The Himmelberger family: Turning timber into lumber

The Himmelberger lumber business dates back to 1867 when John "Isaac" Himmelberger started a large sawmill operations near Logansport, Indiana, on the Wabash River. The business was expanded in 1880 to Buffington, Missouri, in Stoddard County. (Mr. Buffington was the owner of the local sawmill.)

Isaac and wife, Catherine Haak, married in Indiana and were the parents of seven children. Son, John Henry, became the bookkeeper and operations manager at the second mill acquired near Morehouse, Missouri. The firm grew into one of the largest hardwood lumber plants in the country.

In 1895, the Himmelberger sawmills joined the Luce family of Ohio, which owned several hundred thousand acres of swamp woodlands in New Madrid County. Together, they formed the Himmelberger-Luce Land and Lumber Co.

In the prime of his life, 60-year-old Isaac Himmelberger was stricken by illness and died at his Logansport home July 16, 1900.

W.H. Harrison in 1902 purchased the Ohio firm creating the Himmelberger-Harrison Lumber Co., with John H. Himmelberger, president.

Himmelberger- Harrison Lumber Co. "Spoke Factory" on Little River. See another photo on page 6C.Photos courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives

Himmelberger- Harrison Lumber Co. "Spoke Factory" on Little River. See another photo on page 6C.Photos courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives

Throughout the vast swampland of Southeast Missouri, the lumber companies turned towering virgin timber into lumber. After clearing the forests, they came upon the realization the land was agriculturally rich with sediment from the flooding of the St. Francis and Mississippi rivers.

Otto Kochtitsky, representing the H-H Lumber Co., promoted the Little River Drainage District to reclaim the Little River swamp, a valley approximately 90 miles long by 20 mules wide. (Little River was named by early French trappers to distinguish it from the big Mississippi River.) Kochtitsky visited all the property owners to get permission by which to develop his plan. A corporation was created in 1907.

The Little River Drainage District encompassed 500,000 acres of land from Cape Girardeau to the Arkansas line. It is said the massive operation moved more dirt than the building the Panama Canal.

In 1889, John H. Himmelberger married Mary A. Kestling at the bride's home in Indiana. Moving to Cape Girardeau in 1901 from Morehouse, they became parents of Harry, Charles, Katherine and John M. They built their 12-room stately home at 700 Bellevue, on the northwest corner of Sprigg and Bellevue.

A five-story, reinforced steel brick building was built in 1907 on the corner of Fountain Streeet and Broadway in Cape Giardeau to become the headquarters of Himmelberger-Harrison Lumber Co., as well as the Little River Drainage District offices.

Isaac Himmelberger (1840-1900) came from Indiana to establish the I. Himmelberger Lumber Co. in 1879 at Buffington, Missouri, in Stoddard County. His son, John Henry Himmelberger, carried on the lumber business.Photos courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives

Isaac Himmelberger (1840-1900) came from Indiana to establish the I. Himmelberger Lumber Co. in 1879 at Buffington, Missouri, in Stoddard County. His son, John Henry Himmelberger, carried on the lumber business.Photos courtesy of Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives

While on a journey from Chicago to Indiana to visit his sister, Lillian Cresmond, John Henry Himmelberger became ill. He later died on Oct. 7, 1930, at Cresmond's summer home. Internment was in the New Lorimier Cemetery Mausoleum conducted by the First Presbyterian Church pastor. Both he and Mary, who died three years later, were active in Cape Girardeau organizations. As president of the library board, she was very active in obtaining the Carnegie Library.

The Himmelberger home passed into the hands of the Louis Hecht family in 1935, when it was razed. The Hechts' Tudor-style home was completed October 1937. It is presently the parsonage of Centenary United Methodist Church.