The Log Cabin Living: Artifacts from 19th Century Life exhibit at Job Carr Cabin Museum encourages visitors to take a closer look at more than 20 objects in the museum's collection.
When Job Carr arrived on Commencement Bay and decided to stay, he needed to construct a home. In the spring of 1865, Job Carr began building his cabin. He started by felling trees to create a clearing near the base of what is now Tacoma's Carr Street. Job likely had assistance from friends on the Puyallup Reservation. The roof was completed when his son Anthony arrived in November of the same year.
Toolbox display in the Job Carr Cabin Museum, featuring a variety of antique hand tools.
Building a log cabin in the 1800s and the wood furnishings inside it required several types of hand tools, like the saws on display inside Job Carr Cabin Museum. With the ready availability of trees nearby, wood was an essential resource for building materials, fuel, and potential income.
Crosscut bucking saw on display at Job Carr Cabin Museum.
Crosscut Saw
Above the fireplace at Job Carr Cabin Museum, there is a crosscut or two-person saw, also known as a misery whip because sawing for so long was sure to lead to misery. This has a long blade with two handles, one at each end. Crosscut saws first became popular in Europe during the mid-15th century. Before 1850, trees in North America were commonly felled by axe and then cut across the grain of the wood into sections using a crosscut bucking saw. This style of saw has a straight back and is made with a very durable and stiff steel. The tool can be used by one or two people. The more weight applied to the saw, the faster it will cut.
Loggers posing with a two-person saw next to sections of a large tree mounted on a railroad car, from the 1888 publication To and From Up and Down. Courtesy of Library of Congress.
In the second half of the century, the lighter and more flexible crosscut felling saw with a concave back became the preferred tool for cutting large trees, instead of axes. After partially sawing through a tree trunk, the logger could insert a wedge to help the tree fall in the preferred direction. After World War II, crosscut saws were quickly replaced by chainsaws.
View of the lance tooth pattern on the crosscut bucking saw blade at Job Carr Cabin Museum.
In the Pacific Northwest, crosscut saws were available in 4- to 12- foot lengths. The crosscut bucking saw in our collection has a 60-inch blade. Saw manufacturers experimented with a variety of blade tooth patterns for more efficient and cleaner cuts. The example at the museum has a lance tooth pattern.
Lumber jacks cutting timber with a variety of axes and saws, from the 1912 publication "Tacoma"
Bucksaw
The second large saw on display above the fireplace at Job Carr Cabin Msueum is a bow frame bucksaw. This kind of saw can be used to trim the branches off from the main tree trunk and to cut logs or firewood to the desired length. The example at the museum has a 28 inch blade. An upper metal bar can be adjusted with a screw to create more tension. Tightening this rod also tightens the saw blade at the bottom. The stretcher, or center support, has a braced frame design which may have resulted in a more sturdy and longer lasting frame.
The bow frame bucksaw on display at Job Carr Cabin Museum
Milled Lumber in Tacoma
Visitors to Job Carr Cabin Museum are sometimes to surprised the see the walls lined with milled lumber instead of rough-hewn logs. With abundant forests nearby, logging and saw mills became big business in Tacoma soon after Job Carr's arrival. The Hanson-Ackerson Lumber Mill was Tacoma’s first major employer, opening in December 1869. It was built into the hill where 30th Street now merges with the overpass to Schuster Parkway, and stretched down to the waterfront on land purchased from Anthony Carr. The mill had a steam-driven headsaw that could cut timber as long as 140 feet, while the company dock accommodated a dozen ships. Until 1888, it was the largest sawmill in the world.
Lumber operations at the Tacoma Mill (formerly Hanson-Ackerson Mill), from the 1888 publication To and From Up and Down. Courtesy of Library of Congress.
Lumber mills operated on the Old Town Tacoma shoreline from 1869 to 1977. In 1890, more than 100 million board-feet of lumber was produced each day by 38 Tacoma mills. Plus, there were numerous shake mills making roof shingles and mill works producing wood doors, window frames, and trim pieces for houses. In Washington state, about a third of the working population were employed in logging camps, sawmills, shingle mills, and mill works.
View of the lumber and shingle mills along the Old Tacoma waterfront, ca 1908. Courtesy of Tacoma Public Library.
The title of "Lumber Capitol of America" was first coined in 1923 by the Tacoma Lumbermen's Club, who headquarters were located in Old Town. At that time, Washington was the nation's largest lumber-producing state, with businesses like Weyerhaeuser Company leading the field. After World War I, the number of local mills had grown to 70. With the establishment of the port district in 1918, however, industrial businesses slowly migrated from Old Town to the Tacoma Tideflats.
Dickman Lumber Company on the Old Town Tacoma waterfront, ca 1924. Courtesy of Tacoma Public Library.
The last lumber mill on the Old Town waterfront was the Dickman Lumber Company. Purchased by Ralph Dickman in 1921, he expanded operations to 3000 feet of shoreline and 150 employees. The mill finally closed in 1977. The mill's headsaw and carriage were salvaged and are now on display as part of Dickman Mill Park.
Take a closer look at the museum's large saws in this short video:
Sources
Carter-Lome, Maxine. “Hand Saws: A Primitive Tool on the Cutting Edge.” The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, journalofantiques.com/features/hand-saws-primitive-tool-cutting-edge/. Accessed 1 Dec. 2023.
“Chain Saw and Crosscut Saw Training Course—Instructor’s Guidebook.” United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, www.fs.usda.gov/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm06672804/page05.htm. Accessed 1 Dec. 2023.
Endersby, Holly. “Misery Whips Still Here, Thank Goodness.” Montana Senior News, Montana Senior News, 1 Apr. 2019, www.montanaseniornews.com/misery-whips/.
Johnson, Robert. “What Is A Two-Person Saw? Definition And Applications Of The Crosscut Saw.” Sawinery, Sawinery, 11 Oct. 2023, www.sawinery.net/two-person-saws/.
Klase, Bill. “Using Wedges to Fell Trees.” UWMadison Extension Forestry, UW-Extension , 16 Feb. 2016, woodlandinfo.org/using-wedges-to-fell-trees/.
Pierce, Emma, et al. “Job Carr Cabin Museum: An Oral History.” Job Carr Cabin Museum, Job Carr Cabin Museum, spring 2016, www.jobcarrmuseum.org/blog/job-carr-cabin-museum-an-oral-history.
“Turner, B. “What Is a Bucksaw?” About Mechanics, Conjecture Corporation, 7 Nov. 2023, www.aboutmechanics.com/what-is-a-bucksaw.htm.
About the Author
Madeline Teddy completed an internship with Job Carr Cabin Museum in Fall 2023. She was a graduate of University of British Columbia majoring in history and classical Near Eastern religious studies. She hoped to take her studies further and become a museum curator.