Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-08-09

of Weyerhaeuser & Denkmann were
doing a comfortable little grocery
business in the city of Rock Island;
today that same firm are stih in
business, but under vastly different
circumstances.
Then sales of one hundred dollars
day would have seemed the height
of business for the firm. They were
too small a firm to attract Il rating
by any commercial agency.
They were both sturdy, honest,
thrifty Germans, and Lutherans in
their religious affiliations.
| There came to them the opportun-
| ity one day to buy a small saw mill.
1t was just about the beginning of
the civil war, lumber was in good de-
mand and was continually rising in
value. and our German grocers aban-
doned the little store and devoted
! their energies to the lumber business
with such success that it has grown
beyond their widest dreams. Today
they own lumber lands by the hum
dreds of thousands of acres in every
part of the United States west of
the Allegheny mountains, from the
Diary, and to the Pacific on the west
At Rock Island, the scene of their
| first success as lumbermen, they
have two mills capable of saving logs
into 225,OOO feet of lumber per day,
each of them, and they are always
| busy.
These mills are only two of a dozen
or more owned and operated by these
two still sturdy, honest. thrifty Ger
mans.
Lumber is their business and in the
purchase of lumber lands there has
come to them immense holdings of
mineral lands in the state of Mich
igan, lands bought for songs value,
but worth into the hundreds of thOus-
ands of dollars. And they have new
er dug a dollars worth of mineral
out of it.
They never went in debt for any
thing at. any time. No one ever had
a note of their making, and if it We're
possible to convert their holdings into
cash, either of them would be able
to draw his check for not less than
500 .O0O.O 600
They employed in Rock Island alone
/
mills and the dependent Industries, a
sash and door factory, a fuel com
pany. two steamboats,, raftsmen by
the score. electricians and a large
force of clerks and bookkeepers. and
| three times as many more in various
parts of the country.
Strolling by the river bank not long
since. 1 was attracted by the sight
of the logs floating in Il sort of har-
| Dor made by n bend in an island in
the Mississippi. 1t was full of logs,
several hundred acres of them, lying
as close to each other as they could;
in sections about three acres each;
they were held together by a boom
of logs all around each section, logs
fastened together with a three-linked
chain, very strong, the logs forming
the boom overlapping each other
about a foot at the ends; the logs
inside the boom floated free.
Brought to the mill, the boom is
opened. the ends of the logs are
pointed into triangular chute
which runs out to where the water
is several feet deep In the lower
angle of this chute runs round and
round an endless chain on many of
the links on which are sticking up
heavy sharp steel points; these points
catch in the logs and carry them up
the incline to the mill.
The engines operating this plant
are two, of 1,5OO horse power each.
Arrived at the top of the incline,
cross-cut saw cuts them TO the
proper length, then they roll down
short slide to the saving carriage.
Here they are grabbed by monster
hooks and claws and held fast.
In less time than you have taken
to read about it this is done, the
sawyer has determined how to cut
the log to the best advantage, the
slabs are sliced off as if they were
pairing cheese, the log Topped this
way and that as fast as a batter
swings a ball club, up it goes against
a huge band-saw, running mile a
minute, the log men riding back and
forth on the log carriage at incredibly
perilous speed. As the boards drop
off, they race away to another table,
where stands man who at wink's
time determines just what widts to
cut them, and i through his saws they
go, faster than~a horse can trot. On
the run go down the pieces of lumber,
right and left to the sorters, who
pile them on low wagons and they are
hauled off to the proper pile in a
yard where there is seldom less than
ten or twelve millions of feet of each
of the most used sizes, waiting a
market and to be seasoned.
Not particle of log goes to waste;
the butt ends of the sound logs are
made into shingles, the saw-dust is
burned for fuel under the boilers,
scraps and flag ends, of no use as
lumber any way, are carefully piled
up to dry and find a ready sale, at
-. 1.,J -. over, no