Outagamie County, WI - "Diestler Lumber Co. Stood 92 Years"
       
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Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives
Subject: newspaper article "Diestler Lumber Co. Stood 92 Years"
Submitted by: county coordinator 
EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com
Date Submitted: 15 March 2000
       
Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated.

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               Diestler Lumber Co. Stood 92 Years
     One Hortonville landmark lasted 92 years.
     It was the Diestler Lumber and Coal Co. which began back in Dec. 23, 1875 and was razed in October,
1967.
     It began when Charles Diestler moved from Jackson county to Outagamie county and purchased 160 acres
of land on Medina Road, now county trunk M.
     The mill sawed logs, planed lumber and cut up tree tops for stove wood.  Cedar was shipped in and shingles
were made from it.  In 1897, $2 per day was top wages and lumber sold for $10 a thousand board feet.
     The mill had four teams of horses and hired farmers with their teams.  Logs were piled wherever there was
room, dumped in the mill pond -- now Black Otter lake -- and in the huge ditches along Mill and Bath streets.
     The mill did contracting; building the high schools at New London and Hortonville.
     Lumber was shipped to Manitowoc and Sheboygan to the chair factories and trunk slats were made and sent
to the trunk factory at Fond du Lac.
     Robert Diestler, one of 11 children of Charles, lost an arm in a planing machine in the sawmill when he was
23 years old.  He could no longer do farm work so his father sold the mill to him.
     He and Herman Diestler tore the mill down in the early 1890's and moved it to a site on Nash street.  About
1932 Emil and Robert, sons of Robert, took over the operation of the mill.
     The mill, during peak production, sawed everyday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. using gas torches for light.
     But in the 1930's there was less and less lumber to keep the mill going.
          So parts of the mill were torn down.
     During World War 11 the big boiler was sold and sent to Oregon.
     The planer and saws in the mill were sold to Melvin Parthie of Stephensville when the mill was torn down.