ST. CROIX BOOM COMPANY
Previous to the organization of the boom company, in 1857, the logs were floated down the St. Croix and caught in side booms by individual owners, and owners of lake booms would raft them indiscriminately, regardless of log marks, but with the mark side up for the convenience of scaling. The scaling was done by some responsible party in the interest of the various owners, and balances were settled by exchanges, or if not balanced by cash or by note, to be paid out of the profits of the next year's logs. Instances of fraud seldom occurred. When Minnesota became a territory this system was superseded by another method of handling, assorting or delivering. The legislature established surveyor general districts, of which the St. Croix valley was designated as the First. The surveyors general were elected in a joint convention of the two houses of the legislature, and the candidacy for this office, together with questions of salary, became a leading feature in the politics of the district.
The surveyors general of the First district have been, Robert Harsy, Samuel Winship, Charles J. Gardiner, Ivory McKusick, James D. McComb, Z. Wilder Chase, John S. Proctor, and Al. Hospice. The law defining the duties of the surveyors general has been awarded from time to time, and the system of scaling improved till it has reached its present form, in which it meets with very general approval. In 1867 a law was passed giving to the governor the power of appointing surveyors general.
The boom company was organized by the territorial legislature, Feb. 7, 1851, with a capital stock of $10,000, with privileges of increase to $25,000. The incorporators were Orange Walker and George B. Judd, of Marine; John McKusick, Socrates Nel son and Levi Churchill, of Stillwater; Daniel Mears and William Kent, of Osceola; and W. H. C. Folsom, of Taylor's Falls. Fred R. Bartlett was the first secretary, but was superseded by David B. Loomis.
The first boom was built near an island lying opposite and above Osceola. The surveyor general had his office at Stillwater, an arrangement that gave great satisfaction, but as the boom was not advantageously located, the channel of the river above being too narrow for the annually increasing production of logs, the company, in 1856, obtained a new charter with power to construct booms from the head of Lake St. Croix to Taylor's Falls. The capital stock was increased to $25,000 with the privilege of increasing it to $50,000. It was subsequently increased to $100,000. The incorporators of the new company were Martin Mower, W. H. C. Folsom, Isaac Staples, Christopher Carli and Samuel Burkelo.
The company placed a second boom a mile and a half above Stillwater. The increase of their business compelled them from time to time to build side booms and shear booms to prevent the logs from lodging against the banks or passing bayous or secondary channels, and also to keep the primary channel free from obstructions to navigation. They built firm and expensive piers, drove piling and made canals for the use of steamboats when the main channel was wanted for booming purposes.
Notwithstanding all this care, navigation was frequently obstructed by the accumulation of logs. Litigation ensued, and heavy expenses were incurred in defending the rights of the company or paying damages. These controversies were not unattended with ill feeling. Public meetings were frequently held and denunciating resolutions adopted. In one case, when navigation had been interrupted for fifty-seven days, the damages were estimated at $146,525. Some controversies also arose as to jurisdiction. St. Croix river being the boundary line between two states, the Wisconsin authorities claimed concurrent jurisdiction. The boom company was organized under Minnesota law and its members were residents of Minnesota. The surveyor general of the First district claimed entire jurisdiction and scaled the logs irrespective of the state in which they were cut. The action of the surveyor general had been accepted both by the original owners and purchasers of the logs.
In January, 1885, Gov. Hubbard, of Minnesota, appointed A. L. Hospes surveyor general, and the appointment creating some dissatisfaction, a lumberman's board of exchange was organized, and Judson McKusick was appointed as private scaler. He proceeded, under the direction of the exchange, to scale logs that had already been scaled by Hospes. When the members of the exchange proceeded to take possession of their logs and run them out into the lake, Hospes commenced a series of injunction cases to prevent them from so doing. The exchange brought suit against Hospes in Wisconsin courts to prevent him from scaling logs owned by the exchange. The exchange also declared that McKusick was a deputy of the general surveyor of the Fourth district, Wisconsin. Pending these suits, Hospes commenced a quo warranto proceeding in the Minnesota supreme court to have the articles of incorporation of the exchange annulled, but was defeated on the ground that the exchange could employ a private scaler at will, but held that such scaler could not interfere with the claims of Hospes, he being recognized as surveyor general. In July of the same year the claims of the conflicting parties were settled by the parties themselves, outside the courts, and the question of conflicting jurisdiction has therefore never been legally determined. It is true that some courts have passed upon the question, and appeals have been taken to higher courts. The decision of Judge Nelson of the supreme court has been given, a decision that the surveyor general of the First district of Minnesota has a right to scale all logs in his district, yet by his own decision Wisconsin has equal rights under concurrent jurisdiction. Should both state authorities under their surveyors general claim jurisdiction at the same time, concurrent jurisdiction would lead to a double taxation upon log owners. It seems, however, to be an admitted principle that when suits between the same parties, in relation to the same matter, are pending at the same time in different courts of jurisdiction, a judgment in the one may act as a bar to further proceedings in the other. The question ought to be more definitely and satisfactorily settled.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE LOGS
It may not be amiss to explain somewhat in detail the system of marking adopted by the lumbermen. Owners of logs must be able to identify their property or lose the reward of their labor. A system of marking each log has, therefore, become a feature of the lumbering business, and has been in existence ever since lumbering has been prosecuted. When the business was confined to a limited number of firms it was an easy matter, and one of mutual arrangement, to select the property. But firms change; from a score the number of lumber firms increased to hundreds. A record of ownership of log marks is necessary, and a law has been enacted protecting the ownership of a mark as thoroughly as a trade mark is protected. This system of marks in the process of time has become a language in itself deep and intricate to the average mind, but as plain as the alphabet to every man having to do with the manufacture of logs. It is the aim of every lumberman originating a mark to make it simple, containing as many straight lines as possible, so that it can be put on the log speedily. These marks are cut on the logs, through the bark and a few inches into the body of the timber, soon after the tree is felled, by a skilled axeman who is charged with the duty. The cut is made deeper than the bark so it will be preserved after the bark comes off. The mark is made upon the side of the log.
This system of marks is a language in itself. Every prominent firm has a particular character, which, in a general way, is indicative of his ownership or interest in the log. This mark may be varied by additional or supplementary characters, indicating who cut the log, on whose land it was cut, or under what particular contract it was put into the stream. Some idea of the extent and variety of these marks can be formed from the statement that there is recorded in the St. Croix district – only a small portion of the entire lumber region of the Northwest – over 1,700 different and distinct characters. Many of these are quaint and interesting, and the whole etymology curious in the extreme.
In the books in the surveyor general's office these marks and figures are the only characters used except in the recording of the marks themselves and of instruments and agreements. The identity of mark and its association of ownership necessarily calls into play the utmost familiarity. To one not thoroughly familiar with the method the books are about as intelligible as the figures on the side of a Chinese tea chest to the average American. Once a man becomes thoroughly familiar with the marks on a river where lumbering is so extensively carried on as on the St. Croix, he becomes invaluable in the surveyor general's office, or in the booms, identified in some capacity with the scaling process. The fact that some particular character runs through the varied marks of all the leading firms is a key to the readiest understanding, just as the twenty-six characters in the alphabet are necessarily understood before one can read readily or intelligently.
When the logs reach the booms the marks serve as a guide in their distribution by the scaler, whose business it is to measure the logs, call out the number of feet in each log to the tallyman, who records it in a book kept for the purpose, the record, together with the mark attached, to be forwarded to the surveyor general's office, there to be posted and footed. A small army of men is engaged in bringing logs to the gap, a narrow passage admitting scarcely more than one log at a time.
A catch mark is a mark representing the original mark and is so placed as to appear always upon the upper side when the log floats at rest. Once through the gap, experienced men gather the logs, as they are floated downward by the current, into brills. These are subsequently gathered together in rafts, laid, as a rule, with the logs headed in the direction of the current. Rafts may be transported to any distance southward by the current of the stream, and through the waters of the lake, and not infrequently the whole distance by tow boats.
AMOUNT OF LOGS CUT FROM 1857 TO 1888
The earliest statistics in the following table are from persons operating, and the later from record books. We have given the figures in round numbers. The table includes logs cut and floated down the St. Croix river and tributaries:
CHARTERED DAMS
The Namakagon Totogatic Dam Company obtained a charter in 1869 from the Wisconsin legislature empowering them to construct two dams for sheering logs, one to be at the outlet of Namakagon lake, the other on Totogatic river, a stream tributary to Namakagon river, entering that stream about eight miles above its junction with the St. Croix. In 1870, by legislative act, the charter was amended by permission to erect sixteen dams, to be built severally on the waters of the Upper St. Croix, Moose, Eau Claire, Namakagon, Totogatic, Yellow, and Clam rivers. The name was changed to the "St. Croix Dam Company," and the capital stock was fixed at $50,000. The incorporators were A. M. Chase, Joel Nason, Henry D. Barron, Wm. Kent, and S. B. Dresser. A. M. Chase was the first president. The company had permission under the charter to hold the water during the seasons when it was not necessary to navigation on the St. Croix. These dams were usually shut down to gather a head during the months of March and April, with the exception of the dams on the Namakagon and Eau Claire, which have the privilege of gathering and retaining a head of water during any part of the year. The head of water above these dams varied from seven to ten feet, and the average cost of construction was $4,000. The tolls per 1,000 feet at these dams were as follows: Namakagon and Clam, 25 and 20 cents; at Totogatic, 20 and 15 cents; St. Croix, 20 and 15 cents; other dams, 3 to 10 cents.
A. M. Chase was the original mover in organizing the corporation and forwarding its interests. He was foreman in selecting sites and building the various dams. He was also owner and general agent until within the last few years, when he transferred his interests to other parties. The charter expires in 1893.
The dam on Clam river, built at a cost of $10,000, was, in 1886, blown up by dynamite and destroyed by Robert Davidson, who claimed that the flowage interfered with his meadow lands.
LUMBERING ON THE ST. CROIX IN 1845
The progress of civilization involving the building of railways, the transformation of the wilderness into cultivated fields, the growth of villages and cities, the increased facilities for manufacturing and the bringing the forest domain under law, has created such changes in the business of lumbering as to justify the insertion of a chapter relating to the life and surroundings of the early lumberman. Let us go back to the year 1845. The country, save a few sparse settlements on the navigable streams, is as yet an unbroken wilderness, and tenanted only by wild beasts and roving Indians. There are vast regions, densely wooded, in which the sound of the woodman's axe has never been heard, lying about the headwaters of the Chippewa, St. Croix and other streams. These pineries can only be reached by stemming the currents of the minor streams in bateaux or birch bark canoes, or by traversing the country on foot or with teams. Parties operating must purchase their outfit, consisting of teams, supplies of flour, pork, etc., in Illinois or Missouri. Sometimes they drive their teams through unsettled country, without roads, swimming and fording streams, clearing away obstructions, and camping where night overtakes them. Sometimes they ship their supplies by steamer to Stillwater or St. Croix Falls. When landed at Stillwater the supplies are packed upon flatboats and poled to Taylor's Falls, where they are to be portaged to the head of the rapids, a distance of six miles, and transferred to bateaux. The portage is a difficult one. The goods are to be hoisted up over the rocks of the Dalles and placed upon sleds calculated to run upon the bare ground. Considering the inequalities of the surface from the Dalles to the head of the rapids, the portage is an immensely difficult one. They are then taken to their place of destination, the bateaux returning to the Falls for successive loads, the whole transfer requiring considerable time. Sometimes, if late in the season, part or whole of the fleet of bateaux may be caught in the ice, in which case a bushed road must be made, and the supplies transported by teams and men.
Arriving on the ground, the operators blaze trees on lines surrounding the region which they wish to work during the winter. These claims are generally respected by others. The first work to be done is making a camp, building stables, clearing streams of obstructions, and making roads. Incidentally the Indians, certain to be visitors at the camps, are to be propitiated with presents of flour, pork and tobacco. These pacified and out of the way, the lumberman may say with Alexander Selkirk —
"I am monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute."
Trespassing is unknown. The lumberman is not conscious that he himself is a trespasser on the domain of Uncle Sam. Nor is he. Has he not the best title in the world? Who is there to dispute it? No government agent ever troubles him, or questions his right to fell the royal trees and dispose of them as he may choose. He is earning by his strong right arm his title to the trees. He endures much, accomplishes much and is the advance courier of civilization. He spends long months away from the common haunts of men. He is cut off from the mails and from home pleasure. He lives an industrious life. Cold is the day when the stroke of his axe is not heard. The snow deepens around him, the temperature sinks lower and lower, till it would not discredit Labrador; still he toils on unceasingly, and at night builds high his blazing fire, wraps himself up in his buffalo robe and blankets, and sleeps through the night the sleep of the tired and the just. Meanwhile his appetite is marvelous. The cooking (done by one of the crew) maybe of the rudest, and the provisions none of the daintiest, but exercise and the cold gives a relish to the food not often found in the fashionable restaurants. The members of the crew have each allotted duties. To one is intrusted the cooking department, to another the position of teamster, to another that of sled tender; some are choppers, some are swampers, some are sawyers. The records of the camp are kept by the foreman or some person detailed for that purpose.
The winter over, the teams are returned to the settlements. The log driving crew succeeds the choppers and other workers. The logs, having been hauled upon the ice of the driving streams, with the melting of snow are afloat on the swollen streams, and the drivers commence their work, following the logs in their downward course to the mills or booms, dislodging them when they are driven upon shore, and breaking jams when they occur. This work is difficult and attended by considerable exposure, as the driver is often obliged to go into the stream. It therefore commands higher wages than other work. The drivers are without tents, but a wangan, or small flat boat, containing bedding, provisions and a cooking kit, is floated down the stream so as to be convenient at night. The wangan is managed by the cook alone, and his work, when he ties up for the night, is to take ashore the bedding, cooking material, etc., build a fire and provide a meal for the hungry crew. His cooking utensils are of the rudest kind, consisting of a tin reflector and a few iron pots and pans. The savory repast is scarce finished before the arrival of the crew, cold, wet, tired, and hungry. They are not particular about a table with its furniture, but are satisfied to eat from a tin plate, sitting or lying on the ground. Hunger satisfied, they spend their evenings by the blazing fire, drying their clothing, jesting, story telling, or recalling the events of the day, or scanning the open or clouded sky for indications of weather changes. When the sky is clear they trace the constellations, locate the principal stars and planets, or follow the devious windings of the milky way. Some of them have studied astronomy, and some have learned from others, and all are intent, though without books or teachers, on learning the wisdom that Nature teaches, and some are found who have learned to look "from Nature up to Nature's God."
Occasionally some rougher specimen mars the order and pleasantness of this wild-wood converse by an oath or coarse remark, heard, perhaps, but unheeded by the more serious and thoughtful. Such men are found everywhere, in the streets, saloons, and even in the wilderness, men who pollute the air in which they move with profanity and obscenity. These are not the men who succeed and build up great fortunes; these are not the true conquerors of the wilderness. The sober, thoughtful man is the man who succeeds. It is not necessary that he have the learning acquired from books, or a smattering of science from the schools. He may acquire great knowledge by close study of men, and observation of the phenomena of nature, and so make himself a peer of the book worm and scholar of the library and schools.
The acquaintances formed in these camp scenes and toils often result in life long friendships, and the scenes of camp, river and forest become cherished reminiscences to the actors, who are as fond of recalling them as veteran soldiers are of recounting the hairbreadth escapes and stirring incidents of campaign life.
The drive ends with the delivery of the logs at the booms and mills, the men are paid off and devote themselves for the remainder of the summer to other work.