Bay de Noquet Company and Oconto Company records

The papers are arranged into three groups, each with several sections as follows:

The Oconto Company papers (7 boxes, 1911-1946) are divided into four sections: tax and financial records, operating and production records, correspondence, and land records. The Tax and Financial Records comprise more than half of the records in this group and document the declining status of lumbering in northeastern Wisconsin. Property taxes were levied on forty-acre squares of land, there being sixteen such squares to a section. The assessment records are almost complete for the period, and the assessed values show the progress of timber cutting on lands owned or leased by the Oconto Company. The Federal and Wisconsin income tax records include most of the information typically found in an annual report and document how the Great Depression affected the Oconto Company.

The Operating and Production Records are primarily scattered records relating to logging operations. Most notable are the records of Francis Clayton, a logging jobber for the Oconto Company, which include his cutting records, labor and supplies payment orders, and items relating to the operation of his logging camp.

The Correspondence is mostly routine correspondence. The correspondence with the Chicago and North Western Railway consists of correspondence relating to the rental of track material–rails, frogs, switch points, switch plates, switch stands, angle bars–used by the Oconto Company to operate temporary logging railroads in its woods operations.

The Land Records document the sale of cut-over lands to individuals and government agencies. Most notable are sales to the Forest Service of lands to be included in the Nicolet National Forest.

The Bay de Noquet Company Papers (10 boxes, 1924-1950) are divided into four sections: finance and operations, correspondence, accident injury cases, and newsletters and similar items.

The Finance and Operations papers consist of scattered records relating to finances and milling operations. This section contains directives from and correspondence with the federal agencies overseeing manpower and production during World War II.

The bulk of the Correspondence is from 1948 and consists primarily of routine correspondence with customers concerning orders and shipments. The largest segment is the correspondence with the Chicago office, which documents management concerns over sales and customers service, employees and labor relations, federal government directives and legislation, the state of the industry, and other matters.

The Accident Injury Cases (1939-1950) are the largest section of the Bay de Noquet Company papers and include foremen’s reports, medical reports from attending physicians, and workmen’s compensation cases. This section documents working conditions in the logging and lumbering industries in the 1940s, medical treatment available to injured employees, and the Company’s practices in regard to injured workers.

The Newsletters section includes the various newsletters and similar items received by the Bay de Noquet Company, primarily in the 1940s. None of the titles are complete, but they do give a picture of the information received by lumber companies regarding industry concerns. The most significant titles are those supplied by the Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufactures Association, the trade group to which the Bay de Noquet Company belonged. The Association’s Bulletin provides production and sales information on the various species of wood used by the members. The Mimeos were usually sent out several times a day, and each mimeo was devoted to a single topic. Notable in this series are the mimeos sent out in 1940 and 1941 that describe the U.S. government contracts available for bidding and those awarded for various projects. These mimeos document the preparations being made by the Army and Navy to provide for the increased number of servicemen when the United States finally entered World War II. The mimeos issued between 1946 and 1949 document the return to peacetime conditions and the efforts of the federal government to dampen inflation by controlling certain costs and prices. They also document labor unrest and the demands of organized labor during this period. In fact, labor relations were considered to be so important that those mimeos were issued on yellow paper to distinguish them from the other mimeos.

The third group of papers is comprised of the bound ledgers of both companies.

The Oconto Company ledgers are almost entirely financial in nature. Some of the cash books include the Bay de Noquet Company. The important item here is the ledger of minutes of the meetings of the directors and stockholders.

The Bay de Noquet Company ledgers cover both financial and production matters. The minutes of the meetings of directors and stockholders document the important decisions in the history of the company. Several of the ledgers document operations in the woods camps and include laundry and wash books. Other ledgers include orders for the 1938-1941 period and the Selective Service Classification Register for 1945, which illustrates how a company keeps track of which employees are eligible to be called up for military service.