Southern California

In 1893, in Los Angeles, Mr. Erastus J. Stanton, a former Michigan lumberman established a lumber business handling principally Sugar and White Pine. About the year 1895, he put in a stock of hardwood and the business has since that time grown with the mighty city of Los Angeles, to one of the major hardwood dealers of the Pacific Coast.

In 1904, Joseph Ringemann, head of the Hardwood Lumber Company of Denver, Colorado, established a branch in Los Angeles under the name of the parent company. In 1906, this concern was incorporated with the title of The Western Hardwood Lumber Company. Mr. D.J. Cahill was associated with Mr. Ringemann from the beginning and upon the latter’s death in 1911, operated the business until 1918, when he purchased the entire concern and assumed complete control. In 1917, Howell Baker, who for eleven years prior to that date, was associated with the Western hardwood Lumber Company in Los Angeles, established the California Panel and Veneer Company, dealing in plywood and veneer products exclusively.

In 1921, the W.E. Cooper Lumber Company of Los Angeles, was established by W.E. Cooper and his son, Charles M. Cooper. Father and son had both been in the lumber business in Wisconsin all their lives, prior to coming west.

In 1923, the Hammond Lumber Company, large manufacturers of Redwood and Fir lumber in California and Oregon, established a hardwood department in their Los Angeles plant and distributing yard, under the able control of Grover C. Gearhart.

Mr. Edward E. Taenzer, who dealt in hardwoods in Memphis, Tennessee for many years, as the Taenzer-Thompson Lumber Company, E.E. Taenzer & Company, and Darnell-Taenzer Lumber Company, came to Los Angeles in 1914 with his two sons and established the American Hardwood Lumber Company. Mr. Edward Taenzer died in 1929.

Charles Bohnhoff, an old employee of E.J. Stanton & Son, started out around 1910 in Los Angeles. He was later joined by his son Clarence.

In San Diego, the first concern dealing in hardwoods was the Dan Hartman Company, who started in 1907. In 1910, the business was sold to H.H. Sanford who in turn sold out in 1911 to Jerry Sullivan, an old Michigan lumber manufacturer from Muskegon. The Sullivan family, father and two sons, also operated the Western Lumber Company of San Diego, a softwood concern, with a half dozen or so branch yards in the county.

In 1911, Al Frost and Robert McFarlane established the Frost Hardwood Lumber Company.