ls Now Sixty Years Old

About sixty years and a few months ago a Ventura County (California) rancher named Charles J. Dailey, rvas audibly kicking to some of his friends in the town of Ventura about having to haul his lumber in from Santa Barbara, three <lays'expensive haul away, and he declared, "It's about time the people of Ventura County had a lumber yard of their own."

Another local citizen named C. D. Bonestal overheard this remark, and it started him thinking. Also acting. The result was that he called a meetdays later, and this group there Peoples Lumber Company, and yard. A picture of that first yard is found rvith this story. That happened on September 13, 1890. The original capital stock of the company was $20,000, and there were just three employees in the yard. On October 2, 1890, the new concern was incorporated, with many local citizens subscribing for stock. And The Peoples Lumber Company has been in truth and in fact a stock company ever since. Today it has 346 shareholders, 233 of whom are Ventura citizens. The present capitalization is $900,000. Ventura is the company headquarters.

C. D. Bonestal, who organized the company, became its first president and general manager. He ran the business the first two years, then turned the active management over to his son, W. A. Bonestal, who ran the business until 19M. The elder Bonestal continued as president of the company until 1903. Presidents of the concern who followed Mr. BonestJl were : C. H. McKevett, 1903-5; D. T. Perkins, 1905-19; J. IU.Sharp, 1919-31;G. W. Corbett, 1931-4O; and Adolfo Camarillo, who remains there today.

Other generations of the Bonestal family have been identified r.vith the management of the company. As stated, very fine new plant at Oxnard was written up and illustrated in a story in the THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT early in 1949. Here E. J. Thompson manag'es one of the finest retail lumber plants in California.

C. D. Bonestal was succeeded as general manager by his son, \M. A. Bonestal. He was succeeded in the management by CharlEs Miller, and then W. A. Bonestal took over again, to be followedin l9Z4 by C. E. Bonestal, grandson of the founder, who served from 1924 to 19€, when he was succeeded by Ben W. Bartels, the present general manager. as well as secretary and treasurer of the concern.

Today's officers of The Peoples Lumber Company are: Adolfo Camarillo, president; H. S. Corbett, first vice president; A. J. Dingeman, second vice president; C. A. Lind, secretary; Ben W. Bartels, assistant secretary and treasurer; and three additional dire,ctors, H. H. Eastwood. John C. Crump, and C. E. Bonestfl. Wayne L. Clark is general counsel.

Ben W. Bartels is general manager of the affairs of the company, and likewise manager of the Ventura yard. He started with the company in 1934, started at the bottom and learned the retail lumber business the hard way, in the Oxnard yard. He was promoted to the sales department in Oxnard, and then to the position of sales manager at Ventura. He was assistant general manager for one year before C. E,. Bonestal retired, and then was made general manager in 1948.

The managers of the yards other than those at Ventura and Oxnard are : \Mm. Winfield, Santa Susana; Sid Mercer, Ojai; Bert Roderick, Fillmore; Jack Cline, Santa Paula; Ted Lemon, Moorpark.

So this is the sixty year story of The Peoples Lumber Company. It has been in business for sixty years at one place, under the same original name, under the same ownership, and using the same original corporate seal, which is a record approached by very few lumber con,cerns in California.

The history of this company is one of steady growth, steadfastness of purpose, high business principles, and continual helpfulness to the county it serves. There is written into the history of the company many remarkable stories, of rvhich the following is typical of pioneering: In 1892

As stated, up to the time The Peoples Lumber Company started business at Ventura, all lumber and building materials were hauled into Ventura County in wagons. The new yard changed all that. Lumber was brought to the ,coast by boat, and unloaded at a small pier on the coast. Often the arrival of boats at the dock was delayed by storm. Later the company added a small bran,ch lumber yard at Port Hueneme. Here the lumber boats came as close in as possible, and then pushed the lumber ofi into the sea at high tide, to be floated up on the beach. Things were mighty primitive in those days. But the lumber came in, and the building of Ventura County went on rapidly.

Gradually The Peoples Lumber Company enlarged its string of lumber yard:i to eight, those besides Ventura being located at Oxnard, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Ojai, Moorpark, Camarillo, and Santa Susana. Its slogan becameand still is-eight yards to serve Ventura County. From the start until today these yards follow the policy of doing business only in that county. These eight yards, covering from five to seven acres each, are all "one-stop" building service stations, handling and stocking everything for the builder from foundation to finish hardware. Ea,ch yard has a small service mill department, and in the central yard at Ventura they have a large and modern planing mill and cabinet shop rvhich serves all the company yards.

All the yards are modern in equipment and service. The the Ojai-Ventura Railroad was being built, and it ran out of cash. It appears that it needed just $600, and the railroad asked the lumber company for the loan of that amount. The loan was granted, and it was written into the minutes of the lumber company that if the stockholders failed to approve the loan, the directors promised to personally pay the $600. No one objected, and the railroad was finished.

Helpfulness of many kinds has marked the entire lifetime of the company. It has contributed enormously to the building of Ventura County as it is today. A useful, honorable, and respected institution it has been for sixty years. Some record !

More Douglas Fir Plywood lor Civilian Uses in 1950

Tacoma, Wash., Oct. 2. Notwithstanding growing military purchases, there is more Douglas fir plywood for civilian uses in 1950 then ever before with production today at the record level volume of about 50,000,000 square feet a week.

That is the statement issued here today by O. Harry Schrader, Jr., managing director of Douglas Fir Plywood Association, the trade-promotion association which represents the 58-factory fir plywood industry of Washington, Oregon and California.

"Plywood manufacturers are self-committed to supply all critical military and atomic energy needs, and manufacturers individually are working ,closely with the Army Corps of Engineers, the central procurement agency for the services," Schrader reviewed. "Meantime, reports to us from the field indicate that plywood distributors everywhere are locally supplying the military and prime contractors for the armed services.

"Military needs of the nation, including both direct Army purchases and contractors supplying material, now are expected to amount to about l5/o of. the Douglas fir plywood produced during the remainder of 1950," Schrader said after conferences at Washington, D. C., with military purchasing agencies.

This constitutes a big jump from pre-Korea military needs and far greater purchases than have been made during the first 90 days of war in Asia. "'Military needs arc not fixed, of course, and may wel[ grow in the year ahead, but any rumors circulating that the military is now taking the bulk of Douglas fir plywood simply are false," he added.

It is true, Schrader made clear, that buying of plywood for defense and war needs has aggravated a tight supply situation. "Plywood is basi,cally a peacetime material-for homes, buildings, railroad cars, farm structures, furniture, packaging and boats. With construction and industrial production at record highs, demand for plywood for civilian uses is unprecedented, and plywood usefulness continues to grow and spread."

Right now, a pressing demand for plywood is for buildand rebuilding railroad cars and highway trucks as transportation facilities are overtaxed. Con,currently, box car shortages hamper plywood distribution

Plywood stocks throughout the nation have been low all year because the upsurge in business from the 1949 slack period caught plywood distributors and lumber dealers with their stocks down. Strong civilian demand has prevented complete rebuilding of such stocks.

Because plywood stocks generally are below what would be carried to conduct day-by-day business in supplying every corner of the nation, it seems unlikely that new government inventory control order will have measurable immediate affect on plywood, the spokesman commented. He was referring to the National Production Authority regulation 1 issued recently requiring that stocks of many essential materials, including plywood, be kept to the "lowest practicable working inventory."

Overall production of Douglas fir plywood in 1950 will approach 2,300,000,000 square feet, Spokesman Schrader made known, This constitutes a' 15% increase over the previous record output of 1949.

Forest Service Sells Arizona Pine

T:mber For Record Breaking Price

All records for Ponderosa pine sales were broken recently when the United States Forest Service sold 168,000,000 feet of Arizona pine, mostly Ponderosa, for $45.10 per thousand. The tract is the last great unit of virgin Ponderosa in the Southwest territory, and is part of the North Kaibab National Forest.

Bids had been called for, and were opened by the Forest Service authorities at Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the successful bidder was Whiting Brothers Lumber Company, of Holbrook, Ar\2. There were several other bidders for the timber, which stands on a forty thousand acre tract of land.

It is expected that the successful bidders will build a modern sawmill at Fredonia, Arizona, to manufacture the timber, which will be harvested on a sustaixed yield basis. A road to reach the tract is being constructed at the present time. It will be 23 miles long and will cost about $200,000 to build.

It is reported that the highest previous price ever paid for pine timber in this area was $33 a thousand.

There is a total of about four billion feet of timber of all kinds, species, and sizes in the Kaibab National Forest, which includes Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, spruce, and Alpine fir.

Boost

YOUR 1950 PROFITS SETLIi.|G SISAT|(RAFT PRODUCTS FOR rlu TI|TSE USIS

SISATKRAFT USES IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

As SHEATHING PAPER

For FLASHING Door and'Window Openings

UNDER ALL CONCRETE SLABS

UNDER FINISHED FLOORING

For MOISTURE-VAPOR BARRIERS

For CURING and PROTECTING CONCRETE

As PROTECTM COVERS for FINISHED FLOORS, STAIR$/AYS, TRIM, MARBLE'WORK, etc,

As DRY SHEET UNDER STUCCO

As WEATHER-PROTECTIVE "TARPS" for covering MATERIALS

. lumber, brick, cement, aggregate, equipment

For CLOSING IN, Temporary Partitions, Lining Construction Shanties, etc.

For FROST PROTECTION

As WEATHER-PROTECTM 'TARPS" for covering BOATS

SISATATION USES IN BUITDING CONSTRUCTION

As SIDEWALL INSULATION and VAPOR-BARRIER Combined

As CEILING INSULATION

UNDER FLOORS

For LINING ATTICS and UNFINISHED ROOMS

As a STUCCO-BACK

For SINGLE-\VALL CONSTRUCTION

For POULTRY-HOUSE LINING

SISATKRAFT USES ON THE FARM

For Temporary SILOS, Trench SILOS

For HAYSTACK COVERS

For CORN CRIB COVERS, GRAIN BIN LINERS, Temporary GRAIN PILING or STORAGE

For SEALING Permanent SILO TOPS and DOORS

For \DTAGON and TRUCK COVERS

As ITINDBREAK "TARPS"

For LINING BARNS, SHEDS, SHELTERS

As SHEATHING PAPER for FARM HOMES

For LINING STOCK CARS and TRUCKS

As PROTECTM "TARPS" for MACHINERY

As Shade PANELS

As SOIL STERILIZATION COVERS

As PROTECTM "FROST BLANKETS"

For TREE WRAPS and many other farm uses

ASl( FOn I4ERCHANDTSTNG ArDS to help sell for ALL IHE AEOVE USES

.. I\AAII THIS COUPON TODAY

Ihe SISALKRAFT Co., Dept. G[ l0

55 New ilontgome.y 5t., Son Froncirco 5, Colif.

Please send free samples of all Sisalkraft Products and complete information.

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