History |
The McMillen Company operated in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from 1858 until 1942.
Robert McMillen (1830-1897) established the company and became one of the best-known lumbermen of Wisconsin. He settled in Oshkosh in 1857 and became a partner with his brother-in-law C.W. Davis and Richard T. Morgan in the Morgan Company. The following year, McMillen and Davis parted ways and established their own shingle mill. In 1868, McMillen purchased the 15 acres of land to relocate his lumberyard, and there he constructed ten large buildings as well as many ancillary buildings. Once the company came into full ownership of Robert McMillen in 1871, he changed its name to the R. McMillen and Co. McMillen purchased hundreds of acres of pine forests in northern Wisconsin. During his later years, McMillen was frequently called upon to give presentations on what Oshkosh was like in the 1850s (Oshkosh Northwestern, 7/23/1897; 6/5/1953).
McMillen continued to operate in the early twentieth century. In 1924, the company produced what may have been its only millwork catalog. The catalog was printed on heavy paper, making it one of the heaviest catalogs although not with the most pages. The company weathered the Depression, and by early 1942 it employed 300 men. That spring, however, the lumberyard closed and allowed the United States Motors Corporation to lease the property for military production (Oshkosh Northwestern, 4/6/1942).
Millwork catalog at archive.org:
1924
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