The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1921-02-02


longer swung an axe or dragged 9
cross-cut saw through a fallen red
wood. He was an employer of labor
now, well known in San Francisco a;
manufacturer of split-redwood prod
ucts, the purchasers sending thei
own schooners for the cargo, Ant
presently John Cardigan mortgageC
all Of his timber holdings with a Sar
Francisco bank, made a heap of hi.
winnings, and like true adventures
staked his all on a new venture-tht
first sawmiH in Humboldt county
The timbers for it were hewed out b.
hand; the boards and planks were
whiDsawed.
1t was a tiny mill, judged by present.
day standards, for in, fourteen-hour
working day John Cardigan and his
men could not cut more than twenty
thousand feet of lumber. Neverthe-
less, when Cardigan looked at his mill,
his great heart would swell with
pride.
"Here," said John Cardigan to him
self exultingly when a lOng-drawn
wall told him his circular saw was
biting into the first redwood log to be
milled since the world began, II shall
build a city and call it ,Sequoia. By
tomorrow 1 shall have cut sufficient
timber to make q start. First shall
build for my employees better homes
than the rude shacks and lighthouses
they now occupy; then / shall build
myself a fine residence with six
rooms, and the room that faces the
bay shall be the parlor. When I can
afford it, 1 shall build more houses.
| shall encourage tradesmen to set up
in business in Sequoia and to my city
l shall present church and school
house. We shall have volunteer fire
department, and if God is good,
shall, at a later date, get out some
long-length fir-timber and build
schooner to freight my lumber to
market. And she shall have three
masts instead of two, and carry half
a million feet of lumber instead of
two hundred thousand. First, how
ever, l must build a steam tugboat to
tow my schooner in and out over
Humboldt bar And after that-ah,
well! That is sufficient for the
present"
Thus did John Cardigan dream, and
as he dreamed he worked. The city
of Seduoia was sborn with the Argo-
nauts >SiX-rOOm mansion of rough red
wood boards and a dozen three-room
cabins with lean-tO kitchens; and the
tradespeople came when John Cardi-
gan, with something of the largeness
of his own redwood trees, gave them
ground and lumber in order to en-
courage the building of their enter.
prises. Also the dream of the school.
house and the church came true, as
did the steam tugboat and the schooner
with three masts.
AT forty John Cardigan was younger
than most men at thirty, albeit he
worked fourteen hours a day, slept
eight, and consumed the remaining
two at his meals. But through all
those fruitful years of toll he had
still found time to dream, and the
spell of the redwoods had lost none
of its potency.
At forty-two Cardigan was the first
mayor of Sequoia. At forty-four he
was standing on his dock one day,
watching his tug kick into her berth
the first square-rigged ship that had
ever come to Humboldt bay to load a
cargo of clear redwood for foreign
delivery. She was a big Bath-built
clipper, and her master lusty down.
Easter, widower with one daughter
who had come with him around the
Horn. John Cardigan saw this girl
come up on the quarterback and
stand by with heaving-line in her
hand; calmly she fixed her glance
upon him, and as the ship was shunted
in closer to the dock, she made the
cast to Cardigan. He caught the
light heaving-line. hauled in the
heavy Manila stern-line to which
it was attached, and slipped the loop
of the mooring- cable over the dolphin
at the end of the dock.
"Some men wanted aft here to take
up the slack of the stern-line on the
windlass, SIR he shouted to. the
skipper who was walking around on
top of the house. THAT girl can't
haul her in alone"
"Can't. I'm short-handed," the
skipper replied Jump aboard and
help her."
Cardigan made long leap from the
dock to the ships rail, balanced there
lightly a moment, and sprang to the.
deck. He inserted a ,belaying-pin in
the windlass. paused and looked at
the girl. Raise chantey," he sug-
gested. Instantly she lifted a sweet
contralto in that rollicking old ballad
of the sea@"Blow the Men Down"
Round the windlass Cardigan walk
ed, steadily and easily, and the girls
eyes widened in wonder as he did the