James G. McNary was quite an interesting person. He was a banker in ElPaso, TX who got involved with William Cady of Louisiana in the lumber business. Cady was already a large stockholder and the corporate secretary of the Higgins Lumber Co. of New Orleans. They started the Cady Lumber Co. of McNary, and for a time, the combined output of the two mills made the entire complex either the second or third largest sawmill complex in the south. They also pioneered in the gravel business starting the Cady Gravel Company in the same area.
At the pace they were cutting timber, though, the mills would soon run out of timber, so in 1917 Cady attempted to negotiate with the Gould interests for some of the timberlands associated with the New Orleans Pacific RR land grants. The negotiations stalled when one of the Gould's asked Cady to match an offer made on another part of the Gould's lands, after he and Cady had already agreed on a price. Cady refused to pay the additional sum and the deal fell through. The Crowell family of Long Leaf (just up the railroad from McNary, did make the deal, thus cutting Cady out of the timber that the company needed to stay in business in Louisiana.
In 1925, having cut out in Louisiana, Cady and McNary bought the Apache Lumber Co. in Arizona, and renamed its mill town of Cooley, to McNary. Thus giving Mr. McNary the unique distinction of having towns in Louisiana, Texas and Arizona named for him during his lifetime. McNary and Cady realized that the shortage of skilled labor would be a factor in the growth of the new Cady Lumber company of Arizona, and decided to bring as many of their workers as would move to Arizona from Louisiana. They virtually dismantled and de-populated the town of McNary, Louisiana and moved the town and its inhabitants on special trains to McNary, AZ. A few years later, Mr. Cady had some financial reversals which put the Cady Lumber Co. also in financial peril, and Mr. McNary rescued the company and continued its growth, and the evolution to Southwest Lumber mills.
McNary was also an official with the US treasury department as well as a private business man.
McNary published an autobiography in 1956 entitled "The Story of a Life" and it makes interesting reading.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2016 10:59AM by Everett Lueck.
