North Tonawanda History Museum © Our Lumber Heritage

City Historians have debated over the meaning of the word “Tonawanda” since the city's beginning. Some say that the Indian word “Ta- Na- Wun- Da” meant “swift water,” while others insist that it meant, “place of woods” or “land of timber,” either way the name is an appropriate one. From Maine to Michigan, North Tonawanda has been known to anyone interested in the lumber or timber trade as an important lumber center.

Though historians have debated the meaning of the word “Tonawanda”, there is little debate as to why North Tonawanda was called the “Lumber City” and why it was the leading lumber capital in the East. This is because many lumberyards and businesses surrounding the lumber industry were located in the Tonawanda area. There is a debate seen in many of the writings on North Tonawanda's lumber industry over who was the biggest and most influential lumber city, North Tonawanda or Chicago. Historian William Cronon wrote heavily about Chicago's lumber industry and the effect it had on the country in his work Nature's Metropolis, never even once mentioning North Tonawanda or its importance.

North Tonawanda has a rich and important history, especially in relation to the lumber industry. This study will look at the reasons why North Tonawanda was called the “Lumber City” and what influenced its rise and fall from being a prominent and important lumber city. I plan on looking at what businesses were in North Tonawanda and if the lumber industry influenced their location in the Tonawanda area. North Tonawanda has many things that emerged as a result of the lumber industry, such as the fire company's and transportation networks that are still in existence today. Lastly, it is important to know that North Tonawanda was not the only important lumber city; I will briefly discuss the lumber industry in Chicago and how it compared to that of North Tonawanda's lumber industry in regard to resources and development.

(see map at end of paper)
Looking at a map of the United States, an acute observer may easily see how advantageously the “Lumber City” is located. North Tonawanda is located at the nexus of the Erie Barge Canal, Tonawanda Creek, and the Niagara River on the south- western edge of Niagara County, midway between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. It is at the foot of the Great Lakes, through which the lumber and timber were easily accessible. The city is also about ten miles from Buffalo's City Hall.

Originally the Neutral Indians and Seneca of the Iroquois Confederation owned the land that would later be North Tonawanda. The land was secured by treaty with the Seneca Nation and early land developers recognized its unique position in North America. Beginning within a few years after the completion of the Erie Canal, North Tonawanda's industrial development began. Once the Michigan forests were opened to logging, North Tonawanda rivaled Chicago as the lumber capital of the world.

ITS BEGININGS

From a small settlement near a tavern standing near a rope ferry that crossed Tonawanda Creek, to an integral part of a huge industrial complex, that is the history of the Tonawandas. North Tonawanda's first recorded settler was Edward Carney, who came to Tonawanda Island in about 1815. Soon there after, other settlers followed. With the building of the Erie Canal came laborers who created temporary homes or shanties.

Even with the completion of the Erie Canal, the growth of the village from 1825 to 1850 was very slow. It's natural location with timber all around it and thousands of acres along the shores of the upper lakes and Canada to draw upon, indicated early on that lumbering was destined to be, for many years, the leading industry for the Tonawandas.

At first native timber was cut by local inhabitants and shipped to the east via returning canal boats which had already unloaded their westbound cargo in Buffalo. A Buffalo company, whose name has been lost over the years, seeing a future for this temporary village, purchased a large tract of land and laid out a city. But the land did not sell and the company soon abandoned its project.

In about 1840 the pioneers of the lumber business began to settle in the Tonawandas. Among these were Henry P. Smith, the first lumber dealer, who rafted huge logs from the Canadian and Michigan forests, John Simson who established the first saw mill and Planing Mill, and by 1848 the first steam saw mill was erected by Colonel Lewis S. Payne. Had it not been for the pioneer lumbermen, the farming of the land and permanent settlements would have been nearly impossible or at least greatly delayed as the greatest number of logs, at first, came from the areas that were destined to be farms. It was a necessity that the logs be cut down before the ground could be tilled and later farmed.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Canal boatmen and their families mostly populated North Tonawanda. Then in 1849 a group of Cleveland investors, impressed with North Tonawanda's location as an inland port, erected a grain elevator and a number of warehouses. The Tonawandas began to assume the look of a lumber port in the 1850's and 1860's. This activity marked one of the most important parts of North Tonawanda's history. In 1853 the Niagara River was described as: …jammed with steamers and schooners bringing from the west flour, pork, grain and livestock, to be transferred to the cars and canal boats transported east.

Bronson and Company brought the first cargo of lumber from Canada in 1857. In 1859 the Village, hurting from frequent fires and economic slump, resorted to the Stave business. Messrs. Butts & Co created special docks for this traffic, and this trade flourished until 1860, when the attention again turned towards the handling of lumber.

In the 1860's William Emerson provided a “new” industry with the construction of a Planing mill and woodworking factory. Soon there after, other mills for the manufacture of sash, doors, and blinds began to spring up. Not long after the beginning of the Civil War, Henry P. Smith, pioneer lumberman, conceived the idea of rafting logs from Canada and the northwest to the Tonawandas.

What lumber was not carried was floated down to the head of the Canal and towed in great log rafts chained together and brought here to be sawed into lumber and shingles. The whine of twelve hour shifts for one fifty to two dollars a day. It was a rugged existence but the population was equal to the task and our growth continued.

The bulk of the lumber that entered the North Tonawanda ports was white pine, which came from the northwest. Grand lsland was purchased in 1833 for the white oak timber available there. The East Boston Company paid five dollars per each of the eighty- two acres. Stephen White was the manager of the company. A large Sawmill with gangsaws was constructed on the Island. Trees from Grand Island were sent to Boston for shipbuilding. The Island was at one time covered in trees, but they were soon cut down and a mansion called “Beechwater” was built in their place.

Later William Wilkeson of Buffalo became the owner of Tonawanda Island (see map at end of paper) . The Buffalonian in turn sold it to Smith & Fassett in 1882 for $45,000. The Island remained unused until 1888 when it was wholly docked except along frontage of Tonawanda City Water Company and a short distance at the head of the island.

THE LUMBER BOOM YEARS

Lumber was now the lifeblood of the community. Over the next seventy- five years this industry drew national recognition to North Tonawanda and at its peak, the city was the largest lumber port in the United States. The lumber business became especially important in the 1870's when it began to grow in leads and bounds. In twelve years practically all the available warfage had been devoted to this industry, so to increase the storage capacity, Tonawanda Island was bridged to the mainland.

Logs from the shores of Lake Erie were running out, so the rafting of whole logs came to an abrupt end. Sawmills were built further west so that ships could be loaded with sawed lumber and shipped to the Tonawandas where the sawed lumber was processed in the many mills in the area.

In 1888 some 45 mills and yards handled over 820 million board feet of lumber, 16 million pieces of lath, and 64 million shingles. These mills offered hundreds of jobs; many filled by immigrants newly arrived from Europe. These immigrants came from Ireland, Poland, Italy, Germany, and many other countries, all sharing the same dream of life in a free land of opportunities.

Many of these new Americans had been trained craftsmen in their native lands. They possessed the skills necessary for the development of heavy industry. Their knowledge combined with capital generated by the lumber business, set the stage for the next phase in the growth of North Tonawanda.

The principal business in the Tonawandas was timber receiving and forwarding and the manufacture of shingles and other products by the sawmills.

Sawed lumber was stacked from Isle View to Whitmer Road with only a few breaks, such as the Niagara Iron Works as well as totally covering Tonawanda Island.

The Lumber industry grew most amazingly each year, showing tremendous gains in receipts and shipments of lumber then being taken from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It was in 1882 that the figures rose to a point exceeding that of Chicago. The following Table was prepared by the Tonawanda Herald and has appeared in many publications. This table shows the number of feet of lumber, pieces of shingles and pieces of lath produced between the years 1873 to 1896.

The peak year for lumber feet was 1890, yielding 718,650,900 feet; the peak year for lath pieces was 1888, yielding 16,617,000 pieces; and the peak year for shingles pieces was 1889, yielding 68,712,000 pieces. The reasons for these differences between years and peaks for items are unknown.

The shipments eastward by canal during the same periods show an equally gratifying increase. Below are the figures also from the Herald:

Smith Fassett and Company Wisconsin Lumber Co.
Tonawanda Lumber and Saw Mill
Huron Lumber Company
A. Weston & Co.
Dodge & Bliss Co.
Calkins & Company
W. H. Sawyer Co.
P.W. Ledoux Factory
Rumbold & Alliger
David G. Cooper
Hall & Buell
Kelsey & Gillespie
Fassett & Bellinger
Robertson& Doebler
James B. Huff Frost
Rider & Frost
A.B. Williams
F. A. Myrick
Monroe & McLean Eastern Lumber
A.K. and W.E. Silverstone
Cornelius Collins Fassett & Billinger
Rumbold & Bellinger
George H. Damon
George E. Hill Planning Mill
Ollie & McKeen
Northern Lumber Co.
Scanlon, Bush & Co.
New York Lumber and Woodworking
J. Balt Shingles
J.S. Bliss & Co. which formed in 1886, burned in 1895 and
occupied the grist mill which was built by John & James Sweeney, 1853.
L.A. Kelsey Lumber Co. established in 1886
the first hardwood lumber trade in North Tonawanda.
Robinson Bros. & Co., Ltd
Hallister Lumber Co.
E. Hewitt & R.E. Fowler Shingle Mill
Robertson & Doebler
W.E. Marsh & Co.
Gratwick Smith & Mitchell
John Godkin
W.H. Kessler & Son
De Graff & Pislon & Stone
Thompson Hubman & Fisher Plumsteel
Gillespie & Himes
J. & T. Chartlon's Woodworking Mill
A.M. Dodge& Co. succeeded by
Dodge & Bliss Co.
Gratwick, Smith & Fryer Lumber Co. (1880)
Merriman & Merriman
McGraw & Co. Bennett Company
Export Lumber Co.
W.H. Gratwick & Co.
Peter Misner
Willowghby & Hathaway
Gratwick, Fryer & Co. (Albany)
Smith, Gratwick & Co. (Michigan)
W.H. Cooper & Co.
W. H. Sawyer Lumber Co.
Lockman & Wood
Whitney & Barnes
Skillings
J.M. Chapman
James Morris & Co.
Harrison W. Tyler Skillings
Whitney & Barnes
J.A. Bliss Shingles

The List includes many companies that merged and as a result names reappear several times.

Two examples of large companies were the McGraw & Co., and Smith Gratwick & Co. The McGraw company occupied 6 1/4 acres on Manhattan Street. Their main dock, on the Niagara River, was four hundred feet long. Two slips each had six hundred feet of docking. The total 1,600 feet of dock space was capable of storing ten million feet of rough lumber and 500,000 feet of dressed ceiling, siding and flooring and a full stock of shingles and lath. A branch of the Central Railroad passed through the lumberyard. The Smith, Gratwick & Co. owned 31,000 acres of pine forest in Northern Michigan. Two mills operated in Michigan. It was said that 28,000,000 feet of pine was turned out at these mills, the lumber being sent to Tonawanda where the facilities there included river frontage of 803 feet, a water slip and a rear dock six hundred feet long, totaling 2,200 feet of dock space. Both the Central and Erie Railroads had branches in the plant.

The Erie Canal was the earliest modern transportation system serving North Tonawanda. It created an important transshipment point for goods moving between the forests and farms along the Great Lakes and the demand for raw materials from the cities.

As was planned, the Tonawandas became the western terminus of the Erie Barge Canal. Previous to the construction of the Canal there appeared to be little interest in settling or investing in the area; the Canal was the force driving capitalists to invest at this favorable point and therefore was extremely influential in the development of the Tonawandas.

In the early years of lumber in the Tonawandas there were numerous boatyards and dry docks all along the canal. In the late 1880's there were six boat yards still building grain and lumber boats in the Tonawandas. The size of the average lumber boat in Tonawanda was sixteen feet wide by ninety- six feet long, with sides nine feet high. The draft was six feet when loaded carrying 180,000 to 200,000 board feet of lumber or from 210 to 240 tons of bulk cargo such as sand, stone, or gravel. The boats were usually completed in pairs and towed by a three- span team of mules.

The earlier years of the Erie Canal were its most useful ones for two reasons. First, it shortened the distance from the New York Port to the Great Lakes by many miles as all travel, shipping, and merchandise had previously been shipped through the Mohawk and Oswego Rivers, and Lake Ontario. Second, there were at that time, no railroads in competition with it; but later, with the heightened use of railroads, there was a question as to how important the Canal was anymore.

The development of the Railroads spelled the beginning of the end of the Erie Canal. The Canal was still in its infancy, open only ten years, when the railroads moved in. Much of the freight sent by train originated locally, but some was lumber from the Great Lakes that was enroute to inland markets. There were three main lines running through the Tonawandas.

The New York Central, The New York City Dock line, and the Tonawanda Industrial Track, which ran to and from Tonawanda Island and the mainland. In the lumber district along the Niagara River, the Central (NY Central) built spurs into the major lumberyards and up to the docks. The spurs nearest downtown ran to the W.S. Shaw Steam Planing Mill, the next spur went into Vincent, Koch, & Co. Planing Mill at Main and Sommer Street (where the Tonawanda News is today).

Additional spurs served the A. Weston & Sons Planing Mill at Main and Miller Street in North Tonawanda. Dock Line (New York City Dock Line) served the Standard Shingle Co. and handled lumber that had been unloaded from ships and barges moored at the docks along that part of the Niagara River.

FIRE DEPARTMENTS

The North Tonawanda Fire Dept is known as one of the best paid and volunteer departments in the nation. The greatest enemy the lumbermen had was fire. Annually it destroyed millions of dollars of lumber and cost many lives. A step forward came on May 7, 1876, when twenty of the most prominent residents of the Village of North Tonawanda gathered together in the school house at the corner of Main and Tremont Streets and formed themselves into a Company for the protection of property against the ravages of fire. The newly formed Company petitioned the Village Board and in special session on May 15, 1876, the board approved and appointed them firemen of the Village and their company was called the North Tonawanda Bucket Company, later to be called the Columbia Hook and Ladder Company No. 1.

North Tonawanda depended heavily on Volunteer Firemen and quickly grew to seven companies located at important places around the city.

DECLINE OF LUMBER INDUSTRY

The lumber industry in the Tonawandas declined for three main reasons: fire, a drop in lumber handled, and the movement of the industry to the West.

As a large lumber port, the city of North Tonawanda was the scene of numerous lumber fires. One of the worst fires in the history of the city occurred on January 27, 1904. This fire burned a half-mile of the waterfront, including the lumber company and yards of White, Rider & Frost on Tonawanda Island. A high wind spread the flames. Fire Companies from Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Lockport assisted the Tonawanda's fire departments. At the trolley station in North Tonawanda, firefighters were met and carried to the fire in fire sleighs. The fire burned for four nights and three days. The loss of just one of the Lumber Industries alone was $400,000. Twenty boats were towed out and into the river to avoid their being burned. This was a tremendous loss for the Lumber Company and began the decline in the Lumber industry because of frequent fires.

The Second reason, a drop in lumber handled, began in 1924 when only 57,000,000 feet of lumber was handled, a long drop from its peak when it handled more than 718,000,000 feet. Over the years since 1924, the lumber industry suffered further losses from devastating fires, pushing the lumber industry into a rapid downward spiral. The last, and perhaps most devastating reason, was the shift of the focus of the lumber industry from the Tonawanda area to the West.

CHICAGO'S LUMBER INDUSTRY

Historian William Cronon stated that “No place was more important in coordinating this massive movement of water, men and wood than Chicago,” and in some ways he was right. The city served as the chief lumber market on Lake Michigan, participating in every phase of regional lumber production.

Unlike North Tonawanda, Chicago participated in the whole lumber system from the cutting of the logs, to the sawing, to the production of different wood items. North Tonawanda did not log their own wood. Timber receiving and forwarding and the manufacture of shingles and other products by the sawmills, were its chief industries. Chicago also may have been the only place in the country where mill operators, like Charles Mears, took on the roles of manufacturer, shipper, wholesaler, and sometimes even retailer. Not even such major lumber centers as New York, Albany, Boston, or Philadelphia had a comparable institution. “Chicago,” wrote the Northwestern Lumberman in 1878, “is about the only point in the country where there is a ‘market' for lumber, as between manufacturers and wholesale dealers.” Nothing even comparable existed or was said about the Tonawandas.

There were many similarities between North Tonawanda and Chicago's lumber industries, however, the area around Chicago consisted of a number of major rivers that came together and flowed into the Great Lakes, just like North Tonawanda. There was plenty of labor available, not necessarily immigrants, as in the Tonawandas, but people in need of jobs was in abundance. The most expensive time of the year was wintertime, because the industry relied so heavily on the waterways, as was the same in the Tonawandas, and the industry grew right around the time after the Civil War, just as in North Tonawanda. Chicago also had railroads that went into the major industrial areas, just as the Tonawandas did.

Look at the map. Chicago, just like the Tonawandas, got their lumber for surrounding areas.

Also look at the following graph and compare it to the chart on lumber received.

Chicago may have received a higher percent because it was busier, bigger, and in a better location, but North Tonawanda definitely held their own and even exceeded Chicago in 1882 and continued to remain a lumber center even after Chicago's decline.

In 1882, Chicago's lumber industry entered an era of upheaval and decline. From then until the end of the century, its receipts annually fell an average of 1 percent a year, and fluctuated wildly from year to year. This seriously destabilized the lumber company profits, creating an unstable market. In the years that followed, Chicago lumber dealers began to get out of the lumber business and of those that did not, many went bankrupt; others took their businesses and moved further out west.

In the end, it was the same things that had made Chicago the world's leading lumber center that worked against it in the years following the Civil War to bring it to its demise. The railroads moved farther out west, deeper into the “hinter land,” and the white pine forests that had supplied Chicago with lumber began to vanish.

Where the Tonawandas were able to find other markets and suppliers of lumber to keep them going well into the 1900's, Chicago did not. The Lumber wholesalers there began to break apart and look elsewhere to do their business.

Overall, it was the same thing that brought Chicago's dominance in the lumber industry to an end, that brought the Tonawandas to an end, the movement of the market farther out west; though, in my opinion, North Tonawanda was the chief lumber industry at that time because it outlasted Chicago's lumber industry, the Tonawandas adapted to the changes in the market and prospered for more than a quarter century to come where Chicago declined relatively quickly as a lumber center beginning in the early 1880's.

Thesis by Sarah E. Walter, an Honorary Charter Life Member of the Museum, as a Buffalo State College Student.

Letters & Notes from Museum Visitors

Lucy Armitage was my mother's sister. Elizabeth Armitage married Harry Stubbs in 1946 and they became my parents in 1949. We lived on Ruie Rd. next to his brother Rowland Stubbs until my dad retired in 1963 from Georgian Bay Lumber and moved to Florida . I remember visiting the Jones in Naples , Florida as a child on vacation. My dad lived until 1996 and died at the age of 90.

I visited NT in 2003 after more than 30 years and it brought back lots of great memories and I had fun riding around town taking all kinds of pictures including one that remained on the island of Jones Lumber for my Mom.

My Mom and her sister are still living. Please contact me if anyone would like to get in touch with them they have a lot of history there too. Lucy is a geneology buff so surely has a lot of information.

Martha Stubbs Barnes
Spring , TX 77373

You can email my Mom if there is anything she or I can contribute. I'm sure she would as she was corresponding with the Herschell Museum .

I have an old photo album that she made for me for Christmas one year and I bet there are some old pictures in it that would be interesting for some to see. I can scan and email . I still have relatives in NT and Ransomville not to mention old friends.......I went to the 35th NTHS High School Class Reunion for the Class of 1967 in 2002 and met up with lots of old friends. What a great time that was. Funny that the first party was right across the street from the Georgian Bay Lumber Co site. My dad used to take me there on Saturdays and we used to go to the diner - I believe across the street for peanut sticks. (donuts).
Martha

March 31, 2004

Other Lumber Heritage History

A. E. Gombert Lumber Co., Inc. - 81 Island Street - Established May 1, 1922

H. J. Mye Lumber - 1212 Erie Avenue
owned Georgian Bay Lumber at one time.

Island Street Lumber Co., Inc. - 11 Felton Street - Established in 1949
This company originally was Gratwick Lumber, which can be traced back to the late 1800's as White, Gratwick, & Mitchell.