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By 1912, William Cleereman, his twin brother Henry, son William Jr., and business partner John Jauquet decided to move the entire operation north. Their destination was the town of Newald, a new logging town that featured a hotel where, presumably, the lumberjacks could sleep off the effects of the other business located there-a saloon. Lumber would move to the market over the C&NW rails instead of logs. The work load must have been tremendous. An entire logging and sawmilling operation had to be created where there was no established infrastructure, save for the trees that provided the raw material and the railroad. The Cleeremans built a sturdy two-story home in 1913. When William Jr.'s two sons were born, they could look out the back door at a big steam powered sawmill, hundreds of thousands of board feet of logs waiting to feed it, the train from Green Bay chugging into town, and a small army of men working. When they looked out the front door, they could see the buildings necessary to keep the woods and sawmill crews productive. An office and company store, bunkhouses, cook shacks, barns, warehouses, stock pens; all were an essential part of the family business. Growing up in this environment, it's natural that the two Cleereman boys would develop an interest in logging and sawmilling. Robert took an interest in logging and made it his lifelong work. Francis liked the mill. As Francis grew up, he was influenced by two men who worked for his father. Tom and John Kleve were brothers. Like many men of diverse interests, they moved north to the new country opened up by the railroad expansion. They both possessed the natural ability to make things work. Be it blacksmithing, saw filing, welding, or designing a new machine to do a specific job, they had the talent to do it. Their influence on young Francis helped one branch of the Cleereman family history to develop. Francis, and eventually his two boys, Francis Jr. and John were to become more interested in the machinery than the lumber. Kids grew up fast in the Northwoods. Francis still has field notes he kept when, at age 15, he supervised a woods crew. His talent for solving mechanical problems was the boy's strong suit, however. Francis learned millwrighting from the Kleve brothers. He must have learned well, because other sawmills in the area used to call on the teenage Francis to help solve some of their more perplexing millwright problems. As his father watched his talents grow, he came to rely more and more on his judgment concerning the mill's operations. When the sawmill switched from steam power to diesel, it was 18 year-old Francis who made the decision to change. Eliminating steam reduced insurance rates, saved paying a man to fire the boiler, and resulted in lower maintenance costs. Later on, the switch was made to electricity. |
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Cleereman Sales, Inc
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Phone: | (715) 674-2727 |
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Fax: | (715) 674-7002 |
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E-mail: | CustServ@Cleereman.com |
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