Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-08-07
Hurleyville, Its Lumbermill, it's
Pail Factory, and its general i'm

pIOVCIlltIlUS. we nau tne pleasure
of visiting Hurleyville last Friday, and
looking about the thriving settlement
threatening at no distant day to be-
come village Of no minor Importance.
Hurleyville is situated two miles from
Grand Rapids and Centralia, and upon
the west bank of the Wisconsin river.
1t has been known ever since the first
settlement of the county as point
though never Boosting of greatness in
any particular The town name was
derived from Mr.. Timothy Hurley,
who, with Hugh Burns bought out
the old firm Of Sampson & Lyon who
originated one of the first mills in the
county. Hurleyville is not large
village, only collection of dwellings
and other buildings most cozily located
amid shading trees, where the waters OF
the river make various, and curious
shaped islands, with here and there a
barricade of rock. Taken all together,
Hurleyville is most pleasant spot to
while away a few hours, and if by and
by it does not become a spot Of some
commercial Importance we shall, with
lots of others miss our guess. We
visited the Mill, and Pail and Tub Fac
tory there located, last Friday. We
had not before visited this locality for
nearly twelve month and were sur
prised to see the strides it had made in
the direction Of general advancement.
The old mill Is yet doing a thriving
business, having cut 100000 feet OF
lumber since the opening of the "gates'
this spring, and running only twelve
hours with sparse crew. The mill is
capable of making $4,000 feet of lum-
Der in twelve hours, with two saws.
1t is under the supervision of that
master mechanic and miIlwright, Mr.
Froom Talmadge though the gener-
al business is under the direction of
Mr.. John Andrews, who is the recog-
nized overseer of all the works, and
who has done much to make Hurley lille
the thriving busy point it is fast becom-
ing. We visited the Pail Factory, re-
Gently put in operation, by Messrs.
Robb & Rablin, now being operated
entirely by Mr.. Rablin. As the bust
ness of pail making is not generally
understood by very many of our peo-
pie we will give brief description Of
the works
Selected logs are sawed into cubes
of ten inches, these serving for the
bottoms of the pals Other logs are
sawed into cants of four inches, which
90 to make the slaves. The saw fo1
saving the slaves is circular, a little
larger than stove pipe, and cuts VI
the cants with wonderful rapldity
From this saw the slaves are taken tc
the dry house where after four or five
days they become seasoned sufficient
for manufacture They are then sub.
jected to the process of tonguing anj
growing, beyeling, and cutting off the
proper length, all of which is done BY
complicated and cunning machinery
They are next taken and placed within
an iron band, sufficient in number tc
form a pail, the skeleton is then passed
over to a man who places it upon {
swiftly revolving drum where palmer
relieves it of all roughness, the same
person bringing down upon it while in
motion lever to which is fastened a
fulcrum covered with sand paper which
gives it a smooth and desirable finish
Then comes the putting on of the hoops
which is done while the pail is in mo-
ton and which are showed to their pla-
ces by a lever process, the whole work
occupying but few moments. The
pals are now ready for the bottoms and
balls. after receiving which it is passed
to the painting room where it is paint
ed and vanished and packed ready fol
market. The building erected for the
manufactorv is small, being only 80 by
so feet. 1t is the intention of Mr.
Rablin to very soon construct a much
larger, sufficient to turn out at least
) 200 dozen pals day. The factory
has present day-capacity Of As dozen.
1t has 1900 dozen completed, and read.
dy for shipment Already Mr.. Rab
lin sends large bills to both the Mil
waukee and Chicago markets, and only
last week so dozen were ordered from
Oshkosh The mill and factory EN-.
ploy So men. A switch is being con-
structed to connect with the Wis. Val.
K. r. the r. r. company doing all the