Encyclopedia Dubuque
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STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY
This entry is being edited.
STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY. Considered the largest lumber mill on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. The Standard Lumber Company was established in 1865 as a wholesale lumber company. (1) After 1876 it operated the largest saw mill in Iowa. (2)
Operated by Major William Harrison DAY, Sr., the company required enormous amounts of timber, drawing logs from as far away as the Canadian border. In 1904 the Minnesota Secretary of Interior granted the company the right to construct a logging railroad through the Chippewa reservation and that portion of it set aside as a forest reserve. (3) Named the Leech Lake and Northern, the railroad was planned to eventually reach thirty miles.
During its peak production, the mill stored as much as forty million feet of lumber. With the employment of over three hundred men, the annual payroll in 1911 reached $250,000. (4)
On Friday, May 26, 1911, the first of two disastrous fires started in the company's huge lumberyards. Nearby manufacturing shops sounded their whistles to warn people to leave for safety. Among the tragedies of that fire was the fire damage done to the historic SHOT TOWER. The fire, whipped by the wind around the tower, burned the interior wooden framework from the top of the tower downward, leaving a hollow shell. Investigation of the fire, which caused an estimated $300,000 in damage, uncovered oil-soaked rags that had been shoved between boards in several piles of white pine lumber throughout the lumberyard. Between five and seven blocks of finished lumber were destroyed.
A second fire struck the company late in the afternoon on Sunday, May 28th. Sounds of the whistles and alarms brought huge crowds of curious people, including people from miles away who were drawn by the towering flames shooting into the sky. Bucket brigades were formed to save neighboring properties.
The second blaze caused an additional $350,000 in damage. The lumberyard went out of business from the losses involved with the fire and the declining amount of timber available after 1910 from Wisconsin forests. In addition, the Conlin and Kearns Ice House was destroyed along with the ice house belonging to the DUBUQUE STAR BREWING COMPANY.
A reward of five thousand dollars, never collected, was offered for information leading to the arrest of those responsible. The lumber left after the fires was sold to H. H. McCarthy who used it to form a chain of retail yards known as the CENTRAL LUMBER AND COAL COMPANY.
In 1920 this company was purchased by the Pyramid Lumber Company. Three years later, Pyramid sold its coal and lumber business in addition to the land that had once belonged to Standard Lumber Company to the MIDWEST LUMBER COMPANY. (5)
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Source:
1. "Dubuque Lumber Industry Second to None in the Country," Telegraph Herald, Jan. 31, 1910, p. 1. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GClCAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gKoMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3156,971862&dq=lumber+companies+dubuque&hl=en
2. "Facts And Figures About Dubuque," (1911), Telegraph Herald, Feb. 26, 1911, p. 17. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r_BCAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4asMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4527,2700768&dq=standard+lumber+company+dubuque&hl=en
3. "Standard Lumber Company Will Build Railroad," Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Aug. 3, 1904, p. 2. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EhpFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=87oMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3876,2294016&dq=standard+lumber+company+dubuque&hl=en
4. "Dubuque Lumber Industry Second..."
5."Pyramid Company Sells Local Yard," Telegraph Herald, Feb. 12, 1923, p. 2. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qxtIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j80MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3833,3070637&dq=standard+lumber+company+dubuque&hl=en
