Robert Sutherland, Founder:. In my grandfather, also named Robert Sutherland, died and left a small sum of life insurance to my father. My mother had some money given to her by her father, matching my father's inheritance. With that they formed a fifty-fifty partnership and built a lumberyard in Durant, Oklahoma. They sold materials for house patterns, or blueprints as we call them today. World War I had just begun to involve the United States.
Commodities were in great demand to support the war effort. The developing farming communities in Southeast Oklahoma were prospering because the prices of cotton and food crops were stimulated by the war.
New land after the Oklahoma land rush was being claimed for farms. Oklahoma had been backward in a depressed situation, but was catching up with the rest of the country. It had only been a state for eleven years, but was coming forward fast, and they were ready to take on the business that followed. Around a big oil field was discovered very near to the town of Ada. This was the first big find in this area because most oil had been previously produced in Pennsylvania. The people in the Company and my parents knew nothing about oil fields, oil rigs, or oil boomtowns.
It was all very new, but they quickly became aware of the tremendous increase in Ada's business and the profits from the yard in Ada, Oklahoma.
Soon they learned about rig timbers, cement by the trainload, corrugated iron by the carload, and many items they had never dreamed of in the house pattern yards they had formerly operated. The Oklahoma oil boom was on. And so for the next nine years their business concentrated on operating lumber yards near newly discovered and developing oil fields. They built their new lumberyards where the oil industry was just starting, and at the same time closing old yards where the oil field had petered out.
The number of companies drilling the wells and developing the fields was limited. There were probably ten to fifteen principal oil producers, and they were all potential customers for us.
My father spent his time cultivating these few customers, and because of that, knew them well. He built new yards wherever they were opening new fields. Oil was soon discovered in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico. Once these fields developed, everyone moved to the new discovery: Barbers, police forces, paving contractors, roustabouts, drillers, lease brokers, tool dressers, restaurants, flop houses, and prostitutes, as well as lumber yards, all moved in a body to the new "find".
The people in the little sleepy towns where oil was suddenly discovered didn't know what had hit them. By the time they woke up, the field had been developed and the wild people had gone on to the next field.
It was a crazy time, a fascinating time, and never to be duplicated. Two things brought it to a halt. First, laws were passed which limited the amount of oil that could be taken from each well per month. Second, the great depression lowered oil prices to ten cents per barrel.
This took the wild frenzy out of the "snatch, grab and get out" oil business that had been the tune for years. When the limits of the oil field were reached, comparative quiet and inactivity remained as each field had reached its potential. When the oil structure was all drilled out, there was no more business for the oil field yard. I remember my father saying once "We built 23 new yards this year and closed and moved out Also, for the oil fields lumber dealers, their time came to an end when the oil rigs went to steel.
Steel rigs could be used over and over again, which made them much cheaper than wooden rigs. So, in my mother and father were faced with finding a new kind of business.
And it was not easy, because the Great Depression had started. They looked long and hard. Eventually, my father decided that the most stable part of the country would be where food was produced most efficiently.
People had to eat, he reasoned. They could make do with several families to a house; they could make do with the old car; their clothes could be mended, but they had to eat every day. This led him to Iowa. He took the last dollar they had to their name and bought the old Randall Lumber yard in Des Moines. He also owned a acre ranch in the Ozarks, where he hunted, fished, and raised horses to show at the American Royal.
The charitable and impulsive man who also loved a tough, even battle, died from a heart attack in at the age of 57 years. You are here Articles » Biographies. Robert Sutherland. Susan Jezak Ford. House of Robert Sutherland, Courtesy of the Missouri Valley Special Collections.
All returned items must be in new and unused condition, with all original clips and labels attached. We currently operate 49 home improvement stores spread across 13 states. This includes hardwood and softwood lumber, as well as wood chips and wood product preservation. The U. Lumber Coalition states there are lumber manufacturing facilities in the country. Wood products prices typically fluctuate more than most goods, because homebuilding can move up or down much faster than sawmill capacity can.
Lumber and plywood prices are so high now because of the short-run dynamics of demand and supply. Wood demand shot up in the summer of pandemic. Home prices are soaring , pushed higher by a combination of record-low mortgage rates, strong demand from buyers and a lingering lack of new construction.
In , a new factor put pressure on home prices: Month after month, lumber prices jumped to new highs. Home Goods Return Policy If a customer is dissatisfied with a purchase, it may be returned to HomeGoods within 30 days , along with the register receipt. If 30 days have elapsed, or merchandise is eligible for return but is returned without a receipt, the customer may still receive store credit.
Paint Return Policy: If you are not satisfied with the color of your paint purchase, please bring your paint back to the store within 30 days of purchase. We will make it right by correcting your paint color or re-tinting a comparable can of paint. All non-warranty repairs performed will be at the customer's expense. Dulux Decorator Centre on Twitter: "If it is mixed in store then unfortunately it cannot be returned or exchanged. Liberty Hill's location is the latest in a chain of stores McCoy's operates — primarily across the state of Texas, in which there are currently 94 — with additional storefronts in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Mississippi.
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