| every log into the North Branch. He then went back to the Waupee
where, by that time, all three dams on that stream were full and he had
water enough to finish up the drive on the Waupee also before the rear
came along on the North Branch, and all of the logs were driven on the
whole river successfully. River driving was hard work and the wages paid
were the highest of any class of woods work. It was customary to have breakfast
anywhere from 3:30 to 5:00 A. M., then the crew would scatter out, some
sluicing logs through the dam where they were located and other men going
d6wn the river to watch all the rapids and bonds to see that no Jams were
formed, or if in spite of their efforts a Jam did form, to
notify the men at the dam to stop sluicing logs
until they got the Jam out. Usually the crew at the dam would have to stop
sluicing by nine or ten o'clock in the morning on account of the water
going down in the pond, then the men would be sent on down the river to
help get the logs which had been sluiced all down into the next pond below.
About nine o'clock the lunch carriers took their packs on their backs and
went down along the river to the designated points where the drivers gathered
for first lunch, and then they had a second lunch about one o'clock, and
got back to camp in time to have supper. Beside rolling logs many of them
had to walk ten or fifteen miles in a day from their camp up or down the
river. When the water was good and everything working well we often sluiced
over a million feet a day through the dams on the North Branch. After the
main drive had passed there would always be a great many logs "winged on,"
that is, hung up along the banks and on islands, and the rear crew had
to come along and "sack" all of these logs, following the rear on down
until it finally passed over the dam at Stiles.
The most difficult place on the river to drive was over the Bagley
Flats below Oconto Falls. As the logs came over the falls, they spread
out and lodged along the stream, finally forming a channel in which the
water was higher than on the sides and the logs would run through this
channel, with the help of the river drivers, but until the logs were "winged
on" there was not enough water to float them and they would Jam on the
flats. There was a good crew kept at Oconto Falls at all times, to watch
for the logs jamming and to break the Jam before it got too large. One
summer when the rear of the drive had reached Pulcifer, where it had to
pass through what we called flatrock Dam, there was a jam formed below
the falls on the Bagley Flats and before word could be got to the crew
at Flatrock Dam a large Jam had formed. The foreman in charge at Flatrock
Dam-James Urquhart was notified to run a large head in the morning for
two hours before they started sluicing, so as to give the men a chance
to break the Jam. Before they got the jam broken the logs began to come
and before it could be stopped a very large jam had formed, which it took
some days to break. The water backed up over Mrs. Bagley's farm and washed
some ravines in the fields, and she claimed damages from the drive. It
was conceded that there was some damage done to her farm but we contended
that we were only doing what we were required to do, namely, drivingm the
logs on a navigable stream, and that we had used due diligence and were
not liable for any damage. She finally brought suit and before the trial
Mr. Young went to see her, with Mr. Edmonds of the Falls Manufacturing
Company, to see if she would not take some money and drop the suit, and
they offered her $1000.00, which she refused to accept. When the
case came on for trial it took
several days to take all of the
testimony, and the question
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He testified that the logs always ran faster than the Water
and for that reason it was necessary to let the water run for a while
before starting to sluice logs through any dam. Judge Hastings,
who was presiding, questioned him about that and said he could not understand
how the log could run faster than the water. Mr. Urquhart explained
to him that the logs were more or less checked by the rapids and by stiking
the banks and forming small jams, and that a log would run faster in the
center of the stream than it would on the sides, and that it was quite
possible that what happened was that as he let off an extra head that morning
it had loosened all of the logs which had been left hung up on sand bars
and along the bank the day before, when the head went down, and that these
were the logs which reached the Falls sooner than they were expected to.
During the trial one of the merchants in Oconto said to me, "You are going to be beaten in the suit with Mrs. Bagley and you are going to have to pay her $1000.00 damages." I said that might be so but how did he know, and he said that the jurors used to come over to his store evenings and sit around and discuss the case and they said that they would have to do something for the widow whether we were liable or not, and that we had offered her $1000.00 so they could not very well give her any less, and the verdict was just what the merchant predicted, although as a matter of law we felt very sure we were not liable. Later on we bought the farm from Mrs. Bagley and had no more trouble. When logs were banked in the streams they were always marked, with an axe on the side of the log and with a hammer on the end of the log, so that the logs could be identified. Holt & Balcom used a U side mark, and the letter U followed by a letter or figure as an end mark, and different end marks were placed on logs put in at different camps. Oconto Company used an F sider mark, and a circle with a letter or figure inside of it for an end mark. When the logs reached a dividing pier they had to be rolled over and sorted into separate booms according to the marks on the logs, and It was usually easier to see a side mark than an end mark while the logs were rolling in the water. It was quite easy to see the end marks on large logs but on little logs It was sometimes impossible, and in many cases the men in the woods or on the landings failed to stamp the logs; and there always was a certain percentage of logs which had no mark at all and were liable to get Into any one of the numerous booms. One year Urquhart came down to Oconto, horseback, in the afternoon
to tell me that the drive Was being hung up at Pulcifer by Pete Peterson,
who had erected a small mill close to the dam. He had put no logs in the
river but he had bought a few logs on the South Branch and he claimed that
a good many of these logs were not marked and therefore every log which
had no mark on it was his. He built a dividing pier and as the drive came
along he started to sort out all the logs which had his end mark and also
all logs
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