"There were some odd angles to the business in those days, and you had to know your man pretty well before you started dealing with him, whether you were buying or selling. There was one buyer who always kicked on every shipment. It was standard practice for him to call the office from whom he had purchased a cargo and complain about the quality regardless of what he had paid for it. I suppose he figured that this gave him a reputation as a sharp buyer and some consequent advantage. One day we sold him a shipload and that night he left the city for a couple of days. The following morning one of his employees called the office, said that the lumber was no good, and that they had stopped unloading it. He was following the usual procedure in the absence of his boss. One thing the boss forgot to tell him, though, was that the boat would not be in until some time the following week. Actually that boat that he said they had rejected and had stopped unloading was out in the lake some place north of Milwaukee. 

"There was another fellow who thought he was pretty wise, and maybe he was. Soon after I entered father's office in 1882 I  sold  that  man  a  cargo  of  white  pine  strips that  was  docked  in  the  river.  We had been  getting  twenty  dollars  a thousand for  them,  but  this  cargo  was  not  as good  as  the  usual  shipments,  and 

I knew it. I told him the truth about it, but I believe this buyer thought I was just a smart youngster who knew that the inferior quality of the lumber would be recognized and a lower price offered, and that I was therefore trying to discourage him from buying so that I could peddle the shipment to some less wary buyer for a better price.He bid eighteen dollars, and I sold at that price. He bid eighteen dollars, and I sold at that price. 

Sixty-eight
 

"Father placed the matter in my hands, taking the stand that it was my deal, and probably wanting to see how I would handle it. I went with the buyer to Mr. McLaren, a large commission man on the lumber market, and we both told our stories. He stated that I was entirely within my rights to stand on the price that had been offered, but that actually the lumber was not worth more than seventeen dollars. That buyer never questioned what I told him after that. 

"For a long time a large part of our output went to the Milwaukee market, and most of that to the John Schroeder Lumber Co. We alternated with Schroeder in carrying large accounts payable. By fall each year John Schroeder would have sold off much of the cut of the last season and would owe us a lot of money. He always had the cash on deposit in Milwaukee banks, and we would draw on him as we needed money for operation. During the winter logging season we would draw our entire balance from Schroeder and then borrow from him to finance, our logging operations.
White Pine "Uppers"

Our relations with John Schroeder and his sons were always harmonious." 

In 1888 W. A. Holt took active charge of the business in Oconto. In 1895 he married Miss Lucy Rumsey, daughter of Captain I. P. Rumsey, prominent Chicago business men and one of the oldest members of the Chicago Board of Trade. That was just three years after Wisconsin's all-time record cut of more than 4,000,000,000 feet of pine in one year. The prospect of spending her life in the comparative isolation of the pine country with its almost total lack of social activity was not particularly attractive to Miss Rumsey. She was reassured, however, by her fiance, who told her not to worry, that in 
 

Sixty-nine