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Re: Searching for O.R. Johnson archival matter



Kevin,

You might try contacting Roots of Motive Power in Willits. They are a non-profit (I think)  group that works a lot with local logging history. Their address is P.O. Box 874, Willits, CA 95490, phone 707-459-9036.

Best wishes,

Tom
(having to put in extra tuime to prepare for an open house we're exhibitng at tomorrow)

mikadobear45@NETSCAPE.NET wrote:

> A query to the Collective Wisdom of the List:
>
> [Rather than take up my employer's time with this personal (and somewhat circuitous) request, I write to you all from home].
>
> In gathering material for an exhaustive corporate history I'm endeavoring to write, I am researching the family and corporate histories of the O.R. [Otis Russell] Johnson family of Sagatuck and St. Ignace, MI and later Racine, WI circa 1850-1930 (loose dates). This industrious family expanded the Johnson lumber milling interests from Michigan and Wisconsin to Mendocino County, California beginning in 1882. Most importantly, archival collections in the Michigan or Wisconsin area will be of the utmost interest since precious little relevant material survives out here in California.
>
> O.R. Johnson operated lumber mills in Saugatuck and St. Ignace, and was father to Charles Russell "C.R." Johnson (1858-1940) who moved for health reasons to San Francisco in the late 1870s.  C.R. went on to found and successfully operate the Fort Bragg Redwood Company and later, the Union Lumber Company, arguably the largest, most diverse and successful lumber enterprise in Mendocino County's redwood belt from 1885 - 1968. C.R. stayed west and established his family home and corporate offices in San Francisco, and his brother Thomas L. Johnson ran the Fort Bragg mill. C.R.'s son (O.R. Johnson II) and grandson (C. Russell Johnson) continued to keep the mill thriving well into the 1960s before the properties were sold to Boise-Cascade Corporation (and later still, to Georgia-Pacific Corp).
>
> C.R. Johnson enlisted his Wisconsin kin, including his father, as stockholders in his business ventures. Another large investor was [U.S. Senator] R.A. Alger, about whom I know little. C.R.'s mother, Emily Welles Johnson, came from "lumber roots;" her father and husband partnered in the Michigan mills (the corporate names of which I have yet to learn).
>
> I would like to uncover any surviving business or personal records for these Johnsons, the Welles (or Alger) since they obviously knew the lumber industry inside and out for several generations. I have already interviewed C. Russell Johnson, but he knew of no records outside the few which he held in his California home, or those modest, discontinuous selections donated by Union Lumber Company to the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. I have a copy of the finding aid for the latter collection.
>
> I will be eternally grateful for any recommendations and advice from my colleagues.
>
> Any responses should go to me at my resdential e-mail address:
>
> mikadobear45@netscape net
>
> Sincere thanks,
>
> Kevin V. Bunker
> Student Assistant
> California State Archives
>
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>