My Early Recollections of Lumbering

Written Especially for The California Lumber Merchant

by Captain Robert Dollar of San Francisco

(It is with pardonable pride that The California Lum- ber Merchar,rt publishes this first sketch of his own earlv ca.reer as a lumberman, by that great lumberman of San Francisco, Captain Robert Dollar. The California Lumber Merchant considers Captain Dollar one of the world,s out_ standing citizens. He has brought honor and glory upon the industries with which he hai allied himseti,-ana maae the world a much better place to live in, because of the things he has done. At g7 years of age he has the ,.rp..i of the entire world).

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In the town of Falkirk, Scotland, there was a two_story building, on -the ground floor of which was my uncle,s lurn_ ber. office. My father and mother lived upstairs in this building, and it was there that I was born on the 7flth of. March, 1844. Soon after that the building was demolished and a new one erected. A new home fdr my father and mother was also erected nearby.

A lumber yard in those days was a difierent kind of in_ stitution from the lumber yard of today. There was no saw mill and all the timber was re-manuiactured into sizes to. suit with whipsaws. We had what we called pits for the whipsaws, and my recollection is that there weie from 15 to 20 whipsaws working steadily. Afterwards, when I grew up, I remember my father planning and building a real saw mill, so the whipsaws wint oui of date and lhe sawmills took their place.

I attended school until I was eleven years old, at which time I had to leave it and go into a maihine shop to work. Before I was thirteen my father emigrated to Canada and we made our headquarters at Ottawa. I started to work in a stave mill first in Ottawa, but later I hired out to Hamilton Bros. to go into their camp, getting out logs.

We left Ottawa in bark canoes, all loaded, and went up the Gatineau river to the place where we were to lumber for the wintbr. It took us twelve days to reach the place and we were away beyond civilization close on t'o 5O miles. A few years ago I drove in an automobile in five hours to the same place.

Immediately upon arrival we started in to build a camp for the winter. We had a real good foreman and unfortunately I played a little trick on him which turned out to be a splendid lesson to me. In the building of the camp they brought a lot of hollow cedar logs to be split into scoops for covering the roof. One night when we all went in for supper the foreman told me there were some polecats around that were a nuisance, and asked me to stay outside and when I saw one to let him know. Before long I saw one run into a hollow log. I quickly shoved a poli into one end of the log and then put a plug in the other ind. I then ran in and told the foreman I had a polecat. .tWhere is it ?" he asked and I replied, "In the hollow log.,' He brought along a gun and I took out the plug from the end of the 1og. I then gave the polecat a jab with the pole and he ran out of the other end where the foreman was waiting, and the foreman got full benefit of the polecat,s defensiv-e weapons right in his bewhiskered face. The first thing I saur was the foreman's two big fists before my face, and I lost no time scampering to the woods. I had no supper that night and had to sleep in the loft of the hay barn.-But next morning, as I was chore boy, or cook's devil, I had to be on hand to help the cook. I went in and was hard at work when the boss arose. He still had the polecat od& clinging to him. When he saw me he took hold of me and put me across his knee and gave me a right good spanking. This was a good lesson-it taught me that while I migit monkey with some people I'd better not monkey with ihe f oreman.

My work while chore boy consisted of carrying in the wood and water for the camp, washing the dishes and do- ing all the odd chores aboui the placi. Besides that we had ten or twelve yoke of oxen. This was the mode of travel, as well as hauling, etc.. in those days. It was up to me to clean the stables and look after the oxen, all of which kept me out of mischief.

Life in the lumber camp in those days was somewhat different from anything I had ever seen or heard of. There were only itwo or three men in the camp who could spepk

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