When Nels Simonson, grandfather of Richard Hobbs, owner of Simonson Lumber Companies, was 8 years old in the 1800s, his family moved across the world from Denmark to St. Paul.
Nels' father worked on the railroad and when Nels was a child he went to work in the railroad house. The Simonsons' house was heated by gas and one day, while Nels was not at home, there was an explosion. His whole family was killed, and he was left as an orphan at the age of 15.
Hobbs shared his family's history of how Simonson Lumber Company started and how it got to where it is today - with six locations in Minnesota in the cities of Baxter, Crosslake, Little Falls, St. Cloud, Hutchinson and Alexandria.
Hobbs said after the explosion, Nels got on a train and headed to a farm in northwestern Minnesota, looking for work. Nels started helping out on the farm; and he also was a stagecoach driver for carrying mail, passengers; and he traded hides, farm produce and other items.
With a horse-drawn wagon, a pile of logs, a shed and few acres of land - Nels incorporated the town as Dresser Junction, Wis., and started a sawmill, the Simonson Lumber website states. Dresser is near St. Croix Falls, Wis.
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Nels used a few friends to help him in the day-to-day running of the mill. They started at sunup with the cutting and moving of the logs, next came the debarking and then the actual sawing of the lumber. It didn't take Nels long to figure out a better way to keep track of sizes and quantities. He built a lumber barn. He had shelf areas along both walls and a driveway/walkway down the middle.This was a more efficient way to organize his business.
Nels decided that instead of just selling to lumber distributions, he would become a distributor. So his business evolved from a sawmill to lumber yard in 1913. He moved the lumber business to St. Croix Falls, thus the creation of Simonson Lumber Companies.
The lumber business boomed and more companies were started. A company in St. Cloud was started in 1927 because of the railroad. Hobbs said his grandfather leased the St. Cloud property with a handshake from the time he moved his business there until 1980, when Simonson's purchased the land outright.
Frank and Elizabeth Hobbs passed on the business to their three sons, including Richard Hobbs. Hobbs said his grandfather's work ethic and the way he treated people carried down through the generations. Hobbs said in the earlier days his grandfather sent a woman $100 to cover the price of a horse he rented from her to do a job. He said the horse died when a tree fell on it. Nels sent the money to the woman as a horse was important to a family's income back then and it was the right thing to do. Hobbs said he also would send the widows of his employees coal to help them out.
"My grandfather believed in treating his people well," said Hobbs, who started in the family business when he was 10. "We continue his legacy in the belief that you need to treat your employees well and then they'll treat our customers well."
Simonson Lumber was located on West Washington Street in Brainerd since January of 1996. The business outgrew its site over the years and moved on August of 2013 to Baxter. The lumber company is located on Independence Road, which is off Timberlane, off Highway 210. It is located in the former Stock Lumber site and shares the building with Brock White.
Brock White is a distributor of construction materials and provides specialized products to concrete and masonry construction markets.
"Brock White moved here and there was plenty of open space," said Hobbs. "They carry largely non-competing products than we, they complement us. There were some concerns at first moving next to Brock White, but it has been very successful. We opened up at 8 a.m. on the first day out here and right away that morning we knew it'd work out. People from Brock White run a great business and are great to work with. Their manager Merry (Rohloff) is wonderful and she works well with our manager."
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Larry Geschwill, the manager of Simonson Lumber, said there are 15 employees in Baxter, 15 in Crosslake, plus temporary workers during the busy season. Hours at the Baxter location are from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Crosslake location is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Fridays and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
There are typically one shift, but this summer they added another shift that works from 4-9 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Baxter property.
Simonson Lumber has increased its business since moving from Brainerd to Baxter. Geschwill said the Baxter site is near the railroad spur so they are able to get their inventory delivered straight to the site.
"This has tripled our inventory," Geschwill said. "Once the railroad comes by drops off its car, which is equivalent to three semi-truck loads, we have three days to unload it.
"It's been busy. We didn't have room for inventory before so we had to get our supplies delivered from the Crosslake location."
Simonson Lumber ships products all over northern Minnesota. They have jobs in Hibbing, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Duluth, Superior, Wis., and also in North Dakota.
Hobbs said they are currently seeking city approval to build a new warehouse on the east of the property this fall to keep up.
"We're not back to where we were (before the housing market crash), but business is much better now than it was," said Hobbs.
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