| took over the job of the rivers, and now motor trucks are replacing
them. We have a number of tractors, and if we had not reached the end of
our cut we would, no doubt, become a one-hundred percent tractor operation
very soon.
"It is amusing to look back over the scares the lumber industry has had. I remember my father telling me one time that the great market for lumber would soon disappear. That was when cement sidewalks began to be popular. Up to that time great quantities of our products were used for sidewalks. The same thing is true of wooden fences replaced by wire and streets which once used enormous quantities of lumber for plank roads and for paving blocks in city thoroughfares; brick and cement took their places. but the lumber business never suffered visibly. "You hear some of the same kind of talk today with regard to insulation and fiber board and asbestos materials. The truth is that most of these materials go in places where lumber was never used anyway. A product as basic and as universally accepted as lumber is never going to suffer from the introduction of new materials. There is new competition. That is true, but it makes for the production of better lumber, not the loss of the market." The Holt Hardwood Co., at Oconto, which is unaffected by the closing of the Holt Lumber Co., is engaged in the manufacture of birch, maple and oak flooring, and is believed to be one of the finest flooring plants in the world. Donald S. DeWitt, son-in-law of W. A. Holt, and son of the vice-president and general manager, is superintendent of the plant. Donald DeWitt planned the mill and has run it since it was built. Donald is a skilled mechanic, a graduate of the Michigan College of Mines, at Houghton, Michigan. His first job on leaving school was designing the mill. In addition to flooring, the company also manufactures broom handles. The flooring business was established in 1893 at Reed City, Michigan, by W. E. Williams. It was removed to Traverse City in 1899, and to Oconto in 1916, being taken over two years later by the Holt Hardwood Co. In the fall of 1918 the same company took over the shoe-last block business of the Williams Bros., at Cadillac, Michigan, which had been established at Shelby in 1875, and moved to Manton ten years later. The block mill burned in 1924 and was not rebuilt. The Holt Hardwood Co. was incorporated in 1918, the officers at that time being William Arthur Holt, president; Walter L. DeWitt, vice-president and general manager; George H. Holt, treasurer, and Alfred Klass, secretary. George H. Holt was succeeded in 1922 by Clinton F. DeWitt, who prior to the war was bookkeeper for the company, and after that became Sales Manager. Walter L. DeWitt, vice-president and general manager of the Holt Hardwood Co., spent the early part of his life in railroad service., and entered the lumber business with Walter N. Kelley, of Traverse City, Michigan in 1901. Seventy-six |
In 1908 he entered the jobbing business in Chicago, where he
remained until 1914. From 1912 to 1918 he had charge of the business in
the United States of the Seaman Kent Co., Ltd., of Toronto, Canada. In
1914 Mr. DeWitt returned to Traverse City where he became associated with
the W. E. Williams Co., at the same time carrying on his jobbing business
and representing Seaman Kent. In 1916, with W. E. Williams, he bought the
machinery and equipment of the Williams Co., of Traverse City, moved it
to Oconto and established the business there. In 1918 he took entire charge
of the Holt Hardwood Co., and built the business from practically nothing
to its present position of national importance. Mr. DeWitt, who is in his
sixty-ninth year, is an ardent and enthusiastic golfer, jovial, a picture
of health and well being, he is one of the best known and best liked flooring
manufacturers in the United States. While he has no idea of retiring from
business in the near future, he expects to do so some time, and he has
a clearly defined idea of what he will do when that day arrives. There
are several locations near Oconto which he has surveyed with a view to
selecting one and developing it into a sporty golf course for his own use.
The Holt Hardwood Co., fully electrified with individual push button controls for each machine, keeps material moving in one direction through the mill, rough lumber coming from the dry shed at one end, and finished flooring moving into a warehouse at the other end. Yates Matchers used in the plant are the only machines using the shearing principle for imparting a high finish to the hardwood, and the flooring comes from them with a polish that might have been produced by some special process applied after the manufacturing operation. This is true of birds eye maple of intricate grain and figure. The result is all the more remarkable since it is achieved without sacrifice of any time in production. It is possible to get about 165 feet of maple a minute from an A-7 matcher, the product having a satiny finish, needing no sanding. Average daily output of the plant is 40,000 feet of maple, birch, oak and beech flooring in all widths and thicknesses. The company lists 148 items of hardwood flooring, and has warehouse space for 2,000,000 feet of finished stock. The annual capacity of the plant is between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000 feet of flooring. The company also manufactures broom handles, which are
Holt Company Flooring Shed Seventy-seven |
