WESTPORT LUMBER COMPANY
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Clatsop County - Westport
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January 19, 1883: "Westport will soon have a big mill in full blast that will employ thirty hands and turn out 20 thousand feet of lumber per day. The incorporators are David West, Frank Lovell, John West, and Benner." (The Columbian)
August 3, 1883: "Mr. Carrico is keeping the mess house at Westport for the big mill company operating there." (The Columbian)
February 8, 1884: "Mr. Morgan reports the Westport mill as running on full time; though it will soon stop in order to put in new boilers." (The Columbian)
January 19, 1904: "The schooner Alvena cleared at the Custom House today for San Pedro with a cargo of 897,024 feet of lumber, loaded at Westport." (The Morning Oregonian)
January 26, 1906: "The mill of the Westport Lumber Company was closed during the holidays for some much needed repairs. An extension of thirty feet was added to the main building in order to give room for placing the trimmers in better position and otherwise facilitate the work on the main floor. A new log was also built that required the use of 28,000 feet of heavy timbers. A 30 ampere dynamo and an engine to drive it were also installed so that in the future the entire plant will be suitably lighter. The company has just finished a large and commodious rooming house for accommodation of employes. The building is 30 x 100, two stories high and contains 48 well lighted and furnished rooms. Other and more important additions will be made to the plant's equipment as fast as the work can be done.
The Westport people will soon begin the erection of a series of new dry kilns, for the purpose of enabling them to enter, upon advantageous terms, into the contest for Eastern trade under the rules of the 'Czar' provisions, which demand that all lumber shipped East shall be thoroughly kiln-dried. President Palmer, of the Westport concern, will have the kilns built upon a new and successful system, which involves the steaming of the lumber before it enters the kilns, thus securing the elimination of every particle of moisture." (The Morning Astorian)
The Westport people will soon begin the erection of a series of new dry kilns, for the purpose of enabling them to enter, upon advantageous terms, into the contest for Eastern trade under the rules of the 'Czar' provisions, which demand that all lumber shipped East shall be thoroughly kiln-dried. President Palmer, of the Westport concern, will have the kilns built upon a new and successful system, which involves the steaming of the lumber before it enters the kilns, thus securing the elimination of every particle of moisture." (The Morning Astorian)
March 7, 1909: "Between the hours of 4 and 6 o'clock yesterday morning the fine plant of the Westport Lumber Company, at Westport, in this county, suffered a fire loss aggregating $100,000.
Just how the flames started can only be conjectured, as two watchmen were in charge of the premises on Friday night, one of them having punched the record clock at the hour of 3, and both having made the usual half-hour rounds of the plant. The presumption, in default of all signs leading to any other conclusion, is that it was the result of incendiary attempt, or from spontaneous combustion, the latter of course being entirely hypothetical, as it is remotely foreign to all conditions existent there.
The first news of the disaster was brought to this city (Astoria), by Mr. D. M. McLane, a citizen of Westport, who arrived here on the noon express. His tale of the fire offers no solution of the causes, but it does apportion great credit to the mill hands and the people up there for the celerity and efficacy with which they met and mastered the conflagration; and it was to their efforts that the loss was not doubled or trebled. As it was all the lumber on the run-way between the mills and the river, some 300,000 feet, were destroyed, either wholly, or in part. That the wind was not blowing was the salvation of the rest of the big establishments." (Morning Astorian)
Just how the flames started can only be conjectured, as two watchmen were in charge of the premises on Friday night, one of them having punched the record clock at the hour of 3, and both having made the usual half-hour rounds of the plant. The presumption, in default of all signs leading to any other conclusion, is that it was the result of incendiary attempt, or from spontaneous combustion, the latter of course being entirely hypothetical, as it is remotely foreign to all conditions existent there.
The first news of the disaster was brought to this city (Astoria), by Mr. D. M. McLane, a citizen of Westport, who arrived here on the noon express. His tale of the fire offers no solution of the causes, but it does apportion great credit to the mill hands and the people up there for the celerity and efficacy with which they met and mastered the conflagration; and it was to their efforts that the loss was not doubled or trebled. As it was all the lumber on the run-way between the mills and the river, some 300,000 feet, were destroyed, either wholly, or in part. That the wind was not blowing was the salvation of the rest of the big establishments." (Morning Astorian)
October 27, 1916: "The latest mill to join the Douglas Fir Exploitation & Export Company is the Westport Lumber Company, of Westport, Or., one of the most important export cargo mills in the North Pacific district." (Morning Oregonian)
May 1, 1920: "A. C. Gray Jr. of Westport suffered amputation of his right hand as a result of an accident in the sawmill. Gray, reaching under the bolt table, lost his balance. His hand was caught in the saw and almost completely severed." (The Oregon Daily Journal)
December 18, 1924: Isaac H. Rupnelin of Astoria, 43 years old, was almost instantly killed at Westport while loading lumber on the schooner Charles H. Cramp." (Eastern Clackamas News)