Clark County WA Archives Biographies.....Du Bois, W. B. 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wa/wafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com November 9, 2009, 10:37 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 195-196
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     One of the most prominent figures in the lumber and paper manufacturing 
industries of Vancouver is W. B. Du Bois, vice president of the Columbia River 
Paper Mills and connected with other important business interests of this 
section of the state. He has been a prominent factor in the development of the 
Columbia River Paper Mills, of which he was one of the organizers, and is 
recognized as a man of progressive and modern business methods. The Columbia 
River Paper Mills were organized as a corporation in the fall of 1922 and its 
officers are: F. W. Ledbetter, president; W. B. Du Bois, vice president; 
Joseph J. Donovan, secretary; and Hamilton F. Corbett, treasurer. The sawmill 
was first completed and operated in September, 1923, and later in that year 
the paper mill also began its operation. The sawmill, which is located just 
below the paper mill, manufactures hemlock lumber and ships about six million 
feet a month. The lumber is mostly sent to Japan and New York, though some 
clear stock is sold in the middle west. The paper mill is five hundred and 
fifty by one hundred and twenty feet and about seventy-five thousand square 
feet of space, mostly on one floor, is utilized. The main products of the mill 
are wrapping paper, tissue paper for fruit wrappers and some newspaper stock. 
All the waste products of the sawmill are used in the making of paper, the 
sulphite process being followed. Cupples, of St. Louis handles most of the 
wrapping paper and the new paper, amounting to about two hundred tons a month 
and it finds ready sale. The entire plant occupies about fourteen acres of 
ground and three hundred and fifty men are employed, the yearly output of the 
mills being valued at about three million dollars.

     W. B. Du Bois was born in Iowa and is a son of W. B. and Margaret 
(Lockwood) Du Bois, both of whom are deceased, the mother dying in 1893 and 
the father in 1905. In 1883, when the son was about six years old, the family 
came to Vancouver. The father, who had been engaged in the retail lumber 
business in Iowa, bought a small sawmill here in partnership with his brother, 
L. W. Bu Bois, located on Salmon creek, and later he built another small mill 
on the river. Sometime afterward he and his son, George L., ran a sawmill 
under the name of the Du Bois & Son Lumber Company, in which he remained 
interested to the time of his death. To him and his wife were born six 
children: George L., who is president of the Du Bois Lumber Company, is 
married and has three children, Robert, secretary of the Central Planing Mills 
at Vancouver, and Kinsley and Jeanette. Lloyd, president of the Washington 
National Bank at Vancouver, is married and has a son, Lloyd, Jr., who is in 
his father's bank. Emily is the wife of R. W. Haygood of Portland, Oregon. W. 
B. is the next of the family. Mary E. resides in Portland. E. S. is president 
of the Du Bois-Matlock Lumber Company of Vancouver.

     W. B. Du Bois received his educational training in the public and high 
schools of Vancouver, after which he gained his first experience in the lumber 
business in his father's mill. He then became identified with the Vancouver 
Independent, owned by his brother Lloyd and ran the paper for about six years 
while his brother was serving as postmaster at Vancouver. He then bought his 
father's interest in the Du Bois & Son Lumber Company, the name of which was 
changed to that of the Du Bois Lumber Company, and he still retains his 
interest in that concern, of which he is vice president. In 1922 he became one 
of the organizers of the Columbia River Paper Mills and he is also president 
of the Bridal Veil Lumber Company.

     Mr. Du Bois was married in Vancouver to Miss Floy Brown, a native of this 
city and a representative of an old and prominent family of the locality, her 
grandfather, S. W. Brown, having been appointed to the land office here by 
President Lincoln in the early '60s. Mr. and Mrs. Du Bois have two children: 
Richard, who is a graduate of the University of Washington and now has the 
Chrysler automobile agency in Vancouver; and Rebecca, who is at home.

    Mr. Du Bois has been active in local public affairs, having served two 
terms as a member of the city council and two terms as port commissioner, 
being one of the first to hold that office here. He is a member of the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, of 
which he was formerly a director; and is president of the Free Bridge Club, 
the object of which was to abolish the tolls between Portland and Vancouver in 
which project success is assured as the tolls will be suspended in January, 
1929. Mr. Du Bois gives his earnest support to every measure having for its 
object the advancement of the community's interests along either material, 
civic or moral lines. He is regarded as one of the leading citizens of 
Vancouver because of his sterling worth, his business enterprise and his 
fidelity to every public interest, while his personal qualities have gained 
for him a host of warm and loyal friends wherever he is known.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wa/clark/bios/dubois133gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wafiles/

File size: 5.7 Kb