J. Neils Lumber Company

Lumber company incorporated in Sauk Rapids, Minn., 1895; expanded in 1899 with purchase of a second mill at Cass Lake, Minn.; operations in Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, Itasca, and Koochiching counties in northern Minnesota; in Libby, Kalispell, and Lincoln counties in Montana; and Klickitat, Wash.; offices moved from Cass Lake to Washington in 1922; in 1957 company merged with St. Regis Paper Company; also owned Montana Light & Power Company which was purchased in 1944.

From the description of Records, 1895-1976 (bulk 1919-1919, 1944-1966). (Washington State Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 79379967

The J. Neils Lumber Company was incorporated in 1895 at Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. After several years of successful operation and expansion on Sauk Rapids and Cass Lake, Minnesota, the company purchased timberlands in Flathead and Lincoln counties, Montana, in 1906-1907. About one million dollars was invested in timber, priced generally at $1 per thousand board feet. In 1911, J. Neils bought the Dawson Lumber Company, with mills in Libby, Montana, and about ten thousand acres of timberlands in surrounding areas. After Paul Neils, son of founder Julius Neils, became general and sales manager at Libby in 1912, earnings climbed rapidly. A division of assets in 1915 resulted in the loss of the Libby mill, 96,666 acres of Montana timberlands, and other Montana assets. J. Neils retained Montana timberlands at Columbia Falls, Fortine Creek, and east of Flathead Lake as well as notes for $550,000. Paul Niels returned to Minnesota where he stepped up those opearations and steadily increased earnings in 1917 and 1918. In 1919, the Libby mill and tributary timber lands were re-purchased from Shevlin Company.

The operations at Cass Lake and Libby prospered after World War I. By 1923, the last log had been sawn at Cass Lake. With no more timber available for purchase there, the mill there closed. Looking westward, the company purchased a mill at Klickitat, Washington, in 1922 and continued to increase its Montana timber holdings. There was a major fire loss at Columbia Falls in 1929. After difficult times in the Depression, long-range planning was again established and selective logging studies undertaken. Truck logging began at Libby in 1935.

The entire outstanding stock of the Montana Light & Power Company was acquired by J. Neils in 1944. In 1955, J. Neils built a new mill at Troy, Montana. In 1957, J. Neils Lumber Company merged with St. Regis Paper Company. A stud mill was built at Libby in 1958, and a plywood plant began operations in 1960. In 1993, the Libby assets were sold to Stimson Lumber and Plum Creek Timber Company. The Libby mill closed in 2002.

From the guide to the J. Neils Lumber Company Records, 1924-1966, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)

Incorporated on March 23, 1895 with Thomas H. Shevlin as president, Hovey C. Clarke as vice president, and Julius Ferdinand Bernhard Neils as secretary-treasurer, the J. Neils Lumber Company started with a capital of $30,000 and a sawmill in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. The company built a second sawmill at Cass Lake in 1900 after Congress had passed legislation for a townsite and the sale of timber from Chippewa Indian Reservation lands. As clear cutting stripped old growths of conifer trees in Minnesota, the company began expanding westward by acquiring timber lands in Flathead and Lincoln counties, Montana.

In 1910 the Sauk Rapids mill was sold to the Crookston Lumber Company and the J. Neils Lumber Company bought the Dawson Lumber Company in Libby, Montana. In 1915 the principal Montana office was moved to Kalispell, Montana and the assets of the company were divided, with the portions of the Libby Lumber Company sold to Thomas L. Shevlin, son of Thomas H. Shevlin. Following the death of the younger Shevlin, the J. Neils Lumber Company repurchased the Libby Lumber Company assets, with Walter Neils serving as general manager and George Neils as logging supervisor. Throughout this period the company continued to acquire timberlands and logging rights in northern Minnesota, but timber supplies near Cass Lake had been exhausted by the early 1920s and, by 1926, all of the Cass Lake sawmill assets and logging operations were sold.

Throughout this period the company continued to acquire additional timberlands and logging rights in Montana and by the mid to late 1920s the company had also expanded into Washington state. A company office was established in Klickitat after purchasing the Western Pine Lumber Company in 1922. Renamed the Klickitat Log and Lumber Company, its assets included a railroad, a sawmill, a planing mill, 1,599 acres of timberland, and contracts for the timber rights to more than 10,000 acres. In 1944 the company acquired the assets of the Montana Power and Light Company, as well as the distribution system of the Kootenai Light and Power Company, and began supplying electricity to the towns of Troy and Libby. In 1957, anticipating the need to diversify into paper manufacturing, the J. Neils Lumber Company merged with the St. Regis Paper Company. Logging and lumber operations in Montana and Washington continued well after this merger.

From the guide to the Records., 1895-1957., (Minnesota Historical Society)