Plumas
County
Biographies
M. J. RAGLEY
One of Plumas county’s leading
businessmen is M. J. Ragley, the secretary and manager of the Quincy Lumber
Company, which is the most important industry in this city. This concern is also the owner of the Quincy
Railroad Company, whose line extends from this city to Quincy Junction, on the
main line of the Western Pacific Railroad.
The Quincy Lumber Company was organized under the laws of the state of
California and is owned mostly by Louisiana stockholders, with the following
officers: W. P. Weber, Lake Charles,
Louisiana, president; J. C. Saner, Dallas, Texas, vice president; George M.
King, Lake Charles, Louisiana, treasurer; and M. J. Ragley, Quincy, California,
secretary and manager. The Quincy Lumber
Company bought out the Murphy Lumber Company at Quincy in 1925, and has
enlarged and remodeled the plant, modernizing it in every respect, so that it
is now an up-to-date sawmill and planing mill, with a capacity of eighty
thousand feet of lumber a day. The
planing mill produces ordinary dressed stock for building purposes. The Quincy Lumber Company owns eleven
thousand acres of timber in the vicinity of Quincy, and the railroad which it
owns, five and one-half miles in length, was constructed for the purpose of
bringing logs to the mill and taking away the mill products. Seventy-five per cent of the stock in the
railroad is owned by the Quincy Lumber Company, which thus controls its
operations. In addition to its freight
service, the railroad runs two passenger trains each way daily, making
connection at Quincy Junction with the regular trains of the Western Pacific
Railroad. In addition to the mill at
Quincy, the Quincy Lumber Company owns the sawmill at
Sloat, California, which also has a capacity of eighty thousand feet of lumber
a day. Steam is the motive power of the mill at Quincy, while electrical power
is used at Sloat. The timber cut and
utilized by the company here is mostly sugar pine, California white pine,
yellow pine, Douglas fir, white fir and incense cedar, the latter being used
for the making of lead pencils. M. J.
Ragley is the manager of the two mills and is regarded as a man of splendid
executive ability and capacity for getting things done.
M. J. Ragley was born on a farm near
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of February, 1877, and is a son
of W. G. and Margaret (Byrne) Ragley.
His parents, with their family, moved to eastern Texas in 1878, and
there the father engaged in the lumber business. In his sawmill, his son, M. J. received his
practical experience in the lumber manufacturing business and eventually was
admitted to a partnership in the business.
When thirty-one years of age he went to Louisiana, where he built the
Ragley sawmill, the town which sprang up at that place being given the name of
Ragley, in his honor. The mill was
operated successfully until 1929, when the supply of available timber was
exhausted, at which time the Ragley mill was sold and Mr. Ragley reinvested his
funds in the Quincy Lumber Company. He
made his first trip to California in 1925 and has practically from that time
been actively identified with the lumber business here.
On October 12, 1904, in Jefferson,
Texas, Mr. Ragley was united in marriage to Miss Mabel Wise, a native of Texas
and a daughter of D. C. Wise, who was a cotton factor in that state. By a previous marriage Mr. Ragley is the
father of a son, J. W., an oil well driller at Dallas, Texas, who is married
and has a daughter.
M. J. Ragley is a Republican in his
political views. Though largely
self-educated, he has been a close and studious reader and a keen observer of
men and events, so that he is a well informed man, and his business record
indicates the possession of sound and discriminating judgment in practical
affairs. Since coming to Quincy he has
won a high place in the esteem of the people of this community and is regarded
as one of its best citizens, for, though a busy man, he has in no way neglected
the duties of citizenship and has taken an active and effective interest in the
public welfare and the advancement of Quincy and Plumas County.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 320-321. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.