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greetings from finland!
I was directed to your forum via winchesters customer service so I guess there is a whole lotta knowledge=)
i was given my great grandfathers m12 from 1914 in cal 16. I’m planning on writing an article for swedish and finnish magazines and wonder what a winchester m12 would have cost in 1914? what did you earn as a lumberjack in california?
Hello Kristan,
The listed price in the catalog was $30.00. I have No idea what the wages were for a lumberjack in California at that time, but I suspect it was more than the cost of a brand new Model 1912 shotgun.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Figure about 30 cents per hour so 100 hours to pay for a Model 12.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
1873man said
Figure about 30 cents per hour so 100 hours to pay for a Model 12.Bob
Men who’s chief skill was pushing one end of a crosscut saw (of course there’s a LOT more skill to lumberjacking than that) were probably at the lower end of the contemporary wage scale, but 30 cents still seems low. In 1914, Henry Ford made news by doubling his average wage from $2.34 to $5/hr. So if the average wage of automotive workers was $2.34, you’d think anyone making 30 cents would be saving his money for a train ticket east.
The $5.00 wage paid by Ford was for a days work. My grandfather was a logger in northern Maine after serving in WW I. The men stayed in a woods camp for months at a time. He was paid $1.00 to $1.50 a day, and the Company deducted room and board from that.
When I was in high school, my first job paid $3.15 per hour. And that was in 1987. My dad worked at a feed mill in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s and made $1.10 per hour. So 30 cents an hour a hundred years ago sounds about right.
Don
dane62 said
The $5.00 wage paid by Ford was for a days work. My grandfather was a logger in northern Maine after serving in WW I. The men stayed in a woods camp for months at a time. He was paid $1.00 to $1.50 a day, and the Company deducted room and board from that.
My mistake! Deducting room & board for workers with no other choice of a place to eat & sleep is about as bad an example of worker-exploitation as I’ve ever heard.
clarence said
My mistake! Deducting room & board for workers with no other choice of a place to eat & sleep is about as bad an example of worker-exploitation as I’ve ever heard.
According to the stories from My Grandfather, in the warmer weather He and his brother would build a tar-papered shack to stay in and do their own cooking. In the winter They would stay in the company bunkhouses.
This is where I got the 30 cents from. It might not be for the exact year but I figure it would be close.
Wages & Hours of Labor 1907 to 1913
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
I’m getting older now, but I remember my pay was 90 cents an hour delivering medicine in 1959. When I needed to buy some 22’s, I went to the wholesale house and bought a box of the cheapest stuff they had. I had a M1890 in 22 long, and the longs were expensive, so I hand fed 22 Long Rifles into that M1890. Big Larry
Big Larry said
I’m getting older now, but I remember my pay was 90 cents an hour delivering medicine in 1959.
Started working for my father’s construction company in the summer about that same year, and was paid $1/hr. Probably good money for a high-school kid, BUT the regular “hands” were paid exactly the same! Only foremen got more.
I’d gladly have taken a 10 cent pay cut to change that job (out in the sun all day in 95 degree weather!) for delivering meds!
deerhunter said
When I was in high school, my first job paid $3.15 per hour. And that was in 1987. My dad worked at a feed mill in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s and made $1.10 per hour. So 30 cents an hour a hundred years ago sounds about right.Don
Are you sure about that? I remember getting paid $3.50 an hour in 1987 and I thought that was pretty good as I was starting at (13 cents) more than minimum wage. I am fairly certain minimum wage in 1987 was $3.37 an hour.
My father-in-law worked in a Upper Michigan lumber camp as a logger during the Depression for room and board and $18.00 a week (60 hrs). $.30 a hour. He said the first morning for breakfast they had pancakes and everyone was putting what looked like hot maple syrup in a pitcher on them. He did the same and discovered it was bacon grease, by the end of the first week he did the same and liked it. No power saws and no trouble sleeping at night. T/R
Thanks for the reply guys!
seems like 0.30cent/hour would be quite accurate.
I smiled a bit when I read about the bacon grease, our family has some stories of my great grandfather eating bacon grease straight of the pan and smearing it on bread in stead of butter (thhis is not common here) I guess it was something he picked up in loggercamps when “overthere”.
I know he was logging redwoods, could have been stationed otherwhere aswell. he was 12 years in the states starting from about 1915 and Another 7 years starting from the late 1930’s. going to see my grandmother on sunday so hopefully get some more info
[email protected] said
I smiled a bit when I read about the bacon grease, our family has some stories of my great grandfather eating bacon grease straight of the pan and smearing it on bread in stead of butter (thhis is not common here) I guess it was something he picked up in loggercamps when “overthere”.
Not only logging camps. Look up the definition of “scrapple,” if you don’t know what it is. I tried it–once; one of the reasons I’m taking Lipitor now.
mrcvs said
Are you sure about that? I remember getting paid $3.50 an hour in 1987 and I thought that was pretty good as I was starting at (13 cents) more than minimum wage. I am fairly certain minimum wage in 1987 was $3.37 an hour.
You’re right, I was actually making the same $3.50 an hour as you back then.
Don
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