l-'"*'e72 acific coast

hardwoods in Memphis, Tenn., for many years, as the Taenzer-Thompson Lumber Co., E. E. Taenzer & Co., and Darnell-Taenzer Lumber Co., cams to Los Angeles in l9l4 with his two sons and established the American Hardwood Lumber Co. Edward Taenzer died in 1929.

Story ql q Gfqnce

We are indebted to the Pacific Coast Wholesale Hardwood Distributors Assn. for access to their files to bring you this short history of hardwood on the Pacific Coast.

Charles Bohnhoff, an old employee of E. J. Stanton & Son, started out around l9I0 in Ios Angeles. He was later joined by his son Clarence.

SAN DIE@

In San Diego, the first eroncern dealing in hardwoods was the Dan Hartman Co., which started in 1907. In l9I0 the business was sold to H. H. Sanford who in turn sold out in l9I1 to Jerry Sullivan, an old Michigan lumber manufacturer from Mus. kegon. The Sullivan family, father and two sons, also operated the West. ern Lumber Co. of San Diegq a softwood concern" with a half-dozen or so branch yards in the county.

In l9ll, Al Frost and Robert McFarlane established the Frost Hard. wood Lumber Co.

In Seattle, the pioneer hardwood concern was and is Ehrlich-Harrison & Co., established in 1903 by Frank O. Ehrlich, E. A. Abbott, and A. H. Harrison. Ehrlich.Harrison Co. operated a saw mill from 1909 to lgll for the manufacturing of Japanese oak. They bought out the hardwood business of Cadwallader-Gibson in 1924, and in oonjunction with the D. A.

Johnson Hardwood Co., and the J. J. Matthews Hardwood Co. also bought that of Van Waters and Rogers in 1931.

In 1905, D. A. Johnson, an old resi. dent of the Northwest, and an experienced woodworker, general contractor, and sawmill operator, bought the softwood lumber business of B. F. Nudd, and started a hardwood lum. ber yard. With the help of his two sons, he carved out a successful career.

The J. J. Matthews Hardwood Lumber Co. of Seattle was established in 1923 as a successor to J. J. Matthews, who began his business in 1915. John W. Sumrall was the presiding genius of this concern.

Porttand

The hardwood industry in Portland started with stocks carried by planing mills for their own use. There wereo of course, blacksmiths and supply houses, such as J. E. Hazeltine and Co. who carried the necessary wagon hardwoods as part of their merchandise.

The first regular stock of hardwood lumber, however, was that of Nicholai Brothers & Co., planing rnill oper. ators. This firm started in 1866. It afterwards became NicholaiNeppach Co. Ernest Hall began with them in 1908.

In l91Q J. S. Emerson, a lumberman of Vancouver, B. C., put up a sawmill and veneer saw in Pordand for sawing up Japanese oak logs. Charles Stetson was his repr€sentative with James Ahern, a former employee of Nicholai.Neppach Co.o as assistant. A fair sized business was run for a number of years.

In 1920, the Emerson Hardwood Co. sold to Roger Sandso of Seattle, who operated it under the man'age. ment of James Ahern until 1926, when the mill was closed down and the business sold to Ernest Hall of Nicholai-Neppach Co.

The above covers the ooast, city by city, but there remains one concern which formerly extended its sphere over the entire territory. Cadwallader Gibson Co., [nc. were manufacturers of Philippine mahogany in the Philippine Islands, and had rnade a success of their business. The idea of expansion caused them to establish distributing yards in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle.

The successes attending their Phil. ippine operations were not equalled by their Pacific Coast distributing yards. The business in Seattle was sold to Ehrlich-Harrison & Co. in 1924, T\e San Franciscro stock was bought by the J. E. Higgins Lumber Co. in 1925 and their Oakland vard was closed out.