Happy Labor Day! To conclude this three part series on the Labor of Logging, we look into the work at the saw mills and in the milltowns. In 1885 it was reported that there were 50,000 men working in the lumber industry in Michigan, with 20,000 employed in saw mills. As I like to say about the lumber industry, it was to Michigan in the 19th century as what the automobile industry was to the state in the 20th century. It was the major industry that drove the state's economy. And it was the individual men that worked in the forests, on the rivers, and in the mills that carried this industry on their backs.
All areas of the lumber industry included dangerous work and the saw mills were no exception. This week I will discuss the working conditions, wages and hours, and the growing labor movement in the saw mills in the 1880s. I then follow this with the labor of various other populations in the milltowns, including African Americans, women, and children.
Episode Sources:
Ellis, Charles. Among the Michigan Pines. Chicago, IL: The Current, Volume III, 1885.
Fitzmaurice, John W. The Shanty Boy: Or Life in a Lumber Camp. Cheboygan, MI: Democrat Steam Print, 1889.
Kilar, Jeremy W. Michigan's Lumbertowns: Lumbermen and Laborers in Saginaw, Bay City, and Muskegon, 1870-1905. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1990.
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