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Store and Mill

Edward L. Ayers

in Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906

The mercantile business in the South has been in an upswing. The chapter details the experiences of a young “drummer” Arch Trawick and the opportunities that wholesale drummers had. Advertising was ... More

The mercantile business in the South has been in an upswing. The chapter details the experiences of a young “drummer” Arch Trawick and the opportunities that wholesale drummers had. Advertising was revolutionized accompanying corporate standardization leading to the earliest mass advertising campaigns in the country. Mail-order houses came on the scene and local Southerners became “much addicted to shopping by mail” as it offered autonomy and anonymity which were of high value to the poor as much as the lower prices. Purchases made by tenants were controlled by merchants or land owners. Modern merchandising and advertising found its way in to every aspect of Southern life. Cooking and food preparation was revolutionized during this time and the invention of Coca-Cola can be traced back to the growing network of Southern stores. Textile production and the timber industry triggered economic change in the New South.Less

“Enterprise vs. The ‘Grab Game’”

Tycho De Boer

in Nature, Business, and Community in North Carolina's Green Swamp

This chapter discusses the emergence of enterprises, corporations, and industries that profited on the timber and lumber of the Green Swamp. Forest industrialization was the result of the emergence ... More

This chapter discusses the emergence of enterprises, corporations, and industries that profited on the timber and lumber of the Green Swamp. Forest industrialization was the result of the emergence of a powerful economic sector which was a deliberate, destructive, and profit-driven industry—a reflection and illustration that perfectly described southern lumbering. In the years between 1880 and 1920, lumber industries levelled millions of acres of forests which were as historians say “a lumberman's assault on the southern forest”. These lumbermen of the New South were the ruthless agents of capitalism who believed that their company towns were models of paternalistic management but who were in reality trampling on the pre-capitalist yeoman farmers, powerless lumber workers, state and federal conservation agents, and nature itself.Less

Musculoskeletal Medicine

Nigel Lane, Louise Powter, and Sam Patel (eds)

in Best of Five MCQs for the Acute Medicine SCE

A Perfect Storm for the Building Industry

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

Competition from mail-order companies forced lumber dealers to rethink their strategy, particularly with respect to consumers. More specifically, lumber dealers diversified their product lines and ... More

Competition from mail-order companies forced lumber dealers to rethink their strategy, particularly with respect to consumers. More specifically, lumber dealers diversified their product lines and loosened ties to the lumber trade. By the early 1920s they were learning to deal with the new competitors. Just when they were gathering momentum, sales of lumber fell due to competition from other building materials that were not only cheaper but also safer or easier to use. Consumers began to spend their money more on other consumer goods, especially automobiles, instead of housing. Residential construction fell into a rut, exacerbated by the Crash of 1929. This building catastrophe paved the way for the emergence of home improvement as an industry and as a social phenomenon. By 1931, the Depression had given birth to the culture of do-it-yourself as a means of home improvement.Less

A Zelig of the American Cultural Economy

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

The rise of the home improvement industry was made possible by the collective prosperity that brought more people into the middle class. Although most property owners had always tried to maintain ... More

The rise of the home improvement industry was made possible by the collective prosperity that brought more people into the middle class. Although most property owners had always tried to maintain their homes in decent repair, they could now afford to steadily improve them through modernization, alterations, or additions. Lumber dealers began to be patronized by consumers and were forced to diversify, thus severing some of their established ties with the lumber trade. The level of urban home ownership soared, and a home improvement industry emerged, propelled by the postwar housing shortage and a do-it-yourself boom. One of the lessons of the emergence of home improvement is that the markets are determined not only by consumers, industry, and the state, but also by the media.Less

Complementary Industries

Karl Raitz

in Bourbon's Backroads: A Journey through Kentucky's Distilling Landscape

Kentucky distillers bought white oak barrels from local coopers or established dedicated cooperages near their works. Coopers worked in independent shops as owners or employees, in larger urban ... More

Kentucky distillers bought white oak barrels from local coopers or established dedicated cooperages near their works. Coopers worked in independent shops as owners or employees, in larger urban commercial shops with a dozen or more employees, or in dedicated shops owned by distilleries. Stills were initially made by self-taught coppersmiths, but skilled professionals dominated the industrial manufacture of high-capacity copper distilling equipment. Copper was comparatively rare and expensive and was often recycled from naval and maritime shipping or vessel and machinery manufacturers.Less

Conclusion

Sue Fawn Chung

in Chinese in the Woods: Logging and Lumbering in the American West

This concluding chapter discusses the departure of the Chinese from their involvement in lumbering, years after making a significant contribution to the building of the American West. In the 1880s ... More

This concluding chapter discusses the departure of the Chinese from their involvement in lumbering, years after making a significant contribution to the building of the American West. In the 1880s Chinese immigrants constituted the majority of the men employed in the lumber trade in the Sierra Nevada. They undertook a variety of jobs, from wood transportation and mill operation to digging ditches, grading roads, cooking and cleaning, and caring for the animals. The wages they earned were determined by the type of job they did. This chapter shows that Chinese laborers in the logging industry had moved either into other occupations or to work in other forests—some even returned to China—by 1920 due to a variety of factors, such as the emerging forest conservation movement, technological improvements in logging, decreased demand for lumber, and the rise of large corporations that drove the smaller lumber firms out of business.Less

Patterns of Protest: The Raftsmen's Rebellion of 1857

Robert M. Sandow

in Deserter Country: Civil War Opposition in the Pennsylvania Appalachians

Wartime opposition in mountain communities fit recurrent patterns of social protest evident in the antebellum period. At the root of protest lay social and economic changes imperiling their society. ... More

Wartime opposition in mountain communities fit recurrent patterns of social protest evident in the antebellum period. At the root of protest lay social and economic changes imperiling their society. The changes in lumbering accelerated the pace of forest exploitation and innovated methods of log driving that competed with rafting. The floating logs impeded rafters' access to markets and violated sense of customary use of the rivers. With a mindset of republican ideology, the watermen fought back against restrictions and the corruptions of power that favored industrial lumbering. In the American context, republicanism provided both a moral and political framework for protest. It was a philosophy cherishing representative government as the protector of liberty and the common weal. The rafters' rebellion in 1857 was an ominous foreshadowing of wartime opposition, when watermen were the source of violent dissent. Wartime hardships would exacerbate fears of economic vulnerability and push regional farmers into patterns of protest.Less

Introduction: “The Magic Wand of Capital and Enterprise”

Tycho De Boer

in Nature, Business, and Community in North Carolina's Green Swamp

This book chronicles the environmental history of Green Swamp, a forest in North Carolina that fell within the complex web of conservation and commerce. This book focuses on Green Swamp wherein it ... More

This book chronicles the environmental history of Green Swamp, a forest in North Carolina that fell within the complex web of conservation and commerce. This book focuses on Green Swamp wherein it illustrates the struggle of the local area to preserve its natural environment while pursuing economic growth and development. In this study, the complex relationship between the swamp, local inhabitants, and outside entrepreneurs and businessmen is highlighted. The book retraces the history of the swamp: from the growth of agriculture, the discovery of turpentine, and the emergence of lumber industries, and the destruction of the forests due to the rampant use and abuse of the forests. This book also discloses the manner with which the businesses of this region took a leading role on the management and preservation of the environment. This book offers an understanding of the complex and intricate intersections of nature, business, and community.Less

“After the Lumbermen, What?”

Tycho De Boer

in Nature, Business, and Community in North Carolina's Green Swamp

Whenever a lumber company ended its operations at a certain location, the landscapes that were once lush forests became open spaces battered and scarred by human intervention wherein tree limbs ... More

Whenever a lumber company ended its operations at a certain location, the landscapes that were once lush forests became open spaces battered and scarred by human intervention wherein tree limbs sprawlled, small trees staggered, and surface scars from railroad tracks and snaking routes wasted the once splendid natural landscape. This chapter discusses the aftermath of logging and timber acquisition and the intricate relationship of the farmers with the land and the relationships that traditionally existed between farms and forests. After the logging industries left a certain location, the cleared lands were usually used by agriculture for livestock grazing and crop farming. These patchworks of plantations and farms were often seen as the result of humans carrying out their duty to take full advantage of nature's bounty. By attempts of the paternalistic business community to use the cutover lands to bring reform and makeover southern rural life, cutover lands were revived in the form of agriculture. In addition to cultivating these bald patches of land, the farmers, by defending and holding their woodland holdings, steered the cutover development away from primary agricultural solutions to their perceived shortcomings. They steered the reclamation of the cutover toward reforestation. Farmers, by reducing their flocks and herds and by keeping them out of their wooded acreage, contributed to the health of both the forest environment and the mixed cultural economy. As a result, neither a republic of small farms nor an empire of ranches emerged, but rather new forests would aqppear after the lumbermen left.Less

Green Grass and Green Gold

James K. Agee

in Steward's Fork: A Sustainable Future for the Klamath Mountains

This chapter focuses on ranching and the role of ranchers in sustaining the gold-rush mining activities in the Klamath Mountains. It describes the establishment of ranches and the development of ... More

This chapter focuses on ranching and the role of ranchers in sustaining the gold-rush mining activities in the Klamath Mountains. It describes the establishment of ranches and the development of local sources for grains, livestock, and dairy. The chapter also discusses lumber production and the damaging effects of logging methods.Less

Carson City and Truckee: Anti-Chinese Activities

Sue Fawn Chung

in Chinese in the Woods: Logging and Lumbering in the American West

This chapter examines anti-Chinese activities in two towns: Carson City in Nevada and Truckee in California. Anti-Chinese movements emerged when it became clear to Euro-Americans that the Chinese ... More

This chapter examines anti-Chinese activities in two towns: Carson City in Nevada and Truckee in California. Anti-Chinese movements emerged when it became clear to Euro-Americans that the Chinese posed threats to American jobs, economy, culture, and white supremacy. Between 1850 and 1908, a total of 153 violent anti-Chinese actions resulted in 143 deaths and the displacement of 10,525 from their homes and businesses. Anti-Chinese sentiment intensified in the 1870s in preparation for immigration restrictions that led to the enactment of federal Chinese exclusion laws between 1882 and 1892. This chapter discusses attempts to oust the Chinese immigrants from Carson and Truckee, both of which had prosperous Chinatowns with wealthy Chinese merchants who were involved in the lumber trade as contractors for laborers and merchandising. It also considers the role played by the media in anti-Chinese agitation and how the anti-Chinese hostility reduced the Chinese population in Carson and Truckee.Less

Timber Harvest in Interior Alaska

Tricia L. Wurtz and Robert A. Ott

in Alaska's Changing Boreal Forest

The most active period of timber harvesting in the history of Alaska’s interior occurred nearly a century ago (Roessler 1997). The beginning of this era ... More

The most active period of timber harvesting in the history of Alaska’s interior occurred nearly a century ago (Roessler 1997). The beginning of this era was the year 1869, when steam-powered, stern-wheeled riverboats first operated on the Yukon River (Robe 1943). Gold was discovered in Alaska in the 40-Mile River area in 1886, a find that was overshadowed 10 years later by the discovery of gold in the Klondike, Yukon Territory. By 1898, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, was reported to have 12 sawmills producing a total of 12 million board feet of lumber annually (Naske and Slotnick 1987). Over the next 50 years, more than 250 different sternwheeled riverboats operated in the Yukon drainage, covering a large part of Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory (Cohen 1982). This transportation system required large amounts of fuel. Woodcutters contracted with riverboat owners to provide stacked cordwood at the river’s edge, at a cost of $7.14 in 1901 (Fig. 18.1; Cohen 1982). Between 100 and 150 cords of wood were required to make the 1400-km round trip from the upper Yukon to Dawson City (Trimmer 1898). Over time, woodcutters moved inland from the rivers’ edges, significantly impacting the forest along many rivers of the Yukon drainage (Roessler 1997). The growth of the town of Fairbanks required wood for buildings and flumes as well as for fuel. In Fairbanks’s early days, all electrical generation was by wood fuel at the N.C. Company’s power plant. From the founding of the town in 1903 through the 1970s, white spruce harvested in the Fairbanks area was used exclusively by local sawmills, which produced small amounts of green and air-dried lumber. In 1984, however, the Alaska Primary Manufacturing Law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, removing the legal barrier to round-log export of timber harvested from State lands. During the late 1980s and 1990s, many high-quality logs from State and private land timber sales were exported, primarily to Pacific Rim countries. Declining markets ended this trend in the late 1990s, and there have been no significant exports since the market collapse. Less

My Emblem, The Pine

Richard Higgins and Richard Higgins

in Thoreau and the Language of Trees

Thoreau felt a deep affinity for Pinus strobus, Eastern white pine, the tallest tree east of the Rockies. He called it the emblem of his life. He loved its erect posture, how its whorled branches ... More

Thoreau felt a deep affinity for Pinus strobus, Eastern white pine, the tallest tree east of the Rockies. He called it the emblem of his life. He loved its erect posture, how its whorled branches jutt almost horizontal to its ramrod straight trunk. The pine was a sign of nature’s vigor. The scent of pines was an elixir to him. He identified with the pine’s wild spirit. Nothing stands up more free from blame than a pine tree. White pines played a big role in American history. Sought for masts by England, they became an early symbol of American identity. The tallest pines are not gone. Researchers have found 17 white pines in Massachusetts at least 160 feet.Less

Introduction

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

The home improvement industry involves many different players, from lenders to manufacturers and retailers. Then there are the media such as consumer magazines, television shows, and web sites and ... More

The home improvement industry involves many different players, from lenders to manufacturers and retailers. Then there are the media such as consumer magazines, television shows, and web sites and blogs that instruct, entertain, and address our needs for an improved home. Do-it-yourself emerged in 1952 as a distinctive market and became a recognized fad by 1954. The rise of the home improvement market took decades, and involved a wide range of cultural and economic forces. This book argues that the home improvement industry emerged at a time of rising affluence and growing consumer debt, together with the emergence of home ownership as the dream of the “American” (not to mention the Canadian and the Australian) middle class. It offers a closely woven historical narrative of the industry and discusses how lumber dealers severed some of their established ties with the lumber trade, the general crisis in the building industry that emerged in the late 1920s, the postwar owner-building boom, and the emergence of the home improvement market in the 1950s.Less

An Industry Unready to Improve

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

Home owners relied on improvement manuals for tips about how to maintain and repair their homes, but there was no home improvement store during the 1920s to offer more specific advice about colors, ... More

Home owners relied on improvement manuals for tips about how to maintain and repair their homes, but there was no home improvement store during the 1920s to offer more specific advice about colors, designs, and materials. Consumer demand would eventually give rise to consumer-friendly retailers, a process that was both painful and protracted. There were two types of building suppliers in the 1920s: large manufacturers and small retailers. The sale of building supplies was dominated by local lumber dealers, who were not accustomed to consumer sales, appeared to have no interest in the consumer trade, and were also slow in trying to shape the consumer market. Another problem was the way building materials, including lumber, was distributed. Seeing an opportunity, new building suppliers sought out consumers by introducing new products to the market ranging from concrete blocks and asphalt shingles to hardboard, gypsum board, and linoleum. They gave consumers what their old counterparts could not through aggressive marketing in the form of advertising and trade promotion.Less

The Realm of the Retailer

Richard Harris

in Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

As suppliers of the single most important building material, local retail lumber dealers were in the best position to address the growing interest in home improvements, and were able to offer ... More

As suppliers of the single most important building material, local retail lumber dealers were in the best position to address the growing interest in home improvements, and were able to offer short-term credit, which could boost sales. However, they were slow to rise to the challenge. The failure of local retail lumber dealers to go after a business that promised to be profitable was baffling. The primary reason was that lumber dealers, like most retailers, were specialized and were neither equipped nor inclined to deal with consumers. Chain stores engaged in the lumber business were most prominent in small towns, where they were known as line yards. Regardless of location, however, most retailers did not stock the range of building materials or tools necessary for home improvement. The majority of lumber dealers were ambivalent about consumers, particularly women—the consumer group that presented the greatest challenge to them. That lumberyards were not consumer-friendly posed a serious barrier to the home improvement industry.Less