Title: Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company Records
Inclusive Dates: 1881-1924

Creator:

• Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company (Soperton, Wis.)

Call Number: Northland Mss S

Quantity: 7.8 c.f. (4 archives boxes and 17 volumes)

Repository:

Housed at the Area Research Center, History Center and Archives, Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center / Ashland Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Business records of the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company, Soperton, Wisconsin, including minute books, ledgers, journals, sales records, inventories, pay records, and trial balances; and five volumes of records of related companies. Records or information is included on the North Branch Pine Improvement Company, the Michigan Fuel Company, and the Samuel McGraw Insurance Agency.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-nort000s

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The Articles of Association in volume 1 of this collection state that the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company was formed at Menominee, Michigan, April 18, 1881, for the purpose of conducting a general lumber, lath, and shingle business in Michigan and Wisconsin. The Company was moved to Soperton, Wisconsin, at a later date. Directors on the date of incorporation were Stephen C. Hall, James Crozer, and Wilmot A. Armstrong. Hall was president of the company, and Crozer was secretary. A letter of proxy fastened in the minute book shows that Hall was also president of the S.C. Hall Lumber Company of Muskegon, Michigan, and Thomas Shevlin was vice president.

This collection is primarily the records of the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company documenting business activities of the company from April 18, 1881, to June 14, 1905. In the unbound papers are the Company's records of the hours worked by individual employees on dams, with the wage rates and monthly pay, from Dec. 20, 1890 to Dec. 8, 1894, as well as about a hundred individual time slips of the T. W. Harvey Lumber Company; a 2-page history of the company written by Harry McGraw, Jr., in 1963; an obituary of Harry McGraw, Sr. (1866-1947); and photographs and clippings including annotations by Harry McGraw, Jr. Seven journals and eight ledgers record transactions of the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company from 1881 to 1905. Records also include the company's trial balance books, a cash book, inventory records, and a time book.

The two volumes of inventory records cover the entire period from 1881 to 1905 and contain a complete record of the company's physical assets, including land, logs and lumber, horses, mules and oxen, harness, saws, axe handles, chairs, buggies, blankets, pillows, and sundry equipment used in camps, mills, and offices of lumber companies of that era.

Two volumes of sales records, 1888-1905, contain sales summaries by months and years. In volume 25, 1899-1905, a recapitulation of sales appears at the end of each year, with an annual summary of each type of timber cut and sawed the previous year. With each sale recorded there is posted the customer's name, number of freight car or name of the vessel on which the order was shipped, and the destination.

Volume 10 is a ledger of individual accounts, some of which appear to be employees' pay records, with deductions for board and for cash withdrawals.

Entries in the minute book of the North Branch Pine Improvement Company indicate a basic relationship between this company and the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company. The minute book, journal, and ledger record the activities of the North Branch Pine Improvement Company from its incorporation in 1890 until its dissolution in 1904. It is signed by directors H. E. McGraw and M. J. Quinlan. The unbound papers include seven letters relating to the business of the North Branch Pine Improvement Company and a few bills, notices, and legal documents relating to the business of that firm.

A policy register of insurance agent S. A. McGraw of Soperton contains many insurance records of the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company, churches, schools and other properties in the surrounding area, for the period of February 9, 1912 to January 7, 1924.

The letterbook of the Michigan Fuel Company of Soperton contains routine business correspondence from October 18, 1906 through May 14, 1907, and a single letter dated June 14, 1914. The final letter describes an accident in a sawmill, in which a man was sawed in two. These letters seem to be unrelated to the Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company, except for the signatures of H. E. McGraw and M. J. Quinlan.

Acquisition Information

Presented by James P. Soper, Jr., Chicago, Ill., July 1944; and Harry E. McGraw, Jr., Soperton, Wis., June 25, 1963.

In_box   1	Correspondence, 1887-1944 and other unbound papers
Volume   1 In_box   1	Articles of Association and Minutes, 1881, April 8 - 1887, April 6
Volume   la	Minutebook, 1888, July 10 - 1943, Jan. 30
	Journals
Volume   2 In_box   1	1881, March 19 - 1882, Dec. 30
Volume   3	1883, Jan. 1 - 1887, Dec. 31
Volume   4	1888, Jan. 1 - 1890, Oct. 31
Volume   5	1890, Nov. 1 - 1893, Feb. 28
Volume   6	1893, Mar. 9 - 1897, Aug. 11
Volume   7	1897, Aug. 13 - 1899, July 31
Volume   8	1899, Aug. 5 - 1901, Nov. 12
	Ledgers
Volume   9 In_box   1	1881-1882
Volume   10 In_box   1	Individual accounts, 1882-1884
Volume   11	1883 - 1887
Volume   12	1888 - 1891
Volume   13	1892 - 1898
Volume   14	Index, 1892 - 1898
Volume   15	1899 - 1903
Volume   16	Index, 1899 - 1903
	Trial Balances
Volume   17 In_box   2	1883, Jan. 31 - 1891, Dec. 31
Volume   18	1892, Jan. 31 - 1895, Dec. 31
Volume   20	1900, Jan. 31 - 1903, Dec. 31
Volume   21 In_box   2	Cash Book, 1882, April 19 - 1883, Dec. 31
	Inventory Record
Volume   22 In_box   2	1882, Dec. 30 - 1888, Dec. 31
Volume   23 In_box   2	1889, Dec. 30 - 1904, Dec. 31
	Sales Record
Volume   24	1888, Jan. 7 - 1899, Dec. 28
Volume   25	1899, Jan. 1 - 1905, June 14
Volume   26 In_box   2	Time Book (Collet at Dam), 1892, March - April
Volume   32	Notes and bills, payable and receivable, 1897, April 26 - 1931, Sept. 21 (On shelf)
Volume   27 In_box   3	Samuel McGraw Insurance Agency Policy Register, 1912, Feb. 9 - 1924, Jan. 7
Volume   28 In_box   3	Michigan Fuel Company Letterbook, 1906, Oct. 18 - 1907, May 14 and 1914, June 14
	North Branch Pine Improvement Company
Volume   29 In_box   3	Minute Book, 1890, August 30 - 1904, April 26
Volume   30 In_box   3	Journal, 1893, July 22 - 1901, Nov. 11
Volume   31 In_box   3	Ledger, 1893-1901