25th – Went to work for the G.B.L.C. at mill. Worked all day. Began boarding at the mill boardinghouse. Ate dinner & supper there.
There was a Gate City Lumber Company at the time. That could be where Jesse was working. There was a Georgian Bay Lumber Company at the time, and it was a large company that had stores and boarding for employees, but that was in Canada. The Black Hills and Black River run past Gate City, so it might have been Gate Black Lumber Company. If anyone has any further information, please drop us a line!
When Jesse says he worked all day, it might have meant ten or twelve hours. While farm work can be physically demanding and the days can be long depending on the season, Jesse’s work at the lumber camp and lumber mill would be his first experiences with the commercial work day. He can’t call it quits when he feels like it, or other family members and farm hands can’t pick up the slack if he leaves early for the day.
In 1909, L. L. Hunter wrote the following contemporary description of Gate City:
When the Northern Pacific Railroad Company built from Puget Sound into the Grays Harbor country in 1890 and 1891, they formed a junction twenty miles south of Olympia in the valley of the Black and Chehalis rivers, where they had a level, open country to build to Centralia and connect with the Portland line. This junction was first called Gate City and later abbreviated to Gate.
Here a busy little town has sprung up, Always prominent in business here has been the lunch counters, restaurants and hotels, sustained largely by passengers to and from the Grays Harbor country, this being a transferring point and giving time for lunch.
The town has become well known as “The Gate” to Grays Harbor and a good place to get something to eat.
To the north of Gate lies the Black Hills, famous for its fine timber, in which are numerous logging camps tributary to the town.
Beautiful Mima Prairie lies about three miles to the northeast of Gate. Here is located the large gravel pit from which the Northern Pacific Railway Company gets the most of its ballast for Southwestern Washington. Between Mima and Gate are hundreds of acres of the finest bottom lands only awaiting drainage before reaching the highest state of fertility.
The thriving town of Rochester lies southeast of Gate. This is one of the lively trading points of this part of the country. Three miles south extends the rich Chehalis valley, one of the most promising agricultural sections in the Western Washington region. Southeast about two miles lies the fertile Chehalis Indian Reservation. Gate is one of their chief trading stations.
To the west lies the Black River valley, dotted with fertile farms and orchards, until Oakville is reached, five miles away.
About one mile west of Gate the Northern Pacific Railway Company has a large stone quarry and forest of pines and a saw mill.
The Gate City Lumber Co. have a large saw mill, planing mill and shingle mill, in one of the best locations on the Black River on one side and the Northern Pacific Railway on the other.
The Ferndale Lumber Co. has a saw mill located near the Indian Reservation and ship their product from this point.
Gate has two large and prosperous general stores, butcher shop, blacksmith shop, four lunch counters and restaurants, one large hotel and two saloons.
Property is reasonable. There is no boom here. We have no real estate agents. Few places are for sale. The people are prosperous and contented. Opportunities the best for new settlers and working men are open here.
Gate has a good graded public school; Union Church building in which is held Sunday school and preaching regularly by the Baptists and Methodists.
The people of Gate are home-lovers and industrious. With the development of the country surrounding there is no reason why the place will not grow and become quite a bustling, commercial center.
