lumberman, b. Industry, Me. He operated a sawmill for several years in Maine, and in 1851 moved to Allegany County, N.Y. where he engaged in the lumber business until 1855. Shaw first visited Wisconsin in 1855 prospecting for a new site for his lumbering activities, and in 1856 moved permanently to Eau Claire. There, in 1858, he organized a lumbermilling company known as Daniel Shaw and Co., and the firm grew rapidly, eventually acquiring thousands of acres of virgin timber in the Chippewa River valley. In 1874 the Shaw lumbermill at Eau Claire was rebuilt after a disastrous fire and the company was incorporated as the Daniel Shaw Lumber Co. Although the firm remained essentially a family operation, for a time it was one of the most important companies in the Chippewa Valley, and for many years operated its own farms, flour mills, tow boats, and general stores throughout the area. On Daniel Shaw's death in 1881, his son, EUGENE SHAW, b. Maine, assumed management of the firm, and the major portion of the corporation's stock was divided between Eugene, his brother, George B. Shaw (q.v.) and Daniel Shaw's widow. Eugene Shaw remained in active management of the lumber company until his death in 1912, and during the 1890's began increasingly to utilize the railroads and other modern innovations in the industry to enable the Daniel Shaw Lumber Co. to maintain an annual cut of over 20 million board feet. Since the company was essentially a family firm little attempt was made to move its operations westward following the exhaustion of the timber supply in the 1900's, and when Eugene Shaw died in 1912 the company was dissolved. A. R. Reynolds, The Daniel Shaw Lumber Co. (New York, 1957); E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); R. F. Fries, Empire in Pine (Madison, 1951); WPA field notesLearn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
