LUMBERING OPERATIONS.
INDUSTRIAL PROJECT.--FIND SOME ABLE FRIENDS IN
BOSTON.--PROCURE FUNDS AND CONSTRUCT A SAW-MILL.--SALES OF
LUMBER IN BOSTON.--INCIDENT IN THE CUSTOM HOUSE.
The land on which we settled in Canada was covered with a beautiful
forest of noble trees of various kinds. Our people were accustomed to
cut them down and burn them on the ground, simply to get rid of them.
Often as I roamed through the forest, I was afflicted at seeing such
waste, and longed to devise some means of converting this abundant
natural wealth into money, so as to improve the condition of the
people.
Full of this subject, I left my home on a journey of observation
through the State of New York, and New England. I kept my purposes to
myself, not breathing a word of my intentions to any mortal. I found
in New York, mills where precisely such logs as those in Canada were
sawed into lumber, which I learned commanded large prices. In New
England I found a ready market for the black walnut, white wood, and
other lumber, such as abounded and was wasted in Canada.
On reaching Boston, Mass. I made known these facts and my feelings to
some philanthropic gentlemen with whom I had become acquainted. It
cannot be improper for me to mention the names of these gentlemen,
who lent so ready an ear to my representations, and placed so much
confidence in my judgment, as to furnish me with the means of starting
what has since proved a very profitable enterprise.
Rev. Ephraim Peabody introduced me to Samuel Eliot, Esq., who was
kind enough to examine carefully into all my representations, and
to draw up a sketch of them, which was afterwards presented to Amos
Lawrence, Esq., and others. By means of this a collection of money
to aid me was made, to which many of the leading gentleman of Boston
contributed, amounting to about fourteen hundred dollars.
With this money I returned to Canada, and immediately set myself
about building a saw-mill in Camden (then Dawn). The improvement in
the surrounding section was astonishing. The people began to labor,
and the progress in clearing up and cultivating the land was quite
cheering.
But after the frame-work of my mill was completed and covered, my
scanty funds were exhausted. This was a trying time. I had begun the
work in faith, I had expended the money honestly, and to the best of
my judgment, and now should the whole enterprise fail? I immediately
returned to my Boston friends. Amos Lawrence, H. Ingersoll Bowditch,
and Samuel A. Elliot, Esqs., listened to me again, and gave me to
understand that they deemed me an honest man. They encouraged me in my
business enterprise, and the approval of such men was like balm to my
soul. They endorsed a note for me and put it into the bank, by which
I was enabled to borrow, on my own responsibility, about eighteen
hundred dollars more. With this I soon completed the mill, stocked
it with machinery, and had the pleasure of seeing it in successful
operation. I ought here to add, that the mill was not my own private
property, but belonged to an association, which established an
excellent manual-labor school, where many children and youth of both
sexes have been educated. The school was well attended by both colored
children, whites, and some Indians.
This enterprise having been completed to a great extent by my own
labor and the labor of my own sons, who took charge of the mill, I
immediately began to consider how I could discharge my pecuniary
obligations. I chartered a vessel, and loaded it with eighty thousand
feet of good prime black walnut lumber, sawed in our mill, and
contracted with the captain to deliver it for me at Oswego, N. Y.
I entered into a contract there with a party to have it delivered
at Boston, but the party having forwarded it to New York, failed to
carry it any farther. There great efforts were made to cheat me out of
the lumber, but, by the good friendship of Mr. Lawrence, of Boston,
who furnished me the means of having it re-shipped, I succeeded in
bringing the whole eighty thousand feet safe to Boston, where I sold
it to Mr. Jonas Chickering for forty-five dollars per thousand feet.
The proceeds paid all expenses, and would have cancelled all the debts
I had incurred; but my friends insisted that I should retain a part of
the funds for future use. After that, I brought another large load of
lumber by the same route.
The next season I brought a large cargo by the river St. Lawrence,
which came direct to Boston, where, without the aid of any agent or
third party whatever, I paid my own duties, got the lumber through
the Custom House, and sold it at a handsome profit. A little incident
occurred when paying the duties, which has often since afforded me
a great deal of amusement. The Fugitive Slave Law had just been
passed in the United States, which made it quite an offence to harbor
or render aid to a fugitive slave. When the Custom House officer
presented his bill to me for the duties on my lumber, I jokingly
remarked to him that perhaps he would render himself liable to trouble
if he should have dealings with a fugitive slave, and if so I would
relieve him of the trouble of taking my money. "Are you a fugitive
slave, Sir?" "Yes, Sir," said I; "and perhaps you had better not have
any dealings with me." "I have nothing to do with that," said the
official; "there is your bill. You have acted like a man, and I deal
with you as a man." I enjoyed the scene, and the bystanders seemed to
relish it, and I paid him the money.
I look back upon the enterprise related in this chapter with a great
deal of pleasure, for the mill which was then built introduced an
entire change in the appearance of that section of the country, and in
the habits of the people.