The Shingle That Carried Washington Through the Panic of 1893

The mills of Puget Sound and the Washington coast, as counted for 1894, ran from Port Blakely and Port Ludlow to Hoquiam and Aberdeen: four mills at Port Blakely, two at Port Ludlow and one at Port Gamble; the Clallam Bay Mill at East Clallam; the Port Madison Mill Company at Port Madison; the Washington Mill at Hadlock; Wilson Bros. at Port Townsend; Wood, Thayer & Co. at Hoquiam; the Northwestern Lumber Company at South Bend and Port Ludlow; the Cosmopolis Mill at Knappton; and the Noyo? [garbled] mill at Sumner, in Pacific County.

Mills doing a combined rail and cargo trade include the St. Paul Lumber Company and the Tacoma Mill Company at Tacoma; the Stimson Mill Company, A. S. Kerry's mills, the Fremont Mills and the Western Mills at Seattle; the Stickney Mill Company at Ballard; the Allen Nelson Mill Company of Monohan; the Bellingham Bay Improvement Company of New Whatcom; W. A. Woodin of Fairhaven; the West Side Lumber Company of Olympia; the Seattle Manufacturing Company of Bucoda; the Michigan Lumber Company of Vancouver; the Harbor Commercial Company of Cosmopolis; Earles & Donohoe of East Clallam; the Northwestern Lumber Company of Hoquiam; and J. M. West's Lumber Company of Aberdeen.

The output of these mills goes everywhere. In our own country the broad Atlantic is touched, and we reach by rail as far south as Indian Territory and north to the Great Lakes. Twenty-two foreign countries bought our lumber in 1894. This year Holland is added to the list.

But our greatest market is California, which took in 1894 195,574,060 feet of lumber and 132,267,572 laths. The reason for this is that freight rates are low to that state, enabling the mills to dispose of union grades that cannot be sold foreign or by rail on account of prohibitive rates.

The rail trade, however, is growing slowly but surely. During 1893, 101,529,432 feet of lumber were shipped east of the Cascade Mountains, of which the Northern Pacific hauled 80,210,000 feet. Nearly 90 percent of this amount found its way into Eastern Washington, while the shipments further east were made up of clear and spruce lumber, clear finishing and specialties in fir lumber; high freight rates prohibited the shipment of the common grades to the Eastern states. Figures are not at hand showing the rail trade for 1894, but from data now at hand it is safe to say that a decrease of 25 percent, as compared with 1893, will be shown. Up to November 1 of 1894, for instance, the Northern Pacific had shipped 54,283,000 feet, against 73,360,000 during the same period in 1893. The universal depression can be laid at the bottom of the decrease.

The shingle industry of the state of Washington, which in older states is a side issue with sawmill men, is really very important in this state. Split shingles were made many years ago, when the demand was confined to local building, but it was only about eight years ago when any effort was made to introduce sawed red cedar shingles in the East. J. D. Caughran, now a well known politician of Tacoma, and A. V. Harwell, now of the Seattle Hardware Company, were among the first to sell outside the state. Shingles were sent to Ohio, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Iowa and other states. The dealers did not take very well at first to red cedar shingles, and the early sales have been discouraging to the pioneers of the industry. The writer remembers the first bunch of red shingles placed on exhibition at Minneapolis, in the fall of 1887. It was shown in a dealer's office in that city and attracted but little attention; I am doubtful if a carload was sold in a year afterward.

About that time, however, the demand for shingles on the Sound was brisk, owing to the building boom, and mills multiplied rapidly until nearly 100 mills were in existence. This led to the active pushing of the Eastern sales, and the North Pacific Consolidated Shingle Company, or the "shingle trust," as it was called, was formed. It was composed of a majority of the mills of the state, and the business was transacted through one office. This "trust" was really of benefit to the trade, as it advertised red cedar shingles liberally and extensively. It sent carloads of shingles to different distributing points in the East with instructions to keep the shingles until sold, sent salesmen into the states west of the Ohio River, and in other ways kept the shingles before the public. It was not long before orders began coming in, and when the "shingle trust" went into the hands of a receiver, through trouble between members, the foundation for a great industry had been laid. Prices at that time were high as compared with those of today, the basis being $1.75 for No. 1 shingles.

In 1891 the Eastern shipments had increased from 600,000,000 to 925,000,000. Then came new shingle mills galore, since it became known that the business was profitable and the demand good. In 1892 another association was formed and the shipments increased to 1,160,000,000. During that year 157 new mills were added. The association could not hold together. Another association was effected in 1893, which went to pieces on account of price cutting, but the shipments were 1,289,316,000. Last year the lowest prices in the history of the trade prevailed, No. 1s going as low as 85 cents, and "culls" $1.10. Despite the general depression in trade, the shipments for 1894 will show an increase as compared with 1893; the Northern Pacific shipments to November 1 being 972,440,000 against 903,740,000 during the same period in 1893. When the Great Northern and Canadian Pacific figures are in, the increase cannot be far from 200,000,000.

Notwithstanding the very low prices prevailing last year, the shingle industry was the mainstay of many thousands of persons, and had it not been for the lumber and shingle shipments the people of this state would have experienced, to a great extent, the hard times that other communities contended against. The shingle industry proved to be a blessing not only to the farmer, who sold his crop and timber to the mills, and the many laborers who found employment, but to the banks of the state and the large mercantile institutions. Possibly the business of the banks last year was in shingles. So important was it to wholesale and meat firms like Schwabacher Bros. & Co., A. M. Murray, Frye & Bruhn of Seattle, the West Grocery Company, and the Tacoma Grocers of Tacoma, that in many instances the shingle department was as important as any department of the store. In fact, every grocery house has salesmen on the road selling shingles.