IndusTREETrees for Shelter and Many Other Products We Use

TREES for ShelterTrees for shelter have been used for a very long time.

Some of the trees commonly used were: Hemlock, Oak, Maple, and Birch.

Study of a Hemlock Oak Tree Maple Tree A Family of Birches

Hemlock: Title: Study of Hemlock, Artist: Daniel Huntington, 1816-1906, American. Date: August 6, 1855, Type: Drawing, Location: North Conway, New Hampshire, USA, Accession #: 1942-50-39. Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.Oak: Title: Oak Tree, Artist: Henry Ward Ranger, b. 1858 Syracuse, N.Y., d. 1916 N.Y.C., Date: 1895, Type: Painting, Collection #: 1965.5, Collection: Smithsonian American Museum. Birches: Title: A Family of Birches, Artist: Willard L. Metcalf b. 1858 Lowell, MA., d. 1925 N.Y.C., Date: 1907, Type: Painting, Collection #: 1909.7.46, Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum.Maple: Title: Maple Tree, Photographer: Patricia L. Sanders, Type: photograph, Date: June 2020, Location: Sanders’ residence, Galway, N.Y.

Early Shelters of Native Americans

• Native Americans of this region built wigwams and longhouses: Insert images

• The Iroquois longhouses could be as large as 20 feet by 80 feet long and house and was a multi-family dwelling.

Saratogian 1954-Wigwam in Hadley. See bibliography for reference

The Sunday Times – Binghamton, NY August 30, 1964 - Longhouse

Early Shelters of North American Colonists

Early settlers had to get a shelter up quickly when they arrived. They brought with them the knowledge of log building, which was centuries old and prevalent in Europe. The abundant forest provided the wood to build. These log homes, examples of the early structures, were located in the town of Corinth. They are constructed of squared logs that are notched at the corners for strength. Images from a private collection.

Randall Log cabin Photo from 1905

Clothier log cabinPhoto date unknown

Smalley Log Cabin 1908

Smalley Log CabinPhoto from 1908

Developments in Building Shelters

• The building of shelters has evolved over time due to the improvements in tools and later saw mills. Various hardwoods were used in building the early framed homes. With the building of saw mills, the use of soft woods such as pine became more prevalent.

• Moving into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, faster building methods were developed. As the saw mill technology developed the use of more blades and the use of soft woods, building became cheaper and less labor intensive. Building technology also improved with the implementation of the balloon frame and the subsequent platform frame.

• This is all in an effort to control our living environment and protect us from the elements.

Early Sawmills and Tools

Hand tools and human powered saws were used to shape the trees into hand hewn timber to be joined with pegs to form the basic frame of the timber home. Shingles were used for the roof system and horizontal boards (cladding) were applied to finish the structure. The application of shingles and cladding served to keep the weather out and keep the settlers warm.The early saw mills and tools were seen as improvements over just hand tools. With the introduction of the vertical saw, the production of boards for sub-structure and flooring made building the shelter quicker.

Above is an engraving from 1798 of a Sawyer's Mill. It was commonly called a sash mill or up and down sawmill. The sash or frame held the single mounted blade that was driven up and down as the log was progressed on the carriage that holds the log. The blade only cuts on the downstroke. A large portion of the log was lost as sawdust.

To the left is a blade from an up and down sawmill.

All items are from a private collection.

Above is a broad axe made by Blood & Goff & Co., Ballston Spa, N.Y. Beams were generally hewn by a broad axe. Broad axes would square the log and cut a chisel edge.

To the left is an adze which was used to smooth the surface of a beam that had been hewn by a broad axe. The adze has a sharpened blade that is at a right angle to the handle.

Anatomy of Early Timber Frame

StructuresConceptual drawings of typical timber frame construction. Left examples are frame and roof construction.

Right example is a detail of a mortise and tenon joint.

Drawings by John B. Sanders, Sr.

Existing Examples of Timber Frame Structures

The Clothier Barn in Corinth, New York, ca. 1850. See corner bracing and peg construction. Photograph by Rachel Clothier

Typical modern timber frame construction. Corner bracing and with pegged joints. Sanders residence, Galway, N.Y. Photograph by Patricia L. Sanders.

Early Frame Structures

Brookside Museum is a framed structure, ca. 1792. The structure was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in New York State in 1975, exhibiting its historic and cultural significance.

Example of an early framed farm house. In the Federal vernacular style, built ca. 1795. With permission from owner. Dorothy Sanders Zweighaft. Located in the Town of Galway, N.Y. Photographed July 19, 2020 by John B. Sanders, Sr.

Sawmills & Logging Wood was available in abundance for the early settlers and was utilized in a variety of ways, for example: boards, clapboards, and shingles. All of these materials were manufactured for use in building new homes. The saw mill produced these materials by using water power.

The first sawmill in the colonies was erected in 1620 in New Amsterdam (now known as New York City) by the Dutch. As settlers moved into the Hudson and Mohawk Valley regions, this technology travelled with them.

Saratoga and other counties began resettling after the Revolutionary War was over and it was safe to move back into the rural areas. Sawmills were built on many streams around the same time. In the 1780s and early 1790s these mills are visible on the early maps. The 1860 New York State Gazetteer lists Saratoga County with 80 sawmills.

Streever Lumber Company

The Streever Lumber Company of Ballston Spa was established about 1896 by Charles H. Streever who also had a building and construction business. The lumber company operated several sawmills throughout Saratoga County and Lake George. In 1925 the Streever Lumber Company was called one of the “most progressive lumber concerns in Northern New York.” In one month that year, they unloaded over ½ million feet of lumber.* Fred, son of Charles, was head of the Streever Construction Company that designed and built many of the homes on Hyde Boulevard in Ballston Spa. Lester V., his brother, was the general manager of the lumber company. In 1944 Curtis Funston purchased the Streever Lumber Yard and Planing Mill located on Pleasant Street. The Funston family had operated a lumber and coal yard in Schuylerville many years earlier.

*Saratoga Springs Saratogian January 2, 1925

Streever Lumber Company

Image from a private collection.

Statistics & GleaningsThe 1855 New York State Non-Population Census for Saratoga County, recorded 80 sawmills, 5 shingle factories, 7 stair building establishments, 9 tanneries, 7 cabinet making shops, 29 coach and wagon manufactories, 11 cooper shops, and 2 lime manufactories.

The 1866 Beers Maps of Saratoga County reveal a variety of industry that relied on wood in some way, either the building structure and or the manufacturing process itself. The list below is just a sample of the types of manufacturing that took place in the middle of the 19th century. These industries supplied the residents with essential goods and services centered on wood:

Axes, Scythes & Tools, Blacksmiths, Brick Kilns, Broom Handle Factory, Carding mill, Carriage Factory, Carpenter Shop, Cement Factory, Cider Mill, Cooper, Cotton Factory, Flax Mill, Flour Mill, Foundry, Grist Mill, Hub Factory, Paper Mill, Pottery & Stoneware, Sash, Doors & Blinds, Sawmill, Shingle mill, Tannery and Woolen Mill.

A Few Notable Sawmills of Saratoga County

Funston Lumber Company operated in various locations in Saratoga County and Schenectady County into the 20th century.

Curtis Lumber Company, still operating and celebrated its 125th year of operation in 2015 under one family for 5 generations; having more than 20 locations.

Pettey’s Sawmill in the Town of Wilton, in operation since 1958.

The Dayton Sawmill in the town of Corinth.

Dayton Sawmill, 1963, Town of Corinth. In the collection of the Corinth Museum

Other Types of Wood Manufacturers

Chairs and other pieces of furniture have been made throughout Saratoga County over the years. Originally the manufacture of furniture filled a need in every community and carpenters would construct chairs, tables, cabinets, and other necessary items for a home. Eventually factories would be built to reach a larger need or produce a specific part of furniture. In the town of Greenfield a splint factory was active in the 1850s operated by Seymour Ainsworth. The splints were made for chair bottoms and baskets. Other trinkets including fans were made there and sold in stores in Saratoga Springs. The community around the splint factory became known as Splinterville. The hill rising on 9N in the lower portion of Greenfield is now called Splinterville Hill.

Densmore Furniture Store. Located on Main Street of Corinth, circa 1918. In the collection of the Corinth Museum.

E. H. Benway constructed a chair factory in Corinth near the railroad tracks on Hamilton Avenue in 1911. Mission style chairs from this factory were sold all over the eastern part of the country by salesmen. The first year of operations saw more than 2,250 chairs ready for sale. The Densmore Furniture Store on Main Street of Corinth sold a wide selection of the chairs. Unfortunately the factory ceased production by 1918.

Other Types of Wood Manufacturers

Ransom Cook, born about 1794 in Connecticut, moved to Saratoga Springs in the early part of the 19th century. He was trained as a carpenter by his father, setting up a carpentry business in Saratoga Springs, that soon became a furniture manufacturing facility. He was also an artist, superb at the art of stenciling furniture, and an inventor. The Town of Providence presents an example of the early trade of chairmaking, having about 8 persons engaged in the business.Many towns and villages had carpenters, chair makers, and some had furniture makers.

The image at the right shows a ledger entry ca. 1840s for several coffins. In the collection of the Corinth Museum.

Other Types of Wood Manufacturers

The shavings of wood that make up excelsior were used extensively as a packing material for delicate items such as china dishes that needed to be transported. A type of excelsior called wood wool was also used as a stuffing material in cushions on couches and chairs. Isaac Densmore and E. H. Benway began operations of a sawmill for the manufacture of excelsior in 1903 near the depot of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in Corinth. This mill burned once and was rebuilt. Nearly 20 men were employed here producing three railroad carloads of excelsior per day. This enterprise closed in 1915.

The E.H.Benway Excelsior Mill, ca. 1903-1915, Town of Corinth. In the collection of the Corinth Museum.

Saratoga County Industries that used Wood

A parting thought: Wood is everywhere we look and it has helped us survive and thrive.

Gleanings from the 1866 Beers Maps of Saratoga County

- Axe, Scythe, & Tool Handles- Blacksmiths- Brick Kilns- Broom Handle Factory- Carding Mill- Carpenter Shops- Carriage Factory- Cement Factory- Cider Mill- Cooper- Cotton Factory- Excelsior Mills- Flax Mills- Flour Mills - Foundry - Glass Production- Grist Mills- Hub Factory- Paper Mills- Pottery & Stoneware- Sawmills- Sash, Doors, & Blinds- Shingle Mills- Undertakers and Coffin Builders- Wheelwrights- Woolen Mills

BibliographyBooks

• French, J. H. (General Superintendent), ”Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State, published by R. Pearsall Smith, 1860. “[A comprehensive view of the Geography, Geology, and general History of the State, with full tables of Statistics]. Original publication in the collection of John B. Sanders, Sr.

• McAlester, Lee & Virginia, “A Field Guide to American Houses,” published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1984. Chapter: “Structure-The Anatomy of American Houses” pages 33-45.

• Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, “History of Saratoga County, New York,” original printing by Everts & Ensign, 1878. Reprinted by Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1979.

• Taylor, W. Bronson, “Stories and pictures of Providence, Saratoga County, New York.” Written and published by W. Bronson Taylor, 1976. 2nd printing under the direction of Mary J. Packer, by Napaul Publishers, Schuylerville, NY. Original publication in the collection of Rachel Clothier.

BibliographyOnline Resources

• www.britannica.com/technology/contruction. “Construction”. Encyclopedia Britannica, date published: 10 January 2020, publisher: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

• www.curtislumber.com. Curtis Lumber History, showing a timeline of ownership and history of the company.

• www.engr.psu.edu. “Colonial America’s Pre-Industrial Age of Wood and Water.”. Article taken from Historic Bethlehem article on the colonial economy and its technology. Historic Bethelhem Museum & Sites, Bethlehem, PA. A Project of Penn State University-Medieval Technology and American History, under a National Grant for the Humanities [EE-50095-04].

• www.fultonhistory.com. The Sunday Times, Binghamton, N.Y., August 30, 1954. photograph of Indian Longhouse. Caption: “This replica of an Indian longhouse is part of a display at Roberson Memorial Center. The Owasco Indian longhouse is believed to have been similar to the Iroquois longhouse in this photo.”

• www.iww.org. Industrial Workers of the World, Chicago, Ill., “Early Methods of Logging”. Facts given in article were obtained from an article entitled. “A History of the Logging Industry in the State of New York” by Wm. F. Fox, Superintendent of Forests in the State, and a collaborator of the Bureau of Forestry. This article was published in 1902 as Bulletin 34 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Forestry.

BibliographyOnline Resources

• www.newworldencyclopedia.org. “Longhouse”. Produced by New World Encyclopedia, July 25, 2018. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards.

• http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/saratoga/Atlas.html. The New Topographical Atlas of Saratoga County, New York, from Actual Surveys by S. N. & D. G. Beers and assistants, was published by Stone & Stewart, Philadelphia, in 1866. It includes detailed maps of the twenty towns of Saratoga County and more detailed maps of forty villages of the county. It also includes a table of distances and population tables. (This ongoing project is not complete. The town maps have all been scanned, but the names on the maps for most of the towns have not yet been transcribed.) D. Pane-Joyce , July 2000, Jan. 2002, June 2003. All rights reserved. (Note: Each town and village map was viewed to glean examples for a general list of Industries that either made wooden objects or used wood in the production of another object, such as the Blacksmith. This list is far from a complete list of industries.)

Bibliography

Images from Smithsonian Institution, Open Access www.si.edu/openaccess

• Hemlock: Title: Study of Hemlock, Artist: Daniel Huntington, 1816-1906, American. Date: August 6, 1855, Type: Drawing, Location: North Conway, New Hampshire, USA, Accession #: 1942-50-39. Collection: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

• Oak: Title: Oak Tree, Artist: Henry Ward Ranger, b. 1858 Syracuse, N.Y., d. 1916 N.Y.C., Date: 1895, Type: Painting, Collection #: 1965.5, Collection: Smithsonian American Museum.

• Birches: Title: A Family of Birches, Artist: Willard L. Metcalf b. 1858 Lowell, MA., d. 1925 N.Y.C., Date: 1907, Type: Painting, Collection #: 1909.7.46, Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum.

• Private photograph:

• Maple: Title: Maple Tree, Photographer: Patricia L. Sanders, Type: photograph, Date: June 2020, Location: Sanders’ residence, Galway, N.Y.