Manuscripts Collection
Incorporated on March 23, 1895 with Thomas H. Shevlin as president, Hovey C. Clarke as vice president, and Julius Ferdinand Bernhard Neils as secretary-treasurer, the J. Neils Lumber Company started with a capital of $30,000 and a sawmill in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. The company built a second sawmill at Cass Lake in 1900 after Congress had passed legislation for a townsite and the sale of timber from Chippewa Indian Reservation lands. As clear cutting stripped old growths of conifer trees in Minnesota, the company began expanding westward by acquiring timber lands in Flathead and Lincoln counties, Montana.
In 1910 the Sauk Rapids mill was sold to the Crookston Lumber Company and the J. Neils Lumber Company bought the Dawson Lumber Company in Libby, Montana. In 1915 the principal Montana office was moved to Kalispell, Montana and the assets of the company were divided, with the portions of the Libby Lumber Company sold to Thomas L. Shevlin, son of Thomas H. Shevlin. Following the death of the younger Shevlin, the J. Neils Lumber Company repurchased the Libby Lumber Company assets, with Walter Neils serving as general manager and George Neils as logging supervisor. Throughout this period the company continued to acquire timberlands and logging rights in northern Minnesota, but timber supplies near Cass Lake had been exhausted by the early 1920s and, by 1926, all of the Cass Lake sawmill assets and logging operations were sold.
Throughout this period the company continued to acquire additional timberlands and logging rights in Montana and by the mid to late 1920s the company had also expanded into Washington state. A company office was established in Klickitat after purchasing the Western Pine Lumber Company in 1922. Renamed the Klickitat Log and Lumber Company, its assets included a railroad, a sawmill, a planing mill, 1,599 acres of timberland, and contracts for the timber rights to more than 10,000 acres. In 1944 the company acquired the assets of the Montana Power and Light Company, as well as the distribution system of the Kootenai Light and Power Company, and began supplying electricity to the towns of Troy and Libby. In 1957, anticipating the need to diversify into paper manufacturing, the J. Neils Lumber Company merged with the St. Regis Paper Company. Logging and lumber operations in Montana and Washington continued well after this merger.
Minutes (M503): Portland, Oregon: University of Oregon, 1962.
Original minute books were loaned for microfilming by Paul Neils, Portland, Oregon.
Accession number: 13,174; 15,122; 16,477
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001733641
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics,
persons or places should
Autographed by Paul Neils, 12/12/[19]75.
Paul Neils moved with his family to Cass Lake in 1900 and resided there until 1925 when he moved to Portland, Oregon. The letters contain information concerning the Neils family and their Cass Lake residences, the sawmill at Cass Lake and its employees, the Cass Lake townsite, the Soo Line Railroad to Cass Lake, and the lumber company's log brands.
Robert W. Deuser was born June 3, 1897 at Mankato, Minnesota. He attended St. Paul and Peter schools. He managed the retail and local shipping department of J. Neils Lumber Company in Cass Lake from 1919 until the company moved to Washington in 1922. From 1922 to 1929 Deuser had his own retail lumberyard in Cass Lake. He was associated with the Dickinson brothers and later the Standard Lumber Company, both in Bemidji, Minnesota, until his retirement in 1968.
The interview discusses the J. Neils Lumber Company, its operation of the mill in Cass Lake, employment at the mill, the use of steamboats, moving logs by water, log brands, deadheads, and the Neils family. He also talks about his own Cass Lake lumberyard after the Neils company moved west. Brief comment is included regarding early resort camps on Star Island, Allan's Bay, and Norway Beach. The interview closes with a few reminiscences about various businesses in Cass Lake during the 1920s. A brief autobiographical sketch is included.
The interview gives information on the lumber firms operated by Walter Neils and his father, Julius Neils. The first mills were located in Sauk Rapids and operated under the name Thayer and Neils Company. In 1895 this partnership was dissolved and, with the financial backing of Thomas H. Shevlin, the J. Neils Lumber Company was organized. At that time, the firm moved to Cass Lake. In 1905 Neils and Shevlin began purchasing timber in the Western States and in 1911 purchased the Dawson Lumber Company of Libby, Montana. Neils also operated a box factory at Klickitat, Washington. The interview also gives information on logging methods, and on the use of hydroelectric power in the lumber industry.
The original interview may be in the possession of the Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina.
Additional interviews between members of the Forest History Society and pioneer lumbermen of the Upper Midwest are available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections. These transcripts also include an interview with George Neils conducted by John Larson in Libby, Montana in 1953.
Includes annual reports of the Klickitat Log and Lumber Company, a subsidiary of J. Neils Lumber Company, to regulatory commissions of the state of Washington.
A daily record of account transactions indicating debits, credits, and expenses for the company's operations. Includes entries for timber, supplies, machinery and equipment, camps and buildings, livestock, labor, shipping, repairs, inspections, insurance, and taxes.
A record of logs bought and sawed, in number of pieces and foot length, showing log brands and the names of companies from whom logs were bought and to whom sawed lumber was sold. Includes an unexecuted 1933 bill of sale for the company's saw logs in Cass and Beltrami counties to Mr. Albert Westrup of Maple Lake, Minnesota with a list of the company's log marks recorded in the Minnesota Surveyor General's office.
Arranged by county and subdivision. Includes entries for Kalispell and Lincoln County in Montana and Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, Itasca, and Koochiching counties in Minnesota. The entries show land purchases and sales indicating dates, grantors and grantees, kinds of titles, taxes paid, and patents or reservations. The book also includes a record of timbering activities indicating types of timber, logging estimates, and amounts cut and sold.
Includes name, address, and number of shares issued to and surrendered by stockholders in the J. Neils Lumber Company, prior to its absorption in 1957 by the St. Regis Paper Company.
Includes minutes of annual and special meetings of the company's stockholders and directors. They focus, particularly in the early years, on recording the election of officers and directors, declarations of dividends, and decisions on financial matters. Until the 1920s, the treasurer's financial reports are generally included, as well. There were periodic amendments to the articles of incorporation or bylaws; full texts of both appear on pages 610-616. Minutes dealing with the 1915 division include detailed lists of corporate assets and land holdings.
After 1915, there is increasing discussion of the acquisition of timber cutting rights, including negotiations with federal agencies; the purchase, sale, and exchange of timber lands; authorizations to borrow money; and the purchase of other lumbering and related companies or various of their assets. Most annual stockholders' meeting minutes list the stockholders and the amounts of their holdings. There is considerable detail on a contract with the Anaconda [Copper] Mining Company for an exchange of Montana timber lands (1914); repurchase of the Libby Lumber Company (1919); capital improvements and equipment purchases for the Libby and Klickitat plants (1940s and 1950s); plans to recapitalize the company (1950); and the merger with the St. Regis Paper Company (1957).