Fifty Years In The Northwest
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:
YEAR. FEET.
1837-38 300,000
1838-39 700,000
1839-40 1,500,000
1840-41 2,500,000
1841-42 3,000,000
1842-43 3,500,000
1843-44 8,500,000
1844-45 14,000,000
1845-46 25,500,000
1846-47 26,000,000
1847-48 37,000,000
1848-49 50,000,000
1849-50 75,000,000
1850-51 87,000,000
1851-52 90,000,000
1852-53 110,000,000
1853-54 125,000,000
1854-55 165,000,000
1855-56 187,000,000
1856-57 200,000,000
1857-58 135,000,000
1858-59 156,000,000
1859-60 175,000,000
1860-61 160,000,000
1861-62 175,000,000
1862-63 150,000,000
1863-64 140,000,000
1864-65 144,000,000
1865-66 137,000,000
1866-67 174,000,000
1867-68 183,000,000
1868-69 194,000,000
1869-70 209,000,000
1870-71 170,000,000
1871-72 224,000,000
1872-73 108,000,000
1873-74 188,000,000
1874-75 178,000,000
1875-76 197,000,000
1876-77 183,000,000
1877-78 225,000,000
1878-79 242,000,000
1879-80 230,000,000
1880-81 247,000,000
1881-82 295,000,000
1882-83 302,000,000
1883-84 230,000,000
1884-85 235,000,000
1885-86 285,000,000
1886-87 350,000,000
1887-88 370,000,000
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