The Ottawa River timber trade, also known as the Ottawa Valley timber trade or Ottawa River lumber trade, was the nineteenth century production of wood products by Canada on areas of the Ottawa River and the regions of the Ottawa Valley and western Quebec, destined for British and American markets. It was the major industry of the historical colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada and it created an entrepreneur known as a lumber baron. The trade in squared timber and later sawed lumber led to population growth and prosperity to communities in the Ottawa Valley, especially the city of Bytown (now Ottawa, the capital of Canada). The product was chiefly red and white pine.The Ottawa River being conveniently located with access via the St. Lawrence River, was a valuable region due to its great pine forests surpassing any others nearby. The industry lasted until around 1900 as both markets and supplies decreased, it was then reoriented to the production of wood pulp which continued until the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The industry came about just before Napoleon's 1806 Continental Blockade in Europe, forcing the United Kingdom to require a new source for timber, especially for its navy and shipbuilding. Later, Britain's application of gradually increasing protectionist tariffs on non-Empire goods increased Canadian imports. Leading into the early 1800s much of the pine in New Brunswick had been cut and Ottawa-Gatineau was considered the boundary for lumbering. Moving to the mid 1800s much of the pine in this once pristine area was now cut. The first part of the industry, the trade in squared timber lasted until about the 1850s. The transportation for the raw timber was first by means of floating down the Ottawa River, first conducted in 1806 by Philemon Wright in Wright's Town. Squared timber would be assembled into large rafts which held living quarters for men on their six-week journey to Quebec City, which had large exporting facilities and easy access to the Atlantic Ocean.
The second part of the industry involved the trade of sawed lumber, and the New England lumber barons, and lasted chiefly from about 1850 to 1900–1910. The Reciprocity Treaty caused a shift to American markets. The source of timber in the UK changed, where its access to timber in the Baltic region was restored, and it no longer provided the protective tariffs. American entrepreneurs at that time then began to immigrate and build their operations near the Ottawa River, creating some of the world's largest sawmills. These lumber barons, such as John Rudolphus Booth, Henry Franklin Bronson, and Ezra Butler Eddy, founded mills and industries, alongside investing in public infrastructure and private residences, which were essential to the growth and development of early Ottawa. The sawed lumber industry benefited from transportation improvements, first the Rideau Canal linking Ottawa with Kingston on Lake Ontario, and much later railways that began to be created between Canadian cities and northern U.S. markets.
Around 1906, the last raft was chuted down the Ottawa River. Squaring of timber to make rafts had become too wasteful and costly a solution to transportation, new hydro obstructions along the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers had made it more difficult, and the growing road and rail networks, like the Canadian Atlantic Railway, founded by J.R. Booth in 1897 and spanning the region between Lake Huron, Ottawa, Montreal, and northern Vermont, had proven capable of supplying to the newer domestic and urban newspaper and magazine markets which had become the primary demand. Supplies of pine were dwindling and there was also a decreased demand for sawn timber. Many sawmills converted to pulp mills for the paper industry during this period. The UK was able to resume its supply from the Baltics, and their policies, especially the reduction in protectionism of their colonies, led to a decrease in markets in the UK. Shipbuilding turned towards steel, and the Atlantic fishing industry which provided domestic demand collapsed. Before 1950, many operations began to discontinue or be purchased by larger operations, and later many mills were completely removed and the spoiled land began to be restored in Urban Renewal policies in Ottawa. The industry had contributed greatly to population increases, culture, and economic growth of Ontario and Quebec.
Markets
Upper and Lower Canada's major industry in terms of employment and value of the product was the timber trade. The largest supplier of square red and white pine to the British market originated from the Ottawa River and the Ottawa Valley had "rich red and white pine forests". Bytown (later called Ottawa) was a major lumber and sawmill centre of Canada.
In 1806, Napoleon ordered a blockade to European ports, blocking Britain's access to timber required for the Royal Navy from the Baltic Sea. The British naval shipyards were desperately in need of lumber.
British tariff concessions fostered the growth of the Canadian timber trade. The British government instituted the tariff on the importation of foreign timber in 1795 in need of alternate sources for its navy and to promote the industry in its North American colonies. The "Colonial Preference" was first 10 shillings per load, increasing to 25 in 1805 and after Napoleon's blockade ended, it was increased to 65 in 1814.
In 1821 the tariff was reduced to 55 shillings and was abolished in 1842. The United Kingdom resumed its trade in Baltic timber. The change in Britain's tariff preferences was a result of Britain moving to Free Trade in 1840. The 1840s saw a gradual move from protectionism in Great Britain
When the Ottawa River first began to be used for floating timber en route to markets, squared timber was the preference by the British for resawing, and it "became the main export". Britain imported 15,000 loads of timber from Canada in 1805, and from the colonies, 30,000 in 1807, and nearly 300,000 in 1820.
The 1854 Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty allowed for duty-free export of Ottawa Valley's lumber into the United States. Both the market was changing, as well as the entrepreneurs running the businesses. A September 30, 1869 American statement showed that lumber was, by far Canada's biggest export to the U.S., at over 424 million feet, worth $4,761,357. The other two largest exports were iron, pigs, and sheep, worth around the $500,000 range.
Also in 1869, about a third of the lumber manufactured at Ottawa was shipped to foreign countries, and the area employed 6,000 men in cutting and rafting logs, about 5,500 in the preparation of squared timber for European markets, and about 5,000 at the mills in Ottawa. Somewhere between 1848 and 1861, a large increase in the number of sawmills in "the town" had occurred, as did dwellings, from 601 dwellings and 3 sawmills in 1845, to 2,104 dwellings and 12 sawmills by 1861.
Here is the production of some companies in 1873, M feet of lumber and number of employees and their 1875 address listed, where available. J.R. Booth, 40, 400, Albert Island, Chaudier Bronsons & Weston [Lumber Company], 40, 400, Victoria Island (incorrectly listed as Bronson & Weston) Gilmour & Co. 40, 500–1000, 22 Bank (numbers were listed with Gilmore & Co.) E.B. Eddy, 40, 1,700 (this includes mostly non-lumber activities) Perley & Pattee, 30, 275, 105 Chaudiere A.H. Baldwin, 25, 200, Victoria Island J. Maclaren & Co., 20, 150, 6 Sussex (address listed as J. MacLaren & Co.) Wright, Batson & Currier 17, 250 (only listing for address was Batson & Carrier) Levi Young, 16, 100, Victoria Island Chaudiere (Numbers listed him as Capt. Young's mill.) Total here: 228 million feet(sic).
The 1875 lumber merchants list included Jos Aumond; Batson & Carrier; Bennett, Benson & Co.; H. B. D. Bruce; T. C. Brougham; T. W. Currier & Co.; G. B. Hall; Hamilton & Bros.; J. T. Lambert; Moses W. Linton; M. McDougall; John Moir; Isaac Moore; Robert Nagle; R. Ryan; Albert W. Soper; Wm. Stubbs and Wm. Mackey, 99 Daly; Robert Skead, 288 Sparks; Hon. James Skead, 262 Wellington; William Skead, 10 Bell; and Joseph Smith, 286 Sussex.
Timber trade
Upper and Lower Canada's major industry in terms of employment and value of the product was the timber trade. Bytown was a major lumber and sawmill centre of Canada. When the Ottawa River first began to be used for floating timber en route to markets, squared timber was the preference. This required the logs to be skillfully shaped with broadaxes giving the whole log a squared appearance. It was wasteful but squared pine was preferred by the British for resawing. The timber was bound with other sticks into two related configurations, cribs, and rafts. Squared timber "became the main export" and was easy to ship overseas and could be moved by "pegged cribs". The rafts were floated on the Ottawa River to markets in Quebec.
The first raftsmen were ex-pat American, Scottish, and Irish settlers. As more rafts were sent downriver as the industry expanded, more French Canadians moved into the Ottawa Valley from Montreal. The mid-1820s saw a large number Irish immigrants arrive in Wright's Town to construct the Rideau Canal and once completed, the labourers took to the rafts. Competition for jobs led to animosity and hatred. Many Irish had come to Canada after the Rideau Canal's construction to escape poverty in Ireland. Irish gangs called the Shiners began to develop, sparking the Shiners' War between Irish Catholics and French Canadians in Bytown.
Supplying a winter logging expedition To extract logs during the winter season it is estimated that logging firms had to supply 430 men for log extraction from the woods, 300 men for piling and moving logs, and 300 teamsters to control the horses and log sleighs for a 150,000 log yield. The supplies needed for these men included:
Sawmills
The first lumbering on the south side of the Kim River near Ottawa was by Braddish Billings, a United Empire Loyalist from upstate New York, founder of the Billings Estate a former employee of Philemon Wright, with William M?? where they cut timber in Gloucester Township near Sawmill Creek, in 1810. The industry began in Bytown with St. Louis, who in 1830 used the bywash (a section, that no longer exists, of the early Rideau Canal which drained into the Rideau River) near Cumberland and York. In 2001 he moved to Rideau Falls. Thomas McKay acquired the mill in 1837.
In 1843, Philip Thompson and Daniel McLachlin harnessed the Chaudière Falls for use with grist and sawmills. In 1852, the Chaudière saw A.H. Baldwin, John Rudolphus Booth, Henry Franklin Bronson and Weston, J.J. Harris, Pattee and Perley, John Rochester, Levi Young. All were former Americans who had immigrated except for Rochester. J.?. Turgeon operated a sawmill in the canal basin (another no longer existing area of the canal used for turning watercraft, just south of the bridge by the entrance).
Sometime in the 1850s the islands at the Chaudière Falls became occupied with the express intent of harvesting the enormous power of the falls. An auction on September 1, 1852 had lots on Victoria Island and Amelia island going to "Harris, Bronson and Co., and Perley and Pattee, both lumber operators in the Lake Champlain / Lake George area". Levi Young was on the mainland. "Harris and Bronson" mills had a capacity of 100,000 logs annually, more than twice that of nearby mills of Blasdell, Currier and Co., and Philip Thompson.
Timber slides, cribs, rafts