Wanna see something kinda cool?

I was sniffing around in our St. Paul Archives room with Tom Rasmussen last fall and came across a family tree, printed in 1948 and hand-updated until 1953. Now, at first glance, you might say to yourself, "Wow! By 1953, the family only had some 60 people in it. How'd we get to over 500 in the next 75 years?" You'd be right that our numbers have exploded. But a quick inspection of this family tree reveals several things - mostly about the era when this was produced:

1. Wives of blood relatives are not listed, though husbands of relatives are. Where are the ladies??

2. Where a male worked in a family-related business, this is listed (esp. in 2nd and 3rd generations)

3. It's not clear who produced this, but they certainly had a traditional drafting background! Likely it was commissioned through one of the entities.

4. At the time, J.P, Jr. was Pres. of WY Timber, F.K. ran WY Timber Sales, George Jewett was Pres. of Potlatch, Ed Davis Pres. of Wood Conversion, C.Davis W. ran WY Forestry and Timberlands, Fred W (my grandfather) was Exec VP of Rock Island Millwork and only one 4th generation member worked with the family - Ed Titcomb (Mgr, Rock Island Lumber).

We've come a long way since then. By the 5th generation, much less pressure existed to work "in the business," and by the mid-70's, reunions were far more relaxed and kids were welcomed. We were always family - but with greater numbers came greater diversity and we redefined ourselves when Rock Island was conceived.

I'd say a great deal of gratitude is due our cousins of this era who worked hard to keep us united; who had the foresight to expand the family office past the functions of business; who could likely never have imagined what the family would look like 75 years later and the role the Rock Island Company name would play after "Lumber" was removed from the name. And every time my eyes travel around our now-enormous printed tree, I discover new cousin connections. See you in Glen Cove!

1948 Family Tree (with annotations until 1953)