Series: Letter Books

Subseries: Oconto Letter Books, 1866-1901
Scope and Content Note

The voluminous Oconto letter books, averaging about nine hundred letters to a volume, describe thirty-five years of lumbering activity in northern Wisconsin. As the following tabulation shows, the letter books deal in greatest detail with the decade of the nineties:

1860's

1 volume

1870's

5 volumes

1880's

15 volumes

1890's

32 volumes

1900's

2 volumes

Despite this concentration on the nineties (which was probably due to expanded operations), the letter books provide an almost complete day-to-day account of activities in the earlier decades as well.

Until 1889, the bulk of the Oconto letters were written by subordinates in the company. Until Holt and Balcom was dissolved T. B. Goodrich, probably the superintendent, wrote most of the letters. T. H. Phelps, probably the bookkeeper, wrote a few letters, as did Augustus Cole, who was field manager. Not until W. A. Holt took over active management of Oconto affairs about 1889 were a sizeable portion of the letters written by a high-ranking official of the company. Even then lesser figures like T. H. Phelps, W. H. Young (superintendent), and W. E. Congdon (manager) wrote a tremendous number of routine letters.

Until 1889, the most extensive single bloc of Oconto correspondence was addressed to the Chicago office; after 1889 letters bound for the parent office were put up in separate volumes. The remaining correspondence was addressed to thousands of individuals, railroads, lumber companies, law firms, supply houses and similar business establishments; no sample listing of names could convey any accurate impression of the extent of the company's contacts. Most of the businesses were located in the mid-West, with the bulk of the letters going to Wisconsin, Illinois, and neighboring states. It appears that eastern contacts in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts did not loom large until the 1890s.

The subject matter in the Oconto letter books covers a wide range of topics, most of which had to do with the routine affairs of lumbering at Oconto. The following list is suggestive of the subjects covered:

• Descriptions of lumber cut and shipped
• Requisitions for supplies for the Oconto mill, store, camp
• A record of daily orders (particularly after 1889)
• Financial transactions with the parent house in Chicago
• Relations with the railroads-Chicago and Northwestern
• Shipping lumber by lake boat from Oconto to Chicago
• Bills paid, detailed records of expenditures
• Occasional lists of wages paid to labor
• Law suits, damage claims, disputes with other companies
• Taxes and land valuations
• The relation of weather to logging
• Dealings with fire insurance companies
• Activities in Wisconsin Lumber Dealers' Association
• Buying new woodlands, selling cut-over lands
• Forest fires
• Indications of prices and quality of lumber
• Various problems dealing with cutting, driving, finishing
• Relations with Lumberman's Credit Association
• Accident reports

It seems safe to say that the information contained in the Oconto letter books describes in detail what was done; but it rarely indicates why.

Until the 1890s the letters were virtually all written in longhand, and thereafter the majority were still not typed. Probably one-tenth of these letters are illegible due to fading, water-soaking, tearing and similar damage. Many of the volumes are completely unindexed; and those that are indexed are inadequate, marred by many omissions.

Two central facts to be kept in mind in evaluating the Oconto letter books: 1. the Oconto office was essentially a branch office, at least until the 1890s 2. except for William A. Holt the Oconto letters were written by underlings who had no hand in policy-formation. As a result, the letters are most valuable for details on the cutting, driving, and finishing of lumber; on the supplying and operating of the company store and the camps; on the receiving and filling of orders; and on daily financial transactions with the Chicago house.

On other important matters-company objectives, policy, resources, political actions, profits and business feuds-the letters shed little, or indirect light. From the point of view of writing a business history it seems safe to say that not more than twenty per cent of the Oconto letter are useful; and this twenty per cent is buried beneath a mass of material of doubtful value.

1866, May 24-1875, July 9

1875, July 22-1879, December 13

1879, December 13-1883-August 21

1883, Aug. 21-1885, June 20

1885, June 20-1886, December 27

1886, December 29-1888, September 21

1888, September 22-1889, April 30

1889, May 1-1890, January 6

1890, January 6-1890, September 17

1890, September 17-1892, April 6

1892, April 6-1892, September 23 (few selected November)

1892, September22-1893, January 10

1893, January 9-1893, April 19

1893, April 20-1893, August 9

1893, August 9-1893, December 16

1893, December 16-1894, March 16

1894, April 5-1894, July 28

1894, July 28-1894, November 21

1894, November 22-1895, March 21

1895, March 11-1895, June 11

1895, June 11-1895, October 15

1895, October 15-1896, February 6

1896, February 6-1896, April 30

1896, April 30-1900, July 2

1898, September 30-1901, April 4

Subseries: City Office Letter Books, Oconto to Chicago, 1889-1898
Scope and Content Note

A handful of these letters were composed by George H. Holt, but the great majority were penned by W. A Holt, T. H. Phelps and W. H. Young. Since W. A. Holt was then in command at Oconto, and was probably not without influence in company councils, his letters are probably of some consequence. The evidence suggests that the 1890s were transition years during which W. A. Holt became the key figure in the company, and the Oconto office began to whittle away the functions of the Chicago office. If this be true, the City Office Letter Books are crucial to an understanding of the transition. Furthermore, since no letters from the Chicago office are available for this period, the daily letters from Oconto to Chicago are indispensable for piecing together the story of the operations of the Chicago house.

Aside from the aforementioned virtues, the City Office letter books are plagued by the weaknesses inherent in the Oconto letter books. They shed little light on formal decisions and policy, and much light on trivia which the historian would be unable to use.

1889, June 13-1892, July 19

1892, July 22-1895, October 19

1895, October 21-1898, September 22

Subseries: Rhinelander to Oconto Letter Book, 1896, April 17-1896, July 30
Scope and Content Note: This supplementary volume covers only a four-month period, April-July 1896, and contains about one hundred fifty letters written by Henry A. Rumsey (?) from Rhinelander to the Oconto office. Apparently Holt Lumber Co. had a sawmill at Rhinelander, and shipped lumber from a depot there. The subject matter concerns itself with these routine affairs.

Subseries: Oconto River Improvement Company Letter Book, 1893-1901
Scope and Content Note: The Oconto River Improvement Company was organized by persons interested in the Holt Lumber Co. and the Oconto Co., the two chief timber operators on the Oconto River. It was officered by W. A. Holt (president), George H. Holt (vice president), T. H. Phelps (secretary), and P. W. McDonald (foreman). The company maintained all the dams and other improvements on the river, and drove logs for a fixed price from the place of their landing to the driving piers where they were sorted. The company did not own or operate any booms or sorting works. The letters, covering the period 1893-1901, were written by W. A. Holt, T. H. Phelps, and W. H. Young. They deal with the aforementioned operations-problems of the drive, condition of the dams, the collecting of tolls, law suits and disputes with recalcitrant clients. This volume is useful for evidence on a peripheral operation of the Holt Lumber Company. It is filed in Box 4, along with one folder of unbound material concerning the Oconto River Improvement Company.

Subseries: Chicago Letter Books
Scope and Content Note

This eight-volume collection of letters covers the period 1877-1890, and is probably the most important set of letter books in this period. Its importance is derived from the following: 1. the letters were written from the company's main office, 2. the company's policy-makers--Uri Balcom, D. R. Holt, George H. Holt, and W. A. Holt-wrote most of the letters, 3. over-all decisions, plans, motives, and problems of the company are more clearly revealed in this set of letters than in any other.

While compassing many of the routine subjects covered in the Oconto Letter Books, the Chicago volumes deal with more significant matters:

• Instructions to Oconto on land purchases and sales
• Periodic reports of the condition of the lumber market
• Reports on the well-being or financial straits of the company
• Difficulties involved in shipping on the Great Lakes
• Decisions respecting lumber quality and prices.
• Debits and credits charged to the Oconto branch
• Monthly records of lumber sales
• Seasonal records of shipments
• Information relating to dissolution of Holt and Balcom
• Personal data on the health and travels of Balcom and D. R. Holt

It seems certain that the proportion of useful historical data to useless data is greater in the Chicago Letter Books than in any other.

Like the Oconto volumes, those from Chicago are about one-tenth illegible. Indexing is more complete in the Chicago volumes, but it is by no means complete or foolproof. Nevertheless, the index frequently prove useful in tracing relations with a particular company over a period of time.

1877, March 13-1885, November 30

1885, November 30-1888, July 13

1888, July 13-1890, September 30