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- unknown newspaper, Thursday, May 30, 1985, pp. 1 & 2
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Harry Schell's sawmill, which was located in Blue River for many years, has a new home -- at the Rock River Thresheree grounds between Edgerton and Janesville.
Thresheree members were in Blue River during the Memorial Day weekend, moving the equipment to its new home.
Mr. Schell died early in 1984 and when the Thresheree organization learned it might have a chance to purchase the old mill, Mrs. Harry (Nina) Schell was recovering from a broken him and was living with her daughter Harriet Stahl in Minneapolis.
After a few phone calls, the club put a contract together through which the Schell family donated the sawmill and the Thresheree purchased the extras such as the Howell planer, cut-off saw, overhead roller line, sawdust drive and big 90 h.p. Waukesha gas engine.
The building on the Thresheree grounds which is now under construction, is to be very similar in size and shape to the one in Blue River that housed the equipment for so many years.
Gerald Peer of Blue River, a lifelong friend of Mr. Schell, supplied the new timbers for the building and is sawing the rough siding which will be used on his farm.
The mill was made by Enterprize and driven either by the Waukesha engine or by a steam engine. The mill is all original with no hydraulics. The thresheree has five sawyers lined up to operate the mill at their annual Labor Day Weekend show at Thresherman's Park on Highway 51 between Janesville and Edgerton. Mr. Schell was no stranger to that show as he attended it many times through the years and took his Case steam engine to the show.
Harry Schell was born close to a sawmill which belonged to his parents, Fred and Dora Schell of Excelsior, and he never got very far away from a mill. By the time he was in the eighth grade he had become such an asset in his father's sawmill that his formal education ended. But he continued to be educated and became an expert in sawmills and their problems. When he was well past 70, Harry remarked, "I learned something new about saws and sawmills every day."
As a boy, Harry made a miniature sawmill that actually sawed wood. For power he used the treadle on his mother's sewing machine.
The Schell sawmill operated wherever there were logs to saw, including Plum Run, Jim Town, Rolling Ground, North Clayton, Malone's Store, Horrigan's, Stiener's, Pigeon Creek, at the head of Knapp's Creek, West Fork, Orion, Highland, Boscobel, Blue River, Woodman and Baraboo.
During the years that Harry was sawing at Baraboo, Steve O'Connor of Excelsior died. He was the only man Harry knew who could hammer saws to keep them running. So Harry had to learn how to do that job himself and eventually he became so successful at it, working hard in the sawmill all day, hammering saws much of the night.
By 1954 Harry realized there were not enough hours in a day to run his sawmill and do the saw repair work for other mills that were flocking to him for help. So he discontinued his own mill and operated Harry R. Schell Sawmill Sales and Supplies.
He traveled throughout the area delivering saw blades and supplies. During the year before he died at the age of 77, he put 60,000 miles n his truck. He worked up until three days before his death on March 27, 1984.
Harry had many chances to sell his saw mill after he discontinued its operation. But when asked about selling it, he would say, "I think now, I want to own a sawmill as long as I live." And he did.
Gerald Peer and Mrs. Stahl posed with some of the mill equipment. Mr. Peer is sawing the rough siding that will go on the mill replica being built by the Thresheree.
