' THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Lumber was received by rail during the year 1880, as follows : 



549 



The following account of the early lumber trade of Chicago is condensed from a paper prepared by Mr. George 

 W. Hotchkiss, secretary of the Chicago lumber exchange, and printed in the Northwestern Lumberman under 

 date of March 19, 1881 : 



" Colonel Mann, residing at Calumet, brought the first raft of lumber to Chicago. It was square building 

 timber, poled from the mouth of the Calumet to the mouth of the Chicago river. The value of this raft was $100, 

 and its owner found considerable difficulty ia disposing of it. In 1834 or 1835 Captain Carver opened a lumber- 

 yard on the river bank, near the present site of the State-street bridge, and about the same time a man named 

 Harrison owned a small schooner which went to some point across the lake and brought in white wood. This little 

 vessel could not enter the river, on account of the bar across its mouth, and her cargo was unloaded upon scows 

 and rafts, which were floated southward for half a mile or more, around the end of the bar, before they could be 

 headed for the deep water of the river. In 1835 or 1836 a mau named Rossiter had a small dock and yard on the 

 river, between Clark and La Salle streets, and by this time other yards were started on the river. About the year 

 1836 a man named Cammack had a pit-mill on the north branch of the.river. His son acted as pitman, the old 

 man being the top sawyer. It is not unlikely that the first lumber used in Chicago was manufactured by this method, 

 although about the same time a wind saw-mill was located not far from the present Kinzie-street bridge, wliich found 

 abundant occupation in sawing white-wood timber, which then grew in the immediate neighborhood, mixed with 

 elm, ash, basswood, and a few oak trees. History does not record, however, that the market was overstocked by 

 the product of this mill, or that the lumber dealers of that day hurried to issue a new price-list low enough to crush 

 the aspirations of their dangerous competitor. In fact, history is so perfectly silent upon the subject of this sawmill 

 that it is probable its work did not cut much of a figure in the lumber trade of that day, and that, in fact, it 

 proved a veritable windmill, of less caliber than the muscle of the Cammacks, who no doubt found greater profit, 

 if harder work, in driving their pit-saw. Captain Carver's lumber-yard was on the river bank, just west of the 

 present State-street bridge, having a light, temporary dock, upon which the small vessels bringing lumber to the 

 river unloaded. There was at this time (1836 or 1837) no other lumber-yard in the village upon the river. 

 CaptaiM Carver afterward (about 1839) sold out to George W. Snow, who occupied the same ground for a number 

 of years. 



" The earliest lumber of which Mr. Hilliard has any recollection came from Saint Joseph, Michigan; but shortly 

 after his arrival at Chicago a man named Conroe built a mill at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Jones, King & Co., 

 who were then doing a hardware and general business, received and handled his lumber as a side issue. A small 

 pocket saw-mill, built by a man named Huntoon, in 1836, was located on the river bank not far from the present 

 Chicago avenue bridge. It was too small to do much work, but was esteemed a very useful and really wonderful 

 mill at that time. The North Side was pretty well timbered with elm, oak, and white wood, and from this timber 

 the mill obtained its stock. After the streets were cut out the wet nature of the ground compelled one who would 

 visit this saw-mill to pick his way to it by jumping from log to log. It was so lar from the village to the mill that 

 it was seldom visited, except by those who enjoyed a Sunday walk and could find no objective point of greater 

 interest for their stroll. The lumber-yard of Tuckerman & Eiggiuson was located in 1843 on the north side of the 

 river, near the present northwest end of Clark-street bridge. Clark street above Kinzie street had been cleared 

 of timber, and a clear view was to be had as far as the eye could reach in a western direction, broken only by a 

 few scattering trees which had been left as sentinels upon the plain. At this time George W. Snow had a yard 

 on the river, near State street, and a Mr. Kossiter had also a yard between Newberry & Doles' warehouse, on the 

 south branch of the river, west of what is now Clark street. Barber & Mason had a yard a little farther west, near 

 Wells street. J. M. Underwood and Sylvester Lind each had a yard on the west side of the river, near Randolph 



