Schafer Brothers Logging Company got its start
in 1893 when brothers Peter, Albert and Hubert Schafer began logging on the
family homestead 6 miles upstream from the mouth of the Satsop. They logged
with oxen and horses for 20 years. The companies
first donkey engine was purchased from Washington Iron Works. Hurbert went to
work at the factory to learn how donkey engines were made and also to have all
of his wages except for living expenses applied toward the cost of that first
donkey engine.
In 1913, they bought a 45-ton Heisler locomotive and laid tracks
into the woods from Brady to usher in their railroad logging era. A shingle
mill was purchased in Montesano in 1919, the first of many manufacturing plants
the company would own through Grays Harbor County.
It was reported that the Schafer Brothers Logging Company was a pioneer in the use of tractors for grading logging roads in 1919, when they put four Cleveland tractors on the job.
At the peak of operation,
the Schafers were running one of the largest logging, milling and shipping
concerns in the lumber industry of the Pacific Northwest. Their properties and
equipment at that time, not counting ships and tugs, included five sawmills in
operation, served by six camps sending logs over 100 miles of rail. This
required 18 locomotives, both geared and mainline types, and a total of 70
donkeys and 325 logging cars. To operate all of this equipment called for
approximately 3000 employees.
Simpson Timber Company purchased Schafer Brothers
Logging Company in 1955.
Resource
Fifty Years in the Timber
West Coast Forest Products Production in WA - YouTube Video
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