By Steve Lent, Historian

Junior Fred Daggett, commonly known as J. F., Daggett was born in Berkeley, California on Dec. 30, 1890. He attended schools in that vicinity. He began working in the lumber industry and became manager of the Klamath Falls Timber and Ewana Box Co. He served there until 1937. He married Orpha Schallock. She was born in 1891. They had one daughter.

The Alexander-Yawkey Lumber Company acquired large tracts of timber land north of Prineville in the late 1910’s but did not begin any operations in Central Oregon until 1937. Most of their timber holdings in the mid-west had been logged and they were ready to begin operations on their Oregon timber land. J.F. Daggett was hired as a vice president and general manager for their mill operations in Central Oregon.

He managed the operations that began with small mills located at logging sites in the woods and then the lumber was trucked to a finishing plant in Prineville. In 1940 it was determined that the model of milling lumber in the woods was not the most economical. Daggett oversaw the construction of a new large mill located just north of Prineville. The mill later burned down but was rebuilt.

J.F. was active in local organizations and was a well-respected member of the community. He was a board member of the Oregon State Department of Forestry, the Eastern Oregon Lumber Survey Group, and the Western Pine Association. He built a substantial home on the “Heights” on the north side of Prineville not far from the mill site.

The Alexander-Yawkey Lumber Company was sold in 1951 and became known as Alexander-Stewart Lumber Company. J.F. retired from the company at that time. In 1951 he began a partnership with other local lumbermen and established the Midstate Manufacturing Company. He served as president of the company which was a short lived operation. He died on Jan. 23, 1960 in Prineville. Orpha lived on for several years and died on May 24, 1972. They are both buried in Juniper Haven Cemetery in Prineville.