Seventy Fifth Anniversarlr of Friend & Terry Lurnber Co.

Seventy-five years of continuous and honorable existence, and still going stronger at the same old stand and under the same old name, is the proud boast of the Friend & Terry Lumber Company, of Sacramento, California. Certainly they have much right to be proud of their long and useful record, and the lumber industry of Qalifornia undoubtedly will join in congratulating them on this remarkable anniversary.

So far as we know. no other lumber concern in California, or in the entire west, can boast a record of seventyfive years continuous operation under one name. Their history goes back to the very earliest days of California business-the days immediately following the great gold rush that has been often emblazoned in song, story, and screen.

And not only has the Friend & Terry Lumber Company survived all the trials and tribulations and the business storms of that three score years and fifteen that they have lived, but unlike many "old .timers" they have progressed as the world around them progressed, kept up with changing conditions and changing times, until today, as seventyfive years ago, they play a colorful and leading part in the building drama of the Sacramento Valley. It is indeed an old-young concern, virile and upto-date in spite of their great-grandad age. Strong men have handled the business, and, in their turn, handed it on to other and younger strong men, until at the end of seventy-five years it is as young as its youngest conternporary.

Up to a few years ago there was another great retail lumber concern in the Sacramento Valley that rivalled Friend & Terry for honorable age and continuous service, the Simpson-Gray Lumber Company of Stockton. It is likely that this latter concern claimed seniority. But the Simpson-Gray Lumber Company finally went out of business about a year ago, leaving Friend & Terry alone in the pioneer field.

It was not an unfriendly rivalry in historic usefulness that used to prevail between these two old concerns, because they came from a common source.

In 1851 Capt. A. M. Simpson started a retail lumber yard on the corner of Second and "M" Streets, in Sacramento. About that same time his brother, Andrew Simpson, started a yard at Stockton, which became the Simpson-Gqay Lumber Company. But it is with the Sacramento yard that this story has to deal. In a short time Capt. A. M. Simpson sold the Sacramento yard to Friend t& Terry, a partnership of Joseph S. Friend and W. E. Terry. And that business continues to this day. Jciseph S. Friend is lost in the darkness of the past. More than his name, and the facts just stated, he has left no record. A few years ago a farm house rvas sold near Sacramento and in the attic was found a big framed picture of two men, and they proved to be Friend and Terry. This is the only picture of them in existence, and belongs to Mrs. W. E. Terry, who still lives in San Francisco.

The records of the concern used to be intact. Until 1913, when a great fire destroyed the yard and office, all the old ihvoices, record, etc., of the company remained intact. Since that time all that remains is the old minute book, which is a very interesting one, and contains, among other things, some of the clippings of newspapeq advertisements that Friend & Terry used to run three generations ago. One of them is most interesting. It shows a foot race between two athletesboth of whom wear long rvhiskers-one athlete marked "Truth" is winning from the other marked "Fraud," and the heading is "Truth Wins," with the name of Friend & Terry Lumber Company at the

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