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CITY OF DuBois Page 75
and they bought real estate in that city, which they subsequently
laid out in town lots and sold at considerable profit.
In 1849 John DuBois was the principal organizer of what
was known as the "Susquehanna Boom Company", which was created for
the purpose of constructing booms in the Susquehanna River at
Williamsport and Lock Haven. The two brothers took half the stock
and secured friends who carried sufficient to give them majority of
the stock. John DuBois became president of this corporation. Boom
piers were constructed on the Susquehanna River from Williamsport
west a distance of more than four miles and likewise piers were
constructed in the Susquehanna River at Lock Haven. The construction
of these booms and thebuilding of saw mills created a market for saw
logs on the Susquehanna River.
The lumbering on the Susquehanna and the upper streams
flowing into the river was carried on by rafting of square timber.
Every farmer having a piece of land made considerable money by
making square timber in the winter and rafting it down the river on
the spring floods to market. The best description of this method of
lumbering is given in a little booklet by James Mitchell of
Clearfield, Pa., entitled "Rafting and Lumbering."
The floating of logs interfered very materially with
rafting. The logs were landed in winter time on the banks of the
creeks flowing into the Susquehanna as well as along the river
itself. These logs ran wild in the early spring freshets, sometimes
covering the river from shore to shore, forcing rafts out of the
channel. This made the raftsmen angry and they started a system of
sabotage by driving iron spikes and files and any other iron
material they could find, into the logs which floated into the boom.
The result of this was to destroy a great many saws and close down
the operation of the mills. Mr. DuBois suffered along with his
fellow lumbermen and finally by threats succeeded in scaring the
raftsmen out. However lumbering soon fell into the hands of large
operators and logs were handled more cheaply than square timber,
thus the fight between square timber operators and logmen adjusted
itself.
The Boom Company was looked upon as a serious monopoly
and a great deal of dissatisfaction arose. Mr. DuBois sold a
controlling interest in this corporation. When the new owners got
hold of it, they became avaricious and by manipulating the
legislature of the state, succeeded in getting the boom tolls raised
to such an extent that it became burdensome. The lumbermen were like
the children of Israel in the Wilderness, they longed for the rule
of John DuBois who had been fair with them before, but on account of
their complaints Mr. DuBois was now out of control of the company.
One of the menaces of the lumber business on the
Susquehanna was the spring floods. Logs would be banked along the
creeks and river in the fall and winter. Logs that did not get to
the boom in the spring and summer floods were hauled to the banks of
the streams.
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