May 20, 1965 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Sec.
I
.Suppleme -of SHELTON-I AS0N COUNTY IOURNAE
A C~NTU
SIMPSON'S MAIN OFFICE BillLlllNG IS
Thursday,
SHELTOH
ii¸ ....... ~: : ..... : :< / .~ ~i::G~i,~i¸¸ :<
SIGN OF OUR TIME---Max Schmidt, Simpson Timber Company
timberlands manager, and Shelton Mayor Frank Travis inspect
the large sign on the Simpson printing plant wall facing First
Avenue South which tells the passing world that the oampany
has been on the scene in this cor~munity for 75 years, with the
arrival of 1965. The community and the Mason County Forest
Festival are taking note of this important anniversary in cele-
brations and observations this week.
I I I I I II II I
I I I I
AND
i '
TO THE
ON THEIR
Maz'k E. Reed was an outstand-
ing leader in the history of the
Simpson Timber Company, serving
as its president nearly twenty
years and supervising its leap for-
ward from a woods operation to a
combination logging and sawmill
Company.
Reed was an intelligent and
shrewd businessman, but pez'hans
the quality which most clearly
marked him for greatness was his
acumen in seeing the basic right-
hess of actions involving people
and property. The decisions he
made o11 this basis had an uncan-
ny way of working out to be good
policy for' the company.
AN EXAMPLE was Simpson's
policy of maintaining its logged-
off lands, an expedient which help-
ed the company survive the riots-
situde~ of the industry's develop-
ment while others went under. Tlie
usual technique in the early days
was to log off the timber and
then let the land revert to the
counties by not paying the taxes.
This seemed to Mark Reed to be
a ratber unfair way to use land,
and he reasoned further that if
the land were dumped onto the
counties, Simpson and other busi-
nesses would have to make up the
tax loss some other way. Now
seventy-five years after the comp-
any began, the land which ha~
been held and maintained is pro-
ducing valuable hemlock and
Douglas fir,
! Mark Reed obsez~ed first-hane
:the deporable conditions at earh'
logging camps. When they tel:
him to make up his own bun~
!out of boards from a hog pen ~m-
;straw from the barn, he rowe
he would do something about th,
camps if he got a chance, and h~
¢tid. J-To saw to it the cabins were
warm and clean and bad mattre~
-e~ an~ that the cooktnff was good
Because Simpson's conditions wet,
;'otter tba, others, the compmr
faced ~:~u L~bor difficnlty in t~'~
,,va of !',o Tna~tri~,l W~-kers c'
~he W,)-~ -'wfffeetionately know'
's the Wobblies.
REED DISCOVERED that sore,
~perators came and went quickly
~aking out their profits and racy
!n~, on to new sources. He con.
~!nded, however, that it was a fa
'~etter l hinq" to build an industr"
vhtcl] could become a dependablF
'eader of a stable community. He
-ncouraged people to settle in th~
'~rea with that expectation, an<
when the chips were down, he
-,toed by them.
After the 1929 crash, the indus..
try was in the doldrums. No one
had money to buy lumber. Simp-
son, which had prided itself on
paying above-average wages for
years, had finally slashed mill pay
to 25 cents an hour'. The mill was
a burden' on the company's re-
sources, and the next logical step
was to close it.
~:; ; :i~
HI KIH , SHREWD BU fflESS
FOfiCE
lr~.e2:] t-U't~\V [lie col31p:.itl), COlliU
C~'.'S(! ;!'p EI[II ant! sur'vivu, l)tlt, 11(
thouKh! of the t/~vnspeople who
%~t'] (!')i'1'3, [hc merchants who
',vo, fld -ha',e tu fold lip if the nlez~
Vd ol'e on| of ~vo;'l( {i llft
COtlldn'I
pay thci~~ bills The mill kept go-
THESE AItP2 ~ few ofdthe poli-
cies that made ~,'lark V.ce a great
~n~l progres;five leadt'v, ~tt)le to
foresee and carry out his vision of
a stable and p'ernmnent logging
industry which saw the log from
the woods to the market.
IV[ark E. Reed was born In
Olympia December 2,'{, 1866, and
from his first v;ork as a grocer's
delivery boy, rose to national pro-
minence in" finance, industry and
politics.
Reed attended California Mili-
tary Academy at Oakland, Cali-
fornia, and later' became deputy
state auditor and secretary of the
State Land Commission.
He was of rugged build with a
yen for outdoor life, however, and
couldn't long endure the dull rou-
tines of clerical work. He was
drawn to the newborn logging in-
dustry, then sending out its lusty
wails from the nearby forests.
HIS FIRST adventures was a
logging partnership witil Ike Ellis
in which he learned his most im-
portant business lesson: How to
~o broke. Undmmted, he remain-
ed in the industry, taking a job as
toreman with the Simpson Log-
ging Company.
Reed proved his ability in his
first several year's with Simpson
and soon was acting as general
manager of the company'~ merc-
antile, banking, logging and ship-
ping interests. The company's
first president, Sol G Simpson (lied
in 1906. Alf:ed H. Alli.lcF.Joq was
he n.~xt president, s¢~l'ving until
his death in 1914, at whk:h time
Reed stepped into the office re-
qaining until he died in 1933.
WHEN REED to(d( over, Simp-
~,on was selling billi(ms of feet of
logs and could well have prospered
"~ontinuing in that vein, hut Reed
~w a great futm'e for Shelton
as an industrial cente.,'. In 19-.
24 Simpson formed the Reed Mill
Company to build Shelton's first
sawmill, to cut hemlock. N(.xt~
came the Henry McCleary Comp-
any's mill next door. Then the
Northern Pacific Raih'oad came
to town to market the mills' out-
put. h~ 1926 came news there
would be a pulp mill and power
flant.
The ,x)minK of these plants
harked the first major change in
the complexion of Shelton. Skilled
workmen and their families ar-
rived. New homes went up. A big-
ger water works was begun and
streets were paved. Business open-
ed their doors. M, rk Reed's dream
of an industrial Shelton was com-
ing tz~e.
I{EICI)'S EFFORTS \veze not
~onfh~ed to his own business in-
terests. He served ,;even terms in
the Washington State ttousc of
Representatives, was the state's
GOP National Committeeman for
many years as well as a member
of a national committee to dr¢fft
r: National Industrial Recovery
Act code fo rlhe lumber industry.
A~ GOP majority leader in the
House, 11o got throngh a set of
worklnen's conlpensation laws. the.
nation's third.
His efforts
,~:( alini%
riding for s
sealers.
He jot the
tween olymt
IN 190l,
Si]npson, l
Mary siml~
major cone
they devot'
and inte~es
educational
ion.
Until 191
tion :trail
past gram
Grammar
~ourney tl
omplete '
M~s.
tenth
the Reeds
r-tiffh SchO
NEXT
School
High
to the Reeds
field and
ed.
On
Reed died,
struggle
which
tnent busi~
in~s in
Mark
tin folding
conditions
cation in the
the m rival
dustrial
work left a
future
to b~dld t(
Timber
leadership.
~ 7 >i,/ /::/i:L¸ ! ,
)i ~iii!;¸ ¸¸¸ ~:' ?"!i i
A Part of Slmpson's Fleet of Logging Trueks
Serviced By Shaub-Ellison Co.
We join with the entire Pacific Northwest in
Saluting the Simpson Timber Co. on its
contribution to the growth and development of
this area
PROVIDING KEY leadership
during Simpson Timber Com-
pany's present time ,of dynam-
ic expansion is Henry Bacon.
eighth man to be president of
Simpson Timber Company dur-
ing its seventy-five-year history.
RKI
ETFI
Toward a Common
A happy, more prosperous
is our goal just as it has
of Simpson Timber
past 75 years.
BEST WISHES FOR CONTINUED GROWTH AND
SHELTON --- TACOMA-- PUYALLUP
SINCE 1920
5th & Franklin Streets
Empbyees Federal Credi
SheltO b
/:;i