Archives West Finding Aid

The Edward Rutledge Timber Company Collection is a business collection consisting of 24 file boxes and some 25 bound volumes of account books, ledgers and financial records. The material was received for processing shortly after it had been damaged by flood water in December 1964 at Lewiston, Idaho. An appreciable part of the collection, apparently including the minute books, was destroyed at this time. This accounts for the otherwise inexplicable gaps in the material.

Correspondence between 1914 and 1916 is comparatively limited, being still primarily concerned with clearing up legal matters. Sometime in either 1914 or 1915 it was decided to go into production. In previous years, for example in 1910, the only timbering done was by contract of burned-over areas. Production began for the saw mill at Coeur d'Alene in April, 1916 and in July of that year it began for the planning mill. Huntington Taylor was apparently Davies' associate in the construction of the mill and the associated logging facilities, although there are actually no concrete records to reveal the exact nature of this arrangement.

Beginning in 1917 there is a tremendous increase in the volume of correspondence both to and from the company. Labor difficulties figure prominently in the correspondence, the I.W.W. responsible for causing considerable problems, and there is the beginning of the labor organization aiming to cut the ten hour day to eight hours with the same pay. In the correspondence there is discussion over the purchase of timber; insurance on lumber; and in particular there is much mention made of new bills in the Legislature, namely the Repeal of the Poll Tax Law, the Workmen's Compensation Bill and the Eminent Domain Bill. There are a large number of letters from small companies requesting advice and a notably large number of applications for work; clearly the effects of war were being felt.

The correspondence of 1918 is basically very similar to that of the previous year. There are very few offers to sell either land or stumpage. The volume of correspondence from the Associated Employers Reciprocal is considerable and is concerned with the payment of compensation to workmen involved in accidents. There is further mention of the I.W.W. and a special report on the situation is given. The International Association of Chiefs of Police corresponded with the company suggesting that there be the establishment of a cooperative police and secret service department to be maintained by the lumber manufacturers of the west to combat the disruptive influence of the I.W.W. A lengthy communication from the War Department at Portland enumerates logging camp regulations, pay regulations and a long list of rigid regulations covering every aspect of the industry which the company, by implication, regarded as something of an invasion of their rights.

Correspondence between the Employers Association of the Inland Empire, the Loggers Club and the Timber Products Manufacturers is prominent during 1918. It covers a wide variety of subjects; labor and wage schedules; the problems of preventing the draft of essential employees; camp conditions etc. Methods of combating the I.W.W. are also suggested. The purpose of these associations seems, therefore, to be to ensure that all workers labor under those conditions most satisfactory to themselves and to their employers.

During the year 1919 the same trends are visible in the lumber industry. Letters and bulletins from the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen are prominent; the North Idaho Forestry Association is active in keeping its members informed regarding all legislation pertinent to the industry, and the Western Forestry and Conservation Association correspondence covers every aspect of lumbering from new legislation to modern methods of conservation.

During 1920 and 1921 the volume of letters is very much diminished. It would appear that by far the greater part of the correspondence for these years has been lost. What remains is merely routine correspondence with nothing of any particular interest to be noted.

From 1901 up to 1916 the correspondence of this company is of value because of the light it throws on the development of the company and its methods of purchasing and acquiring new timber lands and the litigation involved in this process. After 1916, and the notable increase in the volume of correspondence, the papers become of even greater value and interest to the forest historian for here is to be found much material concerning the development of the I.W.W. as a subversive force in this industry; the growth of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen to counteract the former group; the growing participation by lumber manufacturers in legislation pertinent to forestry; the more active associations of timber manufacturers designed to make more efficient every aspect of their industry; and the increasingly greater awareness of the need for a more efficient and well organized industry in general.

In addition to this material there are those more routine letters, requests for advice and for employment, camp reports, orders for equipment, covering a miscellany of matters which taken as a whole do a great deal to give one a clear picture of the forest industry of the first two decades of this century.

In addition to the thirteen file boxes of correspondence dating from 1901 to 1920 there is one further file box which holds correspondence and other material dating from 1920 up to 1954. Evidence of flood damage to these papers is apparent, and between these dates there are frequent large gaps in the correspondence. Primarily the correspondence is of a financial nature and is particularly concerned with the dissolution of the Company.

The General Correspondence includes routine correspondence; much of this is concerned with financial problems, in particular tax problems; there is also the cancellation of a hospital contract, but very little else of any great importance. There is, however, a greater volume of correspondence directly related to the dissolution of the Company; this includes letters to the Secretary of State at Olympia, Washington, wherein the technicalities of the dissolution are discussed, and there are various letters from individuals within the company concerned with the actual liquidation proposals.

Correspondence with the First National Bank of Seattle is anent the trust agreement between Elizabeth W. Titcomb as settler, and the bank as trustee, the resignation of the bank from this position in November, 1942, and the consequent appointment of successor trustees.

The folder headings on all other folders should make their contents quite clear.

The business papers of George Frederick Jewett, Manager and Vice-President of the Edward Rutledge Timber Company from 1928, Vice-President of Potlatch Forests, Incorporated, from 1935 to 1946 and President of the same company from 1946 until 1949, consist primarily of the correspondence directly concerned with these companies. The Rutledge Company was one of the three companies (the others being the Clearwater Timber Company and the Potlatch Lumber Company) to be merged in 1931 to Potlatch Forests, Inc.; the original idea of consolidation having been formulated by Mr. Jewett as early as 1927 in order to help the three companies overcome the economic depression which so seriously threatened the lumber industry of the west, by a merger which would enable the companies to combine their resources and to evolve a more economic division of labor. Following this merger Mr. Jewett remained as manager of the Rutledge Unit of P.F.I. and throughout that decade was active-in establishing P.F.I. as an efficient and prosperous business concern and as a company which established a reputation of being forward looking and a pioneer company in the propagation of new methods in both forestry and in the industry itself. This progress can be traced in the business correspondence between 1928 and 1950.

In addition to the correspondence concerned solely with P.F.I. there is a considerable volume of correspondence within these files between G.F. Jewett and the many conservation associations in which he played an active role. As President of the North Idaho Conservation Association, member of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association and member of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, and leader of that Association's committee on forest conservation, it is clear to see that at all times Mr. Jewett was a strong advocate of the adoption of new and efficient methods of conservation and forest management in general. As an active supporter of private forestry, perhaps the issue on which Mr. Jewett felt most strongly of all, his correspondence with United States Chamber of Commerce, Department of Agriculture and with Congressmen and Senators is most illuminating. Further letters to the Idaho State Chamber of Commerce, dealing for the most part with controversial forest taxation, with the Inland Empire Industrial Research, Inc., and with the Forest Industries Committee, all endorse the intense interest displayed by Mr. Jewett in forestry not only from a purely business point of view but as a far sighted advocate of new methods and further scientific developments in this field. His contribution to the American lumber industry is immense, both as an astute business man and as an advocate of efficient and modern innovations in forestry practice.

These records are contained in seven file cases and have been analyzed alphabetically and chronologically.

These papers consist of the private correspondence of George Frederick Jewett, his father James Richard Jewett, and his grandfather George Washington Jewett. The letters date from 1853 to 1950.

The earlier correspondence, 1853 to 1880, contains primarily the letters of George Washington Jewett, a sea captain, and his wife Annie M. Jewett to the various members of their family. Captain Jewett died in Honolulu in 1879 while on a voyage and there is a considerable volume of letters concerning his death. During this period, and up to the end of the century, there are many letters from friends and relations, many of them recounting day to day occurrences which taken as a whole clearly portray the life of the Jewett family in the second half of the nineteenth century.

After 1890 the correspondence provides extensive information about the life of James Richard Jewett. There are numerous letters to Mr. Jewett, appointed Professor of Arabic at Harvard University in 1911, from his academic colleagues at Yale, Harvard and at the University of Chicago where Professor Jewett had also held tenure. Also included are letters from the American University at Cairo and at Beirut and from the American Oriental Society, institutions with which Jewett was closely associated and in which he took an active interest.

During the second decade of the twentieth century there are many letters from George Frederick Jewett (Fritz) to his parents describing his experiences at Phillips Academy Andover, and subsequently in the United States Navy. Correspondence is limited throughout the period 1920-1929 but during the thirties is particularly full. It includes letters to and from the immediate Jewett family members, and from other relations and friends. Correspondence with Mr. and Mrs. William Bancroft Hill is extensive, as it is with Mr. and Mrs. William Grant Cooper. In 1935 there are letters concerning the kidnapping of George Hunt Weyerhaeuser.

The volume of letters decreases rapidly in the 1940's and the little that does exist is primarily letters from G.F. Jewett and his wife to their two children and the replies of the latter to their parents. Correspondence terminates in 1950.

These letters are fundamentally of family interest; the information to be found in them would be of secondary value to a study of the business interests of George Frederick Jewett, although in some instances the letters provide helpful clues to matters discussed in other sources. As research material for family and social history these letters do provide a more than adequate picture of the daily lives of George Frederick and James Richard Jewett and their wives during those years in which correspondence is fairly complete. Typical subjects discussed include social activities, trips and medical problems and there is a considerable body of material disclosing the effects of the depression on the family. Combined with his personal business correspondence and with his purely business correspondence these personal letters do much to help form an accurate biographical picture of George Frederick Jewett.

This section comprises the correspondence between G.F. Jewett and the many companies with which he was associated on a personal basis. In some cases Mr. Jewett held executive positions in these companies but, unlike his purely business correspondence, these letters are concerned with his personal investments in the companies. In most cases correspondence is entirely unconnected with his official duties; it covers a wide variety of subjects, his letters to his bank, his insurance brokers and attorneys; and his dealings in real estate; and there are many letters to and from department stores.

The volume of correspondence with philanthropic institutions is considerable. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jewett took an active interest in the Republican Party, in the English Speaking Union, in the United States Services Organization, in the Y.W.C.A. and in local Spokane charitable institutions.

Their interest and support of the Cathedral of St. John at Spokane is another example of the way in which Mr. and Mrs. Jewett gave generously both of their time and money.