John (Jack) Campbell - Prominent timber cruiser in Oconto County. Photo - Oconto County WIGenWeb archives.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As soon as the ice in the streams began to break up the river drivers shouldered their peavies and went to their several stations. The plan was to start the rear and run it through while the logs were "winged" on all along the river, these wings helping to keep the logs in the channel. As soon as there was a channel through the various landings the rear crew began sacking, that is, rolling the logs off from bars, dragging them out of the woods, and breaking in all wings and rollways. As the logs came into the several ponds the crew at the dam sluiced them through, and followed them down to the next dam. It was hard work, but when the logs were moving and grinding against the wing jams, and frequently plugging, it was exciting. Then the drivers had to jump on the logs and by lifting, prying, rolling, keep the logs moving. If they could not do that, in a few minutes a solid jam would form, and then it might take several days and a large crew to break the jam. 

The Oconto River was too small a stream to drive logs without flooding dams, so there were a good many dams operated on that river. Mr. Cole told me once that the Chute Dam was built by Eldreds and Balcom about the time that Mr. Balcom came out here from New York state and joined with Messrs. Anson and Elisha Eldred in the Stiles operation, and Mr. Cole was logging superintendent under Mr. Balcom's direction. I think he said it was the winter of 1856 and 1857 that they landed some logs in the North Branch near the mouth of McCauslin Brook and the drive was being hung up, and they had to build a dam in the summer of 1858, which was known for many years as the Old Dam but when it was rebuilt in 1887 it was called the Tar Dam, The reason it was called that was that the timber work was all tarred, with an idea that it would preserve it, but I do not think that idea amounted to much. After that time I do not think there ever was a drive hung up on  the  Oconto  River  or any  of  its 
tributaries, except  perhaps  some  on Peshitigo Brook. This latter stream had no dams on it because it is a sluggish stream with wide marshes which overflowed in the spring, and there was no good dam site, so that all of the logs had to be driven during the spring freshet or they could not be driven at all during that season. 

I understand that in the early days each Company drove its own logs, which was a very difficult thing to do because the logs became mixed and it was impossible for the river drivers to drive only their own logs; so there was a meeting called of all parties having logs on the river, at the Funke Hotel in Oconto (later known as the Schodier House), to discuss making a joint drive. All parties  agreed  that this was a good idea but  the  question arose  as  to  who  should  be the head manager of the drive. 

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In  1888,  after  Holt  Lumber Company started, the other parties having logs on the river wanted me to take charge of it and be responsible for the drive, and it was finally agreed that Holt Lumber Company would drive the logs of all parties, at a fixed rate, per thousand feet. I agreed to do this with the under- standing that there should be no driving done on Sundays, as I did not believe in it and I felt sure that with the dams we could drive without Sunday work. The idea was that we could store up water over Sunday and have a better head Monday. Some of the old river drivers objected strenuously  as  they  said  it  was  impossible to have a successful drive without working every day. Several of the men came into the office and told me that I had never had any experience and that they did not like to see me get into difficulty and hang up the drive, but they wanted me to understand that it was not possible to drive without working Sundays, and they finally said that if we were going to do that they were going to work on the Menominee River as they were not willing to drive on this river when they knew it was going to be a failure. However,  we  started  out  with  the understanding that there should be no Sunday driving unless in case of an emergency, and after the drive had been in progress for several weeks I made a trip  along  the  river  with  Paul McDonald  who  was  my  right hand man visiting the driving camps where the men were all resting, and  they  were  all enthusiastic about it and said that they appreciated the one day's rest in seven more than they had had any idea of. Some of the men said that it was a clever scheme to get seven days work for six days pay because they were driving just as many logs, or more, in a given time than they could have driven if they worked seven days a week. 

One spring Jacob Spies came to me and said that all of his logs were in Peshtigo Brook and if he did not get them out he would have no logs to saw, whereas the Oconto Company, and ourselves, and Eldred, had other logs which we could saw, and he did not believe it was possible to drive the logs in Peshtigo Brook without driving Sundays, as there were no dams on that stream. It was finally agreed that he should take the drive on Peshtigo Brook, at a fixed price, and take out all of the logs which belonged to all palrties in that stream. After working at it awhile he gave up the drive, saying that the water had gone down and there was no chance to get the logs that season, and he had left a large quantity of logs, mostly belonging to Holt Lumber Company, near the head of Peshtigo Brook, together with logs belonging to all parties, which were mixed together, lower down on the Brook. At that time I had  Neil McKillop as foreman  on  the  drive  under  Paul McDonald's general supervision, and I sent for Neil to come down here and see me. At that time he had a large crew on the Waupee, the water was low, and they were not getting enough water to drive every day, so I asked McKillop if he could take his crew over to the Brook 
and get those logs out, and he said he thought he could and he would try. He 
did not think that Spies used the proper method of driving that stream; McKillop's idea was to run the logs down a short distance and form a jam which would act as a dam and back the water up so that he could roll the logs in above and float them down in a solid jam and then start the drive again, and when the water got low jam the logs again and hold the water back. He took his crew from the Waupee across country to the head waters of Peshtigo Brook and in a short time he had all of the logs afloat and brought out 

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