

 tary-treasurer of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association, for the program of the forthcoming 

 thirteenth annuai convention of this organiza- 

 tion, which will be held at the Seelbach Hotel, 

 Louisville, Ky., on Thursday and Friday, June 9 

 and 10. The program is as follows ; 

 Business Progra.u 

 Thursday, June 9 

 10:00!'.. m. Reoeption of members and guests in 



convention hall. Hotel Seelbach. 

 H :00 a. m. Reports of officers: 



Address by the president. . . 



Oliver O. Agier 



Report of the secretary-treas- 

 urer Franli F. Fisli 



12:.30p. m. Intermission for luncheon. 

 2 :00 p. m. Itepoits of standing committees : 



Forestry.. M. M. Wall, Chairman 



Transportation 



....Emil Guenther, Chairman 



Waterways 



W. H. Russc, Chairman 



Inspection Rules 



... .J. M. Pritchard, Chairman 



Friday, June 10 

 10 :00 a. m. Convention called to order. 



Report oi committee on officers' re- 

 port. 

 New business. 

 12:30 p.m. Intermission for luncheon. 

 1 :30. p. m. Unfinished business. 



Election of officers to serve one 

 year. Seven directors to serve 

 three-year term and one director 

 to serve two-year term. 



Pkogkam of En'teetain.ment 



Tendered by the Louisville Hardwood Club 



The Louisville Hardwood Club will keep 

 "open house" during the convention in the 

 leather room on the second floor of the Seelbach 

 Hotel. Come in. We want to meet you. 



Thursday evening. June 9, at 8 o'clock, in 

 auditorium of the Seelbach Hotel, tenth floor : 

 Old Kentucky smoker and plantation vaudeville. 

 Eats, sips and puffs. "Get together and talk 

 things over." 



A printed numerical list with names and num- 

 bers corresponding with the number worn by 

 each person registering, will be issued at the 

 smoker, and you will be able to "know every- 

 one tliere." 



Friday evening, June 10, at 8 o'clock, banquet 

 to members and guests, by Louisville Hardwood 

 Club, in the main dining room of the Seelbach 

 Hotel. 



Ladies will please register in parlor "B" on 

 second floor of the Seelbach Hotel. 



On Thursday evening, the 9th, during the 

 progress of the smoker, the ladies are invited to 

 attend the vaudevilie performance at Fontaine 

 Perry, "The Park Beautiful." Special trolley 

 cars" leave Seelbach Hotel promptly at 7:30 

 o'clock. 



During the banquet, the ladies will be given 

 a dinner in the "Red Room" on the second floor 

 cf the Seelbach Hotel, at 8 o'clock. 



Last Cut of Timber in Wexford County, 

 Mich. 



Within the next few weeks the Buckley & Doug- 

 las Lumber Company of Manistee, Mich., will 

 start upon the last cut of timber of any impor- 

 tance in Wexford county. This body of timber 

 is located near Copemish, and consists of about 

 2.(100 acres along the Ann Arbor railroad. This 

 acreage has been held by the owners until its 

 value has increased greatly. There is a wide 

 variety of growth on the tract, oim predominating. 



This timber will be shipped to Manistee over 

 tlie Manistee & Northeastern, provision having 

 1 een made wbereljy the haul to Copemish will be 

 transferred over the Ann Artjor railroad, using 

 the Manistee & Northeastern equipment. This 

 will necessitate installing a new station on the 

 Ann Arlwr about a mile from Copemish, where 

 an operator will be stationed to care for the 

 southern terminus of the run : while the Copemish 

 operator will handle the northern terminus and 

 the transferring of the cars to the Manistee & 

 Northeastern. This arrangement v.ill be a great 

 economy for the lumber company, which other- 

 wise would have been compelled to build a long 

 stretch of track, which would have been utterly 

 useless after the timber was cut. 



