San Pedro Lumber Co. Dates Back to 1883

A. B. McKee, Jr., Appointed General Monoger

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.

A,rrived in the Orange County port, the master of the Newport made arrangements with the McFaddan family of Santa Ana to take tl-re cargo in barter for produce.

A few years later, in 1872, the schooner Alice was launched to share with the Newport in this ever increasing trade. For ten years these schooners sailed up and down the coast, unloading their lumber carg'oes at Newport and, exchanging therr through the McFaddans for produce. \Me don't know 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 Cruz and San Francisco for this purpose.

The Hooper brothers, six in number, had come to California between 1849 and 1854, and four of them engaged in the lumber business. Their first ventures were at Sacramento, and soon.we find.them barging lumber from their Sacramento yards down river 100 miles and dcross the bay to their new yards at Spear and Market in San Francisco.

The next step in their development was the purchase of extensive timber lands in Hurnboldt 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 u'as required, Rails and cars were brought aound 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. P., C. A. and George W., furnished much of the timber and boards that went into the building of early San Francisco.

In 1883, seventeen years after the establishment of their San Francisco yards, they entered the Southern California market in an extensive way, with their own yards and sales force.

Strangely enough, the establishment of the business at San Pedro resulted directly from the development of mining in Arizona. In 1882, the mining boom at Tombstone was creating an extensive market for timbers, and a representative of Hooper Brothers was sent to the Arizona City to take care of the orders that were pouring into the San Francisco offices at the rate of four to six carloads daily. It was immediately apparent that a great saving in shipping costs could be made if the lumber was brought to Southern California by boat, and thence into Arizona by rail.

To meet this necessity the San Pedro Lumber Co. was incorporated January 5, 1883, by the Hooper Brothers, incorporation papers being filed in San Fancisco. Yards and shipping facilities were established on the slough which later became the main channel of San Pedro harbor, and the original lGacre site is still owned by the company-the only privately owned tract on the main channel.

At the time the company was established (first lumber yard in the Harbor District) there was no port of San Pedro. Even the shallow draught lumber 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.

So successful was the first venture that the new company immediately began to expand. Toward 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 following year yards were opened at Second and Alameda Streets, Los Angeles, at Florence and Alameda, and in Upland, Ontario, Monrovia and Artesia. In 1888 the yards at Huntington Beach and Beaumont were built.

From that date the story of the San Pedro Lumber Co. has been one of continuous growth. The Hooper Brothers remained active in the company until their deaths. John A. Hoo.per, 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 also was 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. Hooper founded the city of Pittsburg, California, and organized the Columbia Steel Corporation and the Redwood Manufacturers Co.

The directing heads of the company are men of many years' service with the organization. Albert B. McKee, Jr., who became general manager of this $2,000,000 corporation January 1, has been with the company 16 years. His first job, at the age of 18, was bucking lumber in the :Los Angeles vard, and he has served in every department of the business. In 1928 he was made sales manag'er, in which capacity he served until 1935, when he became general manager of retail yards. During 1932 and 1933 he sold more than a quarter of a million dollars worth of materials in connection with the Los Angeles aqueduct. In 1936 he became a clirector of the company. Today Mr. McKee (known to the trade as Bert) is 34 years of age, and the youngest general manager of a major lumber company in the United States. He has served as a director of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the California Club.

Mr. McKee succeeded T. L. Ely, who retired January 1, after continuous service of almost 40 years, having joined the organization in 1898. J. C. Jenkins, formerly credit manager and now assistant general manager, came with the company in 1912.

The progressive spirit of the company, typified by the activities of the Hooper Brothers during the early days of California, dictates the present policies of the organization. Earlv last vear the San Pedro Lumber Co. embarked on a

C. D. Johnson lurnber Corporation

HEA.D SALES OFFICE, PORTLAND, ORE.

program of expansion and reconstruction which will include a, number, of new units. First step in this operation was the complete rebuilding of the company's Compton yard. The new plant, with handsome salesrooms and offrces, was opened in April, and soon thereafter a new plant at Whittier was ready for business. Extensive alterations and im-

This airplane view conveys some idea of the size and extent of our plant-with the largest capacity of any car-and-cargo mill in Oregon. We hope it will give an impression to you of our complete modern facilities for giving prompt and satisfying service to wholesalers and dealers on their requirements for SoIt Old Growth Yellow Douglao Fir and Sitka Spruce. Cargo and rail shipments. Weekly sailings to California ports; packaged lum.ber stowed even lengths and widthe. Durtng the present shipping tie-up ate a.re making immeiliarc rail shiy tnents to Calilornia on Yellow Fir Uppers and Commons.

BRANCH SAIJS OFFICES: Su Fmds

The company now announces complete reconstruction of tl-re principal Los Angeles yard at 16th and Central, where new offices, salesrooms and yard will be constructed. An extensive program also is under way at the Wilmington yard, to include a new warehouse, 250 by 55 feet for bulk merchandise, new display fooms and windows, and an auditorium seating 10O. E. W. Huffman was named manager of the San Pedro yards on January 1, with F. W. Bishop as assistant manager.

During the last few months the San Pedro Lumber Co. has been named regional distributor for two important lines-the glass blocks manufactured by the Owens-Illinois Glass Co., and prefit woodwork, including the famous Silentite rvindow, manufactured by the Curtis Companies of Clinton, Ia.

BIG TREE Brand Certifi,ed CALIFORNIA RDDWOOD SHINGLBS

A cornplete stock of air-seasoned or kilndried shingles ready for irnrnediate delivery.