The Ancient and Honorable Profession 0f Sawmilling

Ever hear of a rived board ? Do you knot' rvhat is meant by whipsau'ing? \\rould you like to revier,v some historl. of the lumber business? Then settle back for a page or tu'o of a most interesting story. You lumbermen belong to an ancient profession as well as an honorable one.

Lumbering is the oldest business in these United States. In fact it dates back farther than this government, set up in the land of the free and the home of the brave, for almost live hundrecl years before Columbus stumbled onto the West Indies, while looking for a route to India, timber from American forests was being used by white men. Lief Erickson and other Vikings came to American shores many times, and in most instances came for forest products. They used them for building ships and for shelter or for providing heat. In case you belong to that school of thought u,hich holds Lief and his comrades are nothing more than legendary characters, then let us skip forrvard lightly to some centuries farther along in history.

Several hundred years later, 1605 is the year, history tells us that Captain George Weymouth sailed from Maine to England rvith what was probably the first exportecl shipload of American white pine. Even today, in Englancl, American rvhite pine is sometimes spoken of as .,Weymouth" pine. Caotain John Smith, one of the early American woodsmen, shipped certain forest products back across atthe lvater to prove to his financial backers that his colony at Jamestown \\'as economically justified. It was by no accident that the first coins mirted in this country bore the likeness of a pine tree. They kneu' the importance of the lumber industry.

The first lumber was either rived or hewn' A log was simply split, much in the fashion hand-made shingles are produced today, to make rived lumber. The sawing of lumber took root in this country on the Atlantic Coast more than 300 years ago. The early colonists, few in number and generally poor, found lumber not only the best possible material for pioneer construction but also a cominodity r,r,hich brought ready cash when exported to the old country or the West Indies. Both the English and the Dutch were accustomed to pit sawing.

Pit Sawing

Pit sawing, a slou' and laborious process' called for a couple of strong backs, a sa\\', a log and a lot of labor. One man stood on the top of the log, another stood in a pit below it. Between them they pulled and pushed a saw through the log. sau'ing off one board at a time. Somctimes the log rvas eler.ated at one end instead of being suspended over a pit. This method is still used today irr some primitive cottntries. Whipsawing'ivas carried on along the Mississippi River and its tributaries in Louisian;r, Mississippi and Arkansas as late as about 1823, when thc method lr'as graduallv replaced bv sau'uills.

Early Sawmills

When you come to establishing the date that the first sarvmill was put up in this country you rtln into a lot of conflicting evidence. Each authority seems to have his ou'n idea of the original sawmill. \Vhile these beginnings are to be found recorded in histories and in old documents, authorities often disagree as to exact dates and sometimes exact locations. Some say the first mill rvas located in Massachusetts Bay Colony proper, u'hile others contend that it was in Plymouth Colony. The first sarvmill built in

New England, and very likely in America, says one writer, was at Agamentico, which is the ancient name of York, Maine, in 16?3. Another thinks that the first sawmill known to have been erected in New England was on Salmon Falls River near the present city of Portsmouth' New I{ampshire, and built soon after the land was granted in 1631, to men named Mason and Gorges. J. E. Hobbs, writing in the "Forestry Quarterly" in 1905, says that the busi,-ress of lumbering had its beginning in the old town of Berwick, Maine. "For in that town," writes NIr' Hobbs, ".nas erected in i631, the first sawmill in the New World of rvhich the date is certain ; also the second sawmill in 1634, and here also in 1650 rvas built the first gang sawmill in this continent, if not in the world."

Ovid Butler, former editor of "American Forests" rvho publishecl a book called "American Conservation" in 1941, reports that sau'mills lvere operating in this country evetr l-refore they rvere introducecl in England. He places the location as Berrvick, Maine, and time 1631, only a few years after the Pilgrims landed, thus agreeing with Mr' Holrb.. Horvever, Nelson Courtland Brown, professor irr Neu' York State College of Forestry, in his book "Logging" makes the statement that a sarvmill was built at Jamestown, Va., in 1625. It is possible, he reports, that sawrnills may have been built soon after the settlement of the Jamestown colony. Sawmills driven by n'indmills (as they are today in Holland) rvere reported established by the Dutch on Manhattan Island, norv New York City. in 1625' Another source, Col. William F. Fox, in his "History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York" reports that the Dutch West Indian Company erected three saw(Continued on Page 4O)