| Historicial Development: | Jonathan Gerland, senior archivist at the Tyrrel Library at Beaumont, discovered records on the Stryker Lumber Company in Polk County during the years 1920 to 1921:
evidence suggests two mills: a “mill no. 1” and a “mill no. 2”;
the company cut between 1,000 and 10,000 board feet daily from March to September, 1920, from pine and a variety of hardwoods;
workers' wages varied from 25 cents to $1.50 per hour. Those providing their own horse or team were paid the best wages.
from seventeen to twenty-nine workers were employed weekly from March through September, 1920, but less than one-third worked forty hours a week;
the mills ran briefly in 1921;
Stryker was a company town, in that the records reflect the construction of tenant housing and the collection of rents. |