Bio: Yawkey, Cyrus Carpenter (1862 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Yawkey, Lee, Bissell, Crowley, Richardson, Woodson

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Yawkey, Cyrus Carpenter (29 August 1862 - 19??)

Cyrus C. Yawkey, who has made his home in Wausau since 1899, has been one of the most valuable acquisitions to this city in later years, not only socially, but from an industrial and financial point of view as well. Since his advent here he has interested himself practically in all of the large industrial enterprises which have had their birth in the last fifteen years and which make Wausau the industrial center of the Wisconsin valley. Not only did his active interest in these concerns enable them to perfect their organization, but the implicit confidence of the people of means in his business acumen, experience and integrity caused them to associate themselves willingly with the enterprises and assist in furnishing the means which were needed to set in motion the wheels of industry. To show to what an extent Mr. Yawkey is engaged in business in Wausau and Marathon County, it is only necessary to mention his connection with the following industrial and financial concerns: President of the Yawkey Lumber Company ; president of the Marathon Paper Mills Company at Rothschild; vice president of the Wausau Paper Mills Company at Brokaw; vice president of the Wausau Street Railroad Company; director of the National German American Bank; vice president of the Wausau Quartz Company; and vice president of the Great Northern Life Insurance Company, besides being financially interested in others.

Mr. Yawkey comes from a race of lumbermen. His grandfather, John H. Yawkey, was engaged in the lumber business near Massillon, Ohio, in the early forties, and his father, Samuel W. Yawkey, was a pioneer lumberman of Michigan, having gone into the Saginaw Valley in 1850. The family moved to Chicago in 1858, where Samuel W. Yawkey engaged in the lumber trade, and it was during the family's residence there that the subject of this sketch was born on August 29, 1862. In 1864 the family returned to Michigan and established a home at East Saginaw.

Cyrus C. Yawkey attended the public schools until 1879. He then entered the Michigan Military Academy at Orchard Lake, Mich., from which he graduated in 1881, and immediately after graduation, turned his attention to business. He first entered a hardware store as clerk and by the time he had attained his majority he had sufficiently mastered the business to engage in it on his own account, forming a partnership under the name of Yawkey & Corbyn, which was successfully carried on for five years. While at East Saginaw he identified himself with the Michigan National Guard, serving first as Captain of Co. E, 3d Regiment, and later as major of the same regiment, but subsequent business cares, both public and private, induced him to withdraw from military life.

In 1889 he moved to Wisconsin and, with his uncle, W. C. Yawkey, and George W. Lee, organized the Yawkey & Lee Lumber Company, which was reorganized as the Yawkey Lumber Company in 1893. The company built a plant in Oneida County and founded the village of Hazelhurst where Mr. Yawkey lived until he moved to Wausau in 1899. The Yawkey Lumber Company owned and operated saw and planing mills and a box factory at Hazelhurst until 1905, and it is estimated that not less than 350,000,000 feet of lumber were manufactured there during that time. When the company was organized, Mr. Yawkey became its treasurer and general manager, and later was made president. The Hazelhurst & South Eastern Railway Company was also formed and the road built and Mr. Yawkey has been its president up to the present time. The success of the Yawkey Lumber Company was directly due to the personal efforts of Mr. C. C. Yawkey. He purchased the timber and for seventeen years conducted the logging operations and the manufacturing and selling of the lumber. Through his efforts and business foresight the company not only became the owner of vast tracts of timber in Wisconsin, but also acquired large tracts of yellow pine timber in the south and white pine regions in Oregon.

The Yawkey Lumber Company finished cutting its timber in Wisconsin in 1905 and a new company was organized, the Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company, which took over the plant at Hazelhurst and also acquired a plant at Arbor Vitae, Vilas county, Wis., Mr. Yawkey being made president of the new company. The Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company has operated these two plants continuously since the date of their purchase and has manufactured about 70,000,000 feet of lumber each year.

From 1891 to 1893 Mr. Yawkey served as chairman of the county board of Oneida County, and in 1894 was elected member of assembly for the district, composed of the counties of Oneida, Price, Vilas and Taylor, and took an influential part in the legislation of that session.

Mr. Yawkey's business interests are manifold and varied, as may be seen from the following official positions in business concerns which he holds outside of Marathon County: president of the Yawkey-Bissell Lumber Company, with mills at Hazelhurst and Arbor Vitae, Wis.; president of the Yawkey-Crowley Lumber Company, which owns and operates retail yards in southern Wisconsin, with main office in Madison, Wis.; vice president of Wisconsin & Arkansas Lumber Company, with mills at Malvern, Ark.; director of McCloud River Lumber Company, with mills at McCloud, Calif.; director of Marshall & Illsley Bank, Milwaukee, Wis.; director of Wausau Southern Lumber Company, with mills at Laurel, Miss.; secretary and treasurer of Cisco Lake Lumber Company, which owns large tracts of hardwood and hemlock land in Michigan; president of Globe Mining Company, which owns valuable iron ore land near Birmingham, Ala.; and president of Hazelhurst Land Company.

Cyrus C. Yawkey is not only one of the most prominent but also one of the most popular business men of Wausau. He has long been interested in Masonry, is a Knight Templar, and has attained the thirty-third degree. He is also widely known in trade and social organizations. His military education is shown by his courtly bearing in speech and manners. He is charitable and generous, though rendering his aid in silence, but many public and charitable organizations can testify to his generosity. He was married to Miss Alice M. Richardson, at Ann Arbor, Mich., October 13, 1887, and one daughter has come to bless their marriage, Leigh, now Mrs. Aytchmonde P. Woodson. He has one of the finest residences in the city, where his many friends are always welcome.