G.E. Mohr of Jewell (Defiance County, Ohio) Says that when his father, Jacob Mohr, came to Jewell in 1871, the site of the present village was still forest. The first site of the village was a mile west of present. Location of this town was change because of the coming of Lyman Trowbridge's stave factory.
Trowbridge, who left to posterity an enduring
monument in Trowbridge Hall at Defiance College, owned a tract of 80 acres south of the village he erected 3 long log and several plank cabins to shelter his wood crews.
G.E. Mohr believes that he is one of the few mills hands still in this vicinity, but says that Henry Rummell of Defiance was employed as a stave piler.
This mill made staves for flour and sugar barrels from elm and red oak logs. One of the twelve foot oak logs which John Hull hauled in from the Trowbridges woods contained 1600 feet of lumber.
The staves were formerly roughly spit into bolts, but with the coming of the modern saws, they were sawed into bolts approximately the length of the intended staves. Then they went into one of the 11 brick steam chest which held three cords each. After 24 hours of steam they went to an equalizer which cut the bolts to the exact stave length, passing through two saws which trimmed both ends at once. Waste ends from the bolts furnished the fuel for operation of the plant.
Operation of the stave-cutter was a task that exacted a steady toll of fingers, and it is said that in those days a man with one or more fingers off his hand was naturally taken for a stave-miller.
After the staves were cut they were piled to dry and cure in 12 long sheds each 200 feet long and about 24 feet wide. They were then passed through a joiner which cut the stave in such a shape that the center of the barrel would bulge to a smaller end.
These jointers were also in the habit of nipping off fingers and Mohr recalls the day a son of Frank Shoup of Defiance lost two fingers there. Each operator had boys to help bring staves to the jointer, and carry then away. The helpers were called "tads."
The finished staves were bound in bundles of 50 each and stored up in storehouses to await shipment.
A machine sawed out the heading from shorter bolts of cottonwood and basswood timber fed into a planter. Then they were roughly matched and held against a knife which rounded the head and cut the edge which would fit into the groove of the stave when the barrel were made in a cooper's shop.
Lyman Trowbridge lived at Napoleon at this time and drove a team of handsome black to and from Jewell and his other mills.
The 480 acre tract has passed into other hands. Ed Flory lives on a section of it and Emma Gackel, Rothschilds and Fred Makus owns some of this land.
G.E. Mohr says that the sticks that are hauled to the sawmills of today were regarded by the timber cutters of that era as toothpicks. Trees of this size were often cut into fuel for the wood-burning locomotives which with their bulging or flaring smokestacks passed over the crude right of way though the forests, stopping every now and then from the long ranks of wood piled on the right of way.
Trowbridge's mill used between three and five million feet of timber annually and soon ate up the forest; the Jewell mill was moved to Standley. Trowbridge, in partnership with his son-in-law, M.E. Loose operated a stave mill at Mark Center which he fed with timber from his 1300 acre holding in Mark and Farmer townships. At the height of his activities he owned better than 3000 acres of land.
Supplying wood to the railroad furnished a profitable sideline to many timber owners. Not all of this wood however went beneath the boilers. The haulers preferred to burn dry wood, and if they ran out of this fuel at home, took a load of green wood to the right of way and brought back a load of dry wood.
In the late summer when the earth had dried from the summer sun, the old wood-burners passing though the woods with their smokestacks spewing millions of sparks set fires which consumed thousands of cords of cut and uncut wood and wrought great loss to the woods.
The staves were formerly roughly spit into bolts, but with the coming of the modern saws, they were sawed into bolts approximately the length of the intended staves. Then they went into one of the 11 brick steam chest which held three cords each. After 24 hours of steam they went to an equalizer which cut the bolts to the exact stave length, passing through two saws which trimmed both ends at once. Waste ends from the bolts furnished the fuel for operation of the plant.
Operation of the stave-cutter was a task that exacted a steady toll of fingers, and it is said that in those days a man with one or more fingers off his hand was naturally taken for a stave-miller.
After the staves were cut they were piled to dry and cure in 12 long sheds each 200 feet long and about 24 feet wide. They were then passed through a joiner which cut the stave in such a shape that the center of the barrel would bulge to a smaller end.
These jointers were also in the habit of nipping off fingers and Mohr recalls the day a son of Frank Shoup of Defiance lost two fingers there. Each operator had boys to help bring staves to the jointer, and carry then away. The helpers were called "tads."
The finished staves were bound in bundles of 50 each and stored up in storehouses to await shipment.
A machine sawed out the heading from shorter bolts of cottonwood and basswood timber fed into a planter. Then they were roughly matched and held against a knife which rounded the head and cut the edge which would fit into the groove of the stave when the barrel were made in a cooper's shop.
Lyman Trowbridge lived at Napoleon at this time and drove a team of handsome black to and from Jewell and his other mills.
The 480 acre tract has passed into other hands. Ed Flory lives on a section of it and Emma Gackel, Rothschilds and Fred Makus owns some of this land.
G.E. Mohr says that the sticks that are hauled to the sawmills of today were regarded by the timber cutters of that era as toothpicks. Trees of this size were often cut into fuel for the wood-burning locomotives which with their bulging or flaring smokestacks passed over the crude right of way though the forests, stopping every now and then from the long ranks of wood piled on the right of way.
Trowbridge's mill used between three and five million feet of timber annually and soon ate up the forest; the Jewell mill was moved to Standley. Trowbridge, in partnership with his son-in-law, M.E. Loose operated a stave mill at Mark Center which he fed with timber from his 1300 acre holding in Mark and Farmer townships. At the height of his activities he owned better than 3000 acres of land.
Supplying wood to the railroad furnished a profitable sideline to many timber owners. Not all of this wood however went beneath the boilers. The haulers preferred to burn dry wood, and if they ran out of this fuel at home, took a load of green wood to the right of way and brought back a load of dry wood.
In the late summer when the earth had dried from the summer sun, the old wood-burners passing though the woods with their smokestacks spewing millions of sparks set fires which consumed thousands of cords of cut and uncut wood and wrought great loss to the woods.
No comments:
Post a Comment