The Elder Statesman

 Milt Herbert
Can’t Never Could Do Anything
By Jim Petersen
The Evergreen Foundation
Hardcover $25.00 

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

Please note: the daughter’s name is Bille (she is now Bille Davidson of Roseburg, married to Tom Davidson, the CPA.) In an earlier story about Milt an editor thought I had misspelled the name and added a "i" making it Billie.  

The reader of this book might think the subtitle of a biography about one of Douglas County’s timber giants and the company he built, a bit odd. That is true until you read the book and discover the man and his company.

It fits this unassuming timber icon, Milt Herbert, who, founded Herbert Lumber Co. in Riddle with no more than a portable saw mill and a few lessons on its operation from an aging millwright in Eugene who sold him that portable saw on shares. That was in 1946 when Milt, age 19, and a friend, Chuck Huntingon became partners and began cutting lumber in Lane County. They managed to sell everything they milled, but splitting the profits left little for each partner.

The experience of that first summer did two things, according to Peterson’s book. It convinced Milt he had found his calling and it convinced Huntington it was time to try something new. Huntington sold his interest to Fred McGee, who with Milt went back into the woods for another go at milling lumber. Milt faced his first challenge in the lumber business during the housing boom in the 1940s. The aftermath of World War II caused an increase in the price the owners of timberland wanted for stumpage. It drove these two novices out of the business in Lane County.

There were rumors that stumpage was cheap in Eureka, Calif. and in May 1948 Milt and Fred, loaded up their portable mill and started heading south. They only got as far as Canyonville where they set up their mill and started milling lumber. That was where the Douglas County operation began. Milt was supported in this venture by his other partner his young wife, Arlene, who said in an interview she never doubted Milt would succeed, because “I think he is the smartest man I ever met.”

Peterson summed up their sixty plus years of marriage by saying, “They were partners 24 hours a day, seven days a week – and they still are.”

When they settled in Canyonville, the couple were already parents of a daughter, Bille. There was a housing shortage, but this did not dampen the Herberts determination to succeed. They pitched a tent adjacent to the mill. It was from there that Arlene cooked meals for the crew and kept the business end running smoothly by paying the bills and making payroll.

Times were lean. Bankers in Roseburg didn’t much care for young saw millers and considered them credit risks. It was years before Douglas County timber empire builders, Ken Ford, Bud Johnson, D.R. Johnson, Fred Sohn and a maverick named Milt Herbert gained a foothold. All of the above timber giants built the economy of Douglas County and their names are legendary in timber circles, Peterson noted, but Milt stands tall among them because of his innovative business acumen, his devotion to the people who worked for him and the community at large.

Somewhat because of the attitude of those bankers in Roseburg, Milt helped organize a south county bank, called the South Umpqua Bank, which today is itself a giant in the banking industry and is simply called Umpqua Bank. It was through Milt’s leadership that the bank grew so successfully from a small start in Myrtle Creek.

Peterson described a pair of worn work gloves Milt always carried in his back pocket as a symbol of how humble he was. On one occasion, Peterson said he was driving around in the woods with Milt when the timber icon stopped his pickup truck, got out and scooped up trash someone had left there.

Milt purchased the Rocket Lumber Company in Riddle and in 1962 moved his Canyonville mill operation there where it remains today. The company is now under the direction of Milt’s son, Lynn, but Milt still maintains an office at the mill and frequents it for no other reason, Peterson said, than for the sweet smell of sawdust.

This is more than a story about a man. It is a story about a solid rock people who made this county what it is and the industry that made Douglas County the timber capital of the world. It should be required reading in our schools in these uncertain times.

(Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470) 

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