The High Cost of a Depressed Lumber Market
A Seattle lumberman's failed venture in San Francisco illustrates the brutal reach of the 1893 economic panic across the Pacific Coast.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A.S. Kerry has returned from San Francisco after a disastrous attempt to sell a shipment of 600,000 feet of lumber transported on the bark Katie Flickinger. Consigned to Lewis Landler, the cargo was expected to fetch $9 per 1,000 feet, but following Landler’s inability to cover the freight, the lumber sat on the wharf accumulating charges. Kerry eventually sold the entire lot to the Stockton Lumber Company—an entity allegedly affiliated with a lumber trust—for only $3 per 1,000 feet. Kerry attributes the loss solely to the depressed state of the California lumber market, rather than a malicious 'squeeze' by the trust, noting that even the monopolies are struggling to survive the current economic panic.
“Kerry attributes his loss solely to the depressed condition of the lumber market in California.”
Seattle’s lumber-dependent economy of the 1890s was remarkably fragile, susceptible to sudden market crashes in California. This volatility mirrors the boom-and-bust cycles that have defined Seattle's industries from timber and fishing to tech.
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