Daniel Shaw & Company of Eau Claire, Wisconsin was founded in 1858 as a lumber mill by Daniel Shaw (1813-1881), who was born and raised in Industry, Maine and settled in the Chippewa River valley of western Wisconsin in 1856. In Eau Claire, he expanded his original sawmill to a large and prosperous lumber business. In 1874, after a fire destroyed the company lumber stocks, he and his sons Eugene (1850-1912) and George B. (1854-1894) incorporated as the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company. After Daniel Shaw retired, the corporation continued in business with Eugene Shaw as President and General Manager and George B. Shaw as Secretary.
During its existence, the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company became one of the important lumber companies in the Old Northwest Territory. The company purchased thousands of acres of timberland. Each winter the company ran numerous logging camps throughout the upper Midwest, providing food from company owned farms and selling goods to lumberjacks from company owned stores. The millions of feet of timber cut each winter were rafted down rivers to the Mississippi and the waiting steamboats. To facilitate the river drives, the Shaw Company, along with other major timber companies, dammed many Wisconsin rivers. Later the river drives and steamboat transport were supplanted by the newly expanded railroads, which the Shaw Company helped to build.
Daniel, Eugene, and George became wealthy men of influence in Eau Claire and the region. The Shaws helped start many of Eau Claire's businesses, civic organizations, utility operations, and transportation systems. George Shaw held local elective office, and just before his death, represented Wisconsin in the United States Congress. The business stayed in the family but was dissolved upon Eugene's death.
