Garren Wellington
(1880-1951)

Garren Wellington grew up in posturing contrasts; on the one hand following his father in the timber business, from this he learned drive, yet on the other hand Garren was the "prize child" that Lannan and Irma always wanted and thus Garren was tutored and stressed on education and higher society of life. By the time Garren was 17, all this posturing started to take its toll on a young man trying to grow up in the world. Garren initially began his college education at 17 enrolled at the newly founded Stanford University as the founder of the school had many dealings with Lannan Wellington. Garren was fascinated by constitutional law and was an initial member of the law school program which is exactly what his parents wanted him to do, yet in this very structured environment Garren wasnt very happy and after his first year of school the cap blew off when upon one of Garrens return visits home he announced he was leaving school to join the service. This announcement crushed Garrens mother and Garren might nearly have been crushed by Lannan as well; Lannan Wellington stood a solid 6'2 and 240 pounds of Irish temper, yet Garren stood even taller at nearly 6'4 and was determined to stick with his decision though a bit of compromise was reached.
Garren joined the washington state reserve in 1897 and agreed to continue going to school as well; however, in 1898 the reserves were called to duty and Garren was stationed in Manila where he saw action in three battles. Lannan and Irma were fit to be tied with all of this however Garren returned safely in less than a year having more than his fill for action and independence and returned to Stanford shortly after.
Garren completed his law degree in 1905 with a minor in business finance, he was then invited to take advanced studies at Cornell University out east. The Stanford school had been chaired by professors from Cornell and in fact Garren took a vacation seminar at Cornell in the summer of 1904. Somewhere in the visit of 1904 and 1906 Garren met a young Cornell student named Francis Norrine Cauley, Norrine was the youngest daughter of a well to do railways owner on the east coast and for Garren and Norrine it was love at first site; so much so that Garren asked for Norrines hand in marriage during his visit and the two were married in 1906.
Garrens extended stay did cause some riffs at home, Lannan and Irma were not present for their only sons wedding and while Garren got along great with Norrines father Algier Cauley, his extended departure from home caused Lannan to rethink some business decisions.
Garren would later explain this to his mother as consumption of love, and honoring the committment he made to his new wife Norrine in allowing her to finish school, but this would drastically change in 1907 when Lannan Wellington fell ill. Garren returned to the estate with his new bride and helped care for Lannan until November of that year when Lannan passed away.

Here's Norrine Cauley Wellington as a sophomore at Cornell University 1907
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At the ripe age of 27 Garren was set to be head of Wellington Timber but he soon was shocked to find out that his father had made a few changes in his absense; yes Garren would be in charge eventually, but he would have an intern period with which all decisions would have to be approved by Irma, and a guy named Walter "Bull" Krauser, Bull Krauser had been the right hand guy for Lannan for years, nobody knew timber and the mill better than Bull Krauser and Garren would have to prove he was capable of running the business.
This set up was Garrens first real world test and he handled it quite brilliantly. Garren had an excellent resource in his father in law Algier Cauley, Algier had a European education and an east coast business sense that Garren valued. Garren took a white flag mentality with Bull Krauser letting Krauser be the point man for solving labor issues which were a hot topic at that time, Garren in fact made Bull Krauser "the face" of Wellington Timber which played well to his favor.
Finally, Garren was the perfect son to Irma bringing home a proper and very endearing daughter in law to the family in Norrine, by 1909 Irma waived her proxies to Garren and he was in fact now the head man of Wellington Timber. Another nice touch was the announcement that Norrine was pregnant and in 1910 Irma held her first grandchild Liam Trestan Wellington.

Garren's initial moves with the Timber company upon his reign were significant and far reaching.
Garren embarked on a 3 part plan to set the course for the future of the timber company, the first phase was the issue of growth. Lannan had not invested much in regrowth of timber and had lost nearly 60 percent of his timber crop. Garren implemented a replanting operation to replace timber at a pace of 3 to 1 over what had been depleted, but Garren didnt have time to wait for trees to grow, he needed more timber right away, which meant he needed more land. To the west of the Wellington holding was a large mountainous area full of woodland that had been inherited by an absent yet wealthy French emmisary. Garren ended up buying the entire 1800 acre holding at nearly twice its market value however he felt the production would outweigh the cost over time.
Garren was also able to capitalize on part of the soil conservation program in which public grants were given for forest replinishment thus offsetting the land costs.
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Phase two of Garrens plan was the railroad, not so much with building them, but the ability to use them. Garren propositioned his father in law with investing on independent railways in the west and Garren would use these railways exclusively for transport of all his timber. Algier Cauley expanded on this notion buying 3 independent railways that would cover most all the pacific northwest and all the way back to the midwest. Garren would get a generous cut rate shipping price at 30 cents on the dollar based on full shipments and Algier Cauley would receive a 15 percent cut of the profit on each shipment , the agreement would last for a period of 10 years and was very user friendly for Garren however Algier Cauley liked Garrens business savvy and wanted to see him succeed.
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Phase three of Garrens plan was land leasing and captial investment. Garren was able to obtain thousands of acres of new timberland in the north and leased the timber rights, replenished the stock and had both a waterway as well as railways to transport the timber, this once again allowed him to expand the markets for his business without having to bear the cost of the land itself, it also allowed Garren to invest in retooling the timber mill, add a second mill at Wellington and also build a lumber mill northward near the leased acreage.
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Within 5 years time, Garren had better than tripled revenues for the Wellington Timber company, he employed more people than ever before and was the talk of the town.
Garren's education, drive and business savvy had served him well, but he would face his first real crisis soon thereafter.

Here's Norrine at the front study of the Wellington Estate 1923

The next few years would bring difficulty to Garren and Norrine when in 1913 Norrines mother passed away, Norrine miscarried what would be their second child that same year, then in 1914 Irma Wellington passed away followed by the passing of Norrines father Algier in 1915.
Norrines older brother Reinhart inherited the railway lines from his father, Reinhart was not close to his sister or Garren and upon his taking over immediately suspended the previous agreement between Algier and Garren.
Reinhart had some railways of his own and had secured much higher rates for shipping and informed Garren that the new rate would be 80 cents on the dollar, which was still a discount in Reinharts mind. This infuriated Garren and he couldve sued his in law for performance of the contract, but Garren chose not to do this and agreed to Reinharts price, at least for now, yet Reinhart may have been better to have Garren sue him as Garren would take a more tacit approach that would spell disaster for Reinhart Cauley.
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Garren initially harvested heavy timber holding nearby and paid Reinhart for the transport but Garrens biggest customer demands were to the north at this time thus he focused on harvesting the leased land to the north utilizing waterways to transport the timber. The cost difference was marginal but Garrens objective was to bleed the revenue away from Reinhart, in fact Garren had moved over 40 percent of his transport needs within the first year. Garrens next move was an agreement with one of Reinharts competitors with Garren in essence leasing the railway company for additional transport routes, this took another 20 percent away from Reinhart.
Finally in 1917 the United States declared war on Germany and Garren wasted no time securing agreements with the government for timber supply and Garren was now also able to secure timber transport with the government propped Pacific Union Railway at a rate of 50 cents on the dollar based on volume; Garren was not obligated to use any particular amount of Reinharts rail service during the 10 year period, the agreement only applied when Garren needed the transport and Garren no longer needed the transport, gone for Reinhart was the 80 cents price and gone was the 15 percent cut of the profits.
Reinharts greed cost him dearly as he could not secure any significant railway business during this time while Garren was on the verge of monopolizing the entire Pacific west timber industry.
In 1919 World War I ended with the Treaty of Versailles. Garren dominated the timber industry and had turned the tables on his brother in law Reinhart.
Garren later suggested that Reinhart accept an in kind buyout offer from Union Pacific to which Reinhart eventually did, at a rate of 23 cents on the dollar.

Here's a photo of

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