The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-01-20
BREAKING A LOG JAM.
Rescue of His Brother by the
Hero Of Kettle Creek.

All through the autumn axes and
saws were busy cutting and peeling
logs in the great pine forests lying near
Kettle Creek, and during the winter
hundreds of men and teams worked,
by daylight and moonlight, trailing
them down the icy slides and banking
them on the various landings Now.
at the end of the season. millions of
feet of timber were piled along the
stream.
Meanwhile, as was to be expected.
some accidents had occurred; falling
tree had hurt one man, a misplaced
skid another. and some of the workmen
had been injured on the icy and dam
gerous trails and at the landings
But the work next in order, that of
the spring floating. was of sort to
make all former perils forgotten. For
some of it, indeed, men were selected
as for a forlorn hope on the battlefield.
none but the most skillful and daring
being accepted. Even among these
the preference was given to the unmar-
ried-to those, that is. whose death
would be least calamitous. Full of
danger as such is. however, men did
not shrink from it, especially as it came
after period of enforced idleness.
Upon one of the many landings. all
at once alive with men plying lever and
cant-hook, were two brothers. William
and Samuel Layton. The, were young
men. William was but twenty, and
Samuel scarcely eighteen, but they
were already recognized as the best
men in camp.
Beginning as ''peelers' before they
were twelve years old. they had made
their way up through the several
grades, until they We're now Jam
breakers" occupying the highest and
most dangerous position known to the
woodsman's craft They were not
large of frame, but were compactly
built, and had not only unusual mus
cular strength. but that peculiar knowl-
edge how best to exert the muscles to
action, which characterizes the skilled
workman.
So far this spring they had been en-
ployed upon a ''rough-and-tumble
landing" so called by the lumbermeo
because the logs are run in from trail
track, and pitched down the bank hap
hazard. Breaking such a landing is
especially dangerous. rs single log
often holds back hundreds of others, all
of which. the moment it is loosened.
come tumbling after with dangerous
suddenness. 1t proved to be so in the
present ease, and William Layton had
already had one narrow escape from
death. in consequence of having gen.
erously chosen a post of danger rather
than let his brother take ii.
But for two days past the work had
proceeded without accident. The men
waded about in the ice-cold water.
rolling the logs away from the shores
and bars" sacking." they called it
and occasionally breaking al insignifi-
cant Jam, but doing none of that spe-
cial work which makes log-foaing so
peculiarly hazardous. They had been
merely skirmishing; the great battles
were yet to come
On the third day, however. notice
was received of big jam at the Bar
bers. rocky rapid four miles farther
down the stream. and a crew of five
men, including the Layton brothers,
was sent to break it. n
Piled in the rocky and gradually
narrowing channels of the creek lay
millions of feet Of timber, wedgcd and
welded into an almost solid mass by q
pressure of flood and logs impossible to
estimate.
1t was an evil-looking job. but the
men went at it not only without hest
tation, but almost with eagerness.
Carrying their floating levers, they
sprang lightly over the logs, and were
soon on the front of the first great jam
OF the season.
On the shore crowd of men, wo-
men and children had gathered to see
the jam go out One gray-haired
farmer, whose son was among the
''sackers." prophesied that there would
be trouble when the logs started; he
was glad his son had smaller wages
and less risk. There danger ahead, p"
said he. That's an awful ugly jam. +"
The old man spoke nothing more
than the truth. For nearly two miles
back from the point where the obstruc-
ton occurred the stream was filled
with logs in every conceivable position;
logs standing on end, logs crcsswise.
logs lengthwise, woven and locked to.
gether, with here and there glimpses Of
the roily, gurgling waters that strug-
gled slowly through the letters of pine
that hindered its course.
Every log was peeled. and below
these slippery. treacherous timbers
were the foaming waves and danger
ous rocks of the swiftest rapid ON Ket-
tie Greek. To one unaccustomed to
floating. it seemed certain death to be
on that great jagged mass when it
should 60 crashing down through the
Tock-bound channel Immediately below.