SPAHN AND ROSE LUMBER COMPANY

SPAHN AND ROSE LUMBER COMPANY. Last of the major line-yards located in Iowa. Consistently ranked within the top 200 of the top four hundred lumber companies in the United States, Spahn and Rose in 1991 operated twenty-two stores within the Midwest region of Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Spahn and Rose, incorporated on January 23, 1904, by James COLLIER, Charles J. SPAHN Sr., and George DeForest "Bud" ROSE. This was after successful efforts Spahn and Rose had in California saving lumbering interests owned by wealthy California bankers including the Crockers. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, Iowa lumber companies were noticing the decline in supply of timber from the forests of Wisconsin. Spahn, then an employee of the CARR, RYDER AND ENGLER lumber company, was asked by John Taylor ADAMS to investigate the supply of wood, especially pine, in the western United States. Traveling to California, Spahn discovered fine supplies of Ponderosa and sugar pine were being harvested by California lumber interests controlled by several prominent banking families. Due to improper drying, the lumber was being ruined; the bankers were losing vast sums of money.

Spahn was followed to California by Adams who arranged with the California bankers to bring a crew from Dubuque. Rose, a member of the Dubuque group, was appointed assistant superintendent. Within months of their arrival, the seasoned Dubuque lumbermen were turning the California lumber business into a profitable venture. In 1903 the lumber business operated by Spahn and Rose was sold to a group of Michigan lumbermen. The profit from the sale was shared with Spahn and Rose who returned to Dubuque and established their own company. As stated in its articles of incorporation, the objective of the company was the sale of building materials, lumber, grain, tiles, doors and sashes. The first president of the company was James Collier. Charles J. Spahn Sr. was the company's vice-president; George D. Rose was secretary.