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C
DELL CHASE
CORNELL* WISCONSIN
"Back in 1899 when I was a sapling of 15 years I decided to
become a rough and tumble lumberjack, so I hit for the tall timber.
I went to a small station about four miles away and bought my
first railroad ticket to Cameron Junction and my first train ride
began right there. From Cameron Junction I went to Bruce* Wis-
consin and got my first lumberjack job with the Arpon Lumber
Company. What a man I was& I weighed about 110 pounds but I
doubt if a box car could carry MB•
"At Bruce I met an old friend of the family, Emil Johnston,
a camp foreman, but I had been assigned to a smaller camp under a
man named Noel Forcier. I soon learned that he was a foreman by
name but not by nature. This camp was about miles west of
Kennan, Wisconsin on the Soo Line. I did not like Mr. Forcier
so I jumped my job, in those days you never quit, you jumped a
job. When I told Forcier I Was leaving he said, "Well, keed,
I can't give you your time." And right there's where the fight
started. A friend of mine, a pane* Alex Ormsby, took it up
with me and I SEM may first knock down and drag out fight, but
I got my time and so did six out of ten men in the camp. The
hard-boiled foreman got a real trimming and a feu days later
lost his time.
"I went up to Emil Johnston's camp east of Kennan, near
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Princeton, Wisconsin, and put in the winter. I started in as
a bull cook that's the guy that gets wood and water for the
cook, takes care of the blink house such as getting wood, water,
and sweeps and scrubs the floor. Each man was his own chamber
maid. The bull cook had the barns to look after keep them
clean, keep the teamsters' lanterns full of oil, clean the globes,
and haul dinners out in the woods. There is no such a thing as
a noon hour in the woods. The men sit on poles around the fire
to eat their dinner. Those were the daysi
"The second winter I left Chippewa Ostober 16, and went 41
miles north to Two Harbors, Minn. We cut white pine this winter.
What timber; Two and a half logs to the thousand feet. Well,
to start this winter "Eennie" Cheeseman and I met a man named
L.L. LcPherson, a very fine man, about the best lumberman I ever
met. He took us to Duluth and then to Two Harbors then 41 miles
on foots this was nothing in those days.
We left Two Harbors at "four bells" in the morning. At one
we ate our cold lunch on the bnnk of the beautiful little Spring
Creek and were we famished; One hour for rest and then the trail
once more. Arriving at camp at 9 p.m. leg weary and foot sores
our thirty pound pack felt like 400 pounds. The camps were used
the previous winter and all we had to do was to eat a much needed
warm supper of fried bacon, hot tomatoes and soda crackers.
The next morning we hit the job,cutting roads through the
beautiful white pine. About two weeks later Mr. McPherson bought
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four fine horses at a sales stable in Duluth. He chose me out
of forty men to go to Duluth and bring them in. So back over
the 41 miles I went all alone. I got a train out of Two Harbor
at 11 p.m. Friday and arrived in Duluth at 12:30 the next morn-
ing, twenty long hard hours. The next morning I started for
camp; had dinner at Knife River and speht the night at Two
Harbors. There I saw a horrible fight. I saw the most feared
man in the state "Kill -Dee" was his name. He picked a fight
with a Yr. Roch of Chicago Say. all -Dee was an outlaw, well
known in that part of the country. In this case he had borrowed
ten dollars from Roch about two hours before and came back to
get more, and so the trouble started. I was standing at the end
of the bar in the Commercial Hotel, sipping a cold glass of beer
after my two long hard days. Hoch stalled off as long as possible
and then the fight was on. Up and dawn and over and around the bar
and Kill -Dee reaching for his gun* which he finally got. Tried
twice for the kill but failed each time. Roch, a very skillful
man, got the gun. He knew it was now or never, so he finished
the job with a bullet between the eyes of Kill -Dee. The first
shot Roch fired went over the bar among the bottles* the second
went through the floor and lodged near the hip of a girl on a
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second floor. The third got the villain right between the eyes.
Three o'clock SundAy morning found me feeding my four fine
horses. Chub and Shorty weighed 3400 pounds as a team, Baldy
and Lange 3200. In an hour I was on my way over the 41 mile
trail to camp. Lunch at Spring Creek once mores a very tired
kid. From there on things were not so good. Just after leaving
the Creek, Baldy vent lame in the left front foot. I investigated
and found a snag which I pulled out with my jackknife. Then I
built a fire, got some pine pitch and by dumping some beans out
of a small can I heated the pitch and plugged the holes. I lost
about an hour here. I hit the trail once more for camp, getting
in at 3 in the morning. Such things made the lumberjack tough
and ready to fight at the mink of the eye.
After 48 hours of much neede rest I was put to skidding up
the winter's wood using the two teams one-half day each until they
were hardened to work. Then I was put to toting hay, grain, and
all camp supplies from Two Harbors, even drunk and fighting lumber-
jacks. Sometimes to stop the fighting on the load I would put my
four -horse whip in play and when that eight foot lash began to
cut button holes in their hides, mostly around the seat of their
pants, it wasn't so finny.
"One day shortly before Christmas I got orders from the boss,
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sometimes called the "Sneak-of-the-digginsI" to take the horses
to the blackgmith shop and get them ready for the ice load. That
meant heavy sharp shoes for the srinals and twin neck yokes. My
four babies were to be taken away from me and I had the blues.
They were to be given to some older log hauler. I got up next
morning, fed, curried and brushed my four pets with a sinking
heart and more so when I heard Joe Fox say to "Tunk Kapplon, "I
bet you two to one that I get the colts this morning," I could
scarcely eat my brenkfast, at the same time I knew that older men
were entitled to the best teams. After brenkfast all teamsters
were at the barns, there were three of them. We now had six four
horse sleigh teams, nine skidding teams, three loading teams,
three decking teams, and one four horse team for the water tank.
I was getting uneasy when in walked Mr. McPherson and the
camp foreman, Ray Dalton, and began giving teams to teamsters.
Big Bill Fox was the first on the list. He got four horses awned
by Bill Ackley of Chippewa Falls. Then came Tom Brick, Bill Foster,
Dave Wakes, Bill Ackley, and last of all Mr. McPherson turned to
me with that big happy smile of his and said, "Keep your colts
and learn the logging business.
I was the bappiest boy in the
world and Bill Fox was the maddest. He cursed and threw his cap
on the floor and jumped on it; he could have whipped half the
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State of Minnesota* but he didn't say anything about Wisconsin.
I saw Yr. McPherson's pleasant smile turn to a hard grin. He
walked up to Fox and said in his gentle way* "Bill, the job is
yours if you want it; if not you may pack your turkey." Bill
packed his turkey and went dawn river.
"Many times during the minter Mr. Mcgherson would drive to
and from the landing with me and would tell of his earlier ex-
periences. Things went well until about the last week in February.
We had to go dawn a bad hill that was nearly a mile long. There
were three men stationed along the dawn grade to check the heavy
loads by putting burnt sand in the ruts as the teamsters sew fit.
There was a slight grade to come dawn and a slight incline before
hitting the big hill. If we hit this just right we could stop on
the top of the hill to see if everything was all right. The men
stationed along the hill carried the sand on one arm and had their
other hand on the lead horse's mane. If things were not all right
the teams could not stop at the top of the big hill* but went on
over* this seldom happened, however. On this occasion I came in
with an empty sleigh on a new branch road that hadn't been traveled
before. I did not like the looks of the road, it didn't feel as if
it would carry a full load. I gave orders to the loader for a
three quarter load. The foreman appeared on the scene when the
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loading was in process and gave orders for a full load asking
the top loader if he were "sky -bound" (so high he couldntt go
farther). "Chiny" the top loader said it was orders from the
teamster, but he got orders from the foreman to put on a full
load. I arrived on the scene about the time the load was
finished and demanding the reason for the full load was told
that the foreman had ordered it. I said, "O.K. the horses belong
to McPherson and this load is going out if it takes me all night."
I hooked on and asked the logging teamster to stay with me, which
I did. Going a short distance the load broke through. We blocked
and lined this load for more thian one-half mile to the main road,
but we left the branch in poor shape, it had to be built up the
next day before it eould be used again. It was seven in the
evening and a light snow was falling. I knew I was going over
the top and I began shouting, "Rand'," but when I came over,there
were no lights in sight. Time was short but you have no idea
that can go through your head in a pinch. One thing I did think
of was a turn at the foot of the hill and a few logs that rolled
off the top of the load as we went around at a brisk trot, but
I stuck to my horses and brought them through O.K. Durimg the
course of the day around 4,000 feet of logs would always fall
off at this turn, but on this particular trip I spilled about