A Century with Connor Timber: Connor Forest Industries 1872-1972 by Mary Roddis ConnorReview by: Harvey HustonForest History, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Apr., 1973), pp. 37-38Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4004195 .

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ence work for specialists in forest taxation and, for those with more general interests, a tool to up- date their knowledge in this vital field. The present publication includes four principal features: (1) statements about a variety of recent developments affecting forest taxation, (2) compilations for 1971 of rulings by the Intemal Revenue Service and of timber tax cases adjudicated during that year, (3) a valuable digest of changes in state tax laws between 1967 and 1972 which serves to update the 1967 Forest Tax Law Digest previously published by the U.S. Forest Service, and (4) directories of university level courses in forest taxation and consulting foresters who specialize in that field.

The six statements dealing with recent develop- ments are drawn largely from the proceedings of the meeting of the Forest Industries Committee on Timber Valuation and Taxation held in November 1971. Two of these articles deal with tax aspects of recent pollution control and environmental pro- tection legislation, two with recent or prospective changes in federal income taxes on timber, one with land use planning developments in California, and one with potential impacts of the Serrano vs. Priest decision on property taxes on standing timber.

In each case the authors have special qualifi- cations for their tasks. Their styles are relatively informal, at least in comparison with most other forest taxation literature. Several of the state- ments are followed by verbatim questions and ans- wers apparently transcribed directly from the meet- ing of the Timber Valuation and Taxation Com- mittee. With very few exceptions the reviewer doubts that these addenda to the articles will con- tribute much to the readers' enlightenment.

Californians will find Resource Director Norman Livermore's summary of land use planning acti- vities a useful digest, particularly as it concerns activity at the county level. Unfortunately, the summary does not suggest an equally vigorous ap- proach by the state administration. In a more speculative vein, Assemblyman Bagley's evalua- tion of the future political implications and conse- quent timber tax effects of the Serrano vs. Priest decision (invalidating unequal use of property tax- es for school financing) merits attention wherever the property tax on timber is in effect. The articles outlining recent developments in income taxation and related pollution control developments will be of interest principally to specialists.

The editors of the Timber Tax Journal should be commended for publishing summaries of the chang- es in state tax laws which have taken place since 1967. This is a worthwhile contribution to the technical literature. Scholars will hope that the Journal will be encouraged to continue the practice thus initiated.

A cumulative master index to all federal timber

tax developments from 1943 through 1971, as treated in this and earlier volumes of the Journal, is a valuable tool both for the taxation specialist and for others who may wish to find their way quickly through thickets of I.R.S. prose to some specific tax regulation. Given the substantial con- tributions made by the Cumulative Index and the update of state taxation, it is hard to justify the editorial time and space which has been devoted to the directories of courses in timber taxation and consulting foresters. More complete information on these matters is readily available in other sources.

The present volume of Timber Tax Journal, along with its seven predecessors, is a valuable addition to the current literature on forest taxa- tion. It is explicitly designed for the needs and interests of specialists in the field. It also provides a readily available reference source for others who need authoritative and detailed information about this complex and important field.

HENRY J. VAUX

Mr. Vaux is professor of forestry and conserva- tion at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published numerous articles and monographs in the fields of forest economics and policy, includ- ing timber taxation.

A CENTURY WITH CONNOR TIMBER: CON- NOR FOREST INDUSTRIES 1872-1972. By Mary Roddis Connor. (Wausau, Wisconsin: Privately published, 1972. 158 pp. Illustrations. Appendix. Bibliography. $6.95.)

A Century With Connor Timber traces the his- tory of a remarkable family enterprise which was founded in 1872 by three brothers, Robert, John and James Connor, who migrated to Wisconsin from Renfrewshire, Scotland by way of Stratford, Ontario. It was as a trading center for Indians that the R. Connor Company came into existence in the small central Wisconsin village of Auburnville. The town boasted also of having an Express office and a post office. By 1876 the company was involved in sawmilling and launched as a lumber business. Now, almost a century later, Connor Forest Industries is the proprietor of 250,000 acres of timberlands in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, with sawmills at Connorville, Michigan and Laona, Wisconsin, and two plants at Wausau which manufacture kitchen cabinets and educational toys.

Connor Forest Industries is unique in that, after a century of operations, it has remained in its original locale, the upper midwest, rather than moving to the southeast or the Pacific coast as other Wisconsin lumber companies have done. Management is still in the hands of the Connor family, headed by Robert Connor's grandson, Gor- don R. Connor, with numerous other third and 37

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fourth generation Connors active in the business. Much of the credit for the Connor ability to con- tinue operating so long in the same area undoubt- edly is due to the success of sustained yield forestry practices.

Mrs. Connor's narrative covers all aspects of the history of Connor Forest Industries, including the early years at Auburndale and nearby Stratford, the subsidiary Marathon County Railway, and the expansion northward to Forest County, Wisconsin and to Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michi- gan. Particularly interesting is the account of the development, beginning in 1900, of Laona as a center of sawmill operations and as a genuine "com- pany town," where Connor still supplies electric power and operates a hotel and shopping center which evolved from the traditional "company store." The Laona & Northern Railway, built for the primary purpose of transporting logs to the mill, is still functioning as a common carrier which attracts large numbers of summer visitors when the diesel locomotive is replaced temporarily by a 1916 vintage steam engine and passenger equip-

ment is added to the daily round trip run to the Soo Line connection at Laona Junction. Mrs. Connor has added descriptions of the Connor farms, which were established for the dual purpose of supplying food for the logging camps (and for the entire community, at Laona) and producing the prime draft horses which for many years played an important part in bringing logs in from the forests. The farm at Laona now contains a well- equipped museum of logging artifacts which com- plements the "lumberjack special" train as an attraction for visitors.

A Century With Connor Timber should be of great interest to serious historians of the lumber industry. But also, with its excellent collection of photographs, it will provide entertaining reading for those who simply enjoy the human interest of life in the logging camps and sawmill towns.

HARVEY HUSTON Mr. Huston is general attorney for the Atchison,

Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway System. Author of several historical works on railroads, his most re- cent book is The Roddis Line.

Books in Brief

ANNALS OF THE CLASS OF 1922 YALE FOREST SCHOOL. By Henry I. Baldwin. (Publish- ed by the class, 1972. 86 pp. Illustrations. Paper. $3.00.) If the merit of professional his-

torical works lies in the applica- tion of rigorous scholarly standards to source materials in the reproduc- tion of an episode in time, it is the merit of nonprofessional his- torians to emphasize the flavor and color of a period. The anecdotes and biographies compiled in this short work by Mr. Baldwin "pro- vide an interesting insight into a 'way of life' unknown to most of today's MSF and PhD students in forestry at Yale," as Dean Emer- itus George A. Garratt notes in his introduction. The effort involved in gathering and publishing the Annals marks a loyalty to "the old school" that seems to have all but disappeared in the present. Times have changed.

Old forest school songs, poems, and photographs combined with the anecdotal material present a pep- pery stew of an account, as full of vigor as it is of nostalgia. Included are sketches of the careers of all class members.

A few copies remain and may be purchased by sending $3.26 to Mr. H. I. Baldwin, RFD 2, Hillsboro, New Hampshire 03244.

MY FIRST NINETY - FIVE YEARS. By J. P Kinney. (Pri- vately Published, 1972. 230 pp. Photographs. Index.) Author Kinney, former Director

of Forestry in the Indian Service and legal adviser on Indian Affairs to the Department of Justice Land Division, has produced an auto- biography that testifies to the con- tinuing vigor of an active and thoughtful life. Laced with quo- tations of his favorite poetry and verse, the book abounds with philo- sophical and practical pronuncia- mentos on favorite Kinney topics, including child rearing, education, morality, and politics. Family his- tory, dealt with early in the book, is followed by Kinney's educational background. The main part of the book is devoted to a varied and colorful account of career exper- iences.

COVERED BRIDGES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. By Richard Sanders Allen. (Battleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1959. 120 pp. Illustrated. Index. Glossary. Selected bibliography. Appen- dices. $6.50.)

COVERED BRIDGES OF THE NORTHEAST. By Richard San- ders Allen. (Battleboro, Ver- mont: The Stephen Greene

Press, 1957. 121 pp. Illustrated. Index. Glossary. Selected biblio- graphy. Appendices. $6.50.)

COVERED BRIDGES OF THE MIDDLE WEST. By Richard Sanders Allen. (Battleboro, Ver- mont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1970. 152 pp. Illustrated. Index. Glossary. Selected biblio- graphy. Appendices. $7.95.)

COVERED BRIDGES OF THE SOUTH. By Richard Sanders Allen. (Battleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1970. 55 pp. Illustrated. Index. Glossary. Selected bibliography. Appen- dices. $4.95.) In Covered Bridges of the North-

east and Covered Bridges of the Middle Atlantic States, Mr. Allen tells of the earliest of these bridges and of the vital role they played in America's expanding frontier. In Covered Bridges of the Middle West and Covered Bridges of the South, he continues his historical narrative, telling of John Mont- gomery's single-span, 436 - foot wooden suspension bridge, the long- est of that kind ever built in the world; of Horace King, the freed slave who built many of the solid crossings in Alabama and Georgia before and after the Civil War; of the bridge in Jackson, Mississippi, in which 400 Union prisoners were penned in 1862, and of many others. 38

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