Lumber Industry
Clinton Once Proudly Boasted of Having "World's Largest Sawmill"
Not Unusual to Have Clinton Cut More Lumber Than Any Other City
Sawmills--which played such an important role in Clinton's economy for almosthalf a century--actually predate the city's founding by some six years.
Historical records show that the county's first steam sawmill was put intooperation in 1849. It was located at the mouth of Elk River.
However the first mill operated on a major commercial basis was establishedthe same year Clinton was platted--in 1855. Ohio capitalists provided themoney.
During the next 40 years Clinton grew into a bustling lumber center. Its huge mills, including the W. J. Young mill, reputed to be the world'slargest, provided employment for hundreds and laid the foundations for themodern, industrial center it is today.
It was the leading lumber town between Minneapolis and St. Louis and hadmills flanking the Mississippi for five miles. In some years more lumberwas cut in Clinton than in any other city.
Charles Lombard entered the local lumbering picture by building a mill. In1857 Gray and Lunt, a Maine partnership, dismantled the mill and rebuilt it.
Their partner and on-the-scene manager was Chancy Lamb, who eventuallyacquired the whole enterprise and formed a company with his sons which developedinto one of the several fabulous family empires which lumbering built inClinton. The Lambs, at the height of their milling enterprise, had fourmills with a combined capacity of 30 to 100 million feet of lumber a year.
Another pioneer milling figure was William J. Young who started in 1858 witha retail lumber yard and by 1866 built the great mill as the junction of BeaverIsland slough and the river which was termed the world's largest.
W. J. Young inaugurated the practice of moving log rafts down river withsteam power. He gradually expanded his operations until in 1880 Youngmills produced 50 million feet of lumber and 20 million shingles. The yearof maximum production saw 100 million feet cut.
In 1861, a third executive who was to join the list of Clinton lumber baronsarrived in the person of David Joyce, who leased the Stumbaugh mill which hadbeen established in Lyons in 1854. The Clinton Lumber company,incorporated in 1866, eventually conducted large-scale operations and stillanother big enterprise was established in 1874 by L. B. Wadleigh, E. P. Wellesand D. J. Batchelder, one day to become Gardner, Batchelder and Welles.
Curtis Companies, Inc., a successful sash, door, and woodwork manufacturertoday, dates to 1866 when Charles F. Curtis and W. G. Hemingway purchased theinterest of Claussen and Thornburg in a small factory here.
These early-day giants of river front industry were pioneer opportunists whoaccumulated millions in capital during the years their lumber saws buzzed at afurious pace. The great operations pyramided over nearly half a century,came to a close in the Gay Nineties, however, when the northern forest began tobe exhausted.
One by one, the tall chimneys of the Clinton mills ceased to belch theirclouds of black smoke. The Lambs kept one mill running until about1905. The W. J. Young mills were not operated after 1897, and the ClintonLumber company closed in 1893. Gardiner, Batchelder and Welles followed by1894. The Joyce Lumber company's plant, the last big mill in Clinton, wasmaintained after the founder's death by his son, W. T. Joyce.
The financiers it had fostered turned their resources elsewhere when thelumber industry failed. But before its demise, lumber had produced athriving city, which refused to fold up when its major occupation waseliminated.
The development of other manufacturing, although some diversified industrywas founded earlier, became the story of a new century, to which postwaradditions still are writing new chapters of expansion and progress.
Lumber Tycoon, Civic Leader: Opened First Mill Back in 1858
While the passage of years has erased much of the physical evidence of thosedays back in the 1880's when lumber ruled as king in Clinton, the name of one ofthose pioneering industrialists still is carried by a modern-day business firm.
The man in question is David Joyce, founder of the Joyce Lumber Co.
Joyce came here in 1858, first leasing the Stumbaugh mill. G. W.Stumbaugh and Samuel Cox had originally opened this mill in 1854, but it wasdestroyed by fire in 1856. After it was rebuilt, Stumbaugh assumed soleownership and continued to operate it until his death.
A program of expansion was launched by Joyce immediately after hispurchase. In 1869, in company with S. I. Smith, he erected a new mill onwhat was then known as Ringwood slough, but which for years has been referred toas Joyce's slough.
This mill, located near the present Joyce office and lumber yard on N. 2ndSt., had an original sawing capacity of 60,000 feet of lumber, 40,000 shinglesand 15,000 lath daily. In 1873 Joyce purchased the interest of his partnerand became sole owner. Fire destroyed the Joyce mill in 1888. Themill which replaced it began sawing again one year later.
By this time Joyce had gained the reputation as being one of the leading andmost influential men in the Mississippi Valley.
He continued to operate his newest mill until 1895 when he died.
A son, William T. Joyce, managed the firm's many and varied holdings for theestate during the period immediately after his father's death. The Joycefamily still maintain control of the firm.
Joyce took an active part in Clinton civic affairs. He was instrumentalin securing the construction of the first street railroad between Lyons andClinton and managed the company until 1891. He also served as mayor from1872-1876.
SOURCE: Centennial Edition, Clinton Herald, Clinton Iowa, 18 June 1955
