The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-11-09
Tho Lumber Trade.


thing of beauty" is passe in speaking
of Ottawa. Once she nestled" but
now the march Of prosperity has carried
her boundaries far beyond her bending
hills, and she is rapidly extending her
Jurisdiction eastwood, nOrthward,
westward and southwark TO meet
Streator, La Sale, Morris and Mendo-
ia upon their own tramping grounds
and say, "good morning."
To take up her branches of trade
one by one and give to each It's Just
dues Is not within the compass or the
FREE TRADERS space this morning. IL
would require an illustrated volume or
many pages to do her wealth, her
beauty, her business houses, her enter
prise, her manufactures, her extensive
improvements and her many ADDITIONS
the ample justice to which they are
entitled. The FREE TRADER therefore
limits itself in this, the first of a series
of articles upon Ottawa, her deeds ana
her possibilities, to statement OF
trade in three branches, lumber ana
manufactures of lumber and grain.
Ottawa's lumber and grain trade
has been long established, and mat
ter of note in the trade of Illinois for
many years. In the days before the
coming of the railroads, while the
canal was the only means OF transpor-
tation other than by wagon, Ottawa
was a great grain and lumber market,
noted far and near. Old residents
afflicted with the peculiar disease de-
scribed as "croak," roll their quids and
cry out that the railroads and the tel
egraph have ruined all this, and that
Ottawa is grain and lumber market
no more, They forget, however, that
the days of wagons and mule canal
boats have passed, and though the
grain may not come into Ottawa in
hundreds of wagon loads daily, yet
Ottawa is gaining thousands of dollars
to-day where she gained hundreds
when these men were active in her
affairs.
Her lumber trade, as represented by
the houses of j. N. Shuler, Sanders
Bros. and A. ID. Bradish. and the Col
well Bros, Thos. and Hugh, has in the
past ten years become second in inn
portance to none in the northern p0r-
ton of Illinois, outside Chicago. The
lumber sold byo these houses has
been building up Ottawa, Streator
| "a Sale and adjoining towns and sub
urbS for many years, at the rate OF
from eight to ten million feet pei
wear. The hundreds of beautiful res
licences erected within OttaWa's
boundaries within the past ten months
contain million upon million OF feet
of timber, thousands of shingles,
, acres of sand, and kiln after kiln OF
brick and lime.
! In the manufactures OF wood
buggies. wagons and carts, Ottawa il
fast forcing her way to the front rank
the King & Hamilton Co. having
, manufactured over 1000 wagons, anC
Gay & Son over 800 buggies and roaC
, carts, not counting other houses, with
> in the past ten months. In addition
, are the very extensive productions o.
Hill & Formulas and II. w. Jones, the
well known manufacturers of popular
wagons and carriages. This industry
', lis a growing one, and, established IA
; an ''infant" in the old days, has be
come one of the first to be pointed tt
of OttaWaS branches of manufacturing
!. 1t ranks next to glass and clay and moi
? so far behind either. 1t employs, al
told, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters
trimmers, clerks, bOOk-keeperS, etc.
nearly four hundred men, earning or
an average of six hundred dollars pc
year, or total in wages, paid into The
! stores and shops of Ottawa, of nearly
$240, 900 annually.
Ottawa has shipped many more
thousands of bushels of grain in for
mer years than she did in the past ter
mOnths-but then the farmers don't
haul grain from Peoria and Spring
field now, as they in former years
Following is a statement of lumber
grain and manufactures of wood: