Sawmills in Clinton Iowa 1885

I'm reading on saturday Judy, but I cant get into the Clinton Herald. I'm sure it was an interesting article. Hang in there, there are lot of readers on here. Your posts are not wasted!!!

*RE: Sawmiles, Clinton, Iowa, 1885.*
Hi, Judy & Bill:
I couldn't get the link above to open here. A screen popped up asking for one to register with data etc. Rest assured I do read Steamboats.org--multiple times--each day. Judy, your E=Mails never wasted. I understand there are more silent 'lurkers' here than we know. I know as later I receive E=Mails on my other internet IN box or 'private message' notices here.

I didn't know beans about upper Mississippi lumber towboats, huge log rafts, saw mills etc. until reading Fred Way's other books in part and early REFLECTOR. Several of Cincinnati's old baronial fortunes made back then from lumbering, milling, transport by boat, train in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Cheers!

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

Even when it's nice outside and I should be working outside I do read on Saturday.

I could not get into site either; however a thought came to mind that the article is probably very interesting and could be connected to boat building thus wondering if the writer of the newspaper article could give a short presentation at a Mississippi Riverboat Buffs (MRB) meeting sometime.

I don't miss a day checkin' out the latest on dot Org, at least while I'm home, even on Saturday and Sunday!

It is a rare day that I do not check out steamboats.org, no matter the day of the week. Keep 'em coming -- we may read, like, but not respond.

Try it this way...

The 1885 report of Clinton/Lyons Iowa sawmills:
How productive were those mills?
What causes great difficulty in answering these questions in detail is that Clinton and Lyons were two towns for the entire peak years of lumber production. Also, every year was different.
How many workers?
In both towns, 4,814 people were employed in all of Clinton’s industries and received wages of $2,092,128. The average worker made $434.59. In Clinton and Lyons, the average sawmill worker made $347. Working in the railway was one of the best-paying jobs, while working in a brickyard, seemed to be the lowest paying job. For the sawmills, a total of 2,463 people were employed.
How did these mills work?
The tow boats pushed the log rafts down the river and left the logs in a mill’s boom, like a holding pond.
Machinery and chain pulled a log out of water and onto a track that brought the log into the mill. The tracks took the logs through either a circular saw or a set of gang saws.
The logs were rotated by machine. If going through gang saws, it only took three minutes for a log to be hooked, brought in, sawn, brought through the measurer and edger, and then brought out to the lumber yard to be stacked. Next to the mill buildings sat the engine room which supplied the steam.
Throughout all buildings, various fire proofing provided protection.
How did the mills dispose of sawdust?
In the ideal, the sawdust was loaded into buckets and conveyed to the fire room where it was burned to produce steam. In the larger mills, all debris went into there. Sawdust was also put in the river and stored on the river edge, which would necessitate the first federal environmental law.

Great. Info, Judy, and thanks for this perspective! As far as the low pay, country music fans may be familiar with the Mel Tillis song "Workin' at the Sawmill". In that song he laments the low pay, "....never saw a dollar bill".

How would you

How would you like to be standing here over looking a whole forest of timber trying to get all that wood around a bend, bow boat or not? Must have been like herding cats.
In doing my Howard Shipyard research by 1910 wood hulls were out, one of the main reasons is because good wood was hard to get and very expensive. The hills of E,Ky. and WVa had been denuded. In fact toward the end of wood hulls, Howards had to bring timber in by train!
I tried to up load a picture but it didn't take, I'll try again.
Didn't take the second time.....oh,well.

*Steamboat wood/Howard memoir*
Steamboating colleagues:
Jim, thanks for your above posting 'How would you?' RE: lumber rafting. Remember that great Howard B/W photo of the CITY OF LOUISVILLE laid in at the yards with the big timber raft in full view? Alan Bates wrote an analysis of that photo also telling how the logs were rounded up, secured and bound with chains and something called "gluts" holding together. I thought he described these binding "gluts" as strong, flexible saplings or thin branches. [?] Do you know/remember?

I have a copy here of that Howard family memoir Loretta Howard permitted me to read and copy years ago. I read, typed returned the original to her. No copy machines then with one typing with triplicate carbon paper using liquid blue correction goop. The memoir tells of the Howard family, founding of the company etc. One intersting part tells of the Howard wood expeditions way back up in West Virginia, Kentucky fully mounted with men, horses, supplies etc. They would find, mark and deal for the trees. Later the trees cut, trimmed, hauled to the river. One part tells of "wood from the sunny side of the hills and mountains preferred to the shady side...avoid 'wind shaken' timber." Right you are about "Howards had to bring timber in by train." Probably from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota--even northern Pennsylvania, New York. Today fine woods cost a fortune--if you can get it. There's even now an illegal black market in rare woods from the tropics etc. Other ornamental woods are on the endangered species list or now extinct following mass cutting with no thought of tree propagation.

I read a Howard document eons ago from a steamboat owner complaining to the Howards about the main deck wood "splintering, not laid right etc." What the final solution I don't know. Do you remember this?

By about 1890 writers/commentators in marine journals questioned why our inland rivers boat building companies still worked in wood over iron hulls etc. with a critical air. They didn't completely understand the shallow rivers, kind of boats needed here. Even the QUEEN CITY, as late as on/around 1920 under the ownership of Pittsburgh Shovel King John W. Hubbard, had her wood hull replaced. Again, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Old Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.