History of the Greenwood Logging Company
The following is a brief history of the Greenwood Logging Company (1922–1938) and that company's predecessor the Greenwood Timber Company (1909–1922). The history begins in Chehalis County, Washington, which was renamed on March 15, 1915, to Grays Harbor County, Washington. William Edward Boeing (1881–1956) and Daniel McCrimmon (1870–1918) organized the Boeing & McCrimmon Company on December 6, 1906, with $15,000 authorized capital. Three days earlier, on December 3, 1906, the Aberdeen Herald had noted that William E. Boeing and Daniel McCrimmon were about to open a logging camp along the Wishkah River. Daniel McCrimmon was married to Annie (Larkin) McCrimmon, who was a daughter of Thomas Larkin. Three sons of Thomas Larkin (John, Edward, and Charles) owned the Larkin Logging Company and were also logging then along the Wishkah River. The 1909–1910 edition of Polk's Oregon and Washington Gazetteer and Business Directory lists (in Aberdeen) “Boeing & McCrimmon Co., Wm E Boeing pres., Daniel McCrimmon vice-pres., loggers, 405 E Wishkah.” The wood-frame building that was at 405 East Wishkah Street, in Aberdeen, was formerly occupied by the Aberdeen Daily Bulletin, until around 1906. The address 405 East Wishkah, according to the 1906 and 1914 Sanborn Map Company fire insurance maps, was located about 60 feet northeast from the east street corner of the intersection of East Wishkah Street and South G Street. The Boeing & McCrimmon Logging Company office was located right across the present-day sidewalk from the inlaid brick pavement there, laid in a herringbone pattern, along the outside edge of the sidewalk. The January 25, 1909, issue of the Aberdeen Herald noted that Daniel McCrimmon left the Boeing & McCrimmon Logging Company in January 1909. The February 20, 1909, issue of the American Lumberman weekly noted that the Greenwood Timber Company that week had been incorporated by William Edward Boeing, Charles Edgar Ale, and John Nethery, with $40,000 authorized capital. Charles Edgar Ale (1864–1927) was a local lumberman, who was regarded as an excellent accountant. John Walter Nethery (1882–1925), at the time of the 1900 federal census, worked as a logger and lived in a logging camp in the Grand Forks precinct. Grand Forks was an 1880s–1900s name for the vicinity around where the East Fork Wishkah River has its confluence with the Wishkah River. The Grand Forks, Chehalis County, post office was established on August 11, 1890, with Louis A. Hill appointed as postmaster. John Walter Nethery was the son of James John “J. J.” Nethery (1849–1890), who had been the county treasurer in 1889 and 1890. The April 29, 1912, issue of the Aberdeen Herald noted that Daniel McCrimmon went in April 1912 with two of his wife's brothers (John Larkin and Edward Larkin) to go logging for Larkin Logging Company along the lower Columbia River, at Blind Slough. The May 11, 1918, issue of The Oregon Statesman noted that Daniel McCrimmon had died there, at Blind Slough, in a logging accident. The Greenwood Timber Company was undoubtedly named after the rural community of Greenwood, Albemarle County, Virginia, near where William E. Boeing was living with his mother, stepfather, and sister, at the time of the 1900 federal census. His mother, Marie, still lived there on the large country estate, near Greenwood, Virginia, at the time that the Greenwood Timber Company was organized. William E. Boeing had moved from Hoquiam to Seattle, in May 1908, but his Grays Harbor logging business at that time was just taking off. He established a Seattle office in the Hoge Building, in Room 1100, by 1912. His Seattle office was used as the main office for the Greenwood Timber Company and then, in 1915, the office was also used as the main office for the start-up of the Aero Club of the Northwest, of which William E. Boeing was the first president. The local Grays Harbor office of the Greenwood Timber Company was located in Room 239 of the Finch Building, in Aberdeen, at the time of publication of the 1917–1918 edition of R. L. Polk & Co.'s Oregon and Washington Gazetteer. The Finch Building was located in Aberdeen on the south street corner of the intersection of East Heron Street and South H Street. Charles Edgar Ale was manager of the Greenwood Timber Company, until Jerry A. McGillicuddy, Jr., became manager by 1917. Charles Edgar Ale left to look after his interests in the North River Shingle Company. During the time of the Greenwood Timber Company, president William E. Boeing had also become busy with working on aircraft manufacturing, in Seattle, with George Conrad Westervelt (1879–1956). They assembled a couple B&W twin-pontoon biplanes at William E. Boeing's Lake Union hangar, which is shown on a Seattle 1917 (Vol. 4) Sanborn Map Company fire insurance map. The fire insurance map shows the Lake Union hangar as having been located off the foot of Roanoke Street and as having extended for around 200 feet to the north-northeast. Their B&W seaplane (Boeing Model 1 pontoon biplane) launched the Pacific Aero Products Company that was incorporated on July 15, 1916, and became the Boeing Airplane Company, on April 26, 1917. All through that time period William E. Boeing was president of the expanding Greenwood Timber Company, while he was also president of the Pacific Aero Products Company and then the Boeing Airplane Company. The Greenwood Timber Company was reincorporated as the Greenwood Logging Company, on April 8, 1922, with $250,000 authorized capital. The April 15, 1922, issue of the American Lumberman weekly noted that the incorporators of the Greenwood Logging Company were William E. Boeing (president), George Miller (general manager), Joseph A. Swalwell (vice president), and Jerry A. McGillicuddy, Jr., (secretary). George “Cyclone” Miller (1863–1935) and banker Joseph Arthur Swalwell (1873–1965) had previously done business as the Miller Logging Company, in Snohomish County. Jerry Ambrose McGillicuddy, Jr., (1883–1951) had been a Grays Harbor County commissioner and then manager, after Charles Edgar Ale, of the predecessor Greenwood Timber Company. The following year, the June 15, 1923, issue of The New York Lumber Trade Journal noted that the Miller Logging Company was reorganized by William E. Boeing, George Miller, and Joseph A. Swalwell, with a capital stock of $300,000. The June 1922 issue of The Timberman noted that Zenas A. Toye, of Carlisle, had signed a contract for furnishing the Greenwood Timber Company with 4000 piles that were to have been used in the construction of a boom and log dump on the East Fork Hoquiam River. Zenas A. Toye, at that time, had operated a small cedar flitch mill that was located just west of Carlisle. The July 1922 issue of The Timberman noted that Clarence R. Pope, a well-known local logging engineer, was overseeing construction of a new logging railroad for the Greenwood Logging Company and about 7 miles of grade for the new logging railroad had been completed up along the East Fork Hoquiam River by the end of June. The July 1922 issue of The Timberman also noted that the Greenwood Logging Company had recently purchased a 63-ton Heisler locomotive. The October 1922 issue of The Timberman noted that fallers and buckers had started cutting in the William E. Boeing timber tract and 8 miles of logging railroad had been constructed from the landing (log dump) on the East Fork Hoquiam River. The November 25, 1922, issue of the American Lumberman weekly noted that the first logs from the logging railroad log dump had been brought downriver and towed on the harbor to the sawmill of the Grays Harbor Lumber Company, which was located just west of the mouth of the Hoquiam River. Also noted was that the company was operating in the William E. Boeing timber tract and had completed 10 miles of logging railroad. The March 1924 issue of The Timberman noted that the Greenwood Logging Company had recently received a new 80-ton Heisler locomotive, which took only 14 days to arrive from the factory. The 1926 edition of the Directory of the Lumber Industry (Pacific Coast), published by The Timberman, noted that the Greenwood Logging Company had 3 geared locomotives (a couple 63-ton Heisler locomotives and an 80-ton Heisler locomotive), 80 sets of connected trucks, and operated on 16 miles of standard gauge track, having 60-pound rail, and a maximum grade of 7 percent. Also noted was that by 1926 the Greenwood Logging Company had a daily output of 325 MBF from 3 sides, they employed 225 men, and they had 9 donkey engines. Maps show that by 1928 the logging railroad main line had been extended over to and up the West Fork Wishkah River drainage, with branch lines and side spurs that ran through parts of the William E. Boeing timberlands that extended to the timberlands of the Polson Logging Company. The 1934 edition of the West Coat Lumberman's Handbook and Directory of the Western Timber Industries, published by West Coast Lumberman, noted that the Greenwood Logging Company had 3 locomotives and operated on 22 miles of logging railroads. Also noted was that by 1934 the Greenwood Logging Company had a daily output of 450 MBF from 3 sides and had 8 steam donkeys. Even after William E. Boeing divested himself from his airline and aircraft manufacturing interests, in 1934, he still continued on as president of the Greenwood Logging Company.
Copyright © by Andrew Craig Magnuson |
