San Pedro Lumber Company Celebrates Sixtieth Anniversary

This \ilidely Known Lumber Concern Statted Business in Januory, 1883

In a fevv days, January 8 to be exact, the San Pedro Lumber Company, one of the most successful and progressive lumber businesses on the Pacific Coast, will comPlete 60 years of useful service, having been established on January 8, 1883, by the Hooper Brothers of San Francisco. Incorporation Papers for the new company were filed in San Francisco on that date, which was l7 years after the establishment of their San F-rancisco

Aberr B. McKee, Jr. Yards'

Genercl Mcncrger Yards and shipping facilities were constructed on the slough which later became the main channel of San Pedro Harbor, and the original l0-acre site is still owned by the company -'one of the few remaining privately owned lands on the main channel.

At that time this was the first lumber yard in the Harbor District, and there was no port of San Pedro. Even the shallow draught schooners unloaded their cargoes in the open roadstead just inside Point Firmin, and the lumber was lightered up the slough to the company's yards.

It is interesting to note that the establishment of the business at San Pedro was a direct result of the development of mining in Arizona. The mining boom in Tombstone in 1882 created a big demand for timbers, and L. W. Blinn of Hooper Brothers $'as sent to the Arizona city to take care of the orders that were pouring into the San Francisco offices at the rate of from four to six carloads daily. It didn't take long for Hooper Brothers to ligure that a great saving in shipping costs could be effected if the lumber was brought to Southern California by boat and thence into Arizona by rail. And so immediate steps were taken to enter the Southern California rnarket in an extensive way with their own yards and sales force.

The story of the Hooper Brothers goes back to the Gold Rush days. Six in number they came to California between 1849 and 1854, and four of them engaged in the lumber business. The first ventures of these enterprising pioneers were at Sacramento, and in 1866 they were barging lumber from their Sacramento yards down the river 100 miles and across the bay to their new yards at Spear and Market Streets in San Francisco.

The next step in their development was the purchase of extensive timber lands in Humboldt County and the erection of a mill at Trinidad, 25 miles north of Eureka. During the first years of their logging operations oxen were used to haul the logs to the mill. But soon their business increased to the point where more rapid transportation r,l'as required. Rails and cars were brought around the Horn from Philadelphia, and the first Baldwin locomotive to be used on the West Coast was purchased to haul timber.

And so it was that the four famous brothers, John A., F. I,., C. A. and George W., furnished much of the timber and boards that went into the building of early San F'rancisco.

Back in the late sixties the lumber schooner Newport sailed from Trinidad, California, for Newport Harbor with a cargo of redwood lumber sawed in the mills of the Hooper Brothers, lumber dealers of San Francisco.

Arrived in the Orange County port, the master of the Newport made arrangements with the McFaddan family of Santa Ana to take the cargo in barter for produce.

A few years later, in 1872, the schooner Alice was launched to share with the Nervport in this ever increasing trade. For ten years these schooners sailed up and down the coast, unloading their lumber cargoes at Ner,vport and exchanging them through the McFaddans for produce. It isn't known what the price schedules were, but they might have read so many crates of garden truck, so many boxes of fruit, or so many gross of eggs per thousand feet of lumber at the shipside.

This bartered merchandise was sold on the trip north, calls being made at Santa Barbara, Monterey, Santa Crtrz and San Francisco for this purpose.

The New Company Expands

Returning to the history of San Pedro Lumber Company, the records show that the company's first venturc was so successful they immediately began to expand. Tor,r'ards the end of 1883 a yard was opened on the company's present site at Compton, and in 1885 the Whittier yard was established. The follor,r'ing year yards were opened at Second and Alameda Streets and at Florence and Alameda, Los Angeles, and in Upland, Ontario, foIonrovia and Artesia. In 1888 the yards at Huntington Beach and Beaumont were built.

From ihat date the story of the San Pedro Lumber Company has been one of continuous growth. The Hooper Brothers remained active in the company until their deaths. John A. Hooper, last of the brothers to pass on, was still working and personally controlling his many large interests when death overtook him in his 88th year. At that time he was president of the First National Bank of San Francisco and chairman of the board of the Crocker First National. He was also the largest individual holder of Market Street property, and had extensive steamship interests, acquired chiefly during the World War. He was one of the original owners of the Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara.

Charles A. Ilooper founded the city of Pittsburgh, California, and organized the Columbia Steel Corporation and the Redwood Manufacturers Co.

Present Personnel

Albert B. McKee, Jr., is general manager of the company, having succeeded T. L. Ely on January l,1937. Mr. Ely retired at that time after continuous service of almost 40 years, having joined the organization in 1898.

Mr. McKee has been with San Pedro Lumber Company ior 2l years. J. C. Jenkins, assistant manager and credit manager, has completed 30 years of service. George Clough, sales manager, has been with the company 22

Your Weatherwood lnsulation Board dealers congraulate you, San Pedro Lumber Compa ny, on your 60th AnniversarY.

years; F. W. Bishop, controller, 20 years ; E. W. Iluft'man, San l)edro plant manager,24 years; O. C. Abbott, mill superintendent at San Pedro, 43 years; M' E' Sanders, machine shop superintendent, D years; Frank Parkinson, shipping clerk, 24 years; W. J. Shaw, purchasing agent, 7 years, and Howard Allen, yard superintendent, 42 yeats-

The main yard at 16th Street and Central Avenue, Los Angeles, was completely reconstructed in 1937, the work including hantlsome trel' offrces and salesrooms. Improvernents at the Wilmington vard at that time included a nerv u'arehouse, 230 by 55 feet for bulk merchandise.

A number of lumbermen. rvho at one time were associated with the San Pedro Lumber Company, Iater organized their or,l'n companies. Among these u'ere H. F. Muller, W. F. Marmion, Ed Lockett, Scott Boyd, Clyde Boyd, S. J. Kling, Fred Crozier, Frank Bortels, Pete Corpstein, E. A. Nicholson, George Nicholson, C. L. Nfiller, H. S. Riser, J. W. Black and Ray Linn.