Rafting and Lumber

East Dubuque Local Area History Project

	by E. H. 4/18/00
	When the early settlers needed to get things down the river, they used log rafts. The logs were cut in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They were cut and marked in the winter so they could drag the logs out onto the ice, using horses and men. Then in the spring when the ice was melted, they could push the logs in and float them down the river.

	In 1899, the Federal Rivers and Harbors Act was passed. It stated that you couldn’t send the logs down in an unorganized manor that it would harm steamboats in any way. To obey the law and still send the logs down the river, they tied the logs together. The outside logs were chained together, making a frame, and inside the logs were free-floating logs. They called this a “boom.” Then they found that it would go faster if they pushed the log raft with a steamboat. Since the journey down the river took awhile, they had little houses attached to the logs and a crew that consisted of 18 including 2 pilots, 2 fireman, and 2 cooks. After a long ride on the log raft, they finally reached Dubuque, or another destination down river.

	Dubuque was a perfect location for the lumber industry. There were two types of businesses, the planning and cutting mills and the lumber companies. Some of the lumber mills hired their own loggers to go up north, provide the trees, and float them down river. Dubuque had a lot of lumber companies including the Standard Lumber Company, Dubuque Lumber Company, Ott-Meuser Lumber Company, and the Rumpf-Frudden Lumber Company.

	The Standard Lumber Company was the largest lumber mill located on the Mississsippi River. It was established around 1880. It was operated by Major William Harrison Day. The company needed a large amount of timber so they got it as far away as the Canadian border. The mill usually stored 40 million feet of lumber and employed 400 men in Dubuque and another 500 cutting timber. The annual payroll was $250,000. The yard was located next to the old Shot Tower, and because of the risk, the Shot Tower was used as a lookout for fires. On Friday, May 26, 1911, a disastrous fire struck. One of the many harmful things the fire did was what it did to the Shot Tower. The fire burned the interior and left a hollow shell. It did an estimated $300,000 in damage. They uncovered oil soaked rags shoved in between the boards of pine lumber throughout the lumberyard, which proved the fire was started by an arsonist. On Sunday, May 28th, late in the afternoon, the second arson fire struck the Standard Lumber Company. Bucket brigades were formed to save surrounding properties. The fire did an estimated $350,000 in damage to the lumberyards. The Conlin Kearns Ice House was also destroyed along with the ice house that belonged to Dubuque Star and Brewing Company. There was an offer of $5,000 to any information to the arrest of those responsible, but it was never collected. The lumberyard went out of business because the losses from the fires and the lower supply of timber after 1910. The little lumber left was sold to H.H. McCarthy, who used it to form a chain of retail yards known as the Central Lumber Company.

	The Dubuque Lumber Company began in September, 1866, with only $50,000. A saw mill that was established in 1867 was destroyed by fire on April 29, 1870. It was rebuilt but a fire. in 1872, did $100,000 in damage to the lumberyards. It was rebuilt again but fire struck again in 1876, and the mill was ruined. The company closed in 1990 and the property was sold to the Perfection Oil Company.

	The Ott-Meuser Lumber Company was a local business started in 1896. It was a combination of the Meuser-Sieppel and the Svendon-Ott Lumber companies after Sieppel and Svendon left. The company continued under the name Meuser Brothers Lumber Compant since Joseph John Ott retired in 1905.

	The Rumpf-Frudden Lumber Company began wholesale and retail business with retail outlets in Iowa. The annual capacity of the company in Dubuque was 20 million feet of lumber. Stillwater, Minnesota’s mills floated its products to Dubuque on log rafts.

	The Spahn and Rose Lumber Company was established on January 23, 1904 by James Collier, Charles J. Spahn, and George D. Rose after successful efforts that Spahn and Rose had in California saving lumbering interests. By the 19th century Iowa companies were noticing the decreasing supplies of timber from Wisconsin forests. Spahn discovered fine supplies of Ponderosa and sugar pine being harvested by California lumberers. Because of improper drying, the lumber was being ruined and bankers were losing immense sums of money. In 1903 a lumber business operated by Spahn was sold to a group in Michigan. The proceeds from the sale was split with Spahn and Rose, and they established their own company in Dubuque. In 1991, they operated 22 stores within the Midwest region of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

	Bibliography Lyon, Randolph W., Dubuque: the Encyclopedia, Dubuque Iowa: Union-Hoermann Press, 1991. Photos Courtesy of Center for Dubuque History. Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa.