George Daniel Hemmingsen was the son of our paternal greats: Uncle Ed and Aunt Anna. Ed was six years junior to his brother, Matt, our granddad: eight, to their sister, Etta. The elder Hemmingsen siblings left Norway in the 1880s for Wisconsin and migrated to the northwest in the early 1900s. Etta, as Mrs. William … Continue reading George Daniel Hemmingsen 1907-1967: Cousin, Tugboats and Such
Tag: logging history
Memoirs of Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967): His Postcard – 1911
PREVIEW We have told the story of Matt's years around 1911 twice: once as he made innovations in West Coast logging and again through an oil painting on maple burl that depicted his unique logging operation. This recently received postcard tells his 1911 tale through a deeply personal lens. PREVIOUSLY Past posts took Matt Hemmingsen … Continue reading Memoirs of Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967): His Postcard – 1911
Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: A Lumbering Bait and Switch.
Over the last several posts we saw that resource depletion around the Great Lakes was causing logging operations to move ever westward. Our Matt Hemmingson of Wisconsin ran river drives on the Upper Mississippi, and harvested logs in North Dakota. But the crushing death of his brother, Harry, in the woods of Minnesota late 1900, … Continue reading Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: A Lumbering Bait and Switch.
Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: Bunkhouse Lice, Boiling Clothes For Freeze Dry and Capitalism.
How odd it feels - or maybe "old" - to read in our own grandfather's words, his reference to a co-worker, who was a Civil War Veteran. Such is rather akin to grandkids easily accepting our dial phone, while questioning the hand crank-up, wooden wall mount. The one in our Port Renfrew logging camp, circa … Continue reading Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: Bunkhouse Lice, Boiling Clothes For Freeze Dry and Capitalism.
Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: Logging; Sleigh Roads, Decking Riverbanks, Humbird and Weyerhaeuser
PART III: SLEIGH ROADS, DECKING RIVERBANKS, HUMBIRD and WEYERHAEUSER This continues the memoirs of pioneer lumberman Matt Hemmingsen. It is now the final decade of the 19th Century with our grandfather at the family homestead in northwestern Wisconsin. Part II ended in the drought stricken summer of 1894, a time of economic depression with raging … Continue reading Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967) Memoirs: Logging; Sleigh Roads, Decking Riverbanks, Humbird and Weyerhaeuser
Hemmingson Homestead Photos: 1880s WI US vs. 1914 BC CA
As a result of pursuing great grandfather genealogically, we are given a glimpse of what Ole Hemmingson (1851-1903) built! As well, his son, Matt Hemmingsen (1876-1967). Ole married twice and had a number of children with each wife. Matt was born in 1876 to Ole's first; Berith. Mildred followed in 1897, to his second; Alette. … Continue reading Hemmingson Homestead Photos: 1880s WI US vs. 1914 BC CA
If Only November Had Been August: What Came Next
In our last post, we lamented the heartbreaking emigration from Norway to Wisconsin of Mathias Olson, and his sister, Henriette. It was late 1887. She was about to celebrate her 13th birthday and he was months beyond eleven. We have no account of their first sight of a father not seen in six years, or … Continue reading If Only November Had Been August: What Came Next
NEWFOUNDLAND: LOGGING PRE and POST CONFEDERATION
Our Hemmingsen-Cameron logging operation in Port Renfrew BC, and its management, were classified as “essential” to the Allied war effort.1 That was due to export of the very finest Sitka Spruce to the UK, where it became a component of certain bombers. After the war, the company was sold to British Columbia Forest Products … Continue reading NEWFOUNDLAND: LOGGING PRE and POST CONFEDERATION
From the logging camps (2)
PORT RENFREW: the LAMBSY DIVEY MURDER We are not finished with Port Renfrew. You see, Mum created my indoor pets. The best were giraffe, little Lambsy Divey, and Blue Teddy. I had loved them, my whole life long and, at the time of the event which is about to unfold, with a four-year old’s passion. … Continue reading From the logging camps (2)
