- Chapter XI,
- A Beautiful Forest,
- pg. 134-
|
I was informed by Mr. Johnson, who was still at
Escambia, that yellow-fever was epidemic in Pensacola
and that it would not be safe for me to come down
there with my family until after a frost.
It was therefore in early November, 1874, that with
my wife, my son and my partner Ebenezer H. Hubbard, I
started for Florida. I do not recall the incidents of
that journey until we reached Decatur, Alabama. At
that time the road between Louisville and Pensacola,
now known as the Louisville and Nashville, was
composed of short, independent lines. I think the road
from Decatur to Montgomery was known as the Alabama
Southern; from Montgomery to Mobile, as the Montgomery
and Mobile, and from Flomaton to Pensacola as the
Pensacola and Louisville Railroad.
We missed connections at Decatur and stopped at the
Polk House for about twelve hours. Our train did not
arrive until about 12 o'clock at night, and we sat up
in the parlor of the hotel waiting for it, the
daughter of the landlord. Meanwhile amusing us by
entertaining her beau. At this time there were no
Pullman cars on this route; the coaches were very
plain, and usually dirty, but we had to content
ourselves as best we could with the accommodations at
hand.
The next day about dark we arrived at Oakfield six
miles north of Pensacola, and were informed that it
was not safe to go any farther. Several colored people
were awaiting our arrival to take us to Escambia. I
was suffering with a terrible headache, and so my wife
and I stopped at a large house where a number of
refugees from Pensacola had made their home during the
prevalence of yellow fever. These were seeking in
various ways to amuse themselves and drive dull care
away. Ill as I was I found much to divert me in the
stories of a certain gentleman; they were impossible
and humorous; one of the stories I recall even now. It
was of a dog, born without any forelegs and the owner
to mitigate somewhat this misfortune had a couple of
wheels made, and placed where the dog's forelegs
should have been. The dog after that propelled himself
with his hind legs, would chase chickens and pigs with
great zeal, and also guard his master's front gate
against intruders.
The next morning our teams came for us and we went
to Escambia, about six miles across the country. On
arriving there we examined the house and found that it
had eleven outside doors, each fastened with only a
button; that the openings where the windows should
have been, were filled by solid wooden blinds; one
room had four small glass windows,which had evidently
been appropriated from some schooner. I do not
recollect how we provided ourselves with board and
lodgings until my household goods arrived from
Wisconsin.
I found the mill sawing out a cargo of Rio deals
for South America. We bought our logs from people who
lived back in the country, who put them in cribs of
about seventy logs each, by pinning a pole across each
end of the logs. In this manner we secured all we
could saw until about the year 1879. I then learned
that there had been in 1873 a great depression in the
lumber and timber business at Pensacola; that the
shippers had met with great losses that year and that
some of them had become bankrupt.
It was the custom in the port of Pensacola, at that
time for the merchants to buy timber and lumber from
the producers and ship it to ports all over the world,
where they could find a market. The merchants usually
sold cargoes of lumber or timber, delivered. at
destination; the buyer would name about the amount of
cargo wanted, the merchant would charter a suitable
vessel, load the cargo and ship to its destination. In
selling these cargoes there were three items which the
merchant hid to take into consideration; these were
cost, insurance and freight. What he was paid above
these items was his profit. It was necessary that he
be a man of considerable means, as there were no banks
of large capacity, in Pensacola at that time, the bank
of Hyer Bros. being in process of liquidation. These
sellers assumed the role both of shippers and bankers.
These three items---cost, insurance and freight were
matters of much variability. The merchant after
selling his cargo, had to buy it of some mill; if hewn
timber he had to contract with some timber getter to
deliver it within a certain time, at a certain price.
The matter of insurance was a variable quantity, which
depended upon the rating of the vessel; and the month
of the year in which it sailed. The freight also was
an unknown quantity, governed by the scarcity of
vessels seeking freight or the abundance of vessels
unchartered. So you will perceive that the seller took
chances which might cause him great loss, but he
usually took these risks with the nerve of a
gambler.
The conditions of this trade were such that it
necessarily partook of the nature of gambling. The
buyers in Europe were kept well posted as to the
conditions of the local market, having parties here
who were their employees, or were interested with them
in the business. About this time and after I came
here, the brokers in England who made the sales to
buyers in Great Britain and on the continent, assumed
the right to make sales whenever in their opinion it
was advantageous to themselves to do so. I remember
the case of a mill company which came here from
Chicago and had bought something like one hundred and
fifty thousand acres of land in the state of Alabama
at the nominal figure of a few cents per acre. The men
were wealthy Chicago lumbermen and they understood the
lumber business in Chicago. They came to Pensacola and
built an immense mill capable of sawing two or three
hundred thousand feet of Michigan white pine per day.
They sent a merchant to England to make sales for
them, paying him a commission on such sales as he
might make. He went there and sold a good many
thousand feet of lumber and chartered between twenty
and thirty vessels. After making these large sales he
came home and informed the mill men of his success and
they were happy to think that they had such a
prosperous season before them. In the early winter the
vessels began to drop in on them. In the sawing of the
pine it is necessary that the lumber should have a
chance to dry out, for if the sap were wet the lumber
would stain blue in the vessel and damage its value on
delivery, for which the buyer would demand reclamation
from the shipper. In such cases as these the broker
selects an arbitrator and the buyer does the same;
these two select a third and the three decide the
amount the shipper must allow the buyer as damages,
either on account of the cargo being injured in
shipping, or not being as specified in the contract.
The award of such arbitrators is usually liberal to
the buyer.
At one time I believe these mill men had twenty
vessels in port for cargo. A vessel, when chartered
for a cargo is usually ready as soon as she has her
ballast out; then she is allowed so many days for
loading. When such days have expired the vessel is on
demurrage, the amount of this depending upon the
tonnage, or size. This demurrage is a part of, and
collectible with the freight from the cargo, amounting
usually to from one to two hundred dollars per day,
and upwards. The lumber shipped in a vessel must be of
the character, size and quantity sold; if it is not it
may be rejected in toto, or a new price agreed upon
that the buyer may choose to make, or damages may be
claimed for non-deli very of goods bought. The result
of the experience of these men the first year, selling
their lumber in such ill-advised manner, put them in
such financial straits that they were compelled to
close down and eventually to sell out their plant at a
price that put them out of business.
I recall another instance similar to the one
mentioned, in which a partner, a reckless, character
who should have known better and done better, one fall
chartered all the vessels he could find in Europe,
probably getting a commission on the vessels'
charters. The ships arrived at Pensacola, until I
think the firm had thirty vessels in port at one time,
and though,quite wealthy, they were reduced to
bankruptcy by the bad conduct of this partner.
I have mentioned these two instances of bad
management, in order to show that a vessel when
engaged must be loaded as prescribed in the
charter-party. Still greater losses have been made by
ambitious merchants attempting to comer the market in
the supply of sawn timber. The loss of a dollar on a
stick of timber amounts to a large sum of money in the
purchase of two or three hundred thousand. In the
height of business at this port, one firm, if I
remember correctly, loaded and dispatched as many as
one hundred and forty vessels in one year, and the
cargo of each would average a million feet of
lumber.
The law governing these transactions is very
complex and intricate. The merchant should know the
kind of lumber required in every port to which he
ships lumber, for scarcely any two countries require
the same dimensions or quality. Lumber for shipment
abroad is usually sold by St. Petersburg standard,
which is nineteen hundred and eighty superficial feet
and the price is usually specified. to be in English
sterling pounds, shillings and pence. Freight and
insurance are also, generally payable in English
money. Timber, both sawed and hewn, is sold by the
load, being sixty cubic feet. Drafts, for the payment
of cargoes are paid in English sterling as stated
above, and are usually drawn in sets of three and on
time. Sometimes, however, buyers wish to pay in the
currency of their own country. During the time that I
was engaged in this trade, the buyers so disliked to
lose anything on a cargo, that they would use any
means to, place the loss on the seller, just or
unjust.
The pine belt that at one time existed on the gulf
coast and lower Atlantic, at the close of the civil
war, was a forest of great extent. Its area was
practically level and streams were found in almost all
its parts. Where the timber was not in easy haul of
the streams, it was an inexpensive thing to build
railroads
to the timber. The pine, at this writing (1907) in
comparison with 1865, is practically exhausted. Of
course there is a great deal of it still left; enough
to give employment to lumber men for several decades;
but the end is in sight. It seems incredible that
these millions of acres of pine should have been cut
off, transferred through the channels of commerce to
other climes, and so few people have been enriched by
the process. I have lived in Pensacola thirty-two
years and more; I have seen a great many people with
small means engage in this lumber business, the
manufacturing lumber from these pine woods, and this
port of Pensacola for a great portion of that time has
shipped on an average three hundred million feet of
lumber and timber per year, but out of the men engaged
in denuding these forests, I cannot at present writing
recall more than fifteen who have accumulated over
$100,000 in the business. A great many engaged in the
business have not only become bankrupt, but have lost
large sums of money which they had borrowed from
merchants, still others lacked practical knowledge of
lumbering or ability to learn it. I mention these
principal items of risk, for the purpose of showing
the hazards encountered by a stranger in entering this
region and business, without any prior know ledge of
the conditions which surround it. Almost every person
coming here from the north who had been a successful
lumberman in the white pine districts of Wisconsin or
Michigan and had amassed a fortune there, greater or
less, would naturally have a good deal of confidence
in his own judgment and experience, as I discovered
upon meeting them, and it would usually cost such a
person about a hundred thousand dollars to learn how
to do business in the south. I remember, a gentleman
from Michigan who had bought mills and a large tract
of pine, and whom I casually met on the street in
Pensacola. He asked me to meet him at Millview and
instruct him as to the proper method of manufacturing
his lumber. I expressed a willingness to do so, as I
did not like to have men come down from the north and
lose money. He said: "I will write you when I get
ready, and ask you to come over. I wish first to get a
million feet of lumber piled in the yard." I replied:
"You have then a million feet of lumber sold?" He
rejoined, "I have no lumber sold, but a yard looks so
much better with lumber piled in it." I said to him:
"My dear sir, it is right there you are making a
mistake. In the north you may safely manufacture any
amount of lumber of certain dimensions, and it is
always salable and in demand in that market; as much
so as a barrel of flour or a barrel of pork, but in
this country it is different; you should sell your
lumber first, and then manufacture it. You may have a
million feet of lumber in your yard, and you probably
would not get a chance to sell it in a year, and in
the meantime the lumber would decrease in value
one-half, from the effects of sun and rain." This idea
was so different from his experience in the north that
evidently it did not impress him much. He continued
doing business in an unsatisfactory manner for about a
year, when he sold out for a lump sum to a syndicate
in England. The buyers told me that the lumber he
sawed (a million feet) was still in the yard unsold,
and that they would be glad to get $6 per thousand
feet for it. The former owner had paid that price to a
contractor to cut the logs off his own land and
deliver them to his mill. It was customary then for
log-contractors to require of the mill owners
sufficient money or supplies to enable them to hire
men to cut, teams to haul and men to drive the logs
before they would go to work. Perhaps they did with
these supplies or money as they promised or possibly
they did something else with it, which would never be
known. These log contractors were good talkers and
good promisers; many of them were playing a game they
were familiar with, but which the "tenderfoot" does
not know.
The "cracker" population as a rule were
irresponsible in a financial transaction. In the
seventies, soon after the war, it was a sentiment
prevalent among the crackers, owing to their prejudice
against the colored people, to hobnob with the more
educated and cultivated class of whites, who thought
it no harm, if not indeed a praiseworthy and loyal
act, to cheat and bankrupt the man from the north who
came here to get rich out of them, as they thought,
and whom they called yankee, as a term of reproach.
When I was asked if I was a yankee I always replied:
"That I was a born and bred yankee." Of course, at the
present time, after thirty years of experience and
enlightenment, that prejudice exists only to a limited
extent, and that principally among the women. I found,
then that this prejudice existed against myself to a
considerable degree, but when a man tried to do an
unfriendly thing, I attempted to convince him that it
was a game that two could play, and that he would gain
little by so doing. I think I did not suffer from this
sectional prejudice for more than six years after my
arrival; it died out soon after the white population
got political possession of the state. The people had
suffered so severely through negro legislation,
dominated by carpet bag influence, that the irritation
was natural; when the source of the injury was removed
the irritation vanished. During the first few years of
my residence at Escambia, I found difficulty in
getting, many of the best logmen to cut for my firm.
In 1876 I think it was, the lumber market was very
much depressed and it was almost impossible to sell
lumber at a profit. Two or three men who bought logs
on the Escambia River closed down their mills and
refused to take any more from their loggers, refusing
even those they had contracted for. These men came to
me in their trouble, to sell their logs, though they
had formerly refused to sell to me. I said to them:
"All right, I will take your logs as long as I have
money to pay for them, but when my money gives out I
shall have to stop buying."
In those early years of living at Escambia, it was
my custom to go north when the hot weather came.
During the time we spent away traveling, we closed
down the mill. This year I told my bookkeeper when I
left, to buy logs as long as he had any money in the
bank, then stop buying. When I returned in the fall, I
found he had paid out what money I had, and also had
over drawn my account at the bank about $10,000; but I
had a fine stock of logs on hand. I found that the
market was much better than when I had left in the
spring, I formed a shipping partnership with a Mr.
Hooten, of Pensacola, who had had a long experience in
shipping lumber for himself or in the employment of
others. This partner had sold several cargoes to be
shipped abroad, and had contracted for the lumber to
be furnished by other mill owners. The price advanced
on lumber from $1 to $2 per thousand feet, The mill
owners had neglected to buy logs and could not get
them at the old price, when the vessels arrived for
their cargoes, they told my partner that I had bought
all the logs in the market, knowing what was going to
happen, and that I had the logs and could saw the
lumber myself, while they could not furnish it. I had
thought this state of affairs would come about and had
gone to work preparing the lumber, and had it on hand.
I did not let my partner know this fact, but kept him
in "hot water" by asking him what he was going to do.
He finally acknowledged his helplessness, that he
could not buy the lumber anywhere. I said: "You
represent your company; I represent Skinner, Hubbard
& Co. I will sell you the lumber at $2 per
thousand advance on the price you were to pay the
other parties for it." He replied: "I accept your
offer." I loaded the vessels all in good time. Then I
said to him: "Mr. Hooten, you send those parties a
bill for the difference in price between the contract
price for the lumber and that which you had to pay for
it; if they refuse to pay the difference, sue them."
They did refuse; we sued them, got judgment and they
paid the judgment.
When I came to Escambia we had no postoffice there.
I arranged with the postmaster at Pensacola to give my
mail to the mail carrier who carried the mail between
Pensacola and Milton and I would send a messenger to
Pritchard Field and get my mail as the carrier passed
that point. C. L. Le Baron had a private telegraph
line from Pensacola to Milton and I put a private line
from Escambia to Ferry Pass. I hired several boy
operators, but had much trouble with them and more
with those employed by Le Baron. After continuing it
for about a year I came to the conclusion that the
line was more of a vexation than a convenience, and I
gave it up. In 1878 my partner, having been accustomed
to city life, with nothing to attend to, went home to
his uncle and refused to come back.
I heard of the wonderful telephone (the telephone
is as wonderful to me today as it was then), I
received a letter from a cousin of my wife who was
operating one, giving it unstinted praise. I had never
seen a telephone myself; there were none in Florida so
far as I knew. In 1880 I put up a line from Escambia
to Pensacola, placing the Pensacola end of the wire in
the office of my friend, Col. Geo. E. Wentworth. It
worked very satisfactorily, and was a great curiosity,
being the first telephone in that part of Florida, if
not in the state.
I needed a light-draught tugboat to tow lumber and
logs; one that I could run through the narrows in the
sound up to Choctawhatchie Bay, as well as operate in
Escambia Bay and River. I concluded to go to Oshkosh
and buy a tug; one of those used at that place for
towing logs and lumber. I bought a nearly new boat;
one of the best, if not the best in those waters. My
partner, Eben. Hubbard, went up to Oshkosh to take
passage on the boat and come down with it, and he had
quite an interesting trip. The tug went up the Fox
River and through the canal which connected that river
with the Wisconsin River, down the Wisconsin to the
Mississippi, down the latter to the jetties and into
the Gulf of Mexico. She then had to work her way
northward among the Chandelier Islands into
Mississippi Sound and through that to Mobile Bay, and
from Mobile Bay to Pensacola Bay through the Gulf.
This tug was built for use in fresh waters, and had no
condenser, her trip through salt water caused her
boiler to foam, which interfered with her steaming.
When the boat reached Escambia the men were very much
pleased that the trip was ended; the voyage having
been made for them through unknown waters. To have
made such a trip without accident and nearly on the
schedule time (made previous to leaving Oshkosh) was
very gratifying.
At that time it was customary for men employed on
the inland waters of Pensacola Bay to amuse
them-selves by telling frightful stories of sickness
and death to tenderfeet just from the north. Capt
Colburn, of the tug Hercules, was very susceptible to
these fairy tales, and his fear being noticeable made
him a shining mark, for the story teller. I kept him
busy towing logs from Choctawhatchie Bay to the mill.
A few months after his arrival at the port he was
taken sick while at Freeport and was very badly
frightened, and notwithstanding he was to be part
owner of the boat and captain of it, he made up his
mind to get out of the country while his life
remained, and return to Oshkosh.
At the time of my arrival there was a great deal of
malarial and break-bone fever. Considering the way the
natives lived, the mystery to me was that they did not
all die, and not that many of them were taken ill. Dr.
John Brosnaham. moved to Gull Point, about three miles
down the bay, the year after I came to Escambia, and
was a great help to me in keeping my family and
employees well. He made calomel pills with which he
always kept me supplied. He had several grades of
these pills, of different strength; the mildest pills
he called "little cusses," next were the "royal Bengal
tigers," the most powerful were "little hell." Either
kind could be administered to the patient, as his
condition might require. It was remarkable the
uniformity with which these pills relieved the
patient.
The principal diet of the crackers at this time was
hog and hominy, intermixed with greens when the latter
could be had. The hoecake was made by mixing cornmeal
and water, with a little salt, putting it on a shovel
and baking it over a coal fire; the bacon was fried in
a skillet. In the fall they would make some cane syrup
and when in funds some wheat flour, which they would
mix and bake as hoecake. This was at times the
principal food of the negroes and poor crackers, and
sometimes the "little hell" pills were required to
produce any effect.
Until 1878 I had kept myself in fairly good health
with the contents of numerous bottles of Simmons'
liver regulator. I went north that summer to New York,
where I spent several days with a Mr. Colquett who was
a buyer and shipper of pitch-pine lumber from the
Atlantic coast ports. I was anxious to learn how they
inspected lumber in New York when it arrived in cargo
lots. He had several vessels which were unloading in
New York harbor and he wished me to see a cargo which
was unloading in Brooklyn. He did not seem to be very
well posted as to localities in that city, nor as to
car lines. We boarded a car which he thought would
take us to the vessel; but it did not. He considered,
however, that by walking cross-lots we would soon
reach the vessel. It was a very hot, clear day and the
sun's rays were scorching. The distance proved to be
more than a mile. I have never had a sunstroke, but
think I came pretty near it then. The next day I went
up to New Haven, Conn., where I had a cargo of timber
and lumber unloading, which I had sold to the New
Haven Sawmill Co. When I arrived at New Haven I went
directly to the vessel, but the heat of the day before
I think had stimulated the malaria in me and I began
to feel sick. I asked Mr. Booth, the agent of the
buyers, to take me to a good hotel, which he did. When
I reached the hotel I went to bed and asked the
landlord to send for a good doctor. The physician came
and looked me over. I do not know what his diagnosis
was, but he put some "No. 1" in a glass of water and
some "No. 2" into another glass of water and told me
to take a teaspoonful of "No. 1" and in half an hour a
teaspoonful of "No. 2," repeating till I got well, or
died. The girl who waited on my room told the
housekeeper that she believed the man in No. 22 was
crazy; "Just think, this hot day he has kept calling
for blankets till I have put six on his bed." During
my life I have suffered terribly, with headaches,
first and last, but I never had such a painful
headache as I had that night. My reason appeared to be
all right, but the pain was intense. I feared that
before morning I would be out of my head if the pain
continued. About twelve o'clock I touched the bell
button for the night clerk to come to my room and in
vigorous language I told him my condition. I directed
him to bring me some crushed ice, put it in a
washbowl, pour in some water, set it at the head of my
bed and furnish me a towel. I then wet it in the ice
water and put it on my head. When the towel would get
warm I would take it off my head and put it in the
water; then wring it out and put it back. By three
o'clock in the morning the headache had ceased, and
later I went to sleep.
About 9 o'clock the doctor came to see me again. I
told him that I did not want any more "No. 1 and No.
2," but that if he would give me something that would
not make my head ache I should be glad. He remarked:
"You appear to know better what to do than I. I reckon
you better doctor yourself." I told him I that thought
so too, and bade him good day. I then called the
landlord in and asked if he could recommend a good
allopathic physician. He was careful to express no
opinion as to the merits of any physician, but finally
mentioned a Dr. Hubbard. I said: "Send for him; I
never knew a Hubbard who was a fool." He came and put
me under a treatment of calomel and quinine. In ten or
twelve days I thought. I was all right and insisted
upon going into the dining room to get my meals. This
led to a relapse and I was quite ill again. After
about two weeks more I felt that I had recovered and I
made up my mind that I would go to my wife in Chicago;
I was very impatient at the confinement and delay. Dr.
Hubbard told me that if I took the journey then to
Chicago it would kill me, but I paid my bills; settled
with Mr. Booth as he dictated for the cargo of lumber,
ordered a carriage and went to the railroad station.
As I sat in the depot awaiting the arrival of the
train for New York, I felt very ill and concluded that
I would have to return to the hotel. I started to get
a carriage to take me there, none was in sight, but
the train rolled into the station and I got aboard. I
kept getting stronger all the way to New York City,
and then for some reason I crossed to Jersey City and
took the Pennsylvania train for Chicago. I met my wife
in the latter place, and accompanied her two or three
days in the hot sun on a shopping tour, then we went
to Oshkosh. My wife was an invalid and a local
physician was treating her; he also prescribed for me,
as I had not yet recovered from my late illness.
About a week later I went to Ripon in order to
place my son in school. While at the house of the
president of the college, waiting for the return
train, I was taken quite sick again, but I arose, in
spite of the pain, and took the train to Oshkosh. My
partner, Mr. Eben Hubbard, met me at the station and
took me to the house of my wife's father. The next day
I was taken with a terrible fit of vomiting. My
mother-in-law came to me and said: "Don't you think we
had better send for Dr. Osborne?" This doctor had been
our physician before we went south. I replied that I
would like to have him. He was sent for and came in
the morning; talked with me awhile and went out of the
room. In a short time Mrs. Hubbard came to me and
said: "Mr. Skinner, may I tell you what Dr. Osborne
told me?" I replied, "Certainly." "He says you are all
used up, that he can't do much for you; whether you
live or not will depend upon good nursing; that in any
event you will not get out in six weeks." I had never
suffered much sickness, I took no stock in the
doctor's prognostications in my case, but following
events proved him correct. Mrs. Hubbard was one of the
dearest old ladies I ever knew, as well as the best
friend I ever had. She nursed me faithfully, but it
was six weeks before I became convalescent. I fully
believe she saved my life. Dr. Osborne remarked that
it would be some time before I would have another
fever and I have had none, although I have lived
twenty-seven years in Florida. The experience of that
malarial fever has demonstrated to me that a person
convalescing from it, should be very careful in
resuming the customary avocations of life, and I have
used that knowledge much to the advantage of my family
and the health of my employees. As soon as I had fully
recovered I returned to Escambia.
My experience in 1878 in buying logs led me to buy
the log landings along the shores of the bay and
river, where logs could be handled by teams and rolled
into the water; then these landings could not be used
without my consent while I owned them. Up to this time
and for several years later, timber lands in Florida
were valued at only fifty cents per acre, which price,
of course, was ridiculously low. I was aware of that
fact, but I think it was the general impression of the
natives that these lands never would be worth more.
They could secure government land by locating it under
the United States Homestead law, but most of them
failed to do so, because it cost fifteen or twenty
dollars to locate the claim.
Most of the natives possessed a migratory
disposition. They would see locations often which they
thought superior to the one they occupied. It did not
involve much labor to cut poles, notch them and build
a log house; they could cut down a cypress, juniper or
pine tree for shingles. Most of them had a little
ox-cart or one-horse, four-wheeled wagon in which to
move their wives, children and household goods, and
they could drive their pigs and cattle to the new
home. The man would girdle a few acres of trees and
start a new plantation, perhaps a little richer and
better than the former wornout garden spot. At one
time I think as many as a hundred of these "squatters"
were living on my land.
In the fall of 1880 my former partner, E. H.
Hubbard, returned to Escambia and spent the winter
with me. His eldest daughter, Mary, was born at my
house. I had an option on some thirty-five thousand
acres of pine land at seventy cents per acre. This
land lay on, and tributary to the Canuch River, and
was covered with very large pine trees. Mr. Hubbard
had two brothers in New Mexico raising sheep, and
about this time they sold out; their names were John
Q. and Howard Hubbard. The mill property at Escambia
still belonged to my father-in-law and I urged them
very strongly to look at this pine land and buy it. If
they preferred I would let them have the mill at
Escambia and I would go somewhere else, but the three
brothers decided to go to Mobile and embark in the
lumber business there. Later this land was sold to a
syndicate of Wisconsin men--a Mr. Wharton and others.
Afterwards Mr. Wharton offered the land to me at $2
per acre, and he finally sold it to a Mr. Peters, who
made a fortune out of it, and then sold it to Mr. F.
C. Brent and others, who have also made a great deal
of money from it.
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