Lumber Business in Westby

James Lyttle was one of the first lumber dealers in Westby more than 135 years ago. Today the whereabouts of his lumber business is unknown.

Miner Brothers > E.T. Saugstad > Spellum > Colman > Taylor > Nuzum Lumber Company

In 1881, Evan T. Saugstad started in the lumber business and in 1899, E.T. Saugstad bought out Miner Brothers Lumber and for the early part of the 20th Century, Spellum was a partner with Saugstad. 

Colman Lumber bought out Saugstad Lumber about 1918 and Taylor Lumber bought out Colman in 1927 staying in business until 1981. In 1993 Nuzum Lumber added another lumber yard to their Kickapoo Valley yards by opening a yard in the Original Evan T. Saugstad Lumber Yard facilities.

About 1885 after selling furniture for a few years. Theodore Thoreson went into the lumber business and Thoreson Lumber continued in the family until 1950 when Theodore Erickson bought the business. In 1953 the name changed to Westby Lumber and Carroll Olson owned the business in 1967 naming it Carroll’s Lumber.

Thoreson Lumber > Carroll Olson Lumber

Today JGS Computer & Satellite Service is located where Thoreson had his lumber yard.

Martin Bekkedal was also in the lumber business in Westby but in a different capacity. In 1883 he immigrated to Vernon County with his cousin Lars Lium as his sponson In return for transporting him to America, Martin was obligated to help his cousin clear and work land. Working on the farm and cutting ties for the Milwaukee Railroad, he paid off his debt in eight months. During that winter Bekkedal hired out to a lumber mill near Sparta.

Couderay, Wisconsin
September 4, 1922

Martin returned to Westby and started clerking in a local store. Three years later he had saved $1,000 and decided to invest $700 in a timber stand in Bloomingdale. He spent over half the investment in equipping a lumbering and logging crew and in two years had a return of $1,700 from the operation.

About 10 years later, after making considerable money from tobacco and some from lumber, he hadn’t started in banking at this time, Martin bought standing timber and a lumber company the Couderay Indian Reservation north of Rice Lake. By 1925 Martin practically owned all of the village of Couderay and in 1929, the Bekkedal Lumber Company was offered $1 million in cash for their Counderay holdings and they said no, “We’ll wait for a higher offer”.

The higher offer did not come, but the depression did.