1876 was a year of celebration for the United States. The 100 years of survival and growth were commemorated by a Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia.

That same year 29-year-old Scottish -American inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, and Professor Elisha Gray patented independently and by coincidence on the same day the American telephone.

Colorado was admitted at the 38th state, Mark Twain published his novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," and General Custer was defeated at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

It was in that same year, 1876, that a Chicago businessman, M.T. Green, owner of the Chicago Lumber Company headquartered in that city, plus several lumber yards in Missouri and Nebraska, sent his brother-in-law and friend to Omaha to open a new lumber yard at 7th and Douglas.
 

The names appearing in the company's earliest ledgers, however, are impressive as they include many men prominent in the city's early growth: John A. Creighton, W.A. Paxton, A.J. Poppleton, Byron Reed, Benjamin Ittner, Ezra Millard and many others.

By 1881, the firm had many branch yards throughout the state and carried up to 20 million feet of lumber in its Omaha location.

Although Chicago Lumber Company once dealt almost exclusively with the sale of lumber, today approximately 70% of its business is devoted to the many other building products. Besides a large retail and wholesale operation at its main location at 14th and Pierce Streets in Omaha, the company also owns and operates 10 other lumber yards and building centers throughout Nebraska and Wyoming.

In recent times, new store locations and a millwork center have been added to further expand the business horizons of the company. All former locations have been remodeled and remerchandised to better promote our products and services. As technology is an important element in today's environment, we have progressed with the installation of computer systems, fax machines and the internet, all with the objective of better serving the needs of our customers.

All of this makes The Chicago Lumber Company the oldest and one of the largest lumber companies with headquarters in Nebraska, unafraid to seize opportunities in today's fast-moving economy...much as our predecessors more than 100 years ago.

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