The First HUNDRED Yeors Are the Hqrdest Scrcrqmento's Friend & Terry Lumber Co. Srqrts Second Century With Do-lt-Yourself Business

The Friend & Terry Lumber Company in Sacramento really has a double-barreled claim to longevity. Not only was the firm IOZ years old in January, but it also holds the record of having been controlled by one family-a father and son-over the l0-decade span.

Records do not show just what day of January, 1853, the company was established, but it is believed by some the date was approximately in mid-mo4th. The fact that the firm was established in. the year 1853 is considered by most authorities to place the pioneer concern in the winner's circle as the oldest retail yard in Norther';T California if not the whole state !

Strangely, the company was not originally founded primarily for lumber, but rather as what Captain A. M. Simpson, a shipbuilder and sailor, hoped would become a shipbuilding organization.

Simpson organized the company in 1851, but in 1853 separated it from his shipping interests. At that time, Captain Simpson turned over the management, but not controlling interest, to Joseph S. Friend and W. E. Terry, and the concern was renamed the Friend & Terry Lumber Company.

Records do not show what happened to Friend and his family after a few years, but descendants of Terry remained with the company many years; Jo E. Terry, a son, continued as manager after the firm rvas incorporaterl in 1879.

Meanwhile, Capt. Simpson was plying his trade as a ship captain throughout the world, dealing heavily in lumber from mills he had established in Oregon. The salty old businessman and tar was not to return permanently to Sacramento until 1894, when he became president of the corporation, which had then increased its capital tb more than $250,0O0.

In the interim, the firm had also orvned yarcls at 12th and J Streets, Sacramento, and in Galt, only to dispose of both prior to the time Simpson took over active management.

The elder Simpson died in 1915, whereupon his son, E. M. Simpson-also a ship captain, was elected president, a position he still maintains.

Another father-son combination in the company began ,nany years earlier, when L. G. Shepard n.as emploved. He rvas named manager in 1902, and cuntinued in that post until ill liealth forced him to retire in 1921. Follo..ving his father's retirement, Jo Shepard became manager, and he, in turn, was succeeded by a brother and the present manager-treasurer, Charles L. Shepard, in 1939. Jo Shepard now operates the Builders Emporium lnmber yard in El Cerrito, California.

Charles Shepard, who entered the business in 1911, has worked for no other firm during his entire career.

The company has survived two fires-one in 1913 u'herr the yard, then located at Second and M Streets, was destroyed, and the second at the present location. A charred telephone pole on the east side of Front Street still offers rnute testimony to the blaze, rvhich attracted hundreds of spectators in June 1945.

Since the last fire, the firm has been continually expandrng and modernizing its operations. Storage sheds dc. stroyed in the last lire have been replaced by bigger sheds which give it one of the biggest undercover storage areas of any retail yard in Northern California. Besides modern facilities and handling equipment, Friend & Terry Lumber Company stresses modern merchandising techniques.

Never Too Old to "Do-It-Yourself"

Ever conscious of the gror,'r,.ing do-it-yourself markei, the firm has, for many years, been devoting an annual crrt