Breed Lumberjacks

  Jonas Hamburg, Swedish born immigrant, was a lumberman and hired local Breed boys to work for him.  Pictured are Carl Kilyon, Cass Fonferek, Everette Suring, Clyde Flynn, and Albert Hardke at his camp at Boulder Lake.  During the summer, these boys were mostly farmers, pulling stumps, clearing the land and planting crops.  In the winter, these guy would leave there families and head to the lumber camps to earn extra money.  They would catch the trains passing through Breed headed up north.  A big draw to any lumber camp was the quality of the cooking. 

  The same skills required for establishing their farm lands were used in cutting the timber and hauling it, using a team of horses. The sound of "Daylight in the cedar swamp" woke the men before dark to breakfast. 

(My Dad used to say that when we would have to get up early and go somewhere when I was a kid, especially deer season.)  The work was hard and so was the play as the pictures sometimes show.  Sometimes on Saturady night, the men would get into the nearest town and blow off a little steam.  When the men would come home, their wives or mothers would burn their clothes because they were loaded with "bed-bugs".  If you check the birth records, a lot of the children were born 9 months after these men would return home from the camps.  After all, these farms were labor intensive and needed the help.
 

  Most of the men had experience with horses from their lives on the farm.  When the photographers would come to the camps, they would like to show off their teams.  Pictured are Ernest Schultz, Fred Schultz, Delly Johnson, Carl Kilyon, Cass Fonferek and Everette Suring.  Jonas Hamburg Lumber Camp.

contributed by:
 Bill Fonferek

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Here is a crew of Breed men with their tools.  The axes were used to notch the tree to fell it in a certain direction and to takes the limbs off of it before it was dragged away by the team of horses.  The two-man cross cut saw was used to cut the tree down.  Two men would have to work together as a team.  They would also use a cant-hook to role the log into position.  Pictured here at the Jonas Hamburg Boulder Lake Camp are; Joe Fonferek, Frank Davis, Martin Duhl, John Peters, and George Fonferek.

Jonas Hamburgs Lumber Camp at Boulder Lake. This seems to be a group picture with the men at the camp.  Its likely Sunday with a visitor or two (they looked dressed up and clean).  Pictured are Ernest Schultz, Pete Fonferek, Clyde Flynn, Cass Fonferek, Edmond Hoerres, Ed Flynn, Elsie Flynn, Jonas Hamburg, Jake Whiting, Carl
Kilyon, Everette Suring, Albert Hardke, and Fred Schultz.

contributed by:
 Bill Fonferek

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After the trees are trimmed and cut to size they are loaded on this sled
using horse power again.  The logs are also moved around by cant-hooks into poistion (note: man to the far right on the sled has one).  Some of
the men identified in the picture are John Hiemerl, Tub Cook, and Frank
Adelbush.

Once the sled is loaded with logs, and all the sleds are full, a steam log hauler takes the load out to the place where the logs can be loaded onto the trains headed south to the mills or they are placed in the river to be floated down stream to the mill.  Several of these holding ponds were created on the Oconto River; Townsend Flowage and Chute Pond.  When the spring floods would come the logs were released and
floated down stream to Suring or Oconto Falls. 

Here the men are loading the loags on the trains from the sleds.  My Uncle Frank Fonferek is driving the team of horses that lifts the logs
on the train.

Here is another fun shots of the men relaxing before the camera.  Men in
the picture not specifically identified are Henry Klawitter, George Fonferek and Charlie Duhl Sr.

Another camp with some Breed folks.  Pictured are John Peterson far left.  4th from left my Aunt Anna Fonferek, Lawrence Jorgenson, my Grampa William Fonferek, and his son-in-law Charlie Peterson.

Another lumberjack fun photo.  This is my Uncle Peter Fonferek, probably on his way home from the camp in the spring.  Later, he used his horse driving skills in WWI as a teamster. But before he  reached the front lines the war truce was reached.