Pope & Talbot Sells Final Holdin$s To Chas. R. McCormick Interests

Pioneers in American Lumber Industry Dating Back 160 Yearc.

Reminiscences of the pioneering da1's in the lumber trade of both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts rvere revived, incident to the purchase, November 1, by the Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Company of the Pope & Talbot retail lumber business at San Francisco. The transaction involved the outright purchase of thb lumber stock at the yard at Third and Berry Streets, San' Francisco, with a total footage of 1qp00,000 board feet and a valuation of around $225,000. It was not so much the scope of the deal, hou'ever, which won the'iiiteresteh attentibrof the lumbering fraternity, as th'e fact that it marked the final retirement of the Pope and Talbot families as dominating figures in the colorful romance of the American tumbering industry.

The story of the Popes and Talbots has its chapters related to magnificent rvorks of building. shipping, and financial development, not only in San Francisco, but throughout the west, and reaching across the seas. Its influence was felt in shaping the destinies of Seattle, Portland, Astoria, Taconla, Vancouver and other centers of the Northwest. At its peak the story is told in ships on every sea and every port. The first lumber cargo to Honolulu; to Alaska during the Gold Rush days; pioneering in American trade with Australia-these are some of the highlights.

But the rvorthy beginnings of the romantic tale date back to 1767, when both the Pope and Talbot families settled in East Machias, Maine, and established an early New England sawmill. Some years later a provision-laden schooner hove into the little portfrom Boston and exchanged its cargo for lumber from Pope & Talbot's mill. This, according to authentic.records, was the first Atlantic Coast lumber shipment.

The scene shifts to the nerv land of California in the exciting days follorving the discovery of gold and a later generation of Popes and Talbots visioning new worlds to conquer. Back there in Maine, Captain William C. Talbot saw the need for a more permanent supply of timber than the drvindling forests of his native state could yield. This determined him to abandon New England for the raw new

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Pacific Coast country where great virgin stands extended over an empire, it rvas reported.

Talbot negotiated in New England for a complete sawmill equipment which he entrusted for Pacific Coast shipment to Capt. Josiah P. Keller of the good ship L. T. Foster. Preceding Keller by several months on the long voyage around the Horn rvent Captain Talbot in the ship "The Pringle," bearing a cargo of choice cut Maine lumber. This rvas unloaded at Sacramento for use at the gold diggingsThis was one of the first, if not the first intercoastal shipment of lumber, Atlantic to Pacific, on record.

After disposing of his lumber Talbot had the initial capital he required to carry out his determined plan of estab' lishing a pioneer sarvmill in the new lumber country of Puget Sound. He proceeded north to meet Keller's ship and after surveying the territory decided to unload the sarvmill machinery at Port Gamble, Wash. The original Pope & Talbot mill at Port Gamble was operated until 1926, rvhen it was replaced by a new $l,U),(m pbnt.

The Pope & Talbot retail lumber business rvas started in San Franiisco soon after at a tocation on Stewart St. between Howard and Mission. The business was moved in the 60's to the present site at Third and Berry Sireets.

Since the McCormick interests in 1925 acquired the vast timber and mill properties of Pope & Talbot, the acquisition of the lumbel ylrd has been considered a logical step, and the deal was consummated just a few days before the death of William H. Talbot, president of Pope & Talbot.

No changes in operating peisonnel are contemPlat_e{, !IcCormick eiecutives state. - As before, Charles R. McCormick Lumber Company will conduct its wholesale business and in addition will have an added advantage in the oP€ration of a jobbing and retail center at Islais Creek.

The Chas. R. McCormick Lumber Co. was formed in 1903 on a modest scale by Chas. R. McCormick and Sidney M. Hauptman. The business expanded until it became necessary to enter the steamship business. Now the lumber company hasvast amplifications, having pr-omoted paper and insulating board mills at St. Helen_s, -Oregon, wliere motor ships were made during the rvar. It has sales offices in the principal cities of the United States, as rvell as yards in other leading West Coast cities.

The McCormick Steamship Company, operating six of their own and ten other vessels, keeps over dead rveight tons of shipping busy.

Operating Gulf and Caribbean services, intercoastal, east coast of South America and Coastwise vessels, the McCormick lines for the sixth consecutive year have had the largest number of ships sailing through the Golden Gate.

From a concern operating a few coastwise ships in 1920' the McCormick lines have grown until in 1929 their ships carried 1,461,221 tons of general cargo and ffi127,000 feet of lumber.

McCormick's record proves this company a most promising successor to carry on the Pope & Talbot standard of leadership in its varied activities.