Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan Record Pub. Co., Chicago - 1895 Page 118 E GOLDEN FILER. As a representative of a well known pioneer family of Manistee County, Mr. Filer has added luster to the honored name he bears. Throughout this section of the state he is regarded with the highest confi- dence as a business man of good judgment and unimpeachible integrity, and the events of his life will therefore possess more than ordinary in- terest for our readers. He is the son of the late Delos L. Filer, whose biographical sketch precedes this. The birth of our subject occurred in New York State, December 4, 1841. At eight years of age he accompanied the other members of the family to Racine, Wis., and was a student in the public schools of that city until fourteen years of age, when he came to Manistee with his parents. For two or three years he worked in the mill and store of E. & J. Canfield, by whom his father was em- ployed as bookkeeper. For a considerable period he was also employed in the woods, at a salary of $16 per month. In 1858 he entered college at Racine, remaining two years. Afterward he spent one year as a law student in the office of T.J. Ramsdell, of Manistee. When Mr. Ramsdell was elected to the State Legislature Mr. Filer accompanied him to Lansing, receiving an appointment as clerk in the Auditor- General's office, under Hon. L.G. Berry. Being under twenty-one, the politicians objected to him in that position, but he retained it for two years, discharging the duties of the position satisfac- Page 119 Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan torily. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Twentieth Michigan Infantry, which joined the Army of the Potomac after the battle of Antietam. By order of General Burnside our subject was de- tailed to perform duty in the commissary depart- ment of the Ninth Army Corps, and was connected with that department until his discharge. June 28, 1863, Mr. Filer and four hundred Union soldiers were captured by the enemy at Ed- ward's Ferry, and under cavalry excort marched from Sunday morning until Monday afternoon at three, without either rest or food, So exhausting was the journey on the hot summer day that many of the men fell by the wayside, unable to walk further. At the end of the march all were paroled in an open field twenty-two miles from Baltimore. In that city, which Mr. Filer found under martial law, he remained on parole one month and then reported to the Commissary De- partment at Washington for duty. He was ordered to Bealeton Station, Va., where he remained thirty days, and was then transferred to Ft. Foote, Md. After three months he was again ordered to Wash- ington, where he remained one year in the Com- missary Department. During his service in the army, in the fall of 1864, Mr. Filer received word that his mother had died. By furnishing a substitute he was enabled to secure his discharge, after which he returned to Michigan and assisted his father in the large lum- ber business in Manistee. In the fall of 1866, in connection with his father and brother D.W., he commenced the erection of a mill at the head of Manistee Lake, the structure having a capacity of seventy thousand feet of lumber per day. The firm of D.L. Filer & Sons, organized at that time, was composed of Delos L. Filer and his sons, E. Golden and Delos W. In 1868 the father of our subject left his property in charge of his sons and removed to Ludington, in which city he had large interests in the Pere Marquette Lumber Company. Our subject then assumed the entire management of the business at Manistee, which he has continued to control to the present time. With John Can- field, he has been interested in large land purchases in Wisconsin, and with Charles F. Ruggles has made similar purchases in Minnesota. He settled up the immense estate left by his father, and, with the widow and heirs, retains his interests at Lud- ington. The little village surrounding the Filer Mills bears the name of Filer City and is virtually owned by the family. The township in which the city stands also bears the name of Filer. A description of the sawmill and salt block owned by the firm of D.L. Filer & Sons will doubtless be of general interest. The mill stands on the shores of Manistee Lake, and is provided with ample shipping facilities, both by lake and rail. It is fitted up with the latest and most ap- proved machinery, and has a capacity of seventy- five thousand feet of lumber per day. The salt block, with a daily capacity of seven hundred bar- rels of the finest quality of salt, is also equipped with the latest improved machinery, containing admirable features for the economical manufacture of pure salt. The vacuum evaporating pan which is here used is the best system ever tried for salt manufacture. The pan is a pear-shaped steel boiler tapering upwards. It is about nine feet in diam- eter on the inside, and stands on four posts, twenty- six feet high, with an extension sixteen inches in diameter reaching downward toward the ground. To the bottom of this pan the salt falls as it is formed in the boiler above, and is then elevated to large wooden bins, where it stands to drain for six hours before being taken to the storage-room. The brine is first pumped from the wells, which are two thousand feet deep, into one of five set- tling vats, each of which holds about three thou- sand barrels. Here it is heated by steam pipes to one hundred and eighty degrees, and then allowed to stand until the temperature is reduced to one hundred and ten degrees. By this process the im- purities of the brine settle in the bottom as sedi- ment. The brine is then pumped into the boiler, where steam from the exhaust of the sawmill en- gines soon brings it to the boiling point. This is facilitated by the vapor as it is formed being drawn over by pumps into a condenser, where, coming in contact with cold water, it quickly con- denses. A vacuum is thus formed in the pan, and the evaporation is greatly facilitated. The boiler has a capacity of five hundred barrels daily. The Page 120 Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan storage-room has a capacity of fifty thousand bar- rels, and after the salt stands for some weeks it becomes "cured" and is ready for packing and shipping. The Filer Mills have a capacity of seventy-five thousand feet of lumber daily, two hundred thou- sand shingles, lath and headings. In addition they manufacture their own salt barrels, about a hundred thousand annually. Employment is fur- nished to about one hundred and fifty men at the mills and about sixty men in the woods, and the industry is among the most important in this part of the state. Five hundred and fifty barrels of salt are manufactured daily (working eighteen hours) or about one hundred thousand barrels in a season, the products being handled by the Michigan Salt Company. The firm, in addition to other in- terests, owns timber in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and on the Santee River in South Carolina, and they are the owners of the sailing-vessel "Lucia A. Simpson." The success which has been gained by the enter- prises above named is largely due to the ability and energy of the subject of this sketch. Inherit- ing his father's remarkable business ability, he has constantly added to his possessions and increased his business interests, until he is now one of the wealthy men of Northern Michigan. In the devel- opment of the resources of this locality he has materially assisted, and to him not a little of its progress and prosperity may justly be attributed. In December, 1865, Mr. Filer was united in mar- riage with Miss Julia A. Filer of Racine, Wis., and they now make their home in Filer City. ===========================================================================