This price list pamphlet for dimensional-cut hemlock lumber (LM95.2.2) was issued by the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company (CPL) in 1927. The CPL was a conglomerate established in 1903 to harvest and process timber on lands owned by the United States Leather Company. Known as the “Leather Trust,” the United States Leather Company was one of the nation’s largest corporations in 1900 and one of the twelve original companies listed on the Dow-Jones Industrial Average. The CPL would go on to be one of the last major lumber companies to operate in North-Central PA, following the true “heyday” of the industry around the turn of the 20th century.
Below is link to a historic film of CPL lumber operations in and around Sheffield, PA from 1926. This film shows elements of the entire process, from the forest to finished boards. Perhaps some of the hemlock subject to this price list can be seen in this film. Be on the lookout for an American Log Loader (similar to the museum’s Barnhart) and a Heisler locomotive.
The Sheffield operation, which was the first mill owned and operated by the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company, was also its last. The mill cut its final log in 1941.
