Lumber Industry Explored In July 7 Program

Chautauqua County’s early lumber industry will be explored in a program by local historian and author Fletcher Ward at 7 p.m. on July 7 at the Kennedy Fire Hall, 3590 Daily Hill Rd., Kennedy.

The presentation, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Chautauqua County Historical Society. 

In his book, Last Raft: Timbering Chautauqua’s Virgin Watershed, Ward describes how the lumber industry has been an integral part of the county’s history, from the selling of the first property by the Holland Land Company in the early 1800s through today. 

Early settlers purchased land from the Holland Land Company by taking out “articles,” which were a legal promise to pay for the land in installments. Payments were often made by selling crops or animals which the settlers raised. When settlers couldn’t sell crops to pay their indebtedness to the Holland Land Company, they turned to the virgin forests around Chautauqua Lake to provide the means of paying their debt.

With the help of their neighbors, the settlers cut the hardwood trees on their property, piled them in heaps and burned them to produce ashes, pot ash or pearl ash. Unlike crops and livestock, these products could be sold for cash with which to pay their taxes and make their article payments. Hemlock trees were also cut, and the bark peeled, dried, and sold. The tannin in crushed hemlock bark was used to tan animal hides.

The most prized of all trees was the Eastern White Pine which grew in abundance throughout southern Chautauqua County to a height of several hundred feet and a diameter of up to seven feet. These giant trees furnished lumber for homes, outbuildings, hotels, plank roads, and steamboats, all of which helped grow the economy of Chautauqua County.

Sawmills built on streams like Prendergast, Bemus, and Goose creeks inspired the development of stores, blacksmithing operations, and other establishments which were the beginnings of villages. Enterprising individuals logged the white pine forests for lumber and constructed sixteen- by sixteen-foot rafts of lumber which they piloted from Chautauqua Lake’s tributary streams down the lake to the Chadakoin River, Conewango Creek, and Allegheny River to Pittsburgh and cities as far south as New Orleans. 

Between the 1820s and the 1850s, Chautauqua and Warren counties became the center of the nation’s lumber industry. Hundreds of millions of feet of boards, timbers, lath, and shingles were shipped on waterways. 

Growing up on Chautauqua Lake, Ward was fortunate to have known several older residents who helped cultivate his interest in local history. He is also the author of Chautauqua's Largest Fish, Chautauqua's Muskies, Chautauqua's Great Race, The History of Chris Craft's Jamestown Division, The History of Chautauqua Lake's Ice Industry.  

His newest works, Coops, Spears, and Fish Decoys: The History of Muskellunge Spearing on Chautauqua Lake and They Knew Chautauqua's Skies, are being readied for publication.