Towns that sprung up around lumbering generally came and went with the forests, and Arcadia might have had the same fate. On August 6, 1906 the Starke Sawmill burned down, and instead of simply rebuilding it, the company, guided by Charles J. Starke, the adopted son of Henry Starke, decided to replace the sawmill with a furniture company. The Arcadia Furniture Factory was born. Unlike most sawmill settlements that came and went with the lumber, Arcadia had a new industry and a new future.
Early Arcadia Furniture Factory
This is an early photo of the Arcadia Furniture Factory looking
southeast. Construction on the factory began in late 1906 after a deal was
worked out with the Fox & Mason Furniture Co. of Corunna, Michigan.
Postcard photograph. Unknown photographer.
Sawmill Location Furniture Factory
These blueprints from 1930 show the "Log Drag" at the bottom center of
the diagram. This was used to move logs from the lake to the sawmill part of
the plant, the first step in "From Forest to Furniture."
Map courtesy of Ruth Starke Burkhead
To people on the outside it seemed as if a log was inserted at one end of the Arcadia Furniture Company plant and out popped a piece of furniture at the other end of the plant. The company’s motto, “From Forest to Furniture,” supported that view, but there was a bit more to it than that.
To begin with, someone like John Weldt, the company “woodsman” in the 1930s, would select the logs to use for furniture. Each log would be hauled into the sawmill portion of the plant, where the bark might be removed and the wood cut into boards or veneer, depending on the type of wood and what was needed.
Selecting Logs
Posing on the left is a New York buyer. On the right is Charles Weldt,
the “woodsman” for the Arcadia Furniture Company Photo
courtesy of Ruth Starke Burkhead
Log Rule and Detail
A log rule was used to estimate the board feet included in a log based
on log's diameter as measured by the log rule, quality that determined which
set of numbers to use, and the log's length.
Furniture Factory Sawmill Workers
On the far left is New York buyer Bill Flusser touring the sawmill.
Second from the left is Robert Starke, the president of the Arcadia
Furniture Company, who was “proudly showing the plant’s operations to the
buyers from N.Y.C.” On the right in front is Maurice St. Pierre. The other
people in the photo are not identified.
Photo courtesy of Ruth Starke Burkhead
In the photo above, note the specialized equipment used for handling logs: a large vice attached to a small rail car.