The historic logging industry seasons of winter harvest and spring river drives exemplifies the philosophic wisdom of an early Warren County newspaper.
“Let the naturalist turn his eyes to whatever region or climate he pleases, and each will give evidence of an overruling and unerring providence,” The Warren County Messenger editorialized on Oct. 15, 1829.
What would be a rough winter now would have been considered a blessing to the 19th and early 20th century logging industry.
“The snow which fell Saturday provided better sleighing in the sections where lumbering is being done and the lumbermen are much pleased over the prospects of having sufficient sleighing to permit them to get their logs out of the woods before winter breaks up,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 19, 1920.
In timber harvesting, the mantra was something like, “Skid logs while the snow falls,” instead of the traditional agriculture adage, “Make hay while the sun shines.”
It was important to skid logs out of the woods before mud season.
Decades of experience had taught lumber barons that a bountiful harvest would mean prosperity come spring, when the river drives, which later gave way to highway truck transport, would start.
“Glen’s Falls is destined to increase importance and beauty just so long as the John Brown tract and the North River have logs to cut and the water power to saw,” The Glen’s Falls Republican prophesied on July 11, 1865.
A young man with a strong back and an entrepreneurial bent could go from poverty to lumber baron over time by steadily re-investing his logging revenue into diversified interests in manufacturing, banking, and real estate.
Such was the scenario of Augustus Sherman, at one time the richest man in Warren County, who was worth more than $2 million — the equivalent of about $33 million today – when he died in 1884.
“Early in life he learned the lessons of exhaustive, rough manual labor working with his father in the mingled pursuits of farming and lumbering,” Joseph E. Barnes wrote in his 1990 book “Profiles in Banking,” about the history of First National Bank of Glens Falls.
Sherman was the local bank’s president from 1858 to 1884.
By age 15, Sherman was hauling horse loads of lumber to Albany by himself, and by age 19 he was operating his own lumber and grist mills.
Sherman lived and worked in Luzerne, and around 1840 sold his family holdings and moved to Glens Falls, City Historian Wayne Wright wrote in a biographical essay.
Sherman’s Italianate villa-style mansion, built in 1844, is now the Glens Falls Senior Center at 380 Glen St.
Sheman’s mansion, circa 1910. Courtesy of The Chapman Historical Museum.
Sherman operated local saw mills and lime kilns and purchased vast tracts of forest land in the Adirondacks.
It is believed he was the first person to own and operate canal boats on the Feeder Canal.
Sherman was president of Glens Falls Paper Co. (now Essity Tissue in South Glens Falls), Bald Mountain Lime Co., and was a director of Glens Falls Insurance Co.
Similar narratives could be related about Henry Crandall, William McEchron and Alonzo Morgan of Glens Falls.
For those with a strong back but no entrepreneurial bent, logging was a dependable source of employment.
In time, alternative employment opportunities became available as lumber barons diversified.
The logging industry in the Adirondacks faced a labor shortage in 1920 despite a drastic increase in typical lumber jack wages to around $120 to $140 a month — the equivalent of $1,600 to $1,865 in 2020 dollars — plus board.
“It is stated that many men who formerly did this work have now secured positions in paper mills and other manufacturing plants where they can earn almost as much and a great deal easier,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on Jan. 8, 1920.
“A few years ago, $30 to $40 a month was considered good wages in the woods.”
Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance writer and documentary film producer specializing in regional history. Thompson is collaborating with Snarky Aardvark Films to produce a documentary about Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, which is expected to release in 2020. See the trailer here.