Lafayette Lamb 1846-1917

LAMB, CARPENTER, BEVIER, HUFMAN

Posted By: Michael J. Kearney (email)
Date: 12/31/2002 at 09:48:15

The Clinton Herald Thursday May 31, 1917 p. 1 & 3 Lafayette Lamb, aged 71 years, a resident of Clinton for 60 years, one of Clinton's pioneer lumber manufacturers and for more than half a century actively identified with the development of Clinton industrially and financially, passed away at his home, 317 Seventh avenue, at 5:45 o'clock last night. His death followed an illness of three years' duration, recognized by his family for many months as fatal. Funeral services are to be held the late home at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon and all friends are asked to come to the services at the home. The committal services at the family mausoleum in Springdale cemetery, however, will be private. Friends are asked not to send flowers. C.R. Lamb, a son and wife will arrive from New York tomorrow. Mrs. E.J. Carpenter, a daughter, and husband, of Minneapolis, have been here since Tuesday. During recent years, on account of the condition of his health, Mr. Lamb had spent a large part of his time in other climates. He had returned only two weeks ago from California, where he had spent the winter. The death of Mr. Lamb has brought grief today into hundreds of Clinton homes, the home of former business associates and of former employees of C. Lamb & Sons, lumber manufacturers and of other concerns with which Mr. Lamb was identified. His many years of residence in Clinton had brought him an acquaintanceship equaled by few, if any, other Clinton residents. Friendships were cemented by Mr. Lamb through thoughtfulness. He never lost an opportunity to recognize by word or deed, and acquaintance of the years past. If any of his old friends were ever apparently ignored, it was due to the frailties of the human senses and not to the heart, for he carefully guarded and endeavored to preserve the friendships of the past with those of the present. Not only relatives and intimate friends and acquaintances are mourning his death today, however. They are joined by the city as a whole for Mr. Lamb's interests were so interwoven with those of the community that he was recognized as one of the city's builders - one of those whose keen foresight and business acumen laid the foundations in the early days, for the city of the present and that of the future. Preceded in death by his father, the late Chancy Lamb, founder of C. Lamb & Sons, and his brother, the late Artemus Lamb, who was also associated in the business, the death of Mr. Lamb marks the passing of the last of the pioneer members of that family of lumber manufacturers and also the last of all of the pioneer saw mill operators, who established themselves in Clinton and made of the little community a growing city. Mr. Lamb was identified with and watched the start, the development and the decline of the lumber business in Clinton. With the end of Clinton's "saw mill" days approaching, Mr. Lamb sought other fields for the exercise of his business and executive acumen. Not only did he become closely associated in the management of other lumber manufacturing plants at various places in the middle west, the Rocky mountain district and on the Pacific coast, but he also became identified with other Clinton industrial and financial institutions. He was elected to various offices in the management of these concerns, but retired from active participation in the conduct of the affairs of these firms since his illness became so acute as to demand all of his strength. Mr. Lamb was the fourth child and second son of Chancy and Jane (Bevier) Lamb. He was born February 26, 1846, in Carroll county, Illinois, but when he was five years old, his father moved to Williamsport, Pa., where the family remained a year, moving then to Big Flats, Chemung county, New York, where the father superintended the milling operations of J.C. Cameron & Co. When Mr. Lamb was 10 years old, his father returned to the middle west, settling in Fulton, Ill., but in the following year, 1857, established a home in Clinton, which thereafter remained the permanent home of the family. Mr. Lamb's father purchased a small sawmill and lumber yard in Clinton and Mr. Lamb, although only a boy, was called upon to assist in its operation. Mr. Lamb's task was to raise the logs upon a rotary carriage as they were hauled into the mill, thus beginning at the bottom of the ladder in the saw mill industry. His schooling was naturally restricted, being limited to the winter months when the mill was forced to close on account of ice in the river. Later the plant was enlarged and a shingle mill added, Mr. Lamb making shingles for his father for five years. In 1862, Mr. Lamb went into the lumber yard as a tally clerk and a year later became a retail salesman for his father. During the Civil war period, Mr. Lamb's father also operated a grist mill, with the assistance of his son. The family weathered the financial stringency of the period by trading lumber to the farmers in exchange for grain and grinding the latter in the grist mill. LaFayette Lamb finally was given management of the grist mill and operated it until it was discontinued and a saw mill built on its site. When 22 years of age, Mr. Lamb was made foreman under S.B. Gardiner of C. Lamb & Son, his elder 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 employed on the Mississippi rover for towing log rafts was put into service. This vessel was the James Mean, and was the forerunner of a valuable fleet of steamboats operated by the firm. For ten years Mr. Lamb 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 C. Lamb & Sons, in 1874, and when the business was incorporated, four years later, he was made vice president of the company. Beginning with 1882, Mr. Lamb, though still retaining charge of the river operations, gave more of his attention to the general details of the lumber business in Clinton, taking his father's place in its management as far as practicable. One by one, the four big sawmills of C. Lamb & Sons were 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 the firm carried on the business, approximately 3,000,000,000 feet of white pine lumber was sawed, besides a vast volume of pickets, shingles and lath. The closing of the last Lamb mill here did not end the business career of this family. Chancy Lamb, the founder of the house, died July 12, 1897 and Artemus Lamb in 1901. Lafayette, the surviving brother, was an active and virile man in many line of business in the middle west, the Rocky mountain district and the Pacific coast. Following are some of the offices and business interests held by Mr. Lamb before failing health made it necessary for him to relinquish his business activities: He was president and treasurer of C. Lamb & Sons, and also president of the following: Lamb-Davis Lumber company, Leavenworth, Wash.; Lamb Lumber company, Minneapolis; Tumwater Savings bank, Leavenworth, Wash. He was vice president of the Mississippi River Lumber company, Clinton: director of the American Wire Fabrics company, Clinton; vice president of the Mississippi River Logging company, Clinton. He was a trustee of the Weyerhauser Timber company, Tacoma, Wash., and vice president of the Carpenter-Lamb company, Minneapolis; a director of the Chippewa Lumber & Boom company, Chippewa Lumber Falls, Wis., McCloud River Lumber company, San Francisco; vice president of the People's Trust & Savings bank, Clinton; a director of the Clinton Gas Light & Coke company, and the Iowa and Illinois railway, Clinton which later became part of the C.D. & M. line. Mr. Lamb was a stockholder in the People's Trust and Savings bank, the Clinton National bank, Merchants National bank and Lafayette Hotel, Clinton; Northern Lumber company, Cloquet, Minn., and the Tampa Hotel company, Tampa, Fla. He held a one-third interest in one of the biggest ranches in Colorado, known as the Studebaker-Lamb-Witwer ranch, which is nine miles east of Greeley, and 50 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, and Chancy R. Lamb, of New York city. Mr. Lamb became a Mason in 1870, in Emulation lodge, 255. He was 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, 10, of Clinton. Mr. Lamb was a member of the Shrine, Knights of Pythias and the Elks. In politics he was a republican, but had never taken part in the deliberations of his party. He was a Presbyterian and gave liberally to the support of the church.
As a mark of respect to an associate for many years, five banks in Clinton will close Saturday afternoon and remain closed during the funeral of the late Lafayette Lamb. Those closing are the Clinton National, Clinton Savings, Merchants' National, City National, and People's Trust & Savings bank.
Clinton people mourn today the passing of a man who because of his personal characteristics was termed friend by hundreds of men and women, some of whom had been friends of his youth, others acquaintances of later years, yet all pause to pay tribute to the memory of LaFayette Lamb. Words are many, sentiments of appreciation are voiced in every group of friends with none more earnest nor more sincere than the comment made by A.G. Smith, president of the City National bank. Mr. Smith said: "The death of LaFayette Lamb is a distinct loss to the community. During his life-long residence in Clinton he gained countless friends who held him in the highest esteem. He was known for his liberality and benevolence, and never neglected an opportunity to befriend the needy. He was one of our most loyal citizens, always being ready to assist in the promotion of local enterprises and charitable institutions. C.F. Alden, the last surviving member of the first board of directors of the Peoples Trust & Savings bank, said this morning, "There is nothing too good to be said of Mr. Lamb. We had been close friends for years. I came to Clinton in the early '70s and have counted Mr. Lamb one of my friends for nearly fifty years. No words can express my appreciation of him either as a friend or business associate." He then commented upon the fact that since the founding of the Peoples Trust & Savings bank, January 25, 1893, there had been many changes in the directorate until he and Mr. Lamb had been the only ones left. The first directors were Chancy Lamb, Artemus Lamb, LaFayette Lamb, C.F. Alden, E.P. Welles, Daniel Langan, George B. Young, P.S. Towle and August M. Ingwersen. George M. Curtis, a friend of more than fifty years, today feels most keenly the passing of a friend with whom he visited Tuesday. His appreciation of his friend comes from a heart full of emotion, for he says, "It was my privilege to have intimate business and social relations with Mr. Lafayette Lamb for more than fifty years. I recognized and admired his splendid character and straightforward business integrity, together with the kind and gentlemanly qualities, all of which he possessed in an unusual degree and endeared him to the hearts of all who knew him." He added that no one in Clinton knew Mr. Lamb so far back as he did and his passing would be mourned not only in Clinton, but in other communities where he had been identified with business activities. "There are thoughts in our hearts never uttered at all - There are words that cannot find voice." "Again the Death Angel has called one hence whose identification with the early history of our city and its prosperity makes it a blow that reaches beyond the fireside; that deepens the cloud of sorrow until its shadows are fallen over our city. "Mr. Lafayette Lamb has been with us, practically, all his active life. His friends are legion. Unassuming, generous even to a fault, he had gathered a multitude of friends who mourn his departure with more real heartache than comes to the most of men. "The words of appreciation that have fallen on my ear since the sad news rapidly spread through our city have seldom lacked some instance of thoughtful kindness from his hand, some kindly remembrance extended to the speaker and which had made him a friend forever. These expressions were from all - no conventionalities had limited his kindnesses. He had been favored with wealth, but a greater and better fortune was a great, sympathetic and manly heart. "If he could have left to us a parting word, we believe the following lines would have expressed his thought" 'Don't say that if riches you had You'd make many happy today Right now you can make people glad If only you'll see it that way Be kind t the ones that you meet, Be gentle considerate and true, Do the most in the home or the street With what has been given to you.' "And to these feeble words of appreciation we feel that many hearts will respond and share in our sorrow at his departure." - L.P. Allen.