Plumas
County
Biographies
GEORGE LAWS
George Laws, president and manager
of the Feather River Lumber Company, is a man of unusual business judgment and
executive ability and has the splendid record of having maintained the regular
working schedule of his big plant at Delleker throughout the severe depression
period of 1930. The immediate result has
been that this community has not felt the hard times as have nearly all other
communities in the country. The gigantic
plant, with its sawmills, planing-mills, box factory,
railroad and logging equipment, is running steadily day and night. About three hundred and sixty men are
employed and the mill has a capacity of one hundred thousand board feet of
lumber every ten hours. Thus this
enterprise has had an influence on general business affairs in the eastern part
of Plumas County greater than any other industry. This great plant had its inception in 1904,
when Mr. Laws, with his many years of business experience in lumber
manufacturing, and with ample capital and financial backing, bought thousands
of acres of timberland, well studded with yellow pine and other valuable
timber, on the upper reaches of the north fork of the Feather River. That was several years before the Western
Pacific Railroad had constructed its line through this valley. He had bought the sawmill
at Clio, Plumas County, which he operated successfully for a number of
years. His mill at Delleker, which is
now his principal plant, was ready for operation by the middle of 1905. This has since grown to be the leading timber
mill of eastern Plumas County, although he still owns valuable timberland and
sawmills at Clio and Willow Creek and one on Gridley Creek, near Loyalton,
Sierra County. In addition to the
thousands of acres of timberland which he owns, he also buys stumpage from the
Plumas National Forest, which is situated in the northeastern extremity of the
Sierra Nevada Mountains and contains over a million acres. This forest reserve is located in Plumas,
Lassen, Butte, Sierra and Yuba counties.
The Feather River Lumber Company is
a corporation duly organized under the laws of the state of Colorado, and has a
capital of six hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Laws being the principal
stockholder. He is the president and
manager of the company and S. G. Pierson, of Denver, Colorado, is the secretary
and treasurer. The head offices of the
company are located in the Chamber of Commerce Building, Denver, while its main
mills and operating plant are located at Delleker, two and a half miles southwest
of Portola, Plumas County, on the main line of the Western Pacific
Railroad. Delleker presents the
appearance of a good-sized town, with its mills, shops, smokestacks, railroad
tracks, store, hotels, hospital and extensive lumberyards, besides its residence
district. The town is orderly and is a
veritable beehive of activity. The
Feather River Inn is an up-to-date hotel and rooming-house, and is under the
efficient management of Mrs. Anna E. Bittner, while the dining-room, which is
spacious and inviting, is ably supervised by the stewardess, Miss Emma
Narthen. The store, which is well
managed by Adolph Rakitta, carries a large and well selected stock of general
merchandise. Fred English is the
efficient office manager of the company’s local office. The postmaster is Mr. Burns; the mill foreman,
Mr. Perry; the box factory foreman, Herbert E. Stevens; the yard foreman, Heine
Hertager, and the logging superintendent, Mr. Dunderro. The entire plant is well planned and
constructed, so that the work of every department is conducted in the most
orderly and systematic manner. The
Feather River Hospital is owned by the Feather River Lumber Company, but is
leased and operated by Dr. John Decker.
Two trained nurses are in constant attendance, and Mrs. Rose A. Emerson
is the superintendent and head hospital nurse.
The presiding genius at Delleker is George Laws, who, though now well
advanced in years, has complete control and management of his great plant and
operates it with a maximum of results and a minimum of effort.
The Feather River Lumber Company
owns and operates fourteen miles of railroad, being its main line running into
the timber. With its lateral lines, the
entire trackage of logging railroad amounts to about thirty miles. The railroad equipment includes three
locomotives and fifty cars, while there are also eight caterpillar tractors,
three sets of hydraulic wheels and three sets of Asa wheels, the company thus
employing the best and most approved machinery in its logging, transporting and
milling operations. The Western Pacific
Railroad carries the lumber east and west to the country’s leading lumber
markets. In addition to a regular run of
lumber, the mill does a large business in box shooks for fruit shippers, having
in 1930, up to August 6th, shipped out one hundred and fourteen
carloads of box shooks.
Mr. Laws was born in Cambridgeshire,
England, on the 14th of August, 1860, being the second in order of
birth of the seven children of George and Jane (Sutton) Laws, farming people,
who are deceased. The father attained
the age of seventy-eight years, while the mother lived to the age of sixty
years. George Laws was reared in his
native land and attended the schools of his home neighborhood. When a youth of eighteen years he immigrated
to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania. There he began his connection with the lumber
industry, which has engaged his attention continuously since. He has worked in every position connected
with logging and lumbering, so that he is intimately acquainted with its every
detail.
From Pennsylvania, Mr. Laws went to
West Virginia, where he was engaged in lumbering for some time, after which he
made his way to Denver, Colorado. He
built his first sawmill in Colorado, on the line of the Midland Railroad in the
Rocky Mountains. He found new locations
and built two other mills when his older timberlands were cut over. Following these operations, Mr. Laws took a
large logging contract and built a sawmill at
Catskill, on the “Mexican grant,” in New Mexico, after which, in 1905, he began
operations in California. He is widely
known as one of Plumas county’s most active and successful lumbermen.
On June 3, 1893, in Denver,
Colorado, Mr. Laws was united in marriage to Miss Mary Murphy, who was born in
Maine, but was reared in Colorado. To them have been born four children. Irene is the wife of Glenn F. Lewis,
connected with the Phoenix Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut, and is
the mother of three children. Harold is associated with the Yosemite Lumber
Company at Merced Falls, California.
Bernice Josephine, who graduated from Wolf Hall, Denver, Colorado, is at
home with her mother in Denver, where Mr. Laws also owns a residence and spends
most of his winters, his summers being passed in his comfortable country home
at Delleker, where he has all modern conveniences and the beautiful scenery of
a California mountain home. A daughter
who died in Los Angeles, in April, 1928, was the wife of Alex Elmer. All of Mr. Laws’ children are college
graduates.
Mr. Laws is widely recognized as a
keen and sagacious businessman. Like
Henry Ford, he believes in mass production, paying his employees good wages and
keeping his mills running steadily. He
has led an active and useful life and has been engaged in the lumber business
steadily since eighteen years of age. He
has been distinctively successful, and, in addition to his lumber interests, he
owns four well improved farms, including an entire section, six hundred and
forty acres, near Greeley, Weld County, Colorado. He is an extremely busy man, but derives
enjoyment from being busy. His chief
diversion from business is traveling and motoring with his wife and daughter,
and during the winter season he frequently visits Florida and other southern
localities. In his political views he is
a staunch Republican and is genuinely interested in public affairs, though he
has never sought office of any nature.
He is cordial and sincere in manner and everywhere commands the highest
respect.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 395-398. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.