Planing Mill Planing Mill
With the increased demand brought about by settlement and the availability of lumber ensured by railroad connections, wood-related manufacturing began in Grand Island. While carpenters were erecting hundreds of frame buildings in the area, locally-produced building components found a ready market.
It appears that the first resident to produce such components was George E. Winn. As early as March of 1885 he had opened a sash factory on East 3rd Street in Grand Island. Winn, a native of Vermont, is identified in the 1880 census as a carpenter. His 1912 obituary states that he worked for five years in the Union Pacific car shops before starting his own contracting business. Winn's planing mill was fortunate to operate during a major boom period in construction. It last appears in the 1893 city directory. An 1894 source indicates the mill was then under the management of a Porter Dunlap. This last year coincided with a nation-wide depression which closed many area businesses, including three Grand Island banks. Winn moved to California, dying in San Bernardino in 1912.
Winn's planing mill was located at 118 East 2nd Street according to his 1887 advertisements. Billing it as a door, sash and blind factory, "stairs and bracket work" were a specialty. Winn's product line varied--the 1889 directory indicated he made tanks to order as well. The Winn mill was briefly described in December 1888 as having planing machines, scroll saws, and mortising machines. It was then run by steam power. This location, at the corner of 2nd and Sycamore, was followed by a brick building. Winn had a 44' x 100' brick structure put up, occupying it in January 1889.
Winn's competition in town, for a time, was a furniture factory. The furniture factory opened in December 1887 and according to one newspaper account was producing furniture of all kinds, "chamber sets a specialty." The following December the firm was identified as the chair and furniture factory conducted by Thomas Lee at 214-216 North Pine. Lee's venture fades from the local sources after its first year of operation.
The local planing mill industry returned with the building of one at 115 North Kimball by Lewis T. Geer and J. D. Harrison by 1901. The Geer-Harrison Company erected a new 2-story brick building and installed new machinery in November 1913, replacing a mill lost to a fire on August 17. By 1919 a change in the partnership found the business renamed the Geer Company. The company, including a lumber yard, relocated from 119 North Kimball to 317 North Kimball between May 1924 and November 1927. Possibly the longest-running of the city's planing mills, the Geer Company/Geer Lumber & Building Company may have operated their mill until the mid-1930s.
Details about smaller operations are limited. Two were managed by carpenters: Martin Ott, at the northwest corner of North Plum and East 9th Street in 1910; and Herman Nelson, at 416 North Walnut in 1912. The Hurst Sash & Door Company was established in December 1915 and was in business as late as May 1922 at 419 West 4th. A lumber yard, the Goerhing-Sothman Company, was operating its own planing mill at 124 North Cleburn by 1919.
* Railroad Town's Plaining Mill Is a replica of an early 1900's planing mill where doors, stairs, bracket work, and window sashes were produced for the construction industry. Grand Island, for example, had a planing mill as early as 1887. Stuhr Museum constructed the planing mill and opened it in 1989.