Old Occupations

[NotMeantForTheCity]

Dragging the logs out of the woods is called skidding. Today they have machines called skitters to drag the logs with. Previously they might skid logs with a horse team. I read of one guy that used his pet moose to skid logs.

Waterways have always been the most economical way to transport logs. I expect that your grandfather had a number of short lines with a log dog at each end. He would dog the tail of oe log to the head of another and tow them in one behind the other. He could only tow a few at a time with a skiff. Larger boats would make rafts with bundled logs, if the water was deep enough.

Pet moose? Was it named Babe?

Up until the past 30-50 years lumber and paper were some of the biggest industries in my part of Florida. I don't know how the logs were transported since the terrain here is so flat our rivers have very little current. We used to see trainloads taking pine logs to a papermill in the next county, and we also once had a gunpowder plant. Now, most of what is harvested comes from construction sites for the latest shopping center or housing development and everything gets transported by semi-truck. The papermill is long gone and I can't imagine what use some of the cut trees can have because they can be seriously lacking in diameter.

 

[LadyLocust]

I am engaged in an off-and-on project to identify and document the occupations that a self-sufficient community would need to survive without much contact from the outside world and without our modern reliance on petroleum- I'm thinking the period from 1890 to 1920.

I've obtained several lists of occupations from the web, and I have classified them into broad categories and then into specific functions within each broad category.

This is what I have for the lumber industry:

lumber	jack	lumberjack
lumber	splitter	someone who splits timber either by hand or with a machine
lumber	top sawyer topman	upper man in a saw pit
lumber	trepanger	one who used a circular saw to cut timber

Does anyone know of any other occupations connected to the lumber industry?

Calling @Hooch in on this one.

A joiner: historically one who made things from lumber (not sure if you wanted to go that far) but making furniture, cabinetry, wagons, etc. from the rough cut lumber.

 

[Caribou]

Pet moose? Was it named Babe?

Up until the past 30-50 years lumber and paper were some of the biggest industries in my part of Florida. I don't know how the logs were transported since the terrain here is so flat our rivers have very little current. We used to see trainloads taking pine logs to a papermill in the next county, and we also once had a gunpowder plant. Now, most of what is harvested comes from construction sites for the latest shopping center or housing development and everything gets transported by semi-truck. The papermill is long gone and I can't imagine what use some of the cut trees can have because they can be seriously lacking in diameter.

I don't believe his name was Babe, nor was he blue.

A friend of mine has three trucks hauling logs to a paper mill. Small trees can probably provide 2X4's, firewood, pellets, paper, rayon, gunpowder, etc.

 

[NotMeantForTheCity]

Calling @Hooch in on this one.

A joiner: historically one who made things from lumber (not sure if you wanted to go that far) but making furniture, cabinetry, wagons, etc. from the rough cut lumber.

I have a separate category for woodworking. Joiners are in it.

 

[NotMeantForTheCity]

YES!

There's an old warehouse type building on the edge of downtown where I live that has part of name for a drayage company still painted on the building. I doubt if one person in a hundred knows what the term means.

 

[Weedygarden]

There's an old warehouse type building on the edge of downtown where I live that has part of name for a drayage company still painted on the building. I doubt if one person in a hundred knows what the term means.

I had to search for what it was when I first saw it.

 

[SLADE]

Many country people years ago did these trades and crafts themselves. Not a specialty but rather a part of every day survival.They were very skilled in these trades and crafts.
My grand father had carpentry,cobbler, leather working and any other tools needed for all manufacturing and repairs around the farm.

 

[Hooch]

Calling @Hooch in on this one.

A joiner: historically one who made things from lumber (not sure if you wanted to go that far) but making furniture, cabinetry, wagons, etc. from the rough cut lumber.

I really only know the terms we use in a modern mill with the exception of a position called pulling chain. A person who stacked lumber in units off a outfield chain of some sort.
I guess like any industry..lumber starts on the forest from cutting it down to transportation to getting cut through a mill , dried in a kiln then off to a planer. Lots of positions associated with the duties along the way and as it became modernized..some terms n positions went and were created.
I know a local paper ran a series of stories regarding the local history of our sawmills starting back with horses n miles. I havent read it all but it was interesting to see the evolution. I cant even imagine the grit those men must have had to be working with lumber back in the old days without modern equipment or heat sources in wintertime