John Zimm - John Nelligan: Wisconsin Lumberjack

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JOHN ZIMM

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Publishers since 1855

2015 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

E-book edition 2016

For permission to reuse material from John Nelligan: Wisconsin Lumberjack (978-0-87020-698-6 and 978-0-87020-699-3), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

wisconsinhistory.org

Photographs identified with WHi or WHS are from the Societys collections; address requests to reproduce these photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706.

Back cover image painted by Carl Arneson; WHi Image ID 2775; Museum #1957.430

Design and layout by Jill Bremigan

17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5

ebook Cataloging in Publication Data provided

Zimm, John, author.

John Nelligan : Wisconsin lumberjack / John Zimm.

1 online resource. (Badger biographies)

Audience: Grades 4 to 6.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN 978-0-87020-699-3 (Ebook) ISBN 978-0-87020-698-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Nelligan, John, 1852-1937Juvenile literature. 2. LoggersWisconsinJuvenile literature. 3. Lumber tradeWisconsinBiographyJuvenile literature. 4. Lumber tradeWisconsinHistoryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

SD537.52.N45

338.47674092--dc23

2015017566

To Danny

In the 1800s, lumberjacks (luhm bur jak) came to Wisconsin. They were large, strong men. They came for the huge pine trees that filled the state. Some of the pine trees stood more than 150 feet tall. Many trees were 200 years old or older. The trees towered over the lumberjacks. But the men had the tools to cut them down.

Two lumbermen sawing down a tree

The lumberjacks used axes and saws to cut the trees. The sights, smells, and sounds of logging remained where the giant trees once stood. Horses and oxen helped them haul the trees away.

A horse-drawn lumber sled loaded with logs

the fire, and went to bed early.

Before sunrise, the lumberjacks were up again. They hurried to the dining hall for a large breakfast. Then they were ready for another day of hard work trees.

Lumberjacks rested in their cabins when they werent working.

John Nelligan was one of these lumberjacks. In April 1871, John came to Oconto, Wisconsin. John was only 19 years old, but he was already an experienced lumberjack.

John had been working in the woods of Canada, Maine, and Pennsylvania for the past 4 years. But by the early 1870s, many of the pine trees in the eastern United States had been cut down. The lumber as a lumbering state. Many lumber companies needed Johns skills. He decided to make Wisconsin his new home.

For the next 40 years, John Nelligan worked in the woods of northern Wisconsin and Michigan. He came to Wisconsin with very little money and few . But he worked hard and saved his wages. He took classes at a local college to learn about business.

Eventually, John started his own lumbering company. He became the boss. He bought forests of pine trees and hired logging crews to cut the trees down. As a businessman, John made good decisions and a lot of money, too. By the time he was an old man, John was a millionaire!

Over time, John saw the lumbering business change in Wisconsin. Trains and tractors replaced the horses and oxen. By the time John was older, Wisconsins tallest pine trees had mostly been cut down. The lumbering frontier had moved west once again. The lumberjacks who remained in Wisconsin worked very differently than John had.

A lumber crew poses with a steam hauler and sleds loaded with logs.

John Nelligan saw these changes. He wanted people to know what it had been like when he worked in the woods as a younger man. With the help of a writer, John wrote an autobiography called Life of a Lumberman.

In 1929, the Wisconsin Historical Society published Johns autobiography in the Wisconsin Magazine of History. Since then, it has been published as a book several times. Because John took the time to write about his life, we know a lot about how he lived and what it was like to work in the Wisconsin pine forests in the 1800s.

John Nelligan grew up on a small farm in the of New Brunswick, Canada.

Johns parents were Patrick and Johanna Nelligan. Patrick and Johanna sailed from Ireland to Canada 13 years before John was born. After a 6-week trip by boat, they settled on a small farm near the town of Escumiac (es