Lafayette Lamb 1845-1917

LAMB, BEVIER, GARDINER, HUFMAN, CARPENTER

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 8/2/2002 at 11:45:11

1911 Wolf's History of Clinton Lamb, Lafayette, 681 After a man has won his laurels in the business world, it is not easy for him to drop most of the perplexing cares and devote the balance of his days to the enjoyment of what has been so honestly earned, as is shown by the larger number of men of rank who work on until death overtakes them. But to enjoy life rationally, imbibing of the pleasures and comforts wealth commands, is but an evidence of a broadness of character such as that of Lafayette Lamb, of Clinton, Iowa. Mr. Lamb is the fourth child and second son of Chancy and Jane (Bevier) Lamb, and was born February 26, 1846, in Carroll county, Illinois, sixteen miles from Clinton, Iowa. When he was five years old his father moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the family remained one year, and then went to Big Flats, Chemung county, New York, the father there superintending the milling operations of J.C. Cameron & Company. IN those days traveling was a hardship and the migration from Illinois to the Keystone state was made by going down the Mississippi river to Cairo, from there to Pittsburg by water, and then to Harrisburg, going over the mountains by stage, traveling part of the way by canal and a short distance by railroad. The child was a pupil in the public schools of Big Flats and practically all of his elementary training was obtained there. When Lafayette Lamb was ten years old his father moved the family to Fulton, Illinois, and in the following year, 1857, established a home in Clinton, Iowa, which from that time on was the permanent residence of the Lambs. The head of the family bought a small sawmill and lumber yard in the town and Lafayette, though only a boy, was called upon to assist in the operation of the mill. His task was to raise the logs upon a rotary carriage as they were hauled into the mill, the work in that day being carried on with a lever. The lad's schooling was of necessity restricted, and it was only when the river froze and the mill ceased operations that he went to school, returning to the mill when sawing could be done. Upon the plant being enlarged and a shingle mill being added, Mr. Lamb made shingles for his father for five years. His first experience in the lumber yard was in 1862, when he started tallying, and after a year spent in familiarizing himself with the grades, he became a retail salesman for his father. From 1862 to about 1864 the elder Lamb was also engaged in the grist mill business, in which Lafayette assisted him. The money stringencies during the Civil war compelled the lumber manufacturers to trade lumber for whatever the farmer raised that was marketable, and the product of the Lambs' sawmill was given in exchange for grain, which was ground in the grist mill and sold at wholesale to retailers. Shortly after his experience in the retail yard, Lafayette Lamb had charge of the grist mill and continued in that capacity until the mill was sold and a sawmill built on its site. So varied and thorough had been his training that Mr. Lamb when twenty-two years old was made foreman under S.B. Gardiner for C. Lamb & son, his eldest brother, Artemus, having been admitted to the firm in 1864. In 1872 he took charge of the boats furnishing the logs to the Lamb mills and had active charge of the logging when the first steamboat ever emplyed on the Mississippi for towing log rafts was put into service. This vessel was the "James Means," and was the forerunner of a valuable fleet of steamboats operated by the firm. For ten years Lafayette supervised this branch of the business, although when his father and brother were away at times he had general charge of the firm's affairs. He became a member of the firm of C.Lamb & Sons in 1874, and when the business was incorporated, four years later, he was made vice-president of the company. Beginning in 1882, Mr. Lamb, though still retaining charge of the river operations, gave more of his attention to the general details of the lumber business at Clinton, Iowa, taking his father's place in its management as far as practicable. One by one,the four big sawmills of C. Lamb & Sons wre closed down as the supply of white pine timber diminished, the last mill going out of commission October 26, 1904. During the forty-odd years Mr. Lamb and his sons carried on business, approximately three billion feet of white pine lumber was sawed, besides a vast volume of pickets, shingles and lath. The closing of the last Lamb mill at Clinton did not end the business career of this great family in the valley of the Mississippi. Chancy Lamb, the founder of the house, died July 12, 1897, and Artemus Lamb, the elder son, died April 23, 1901, form injuries received in a railroad wreck in Wyoming. Lafayette Lamb, the surviving brother, is an active and virile man in many lines of business in the middle west, the Rocky mountain district and on the Pacific coast. He is president and treasurer of C. Lamb & Sons, and also president of the following: Lamb-Davis Lumber Company, Leavenworth, Washington; Lamb Lumber Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tumwater Savings Bank, Leavenworth, Washington. He is vice-president of the Mississippi River Lumber Company, Clinton, Iowa; director of the American Wire Cloth Company, Clinton, Iowa. He is a trustee of the Weyerhouser Timber Company,Tacoma, Washington and vice-president of the Carpenter-Lamb Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota; a director of the Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin; McCloud River Lumber Company, San Francisco, California; vice-president of the People's Trust & Savings Bank, Clinton, Iowa; a director of the Clinton Gas Light & Coke Company, and the Iowa & Illinois Railway, Clinton, Iowa. Mr. Lamb is a stockholder in the following: People's Trust & Savings Bank, Clinton National Bank, Merchants National Bank and Cromwell Hotel Company, all of Clinton, Iowa; Northern Lumber Company, Cloquet, Minnesota, and Tampa Hotel Company, Tampa, Florida. He has a one-third interest in one of the biggest ranches in Colorado, known as the Studebaker-Lamb-Witwer Ranch, which is nine miles west of Gerley and fifty miles from Denver. It contains four thousand acres and controls eleven miles of riparian rights on the Platte river. Mr. Lamb married Olivia A. Hufman, of Clinton, August 21, 1866. To them were born two children, Merrette, wife of Eugene J. Carpenter, of Carpenter-Lamb Company, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Chancy R. Lamb of Minneapolis, whis the active factor in the Bacon --- ---- ---. Mr. Lamb became a Monsno in 1870,in Emulation Lodge No. 255. He is a member of Keystone Chapter and received the Scottish Rite degrees in 1871. Five years later he took the balance of the York Rite degrees in Holy Cross Commandery No. 10, of Clinton. Mr. Lamb is a member of the Shrine, Knights of Pythias and the Elks. In politics he is a Republican, but never has taken a leading part in the deliberations of the party. His is a Presbyterian and has given liberally to the church. Mr. Lamb recently built a beautiful home in Clinton, where he and his wife entertain most generously. He spends much of his leisure time in company with his friends, cruising up and down the Mississippi river in his houseboat, "Idler," which is towed by his steamer, "Wanderer." Like other members of this prominent family, Mr. Lamb is popular with a wide circle of friends in all walks of life.