Файл:Loggers with Fordson tractor, Simpson Logging Company, probably Mason County, ca 1923 (KINSEY 1703).jpeg

PH Coll 516.4023
Sol G. Simpson and his family moved to Mason County in 1887, where Simpson worked laying ties and rails for the Port Blakely Mill Company's logging railroad. He formed S. G. Simpson Company in Matlock in 1890. Three of Simpson's brothers joined him in Mason County, and two of them worked for him. Simpson Logging Company opened its first sawmill, the Reed Mill, at Shelton in 1925. Numerous other mills and logging operations along the West Coast have been acquired by Simpson over the years. [Source: James, David. Grisdale: Last of the Logging Camp. Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1986.]

Fordson was Henry Ford’s answer to help small farmers find a reliable, cheap tractor. For the entire ten-years of its production Fordson was the number one selling tractor in America. Counting production by all manufacturers in the US, 133,000 tractors were built in 1918, of those, Ford and Son Tractor Company sold 34,167 of them. By 1923 Fordson had captured 77% of the market with more than 100,000 tractors sold. During the 1920s fierce competition between Fordson and IHC continued. At times in this battle the Fordson was sold for less than the cost of production. Fordson production in the United States ended in 1928.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Fordson tractors; Slash (Logging)--Washington (State)--Mason County
• Subjects (LCSH): Loggers; Logs; Forests--Washington (State); Tractors--Washington (State); Simpson Logging Company--People--Washington (State); Simpson Logging Company--Equipment & supplies--Washington (State); Mason County (Wash.)