Long-Bell hits 100

By Gage McKinney* MacBeath Hardwood Co. Berkeley, Ca.

I n April 1875 in Columbus, Kansas, 122-year-old Robert A. Long had to dismantle his hay sheds and sell them for lumber in order to cover expenses after his fledgling business had failed. Out of that failure originated one of the most successful lumber and timber enterprises ever-The Long-Bell Lumber Company.

Within 50 years Long-Bell had net assets of $41 million and it had begun to concentrate its interests in the Pacific Northwest. In l9l9 Long-Bell purchased nearly I I billion feet of timber in the West and in I 922 it buit the world's largest lumber manufacturing plant at Longview, Wa.

One century later, Long-Bell has moved its headquarters from Kansas City to Longview and has become a major building material s manufacturing and marketing division of International Paper Co. of New York. Robert K. Hood was recently named general manager of the Long-Bell division.

Operating mills and plywood plants in Chelatchie, Wa., Gardner and Vaughn, Or. and Weed, Ca. Long-Bell produces Douglas fir and plywood, lumber and timbers, sash and doors and millwork items. At Longview, the division manufactures prefinished cabinets at one of the world's largest cabinet factories, and produces pressure-treated poles, piling and railroad ties.

*The son of veteran lumberman Verlon McKinney, Gage McKinney is solidly grounded in the lumber business and worked for MocBeath Hardwood, Berkeley, Ca., until his recent leave of absence to study for his master's degree in Englkh Literature at the University of California at Irvine. -ed.

The division also handles marketing of lumber, plywood and particleboard made at I-P operations in the South.

To tell the story of how Long-Bell became one of America's great iumber manufacturers, one must tell the story of the founder, R. A. Long, a man of energy and vision.

Farmers in Columbus were impressed by Long's integrity in the face of his hay business failure, and they encouraged him to open a lumber yard there. So he borrowed $8000 from the bank to start the yard.

"That bank did not lend to me on business skill, but on character," Long wrote years later.

After the yard cleared $2800 in the first two years, Long began to buy established retail yards in nearby towns.

Story at a Glance

100 years ago this month, the Long-Bell Lumber Co. was founded by the remarkable R.A. Long .... the building of the planned city of Longview, Washington is called his greatest achievement .... a firm believer in the discipline of hard work, he said "nothing in this world is handed out on a platter, except bankruptcy."

Ultimately, Long-Bell operated 106 yards. In 1890 Long-Bell built a sawmill with a daily capacity of 40,000 feet and bought timberland in the Indian territories of Arkansas and Louisiana. (PLease rar8r

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One secret of Long's remarkable success was his thorough acquaintance with every detail of the business. During the early years he would begin work in the yard before dawn and he would end the day-from eight to ten at night-making up the accounts.

"Anything that is worth while is hard work," Long wrote in his description of those early years. "And nothing plywood plant, Weed, Ca., which was one of the nation's first plywood plants. in this world is handed out on a platter-except bankruptcy."

By the turn of the century Long realized the crucial need for railroads between the company's timberlands and its increasing number of sawmills in the South and West. By 1917 Long had acquired four Southern railroads and in 1922 Long-Bell built The Longview, Portland and Northern, which extended 30 miles from Longview to Ryderwood, Wa.

Long's greatest triumph as president of Long-Bell was the building of Longview,Wa., one of America's first planned cities. There, along with the world's largest lumber manufacturing plant, Long built a railroad car plant, a concrete pipe plant, and docks on the Columbia River.

The city was dedicated on July 2, 1923 and one year later showed a population of five thousand, with 850 homes and 28 1'businesses. Long-Bell helped to finance theatres, businesses, hotels, hospitals and churches in the city. Today Longview has a population of 30,000.

Tremendous investments in Longview contributed to forcing Long-Bell into near economic disaster in 1930. A minority group of stock holders sued unsuccessfully to put the company in receivership rn 1932.

"The history of Long-Bell is inspiring and in 60 years its reputation has remained unsullied," a federal judge wrote in his ruling against the receivership. "This is not the time for the captain of this ship to be forcibly removed from the helm." Long died in 1934, his company still intact.

November 5, 1956, Long-Bell was merged into International Paper in return for nearly a million common shares of International Paper. Today, in addition to the West Coast manufacturing facilities, International Paper continues to operate a network of Long-Bell retail yards and distribution centers in the Midwest, South and Southwest.