A brief biography of the founding father

By Gage McKinney

IACK Dionnehad charisma. His lUpersonality drew men to him the way a magnet draws iron filings. This powerful personality spoke through the pages of The Merchant (originally called The California Lumber Merchont), the magazine that he founded in Los Angeles sixty years ago. Dionne always spoke in an inspirational tone that the lumber manufacturers, distributors, and dealers of the West found uplifting, often humorous, and always worthy of their admiration.

Little in Jack Dionne's background seemed to explain the power with which he made an impression upon others. He was born Joseph Cyril Dionne on November 30, 1882, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The son of a sawmill man from Quebec, Jack grew up in the woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. His mother, who taught Greek and Latin at Marquette University in Michigan, saw him raised in the Roman Catholic faith. She taught him to read the Bible daily and never to drink or smoke, lessons which became lifelong habits for Jack. Before he reached maturity his mother died. Jack earned high marks at high school in Marinette, Michigan. After graduating he took a job with a local newspaper.

Eight years later Dionne, now Z, followed his father to Groveton, Texas, where the older man had taken a job with the Davis Lumber Co. Young Dionne gained some experience working in the woods and sawmill, but soon he returned to the less physical work of a journalist. He spent six years representing the Americon Lumberman of Chicago

publisher and entertainer, The Merchant Magazine's founder was a remarkable and fascinating figure.

and the Southern Lumber and Industrial Review of New Orleans. He also married Maud Carter Renfro, a pretty young woman with jet-black hair. Her grandfather had been governor ofthe state. The young couple settled in Houston.

In 1913, with only $400 in savings, Dionne decided to start his own Houston-based lumber journal, The Gulf Coost Lumbermon.

cooperative efforts of lumbermen throughout the Southwest. As a result the Lumbermen's Association of Texas, which had been founded to establish better relations between manufacturers and retail dealers, promptly elected the new publisher as its secretary. During the seventeen years that Dionne served as secretary, he saw the group grow into the largest trade association in Texas.

He also served as charter secretary of the Texas Forestry Association, the conservation group responsible for creating a department of forestry in the State of Texas. His magazine was the official organ for the association.

This article was condensed from Gage McKinney's forthcoming book on prominent lumbermen of the past and present. Its title is The Figure in the Groin,-ed.

In the following years, as his magazine became fat with advertising, features, and news, Dionne became a familiar visitor at sawmills and lumber operations throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

As Dionne traveled, carrying jokes and news from one sawmill to the next, he became identified with the

Dionne was also coming into increasing demand as a speaker. Audiences at trade associations and the gatherings of the International Order of Hoo Hoo, the tongue-in-cheek fraternity of lumbermen, laughed uproariously at his stories and witticisms. For a time he hosted a radio program that was sponsored by a group of lumber manufacturers. He became as much an entertainer as he was an editor-publisher.

As his Houston-based magazine continued to prosper and as its editor-publisher became more widely known, Dionne began accepting speaking invitations in California.