FACES OF THE CENTURY--PEOPLE WHO MADE NEWS IN THE 1900S--ALEX POLSON: MILLIONAIRE LUMBERMAN
	There have been thousands of news stories that have appeared in The Vidette over the past 100 years. So, as we celebrate the year 2001, we have decided to run an occasional feature on influential people of Montesano and Grays Harbor County who made a name for themselves during the past 100 years.
	A farm lad, born in Nova Scotia, who, answering the call of the west, became a cow puncher and logger, died in Hoquiam on Sept. 8, 1939, with a record of industrial and civic leadership few have equaled in this state.
	He was Alex Polson, who had become the president of the largest logging firm in the world, and who had served this county as state senator and his city and community in many other public capacities. He was 86 years old, and had lived in this county for 57 years.
	He left his homeland in 1876, when he was 23 years old. Rumored to suffer from asthma, he traveled west to Deadwood, South Dakota, and later to Nevada and Arizona, dabbling unsuccessfully in gold mining and working as a lumber broker.
	In 1879 he came to Goldendale, in Washington Territory, making the 1,500 mile long trip on horseback, and took a job getting out logs for construction of the Northern Pacific Railway from the Columbia River to Montana.
	In the winter of 1880 Alex Polson went to Olympia, where he worked for 18 months in the woods for Amos Brown. A horseback exploring trip to Grays Harbor finally stopped him in Montesano, where he lived long enough to become a charter member of the Montesano Masonic Lodge. He was sent by Brown to Shoalwater Bay, on Willapa Harbor where he built the first splash dam in Pacific County.
	Splash dams were built on smaller rivers to hold back water and logs, which then would sweep down river when the dam gates were opened.
	He took up residence in Hoquiam in 1882, and by 1886 was working as county assessor, and from 1884 to 1886 was the first assessor for the City of Hoquiam.
	His brother Robert Polson arrived on Grays Harbor in 1887, directly from Nova Scotia rather than the more roundabout route his brother had taken. In 1891 the brothers combined operations as the Polson Brothers Logging Company, the name changed to Polson Logging Company in 1903. Robert Polson was manager of operations under both names.
	On February 18, 1891, Alex Polson married Miss Ella Arnold, a native of Iowa and graduate of Iowa College at Des Moines.
	The Polson Company logged on the Middle and West Forks of the Hoquiam River, and up through Neilton, and Quinault.
	In September, 1902, as often happened in those early days, a slash burn near the Decker settlement in the Satsop watershed got away and swept swiftly across the Wynooche Valley, all forks of the Wishkah and Hoquiam Rivers and played out in the Humptulips, Chenois, Grass Creek and North Bay watersheds. The Polsons consolidated with Merrill and Ring, who owned much of the burned over land, and spent the next 5 years logging out the fire damaged timber.
	Both Alex and Robert Polson were interested in sawmilling and shingle-cutting. At the peak of their operations, the Polson Company owned and operated two tidewater sawmills, a shingle company, twelve logging and construction camps, 100 miles of logging railroad, a huge quantity of logging equipment, and boasted an annual output of 300 million feet of logs.
	Alex Polson served as state senator from 1907 to 1911, and was a strong worker for prohibition. He was largely instrumental in obtaining an investigation of corruption in various state departments during the administration of Governor Hay, and worked for increased compensation for widows of workmen killed in the woods. Under Governor Hart, he became a member of the state tax commission, which planned the present state capitol.
	He was the last of the generation of Polsons who did so much to develop this county and state. William Polson's ranch, just east of Montesano, was a showplace in this area.
	Mrs. Ella Polson, his wife, survived him, as did three children, Mrs. Howard Simons, of Evanston, Illinois, and sons Arnold and Stuart, who were active in the industry their father started.
	Other surviving relatives were three nephews, Alex M. Polson, Hoquiam, Borden Polson, Los Angeles, and Robert A. Polson, Ithaca, N.Y.; two nieces, Mrs. Emory Hess and Miss Lillian Polson, both of Montesano; a sister-in-law, Mrs. Margaret Polson, Montesano; three granddaughters and two grandsons.
	This article was compiled from the Sept. 14, 1939 Vidette, a magazine article by Wm. J. Betts entitled "Alex Polson - From Gold Miner to Millionaire Lumberman," and the book, they tried to cut it all, by Edwin Van Sycle.--The Vidette, March 29, 2001