History of Kent County.

HISTORY OF KENT COUNTY

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low Furniture Company,* Colonial Furniture Company, Criswell
Furniture Company,* Grand Ledge Chair Company,* Grand Rapids Art Furniture Company,* Grand Rapids Wood Carving Company,* Heyman Company,* Keil-Anway Company,* W. A. Kelley,
C. B. Robinson & Sons,* Snyder Furniture Company,* Steel Furniture Company, White-Steel Sanitary Furniture Company*; 1911
-Grand Rapids Bungalow Furniture Company,* Michigan Cabinet Company,* Practical Sewing Cabinet*; 1912-The Ainway
Company,* Davies-Putnam Company,* Gilpin Furniture Company,* Kindel Bed Company, Metal Office Furniture Company,
Valley City Chair Company*; 1913-Binghamton Chair Company,*
W. H. Chase,* Fisher Showcase Company,* Grand Rapids Sheraton Furniture Company,* Kelley Chair Company, Peter Lindquist,*
Lundeen & Bengston,* National Seating Company,* Practical Sewing Cabinet Company,* Charles Vander Laan*; 1914-Alt &
Batsche,* American Manufacturing Company,* Grand Rapids Studio Furniture Company, Lindquist Furniture Company,* Quality
Furniture Company,* Rockford Chair and Furniture Company*;
1915-Boyce Brothers,* Grand Rapids Bookcase and Chair Company, Lanzon Furniture Company,* Lundeen & Bengston Company,* Nowaczyk Handcraft Furniture Company,* Wallace Furniture Company; 1916-Grand Rapids School Equipment Company, Paalman Furniture Company, Brower Company, Asa U.
Chase,* Grand Rapids Fibre Furniture Company, Kelley Furniture
Company, L. H. D. Fibre Furniture Company, McLeod Furniture
Company,* Special Furniture Company, Welch Furniture Company, Windsor Upholstering Company.*
In a village located as was Grand Rapids in its early days in
the midst of a splendid forest, almost the first manufacturing enterprise to be started is that of lumbering. The object may not be,
at first, to supply the outside world with the product, but naturally
to supply the demands of the settlers for material with which to
build their humble dwellings. On the Slater Indian Mission lands,
on the west bank of the river, the government built, in 1832, the
first sawmill. With its upright saw, common in those days, it
was able to turn out not much more than four or five hundred
feet each day when there was sufficient water to furnish the power.
At this mill was obtained the lumber for the schoolhouse and
meeting house of the mission, and for a small house and chapel
of the Catholic mission. Joel Guild was able to get the boards
for his house on the east side. Louis Campau and others availed
themselves of this opportunity. People came from as far east as
Ionia to get lumber from this pioneer mill. The second mill was
located on the east channel of the Grand where the Pantlind
Hotel now stands. Luther Lincoln, the first white man to join
Campau, started this mill, but, like most of his undertakings, was
not completed. It was completed and put in operation by Abram
S. Wadsworth in 1834.
The power was furnished by an undershot wheel and did its