Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company
Encyclopedia
The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company was established to harvest and market the virgin longleaf pine
(Pinus palustris L.) stands of southern Mississippi
during the early 20th century. The main sawmill
s were located in Wiggins
and D'Lo
, Mississippi. When the local timber supply dwindled, the company tried to utilize redwood trees from California
, but that operation failed because of high transportation costs. Other attempts were made at promoting a more diversified use of the cutover timberlands
; some ventures were successful while others were not.
of south Mississippi were virtually untouched by man, because there was no efficient system for transporting cut logs from the forests to sawmill
s for conversion to lumber
. There was an immense expanse of longleaf pine, stretching from Virginia
, southwest through nine U.S. States
, ending in east Texas
, and covering more than 140,000 square miles (363,000 square kilometers). Longleaf pine was the major species of interest to southern
lumbermen due to its straightness and durability from a high resin
content.
, near the mouths of rivers and streams, which were used for rafting logs to the mills. Because of limited inland waterways for moving logs, vast timberlands
remained inaccessible to lumbermen.
The river system of transporting logs to sawmills in south Mississippi ended in the late 19th century, when the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad
(G&SIRR) was constructed. The main line of the G&SIRR extended 160 miles (257 kilometers) from Gulfport, north and northwest to Jackson
the State capitol. The G&SIRR began operation from Gulfport
to Hattiesburg
in 1897, with the extension from Hattiesburg to Jackson in 1900. The G&SIRR passed through the town of Wiggins
located halfway between Gulfport and Hattiesburg. As a result of the growing timber industry, Wiggins had developed as a sawmill town.
, two millionaire businessmen, brothers W.O. and E.C. Finkbine, saw in the most northern section of Harrison County
(now Stone County
) considerable wealth in the form of timber, minerals, sand, and gravel. Such natural wealth was enticing to the two entrepreneurs, who already owned the Green Bay Lumber Company with lumberyards scattered throughout Iowa, in addition to their 17,000-acre (6,880 hectares) wheat farm in Canada
. But the main selling point was the vast acreage of virgin southern yellow pine
timber in south Mississippi. In 1901, the Finkbine Lumber Company, purchased two sawmills belonging to the Niles City Lumber Company at Wiggins. Officers of the Finkbine Lumber Company were E. C. Finkbine, president; W. O. Finkbine, vice president, and W. E. Guild, treasurer. In 1903, W. E. Guild took over as general manager at Wiggins. In that same year, all of the timberlands owned by the Niles City Lumber Company were transferred to the Finkbine Lumber Company. In Stone County alone, the Finkbine Lumber Company owned approximately 25,000 acres (10,100 hectares) of timberland.
In 1903, a new double-band sawmill with a cutting capacity of 125,000 board feet
per day was completed at Wiggins. Other features of the mill were five dry kiln
s, a large planing
mill and a dressed-lumber shed. The mill sawed longleaf pine logs into dimensional lumber and construction timbers. Business was both domestic and export, with export being handled through Gulfport, Mississippi.
A large company store was built in Wiggins to enhance Finkbine's business. The store was operated under the name of the Kew Mercantile Company and served Finkbine Lumber Company employees and the community at large.
in Simpson County
, Mississippi. When operations began in 1916, the D'Lo sawmill had a cutting capacity of 200,000 board feet every 10 hours. The timber supply for that mill extended over parts of Simpson, Rankin
, Smith
, and Scott
counties in Mississippi. In 1918, offices of Finkbine-Guild were moved from Wiggins to Jackson, Mississippi.
To facilitate harvesting, Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company constructed their own rail lines, often called dummy lines, into their timberlands. One of their forest railroads extended 24 miles (39 kilometers) southeast from Wiggins. The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company used a Clyde steam skidder
which could pull in all logs on 4 acres (1.6 hectares) at one setting, and each pull could bring in 5 to 15 logs to the dummy rail line for loading. At peak production, Finkbine-Guild operated 5 locomotives out of Wiggins and D'Lo. But, the use of steam skidders resulted in complete destruction of young trees, leaving a bare, open landscape.
redwood. In 1925, Finkbine-Guild bought the Cottoneva Lumber Company of Rockport
, California near the Pacific Ocean
. Because of the remote location, Finkbine-Guild built modern family homes, a company store, a mess hall, a hotel, a barber shop, a hospital, and a school. The Company constructed a sawmill, logging railroads, and loading facilities with a cable system, powered by a steam engine, to sling logs from shore onto ships. The Rockport mill produced only cants—squared-off logs for shipment to Mississippi mills for final processing.
Finkbine-Guild invested heavily in building a dock and loading facilities in San Francisco Bay
near the city of Sausalito
, California. From there, logs were transferred to one of the company's five oil-burning ships. Together the ships were called The Redwood Line and steamed from San Francisco Bay through the Panama Canal
to Gulfport, Mississippi. At Gulfport, the ships were unloaded and logs were put onto railroad flatcar
s for the trip to D'Lo, Mississippi, where the logs were processed into finished lumber.
Daily problems, such as broken turbines, broken cable lines, bad weather, blocked roads, difficulties in obtaining materials and groceries, and labor issues, all plagued the company at the Rockport facility. Within two years of operation in California, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company folded. In 1928, all California lands acquired by Finkbine-Guild were deeded to Southern Redwood Company. The Finkbine-Guild experiment in California failed because the Company bore extra handling costs, transporting logs to Mississippi, that local redwood companies did not have.
In an attempt to market their cutover timberland in south Mississippi, Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company organized the Mississippi Farms Company. The Farms Company advertised the cutover timberland for sale to entice Slavs and Poles
from the northern U.S. to move to Mississippi and buy land along the Finkbine-Guild logging roads. However, clearing the land of stumps and attempting to grow farm crops in the thin soils was hard work, leading to failure during the long, hot summers.
One successful venture of Finkbine-Guild and Mississippi Farms Company was the construction of a factory in Wiggins for processing farm produce. The American Pickle and Canning Company was formed to operate what became known as the ‘pickle factory'. At first, the plant processed pickles, tomatoes, beans, and sweet potatoes, but within a few years, pickles became its sole product. At one time, it was the largest pickle manufacturing plant in the world. Through time, the pickle factory changed ownership, becoming a part of Brown-Miller Company, then Beatrice Foods
. Those larger food-processing companies consolidated their production at locations in other U.S. States, and the Wiggins pickle factory closed in the 1970s, ending the final legacy of the Finkbine-Guild era.
Longleaf Pine
Pinus palustris, commonly known as the Longleaf Pine, is a pine native to the southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from eastern Texas to southeast Virginia extending into northern and central Florida....
(Pinus palustris L.) stands of southern Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
during the early 20th century. The main sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s were located in Wiggins
Wiggins, Mississippi
Wiggins is a city in Stone County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,849 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Stone County.-History:...
and D'Lo
D'Lo, Mississippi
D'Lo is a town in Simpson County, Mississippi, along the Strong River. The population was 394 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area....
, Mississippi. When the local timber supply dwindled, the company tried to utilize redwood trees from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but that operation failed because of high transportation costs. Other attempts were made at promoting a more diversified use of the cutover timberlands
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
; some ventures were successful while others were not.
The longleaf pine resource
Up until the 20th century, the virgin pine forestsPine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
of south Mississippi were virtually untouched by man, because there was no efficient system for transporting cut logs from the forests to sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s for conversion to lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
. There was an immense expanse of longleaf pine, stretching from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, southwest through nine U.S. States
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
, ending in east Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and covering more than 140,000 square miles (363,000 square kilometers). Longleaf pine was the major species of interest to southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
lumbermen due to its straightness and durability from a high resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
content.
Railroad development
A few sawmills were located along the Mississippi Gulf CoastMississippi Gulf Coast
The Mississippi Gulf Coast refers to the three Mississippi counties which lie on the Gulf of Mexico: Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.The region was severely damaged by Hurricane Camille in 1969 and again by Hurricane Katrina in 2005....
, near the mouths of rivers and streams, which were used for rafting logs to the mills. Because of limited inland waterways for moving logs, vast timberlands
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
remained inaccessible to lumbermen.
The river system of transporting logs to sawmills in south Mississippi ended in the late 19th century, when the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad
Gulf and Ship Island Railroad
The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad was constructed in the state of Mississippi, USA, at the turn of the 20th century to open a vast expanse of southern yellow pine forests for commercial harvest. In spite of economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs William H. Hardy and Joseph T. Jones successfully...
(G&SIRR) was constructed. The main line of the G&SIRR extended 160 miles (257 kilometers) from Gulfport, north and northwest to Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
the State capitol. The G&SIRR began operation from Gulfport
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi after the state capital Jackson. It is the larger of the two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the...
to Hattiesburg
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census . It is the county seat of Forrest County...
in 1897, with the extension from Hattiesburg to Jackson in 1900. The G&SIRR passed through the town of Wiggins
Wiggins, Mississippi
Wiggins is a city in Stone County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,849 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Stone County.-History:...
located halfway between Gulfport and Hattiesburg. As a result of the growing timber industry, Wiggins had developed as a sawmill town.
Company establishment and growth
In Des Moines, IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, two millionaire businessmen, brothers W.O. and E.C. Finkbine, saw in the most northern section of Harrison County
Harrison County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:* De Soto National Forest * Gulf Islands National Seashore - Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 189,601 people, 71,538 households, and 48,574 families residing in the county. The population density was 326 people per square mile . There were 79,636 housing...
(now Stone County
Stone County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,622 people, 4,747 households, and 3,626 families residing in the county. The population density was 31 people per square mile . There were 5,343 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
) considerable wealth in the form of timber, minerals, sand, and gravel. Such natural wealth was enticing to the two entrepreneurs, who already owned the Green Bay Lumber Company with lumberyards scattered throughout Iowa, in addition to their 17,000-acre (6,880 hectares) wheat farm in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. But the main selling point was the vast acreage of virgin southern yellow pine
Southern Yellow Pine
Southern Yellow Pine doesn't refer to any one species of tree, but rather a group of species which are classified as yellow pine , and are native to the Southern United States. They grow very well in the acidic red clay soil found in most of the region. The varieties include Loblolly, Longleaf,...
timber in south Mississippi. In 1901, the Finkbine Lumber Company, purchased two sawmills belonging to the Niles City Lumber Company at Wiggins. Officers of the Finkbine Lumber Company were E. C. Finkbine, president; W. O. Finkbine, vice president, and W. E. Guild, treasurer. In 1903, W. E. Guild took over as general manager at Wiggins. In that same year, all of the timberlands owned by the Niles City Lumber Company were transferred to the Finkbine Lumber Company. In Stone County alone, the Finkbine Lumber Company owned approximately 25,000 acres (10,100 hectares) of timberland.
In 1903, a new double-band sawmill with a cutting capacity of 125,000 board feet
Board foot
The board-foot is a specialized unit of measure for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It is the volume of a one-foot length of a board one foot wide and one inch thick....
per day was completed at Wiggins. Other features of the mill were five dry kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
s, a large planing
Planing (shaping)
Planing is a manufacturing process of material removal in which the workpiece reciprocates against a stationary single-point cutting tool producing a plane or sculpted surface. Planing is analogous to shaping. The main difference between these two processes is that in shaping the tool...
mill and a dressed-lumber shed. The mill sawed longleaf pine logs into dimensional lumber and construction timbers. Business was both domestic and export, with export being handled through Gulfport, Mississippi.
A large company store was built in Wiggins to enhance Finkbine's business. The store was operated under the name of the Kew Mercantile Company and served Finkbine Lumber Company employees and the community at large.
Peak years
At some point in time, the name was changed to Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company. In 1915, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company began construction of an all electric sawmill at the town of D'LoD'Lo, Mississippi
D'Lo is a town in Simpson County, Mississippi, along the Strong River. The population was 394 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area....
in Simpson County
Simpson County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,639 people, 10,076 households, and 7,385 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile . There were 11,307 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile...
, Mississippi. When operations began in 1916, the D'Lo sawmill had a cutting capacity of 200,000 board feet every 10 hours. The timber supply for that mill extended over parts of Simpson, Rankin
Rankin County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 115,327 people, 42,089 households, and 31,145 families residing in the county. The population density was 149 people per square mile . There were 45,070 housing units at an average density of 58 per square mile...
, Smith
Smith County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,182 people, 6,046 households, and 4,558 families residing in the county. The population density was 25 people per square mile . There were 7,005 housing units at an average density of 11 per square mile...
, and Scott
Scott County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 28,423 people, 10,183 households, and 7,535 families residing in the county. The population density was 47 people per square mile . There were 11,116 housing units at an average density of 18 per square mile...
counties in Mississippi. In 1918, offices of Finkbine-Guild were moved from Wiggins to Jackson, Mississippi.
To facilitate harvesting, Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company constructed their own rail lines, often called dummy lines, into their timberlands. One of their forest railroads extended 24 miles (39 kilometers) southeast from Wiggins. The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company used a Clyde steam skidder
Skidder
A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. Here they are loaded onto trucks , and sent to the mill...
which could pull in all logs on 4 acres (1.6 hectares) at one setting, and each pull could bring in 5 to 15 logs to the dummy rail line for loading. At peak production, Finkbine-Guild operated 5 locomotives out of Wiggins and D'Lo. But, the use of steam skidders resulted in complete destruction of young trees, leaving a bare, open landscape.
West coast experiment
As their timberlands were being exhausted in Mississippi, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company planned to keep their Mississippi mills as re-manufacturing and finishing plants and feed them with CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
redwood. In 1925, Finkbine-Guild bought the Cottoneva Lumber Company of Rockport
Rockport, California
Rockport is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California. It is located north-northwest of Westport, at an elevation of 30 feet ....
, California near the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
. Because of the remote location, Finkbine-Guild built modern family homes, a company store, a mess hall, a hotel, a barber shop, a hospital, and a school. The Company constructed a sawmill, logging railroads, and loading facilities with a cable system, powered by a steam engine, to sling logs from shore onto ships. The Rockport mill produced only cants—squared-off logs for shipment to Mississippi mills for final processing.
Finkbine-Guild invested heavily in building a dock and loading facilities in San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
near the city of Sausalito
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, California. From there, logs were transferred to one of the company's five oil-burning ships. Together the ships were called The Redwood Line and steamed from San Francisco Bay through the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
to Gulfport, Mississippi. At Gulfport, the ships were unloaded and logs were put onto railroad flatcar
Flatcar
A flatcar is a piece of railroad or railway rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck on four or six wheels or a pair of trucks or bogies . The deck of the car can be wood or steel, and the sides of the deck can include pockets for stakes or tie-down points to secure loads...
s for the trip to D'Lo, Mississippi, where the logs were processed into finished lumber.
Daily problems, such as broken turbines, broken cable lines, bad weather, blocked roads, difficulties in obtaining materials and groceries, and labor issues, all plagued the company at the Rockport facility. Within two years of operation in California, the Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company folded. In 1928, all California lands acquired by Finkbine-Guild were deeded to Southern Redwood Company. The Finkbine-Guild experiment in California failed because the Company bore extra handling costs, transporting logs to Mississippi, that local redwood companies did not have.
Alternative ventures
By 1927, the supply of virgin pine in Mississippi was depleted, and no more redwood logs were being shipped to the Mississippi sawmills for processing. On July 1, 1929, the Finkbine-Guild sawmills and remaining timberlands at Wiggins and D'Lo were sold to the Wilbe Lumber Company.In an attempt to market their cutover timberland in south Mississippi, Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company organized the Mississippi Farms Company. The Farms Company advertised the cutover timberland for sale to entice Slavs and Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
from the northern U.S. to move to Mississippi and buy land along the Finkbine-Guild logging roads. However, clearing the land of stumps and attempting to grow farm crops in the thin soils was hard work, leading to failure during the long, hot summers.
One successful venture of Finkbine-Guild and Mississippi Farms Company was the construction of a factory in Wiggins for processing farm produce. The American Pickle and Canning Company was formed to operate what became known as the ‘pickle factory'. At first, the plant processed pickles, tomatoes, beans, and sweet potatoes, but within a few years, pickles became its sole product. At one time, it was the largest pickle manufacturing plant in the world. Through time, the pickle factory changed ownership, becoming a part of Brown-Miller Company, then Beatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company. In 1987, its smaller international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of its domestic brands and assets were acquired by Kohlberg,...
. Those larger food-processing companies consolidated their production at locations in other U.S. States, and the Wiggins pickle factory closed in the 1970s, ending the final legacy of the Finkbine-Guild era.