FREDERICK W. KOHLMEYER:

Notes, correspondence, published materials, reminiscences, and related documentation regarding the history of labor in the lumber industry, collected by historian Frederick W. Kohlmeyer while a research associate for the book Timber and Men: The Weyerhaeuser Story, by Hidy, Hill, and Nevins (New York, 1963). Kohlmeyer is a retired professor of history, Illinois State University, Normal.

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The collection is divided into two sections: General Files (4 folders) and Industrial Workers of hte World Files (5 folders.)

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Frederic W. Kohlmeyer Research Files. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,126

Processing Information:

Processed by: Kathryn A. Johnson, November 1995.

Catalog ID number: 990017341470104294

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The first section contains Kohlmeyer's research notes, taken from many sources, including Weyerhaeuser and other company records, theses, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles detailing many aspects of the lumber industry, particularly as played out in two firms: the Northern Lumber Company and the Northwest Paper Company, both of Cloquet, Minnesota. There is information on wages, workers' insurance plans, strikes, accidents, lumber trade statistics, employment agencies, price lists, and related topics. There are a few references to IWW activities.

At the end of this section are copies of correspondence and related documents (1903-1956) containing information on hiring practices, wage tables, and accidents, as well as a document entitled "Personal Injury Pool, March, 1939," describing a cooperative effort among a number of lumber companies to distribute costs of worker injuries. Companies represented in this section are J.C. Campbell, Atwood Lumber Company, Norton Lumber Company, Johnson-Wentworth Company, and Potlatch Forests, Inc. Other items of interest are an "Outline of Talk by Stuart B. Copeland to the Cloquet Commercial Club, January 4, 1939," with details on various aspects of the lumber trade and a short history of the Northwest Paper Company, and notes from an interview with E. O. Olund, Duluth, May 10, 1956. Olund, who headed an employment agency in Duluth that dealt with transient labor, describes the activities of his firm, the men he hired for lumber companies, working and living conditions in the camps, and related matters.

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The rest of the collection relates to the IWW, and begins with Kohlmeyer's notes from various sources on strikes, logging operations, working conditions, the Cloquet lumber strike, and similar matters.

Another folder contains manuscript materials (1911-1956), including correspondence from Frederick E. Weyerhaeuser, George Sutherland, and Huntington Taylor, with information on lawsuits brought against lumber companies relating to accidents; information on IWW activities in Washington State and Idaho; notes taken at the IWW convention in Spokane, Washington, 1917; a copy of an IWW document, "Hints to Active Saboteurs, [1919?]"; and notes of an interview with Harry C. Shellworth (1955) containing his reminiscences of life in Boise, Idaho and information on labor matters, timberland and grazing policies, and the IWW.

The last file in the collection consists of three folders of correspondence and reports (1921, 1923) from agents of the Northern Information Bureau, a private agency that infiltrated and studied the activities of the IWW in Minneapolis. Meetings and individuals associated with the IWW are discussed, and copies of the literature distributed are included.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Employment agencies -- Minnesota -- Duluth.

Industrial Workers of the World.

Labor disputes -- Minnesota.

Lumber camps -- Minnesota.

Lumber trade.

Lumbering accidents -- Minnesota.

Migrant labor -- Minnesota.

Northern Information Bureau (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Northwest Paper Company (Cloquet, Minn.).

Radicalism -- Minnesota.

Strikes and lockouts -- Lumber trade -- Minnesota.

Weyerhaeuser, Rudolph Michael, 1868-1946.

Weyerhaeuser Timber Company.

Places:

Boise (Idaho) -- Industries.

Casual labor -- Minnesota.

Cloquet (Minn.) -- Industries.

Duluth (Minn.) -- Industries.

Idaho -- Description and travel.

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Industries.

Type of Documents:

Reminiscences -- Idaho -- Boise.

Reminiscences -- Minnesota -- Duluth.

Occupation:

Radicals -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Olund, E. O.

Taylor, Huntington.

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