A new process of taking lumber from the rafts in the river was put in operation a year or two since by this company, a corporation organized in January, 1882, composed of members of the Northwestern Lumber Company, but an organization independent of that company. The original capital stock of this company was $40,000, and the first officers were S. T. Mc Knight, president’ D. R. Moon, vice-president, and J. T. Barber, secretary and treasurer. The growth of the lumber business in Hannibal has been so extraordinary that the most distant yard is two miles from the levee, making the haul by wagon a long and expensive one.

The new arrangement consists of a railroad track laid so as to connect with the railroads passing through the various lumber yards, and in extending down into the river obliquely down stream, and in front of a dock which is parallel to it, and such distance from it as to bring the center of the track under the center of a crib of lumber lying, alongside of the clock. A flat car, constructed for the purpose, is backed down the track, under the crib of lumber to which it is made fast, and car and crib hauled out on to a side-track, and the operation repeated until as many cars are loaded as desired, when they are run to the yard and side-tracked. Here the mud and sand from the river is washed from the lumber, the water for this purpose coming from our water-works, the reservoir of which is 230 feet above the level of Main street, and directed upon the lumber through hose attached to hydrants conveniently planted for this purpose, after which the lumber is sorted and piled for drying. This arrangement greatly decreases the cost of the lumber in the yards over the old hand and wagon process.

During the year 1883 this company has transported from the river to the yards all the lumber hauled by the Northwestern Lumber Company, the Hannibal Lumber Companv, the Bluff City Lumber Companv, and J. J. Cruikshank, Jr.