Wisconsin landscape is typically seen and regarded as flat. Most people know it to be a relatively open land of farmland and fields. However, this was not always the case. In the mid-1800s, over 80% of this state was covered in lush white pine forests. Trees, such as the white pine, prompted the explosion of the lumber industry, and people believed the forests would last for several generations. When looking at how long the unchecked logging industries reigned free, the supply of trees lasted no more than seventy years.
Companies such as Holway and John Paul were scattered throughout the region, creating towns and cities on the Wisconsin landscape. This included not just La Crosse and Onalaska, but Stevens Point, Eau Claire, and Wausau. Lumber barons who ran the operations made astronomical salaries and resided in specific areas of wealth, like the city of Neenah, near Lake Winnebago. The separation of the industry leaders from their workplaces show even today, as Stevens Point and Neenah are almost 100 cities apart on the ranking of livability in Wisconsin, with Neenah at #28 and Stevens Point at #126.
Photo courtesy of the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
Iron Stamp
1861-1914
2020.fic.010
John Paul Lumber Company
Stamps like this were used to mark each end of the rough logs after they were chopped down. By marking the logs with a stamp that usually had a symbol or initials on it, companies would be able to keep track of their own logs in the midst of the lumber jams on the river systems. These would also be helpful in making sure the logs made it to the right mill along the river, as floating was typically the easiest way to transport the raw lumber from forest to finishing mills. The rivers that they used to transport the logs were the Chippewa, Black, St. Croix and the Mississippi Rivers. The John Paul Lumber Company was one of many who used this system of transport for their logs. As their unique symbol, they marked their logs with an impression of "PAUL". At certain points along the river, at either natural or artificial stopping points, workers called boom tenders sorted the logs so they would go to the correct sawmill.
Photo Courtesy of Patent Images
John Paul - of John Paul Lumber
John Paul, owner of John Paul Lumber Co., was born in Scotland in 1833. He immigrated to America in 1852, and in 1855, he joined the lumber industry in Michigan. In 1857, he relocated to La Crosse, where he purchased a lumber mill. While working in western Wisconsin, he patented hisAW design of the log slide. By 1890, the lumber industry had destroyed much of the nearby forests, so Paul purchased 500,000 acres in Florida, where he resumed logging activities. The La Crosse Mill was eventually dismantled and sent to Florida, where it was added to increase productivity. Many of Paul’s employees followed him in the move to Florida.
Ceramic Pitcher
Date unknown
2018.029.08
During the mid and late 19th century, the logging industry both attracted people to and put La Crosse on the map. With multiple lumber mills competing in the La Crosse area, companies did whatever they could to leave a positive good with their customers. An example of this is this ceramic pitcher that the Seeman Lumber and Coal Company gave out to their customers during the holidays. There is no known date of the pitcher, but it can be assumed that it is from the late 19th or early 20th century. The text saying, "PHONE 30" was the company's phone number. In the early 1900s, most small towns had a telephone office with a switchboard. When making a call, one would call the telephone office and tell the operator what number or name they want to call, and everyone in the town either had a two-digit or three-digit number.
PBS Wisconsin: Wisconsin Hometown Stories - the Quick End to Lumber
32:06.2-33:00.7
Logging Shoe
1895
1931.008.01
While men were floating log bundles to and from mills, there were specific people who would stand on and guide the logs as the went along, wearing special shoes created to prevent injury and death. These logging shoes such as these were made of leather with inset metal spikes on the sole and heel; they were helpful when logs were being floated up or downriver, as they could be used to both help loggers walk on the slippery surfaces and break apart log jams. This particular pair was custom made in Onalaska, WI by Tobias Nelson, a Norwegian shoemaker that hadn’t yet switched to fully-automated shoe making processes. Records show these shoes belonged to a Canadian logger named Theodore Comeau, who shuttled felled logs along the Black River, likely bringing the wood from midland forests down to the mills on the Mississippi. Logging shoes, with the grip the spikes gave the workers, were fundamental in the creation of the log-rolling sport, which is still around today.
Nymphus B. Holway - The Lumber Baron of La Crosse
Nymphus B.Holway, pictured to the right, was owner of Holway Lumber. His story is similar to many American dreamers of his day: at eighteen he began laboring in the lumber industry, saving up enough money to join the California Gold Rush, and he later settled in La Crosse.
In La Crosse, he had partial ownership of a lumber mill until it burned down in 1856. Although the fire nearly destroyed his business, Holway pushed forward. He purchased a lumber mill in Onalaska with his new partner Abner Gile, which was destroyed by a fire in 1877. The third mill built to replace it was capable of processing a staggering twenty million feet of lumber each season.
Over the course of his career, his company gained 25,000 acres of timberland in Clark, Wood, and Taylor Counties. Holway expanded his reach outside of the lumber industry by also serving as director of the Exchange State Bank and the Batavian Bank. Although the creator of this portrait is unknown, they helped to immortalize an iconic character in the history of the La Crosse area.
A man of the arts, Holway also dabbled in architecture. His most accomplished building is still around today and is a bed and breakfast. You, too, can live like a lumber baron of old at Castle La Crosse!
Nymphus Holway began construction on the building known as “the Castle” in 1892. The house was large and displayed the wealth that Nymphus had acquired through the lumber industry. Although Nymphus was never able to see the completed home, his wife and children owned and lived in the home until it was sold to the Diocese of La Crosse in 1920. The house came into the possession of two families who used it as their home. The house is recognized as significant to La Crosse history, and today it operates as a bed and breakfast.
Photo courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Dubuque
Created by Beau Brand, Ian Rickert, Kaley Lutker, Megan Moeller, Ty Jenniges. Influenced and reviewed by the UWL 2022 spring class of ART 215: Introductory to Museum Studies. Material provided through the support of the La Crosse Historical Society, and the Murphy Library Special Collections and Area Research Center, and PBS Wisconsin.