| less than ten years the country would be
logged out, and they would move back to Chicago. The statement made in good faith to his bride-to-be proved W. A. Holt to be as unreliable a prognosticator as his father was. It was a prediction justifiable, though, from all the evidence at hand, and no one could foresee the changes that would soon take place in wood usage. Nor was it then evident that hard-woods and hemlock would grow into salable timber on cut-over pine lands. In far less than the ten years that Mrs. Holt expected to stay
in Oconto, she had learned
Lucy Rumsey Holt So deep was her attachment for the dense, fragrant pines, hemlocks and hardwoods bordering Archibald Ldke, on which the Holt summer home occupies part of an island, that two large tracts have been dedicated to her memory. Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Holt had four children: Jeannette R., a graduate of Dana Hall, Wellesley, Mass., maintains the family home for herself and Mr. Holt. She is very active in the councils of the Presbyterian Church in Wisconsin, and is well known for her activity and interest in charity work. Alfred H. is d graduate of Williams College, class of 1920. On leaving college he became an instructor at Canton Christian College, Canton, China. After several years he returned to the United States where he taught at Williams College for one year, then resigned to devote his time to writing. He has written several well known books. He resides in Williamstown, with his wife and their son and daughter. Mary Eleanor, who graduated from Smith College, in 1923, married Donald S. DeWitt, superintendent of the Holt Hardwood Co., one of the best known flooring manufacturing concerns in the United States. Donald S. DeWitt is the son of Walter L. DeWitt, vice-president and general manager of the Holt Hardwood Company. The Donald S. DeWitts have three sons. Donald R. Holt grad- uated from Williams College, 1925, immediately entering the lumber business with his father. He is vice-president and treasurer of the Holt Lumber Co., is married and has three sons. Donald was captain of the Williams College cross-country team which won the New England championship in 1924. In that year he broke the record for the five-mile course at Williams. Donald, like other members of the family, is very active in civic organizations and church work. Among his Many activities is that of District Commissioner for the Boy Scouts of America and Treasurer of the Red Cross. W. A. Holt, during his long and active business career, has been an executive and directing head in many other industrial and commercial enterprises, and has been active in association work for many years. In the past ten years he has gradually withdrawn from all of his business interests except those located in Oconto. He is still a director of the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufacturers Association, and director of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Oconto, and has always been an active, interested church worker, who has not confined his interest merely to his own local church. He was superintendent of the Sunday School for 20 years, and is now serving in his 45th year as an elder. He is well known among Presbyterian clergymen and prominent laymen throughout the country, and has been a liberal contributor to both domestic and foreign missions. The sawmill at Oconto, built nearly 82 years ago, stands as a part of the present structure. In striking contrast to the electrically operated machinery and modern sprinkler system for fire protection are the hand hewn structural timbers secured by wooden dowels. The mill is reputed to be the oldest in its part of the country. Seventy |
During 1938 the mill has sawed 17,000,000 feet of lumber, of
which nearly 1,000,000 feet was white pine. The first saw was a mulay that
was succeeded by a circular and two gangs. When the mill was finally closed
this fall the equipment included two vertical bands and a gang besides
a horizontal resaw, electrically operated. An interesting feature of the
mill is the use of a gang to saw hardwood. As far as Mr. Holt knows, very
few if any other gangs are used for that purpose. The only part of the
mill or any of the buildings that surround it that was ever re-built on
account of fire is the hog building. This caught fire in 1935, and was
so badly damaged that it had to be reconstructed. The local fire department,
aided by employees of the mill worked so efficiently, however, that none
of the machinery in the building was harmed at all.
Logs are floated down the river from storage piles about a quarter
of a mile above the mill, and into the pond. An old sketch of the mill
and its surroundings, drawn by an artist in 1878 when the company was known
as Holt & Balcom, is shown herein.
The office is the same today except for some minor changes in the rear involving removal of the shed to make a driveway around the back. At the left of the office is the boarding house which was razed some years ago. It will be noted that logs are floated into the mill pond lengthwise. It then becomes necessary to turn them at right angles before they are, gripped by the conveyor chain and taken up to the sawmill level. At the right is a bridge, long since removed. Slabs from the mill were loaded on small cars and pushed by hand across the river to a "fire back" and burned. The artist included one of these cars and a man pushing it. The lumber was rafted in the river below the Mill and floated and towed out to the harbor to be loaded on boats shown in the distance. At the time the mill closed, lumber was being delivered to a sorting chain where it was sorted according to species, quality and dimensions, and hauled to the yard and piled. The mill was built for northern pine manufacture, and that wood was sawed exclusively until 1889 when the first hemlock passed through it. Mr. Holt recalls that at that time it was supposed that hemlock would not lie flat in piles, but would warp and twist. To eliminate that supposed difficulty it was the practice to place four or five courses of white pine on top of the hemlock piles. The price of hemlock then ranged from $6.50 to 7.00 a thousand. The increase to the present market price reflects wider acceptance of the wood even more than the normal increase in production cost which is in line with the general rise in manufacturing costs of all commodities. While the larger saws are electrically operated, the smaller machines are run with steam power supplied by a Prescott engine, the first turned out by Prescott & Company, of Marinette, predecessor to the Prescott Company, of Menominee, Michigan. It was installed in 1874. This engine is particularly interesting because it has worked effectively since 1874, the date of its installation, in spite of the fact that its construction defies every principle of modern machine design. "In September, 1892," said Mr. Holt, "the engine shaft broke, and I went to Milwaukee to have Allis-Chalmers make a new one. You have to keep in mind that the engine had been operating for 18 years without any trouble of Seventy-one |
the
fascination of the north woods, and it is doubtful if at any time thereafter
she would have left them without much more reluctance than she accepted
them.
