OLD HOMESTEAD 



mills in Minneapolis. Jerry Gardner, another brother-in-law, 

 ran the mill, and the shingle mill also, for quite a while. 



The most common way before 1856 was to saw on shares, tak- 

 ing one-half the lumber for the sawing. There was little money 

 in the country, and it was the best that could be done. It was 

 in the days of barter, and the mill's share of the lumber, to 

 amount to anything whatever, had to be drawn first from the 

 boardway, ''stuck up" in piles and seasoned, then hauled to 

 market, wherever any could be found. There was no regular 

 market, so it had to be peddled around and swapped off for 

 merchandise and property of any and all kinds. 



This lumber drawing was one of the irregular employments 

 that helped us to improve each shining hour, and many hours 

 that did not shine. John had much more of this hauling to do 

 than I, for the reason that he could either do it better or pre- 

 ferred to do it, and when father ran the mill he was oftener 

 drafted for service there. He was older, liked it better and 

 could do it better. 



About 1849 a shingle mill was attached to the sawmill, fitted 

 with the latest machinery, but it never made many shingles. 

 There was really no demand for sawed hemlock shingles; be- 

 sides, the}^ were in close, uncompromising competition with the 

 shaved spruce shingles of the great shingle market of Redfield, 

 where the timber cost nothing and where every house in the 

 town was a shingle factory. Their shingles were called "Red- 

 field legal tender." The town produced nothing else to sell, 

 and it was shingles or nothing with their creditors and all who 

 dealt with them. 



Tending sawmill was really a responsible job, and fast lifted 

 the boy into a man. The logs had to be rolled in on the logway 

 and onto the carriage with the cant-hook, and, when slabbed, 



^S1 



