Old Missoula

Harper-Baird Logging

Baird-Harper Logging and Lumber was one of the oldest logging and lumber operations in early Western Montana, beginning in the 1890’s. Early on they were associated with the Anaconda Copper Company’s lumber mills, mainly in the Bitter Root. Over several decades they operated in various places in Montana, including at Warland Mt., a small lumber town on the Kootenai River in N. W. Montana, which was flooded by Libby Dam. The now-removed Harper’s Bridge reflected the Harper name. The Harper family was involved in Montana logging for over half a century. Some information regarding the Harper family (and Thomas Baird), appears below.

*An earlier version of this article stated that Harper Lake was named for this Harper family. That is likely not correct.

 

Robert Lyons Harper – (1857-1922)

R. L. Harper Dead

Prominent Lumberman and County Commissioner.

Funeral Was Held at the Home Wednesday and Interment Was in Riverview Cemetery.

One of the oldest and best known residents of the Bitter Root valley was Robert Lyons Harper, who died Sunday night about 9 o’clock. He was taken to the Hamilton hospital that morning to be treated for influenza, and took a sudden turn for the worse that evening. He recently returned from Rochester, Minn., where he was successfully operated on for stomach trouble, and took cold while coming home.

He had been a resident of the Bitter Root valley about 32 years, during most of which time he was in the sawmill and lumber business. During the past several months he operated a mill at Charlos Heights under the name of the R. L. Harper Lumber Company. He took an active interest in community affairs and at one time was city alderman. At the time of his death he was serving his second term as county commissioner. He was a man of strong convictions and never hesitated to voice his thoughts.

He was a native of Canada, being born in Queens county, New Brunswick, March 23, 1857, and was aged 64 years, 11 months and 26 days. Since coming to Ravalli county he had lived in many sections of it. He was a member of several Masonic bodies, where he had attended many ceremonials.

His is survived by a widow and one daughter, Miss Laura Harper, and a brother, George Harper of Warland. The funeral was held at the home on South Third street Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock under the auspices of the Masonic lodge and the Knights Templar. Rev. J. C. Irwin, former pastor of the Presbyterian church, officiated. With an escort of the Knights Templar, the Royal Arch Masons and the blue lodge members the body was taken to Riverview cemetery for interment.

The above obituary appeared in the Ravalli Republic on March 24, 1922

https://www.newspapers.com/image/442212361/

 

George Otis Harper – (1883-1916)

George O. Harper was the only son Robert L. Harper. He died January 27, 1916 and is buried in Riverview Cemetery in Hamilton, Montana.

George Harper was a native of Canada, and was 32 years old, being born October 5, 1883. He had resided in Hamilton and Stevensville for twenty-seven years. Since attaining manhood he followed lumbering, having been in partnership with his father and his uncle, George Harper of Stevensville, and while associated with his uncle had the contract for the last timber cut in the Bitter Root valley by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. This timber was on Tin Cup, the last of which was cut last autumn.

The above information appeared in the Ravalli Republican on January 28, 1916.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/443017296/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84520116/george-otis-harper

 

George Harper – (1862-1932)

Lumberman Dies At His Home Here

George Harper Passes After Brief Illness. Funeral Friday

George Harper, aged 69 years, identified with the lumber industry of Western Montana for many years, died Wednesday morning at his home, 1435 Gerald avenue, following an illness of three months.

Mr. Harper, a resident of Missoula and Bitter Root districts for nearly 50 years, carried on extensive lumbering operations in Western Montana as a logging contractor.

He was born in Salmon Creek, New Brunswick, Canada on November 11, 1862. In 1885, he came to Western Montana from his Canadian home and engaged in lumbering, which he followed during his lifetime.

With his family he settled in Stevensville, living there until about 10 years ago, when he moved to Missoula. During recent years he was logging contractor for the Anaconda Copper Mining company.

Mr. Harper is survived by his widow, one daughter, Hazel, and two sons, Lawrence and Leland Harper. All live in Missoula.

The body is at the Marsh & Powell undertaking place.

Funeral services will be held at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon at the Presbyterian church. Dr. J. N. Maclean of Helena will conduct the services and burial will be in Missoula cemetery. Graveside services will be in charge of the I.O.O.F. lodge of Stevensville.

The above obituary appeared in The Daily Missoulian on August 25, 1932.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/352043413/

 

Lawrence Harper – (1899-1951)

Harper Funeral At Missoula

Hamilton – The body of Lawrence C. Harper was taken from the Dowling mortuary here Wednesday to the Squire-Simmons-Carr mortuary in Missoula where preparations have been made for funeral rites at 2:30 o’clock Friday afternoon. Burial will be in the Missoula cemetery.

Mr. Harper died at his Darby home late Tuesday night. Death was caused by a heart attack.

Lawrence Harper was born at Bonita May 18, 1899, a son of George and Catherine Harper. His early life was spent at Stevensville and he was graduated from the Stevensville schools.

When the father, George Harper, died in 1932 Lawrence and his brother, Leland, became the successors to the logging business, which the father and his older brother, Robert L. Harper, had founded in the 1890 era.

The business at present is known as the Montana Timber company but is still referred to as “the Harpers” by the old timer element of the Bitter Root valley. Present activities of the Harpers are in the Missoula area.

The passing of the middle-aged lumberman has recalled much in the way of industrial history for the Bitter Root valley friends of the early day family. The father, George Harper, and his brother, Robert, came to western Montana from New Brunswick in the 1880-90 period and their logging operations included the Tincup and other valley timbered areas. Other sections of Montana were scenes of their work through the nearly half a century that the older brothers worked together.

George Harper’s sons have seen logging progress from the days of horse-drawn sleds and wagons when the teamster was one of the most important men in the woods, to the present time of mechanized logging. They have seen selective timber cutting come into the picture and their late activities have conformed to the method to a large degree.

The mother, Catherine Bustard, came with her parents to the Darby locality from New Brunswick in her early girlhood, about 1896. She died about three years ago and her son’s grave will be near her and Mr. Harper in Missoula cemetery.

Lawrence Harper was owner of a residence property at the south edge of Darby which he had purchased from the late H. L. Summers and it was there he had made his home. He was a member of Hamilton Ionic lodge, AF&AM and the Missoula Elks lodge.

Mr. Harper is survived by his widow, Claudia; a daughter, Lee Etta, wife of Jack Carver at Kalispell, and her baby daughter; a sister, Mrs. Paul Bowman of Kalispell and brother, Leland here. Mrs. W. A. Wright of Hamilton, formerly Laura Harper, is a cousin.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on June 21, 1951

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349434298/

 

Leland Harper – (1900-1961)

Leland Harper, Retired Logging Contractor, Dies

Leland Harper, 60, long-time western Montana logging contractor, died in his home in Kalispell Wednesday.

He was born Dec. 29, 1900 in Stevensville. Mr. Harper had been a logging contractor for the Anaconda Co. for the past 40 years. He made his home in both Hamilton and Missoula for a number of years and in 1956 he moved to Kalispell to open logging operations on the Thompson River. He retired in January of 1961.

He is survived by his widow, Rosalind; one sister, Mrs. Paul Bowman, Kalispell, and two nieces, Mrs. Jack Carver and Paula Bowman, both of Kalispell.

Mr. Harper was a member of Missoula Lodge 13, AF&AM, the Flathead Shrine Club, Bagdad Temple of Butte, a charter member of the Elk’s Lodge in Hamilton, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, the Hoo-Hoo Club and the Presbyterian Church of Missoula.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Friday in the Presbyterian Church in Missoula with the Rev. Richard A. Jones officiating. Burial will be in Missoula Cemetery under direction of Squire-Simmons-Carr Mortuary.

The above obituary appeared in The Missoulian on August 3, 1961

https://www.newspapers.com/image/348740107/

 

Thomas Baird – (1863-1943).

Thomas Baird was an early partner of the Harpers in what was known as Baird-Harper Lumber.

Thomas Baird was born in New Brunswick, Canada, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Snodgrass) Baird. One of seven children he attended schools in New Brunswick and at an early age worked with his father in farming and lumbering. He later worked in lumber camps in Vermont and Hew Hampshire, and in 1887 he came to Montana, working first at Bonita, near Clinton, Montana. From there he moved to Evaro, secured a timber contract, and established a small lumber mill. Unsuccessful there, he moved to the Bitter Root where he joined with the Harper Brothers and started a new mill and logging business. He became president of the First State Bank in Stevensville and expanded into several other businesses, including the lumber operation in Warland, Mt., on the Kootenai River. In 1892, he married Annie Fowler, also of New Brunswick, and was father of four children; Mrs. Raymond W. Beil, Spokane; Mrs. George Boldt, Seattle; Mr. Alva C. Baird, Los Angeles, and Harold Baird of Tacoma. Mrs. J. W. Shriver of Missoula was a cousin of Mr. Baird. Thomas Baird died in Spokane in 1943.

Thomas Baird was profiled in ‘History of Montana’ Vol. 1, by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders.

 

Some early references to the Harper and Baird logging operations appear below:

 

Damage Done By Fires Recently In Forests – 1906

Missoula, Aug. 18, – C. F. Arnold and family spent a couple of days this week in the mountains back of Harper & Baird’s mill, on O’Brien creek, after huckleberries. While there Mr. Arnold had a good chance to look over the area burned by the recent forest fire on the north slope of the mountains, and states that considerable damage has been done and much good timber stood in the burned district. The fire has been burning for about two weeks, but the heavy rain a few days ago, which was general throughout this section, extinguished it completely. The fire had been fought by a crew of men from Harper & Baird’s mill and it was only by the hardest work that the flames were kept from the lumber yard of the company, it being necessary to back-fire to save the yards, where the whole season’s output of the mill is piled.

The above article appeared in The Anaconda Standard on August 19, 1906.

https://newspaperarchive.com/anaconda-standard-aug-19-1906-p-13/

 

Montana. – Contract has been awarded to Harper & Harper, Hamilton, Mont., for the logging of about 50,000,000 ft. of timber near Darby, Mont., for the Anaconda Copper Co., and it is said they will construct a ten-mile logging railway at once.

The above paragraph appeared in The Railway and Engineering Review on October 11, 1913.

 

From Western Montana.

Missoula, Mont., April 2. – Three of the sawmills in this territory will start this week, to the gratification of the lumberjacks. Local business is good and increasing, Missoula and tributary country being especially active owing to effective advertising through the commercial bodies that are working in the get-together spirit. The Baird & Harper mill at O’Brien Creek will put on 85 men to log and saw for a 40,000-foot a day cut.

The Bonner plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. will use 300 or more men. This mill has 25,000,000 feet of log supply now on hand and will run the season through.

The Polleys Lumber Co. has completed changes in its log deck designed to facilitate rapid handling of the logs before the saw, and will start the day run and later will put on a night shift. The company expects to make a cut of 100,000 feet in 24 hours, and run until winter. Five million feet of logs are now at the loading skids at Camp Taft and a large crew is in the woods. The company has shipped from one to three cars of dressed lumber a day since last December, and orders and inquiries indicate a demand to its full capacity. A large percentage of the Polleys mill product will be Idaho white pine of superior quality. A 100-foot extension to the storage shed is required on account of the growing business, and it will be built at once by local contractors.

The above article appeared in the American Lumberman on April 6, 1912.

 

Baird & Harper operate mills at Hayes Spur, 5.8 miles south of Missoula, on the Bitter Root branch of the Northern Pacific, and manufacture about ten million feet of lumber per year, most of which is sold to the mines at Butte; the balance is marketed at points on the Bitter Root branch and in the vicinity of Missoula.

The above paragraph is found in the Eighth Annual Report – Office of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of the state of Montana – Docket Number 468 (1915) – complaint filed by Polleys, Mann and Baird & Harper against NP Railway Company.

 

Kalispell, Mont., April 19 – Baird & Harper of Missoula, Montana, one of the best known lumber companies of this state, are considering the project developing the vast timber resources tributary to Warland, Montana, and operating the mill at that place. Thomas Baird, senior partner of the company, with Orin S. Good, manager of the Warland Lumber Co., examined the timber and plant this week, meeting L. P. Vinal, acting supervisor of the Kootenai reserve, and inspecting part of the timber of this company. Mr. Baird stated that if his company took hold of the project they would immediately construct six miles of logging railroad up Cripple Horse creek east from Warland, and would plan to work on a large scale. The Warland Lumber Co.’s mill has not been in operation for the past two years. The mill has a capacity of approximately 60,000 feet per day, and there is an immense amount of government timber tributary to the site.

The above paragraph appeared in the Lumber World Review on April 25, 1916.

[Libby Dam, finished in 1972, spelled the end of Warland, Mt., which sat on the bank of the Kootenai River.]

 

Lumbering is carried on extensively in the county. The Anaconda Copper Mining company’s mill at Bonner, the Western Lumbering company’s mill at Milltown and the Harper and Baird mill at Hayes spur, are the most important of the sawmills in the county, though there are many others being operated. This year the output of the A. C. M. mill alone will be 150,000,000 feet.

The above is from The Resources and Opportunities of Montana – 1917

I.W.W. Stop Operations At R. L. Harper Sawmill

Two Organizers of Industrial Workers Hit Camp and Work Ceases.

Pair Were Arrested

Are Later Released Because No Charges Were Filed Against Them

Hamilton. July 12. – (Special) – Operations were suspended temporarily Tuesday at R. L. Harper’s sawmill near Lake Como, following a visit by Henning Anderson and F. Chapman, two avowed organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The men who were unorganized simply quit work, apparently in sympathy with a widespread movement that has paralyzed the lumber and mining industries throughout the northwest.

R. L. Harper stated yesterday that he expected to resume operations soon, the A. C. M. company at Bonner and other camps having gotten under way again. He said he had no quarrel with men and was ready to consider any just demands.

Henning Anderson and F. Chapman were arrested Tuesday by Deputies D. A. Bishop and John Quincy Adams. They were released on the following day, no charge having been filed against them.

The above article appeared in the Daily Missoulian on July 13, 1917.

A new sawmill is being constructed near Charlos Heights, south of Hamilton, Mont., which is located in the Bitterroot Valley. This is being built by F. L. Harper, of the firm of Baird-Harper of Warland. The plans are to cut a million feet of logs during this year, which have been cut on the slopes of the Bitter Root mountains and are still there waiting to be hauled to the new plant.

The above article appeared in the Lumber World Review on April 10, 1922.

 

Heavy Shipments of Logs Reported

Hamilton, Jan 8. – (Special)

Shipment of logs out of the Bitter Root valley averages about 100 cars each week, a report from Northern Pacific railroad circles states. The logs are coming from the camps of the Harper Logging company in the Rye creek and West Fork districts, and are trucked to Darby over the company’s private road. From the up-valley town they are billed to Bonner for conversion into lumber. Logs comprised most of the shipping for the Bitter Root branch during December, the trains operating every other day.

The above article appeared in the Montana Standard of Butte, on January 9, 1939.