Woodford Lumber & Home Company - Clear Lake, Iowa's oldest business

Woodford Lumber & Home Company. formerly Woodford-Wheeler Lumber Company is Clear Lake's oldest business. Here's a brief history...

Woodford-Wheeler Lumber Company was founded in the period following the Civil War. It opened its doors for business in 1869, in Clear Lake, eighteen years after the founding of the town and a year before the railroad came to that part of northern Iowa. The business name has changed over the years from Woodford, Wilson and Johnson, then Woodford and Johnston, then Woodford and Wheeler, next Woodford-Wheeler and Tompkins. From 1905 to 2002, Woodford-Wheeler Lumber Company was its title. In 2003 the name changed to Woodford Lumber and Home Company. The lumber and building supplies sold in those first few months were hauled in by wagon and team from Cedar Falls. There was a local lumber mill, however, and a shingle factory. The coming of the railroad and the beginning of the camp meetings started the growth and prosperity of Clear Lake and laid the foundation for its career as a summer resort.

The business is now in the hands of the fifth generation

There have been five generations of the Woodford, Ashland, Connell, Lovell family involved in ownership and management of the business:
     Truman Woodford, a brother of the great-grandfather of the present owner, founded and started the business in 1869. A large and genial man, he was well known around Cerro Gordo, Hancock and Winnebago Counties, lived in Milwaukee, where he did most of the buying but made frequent trips here to look after this lumber yard and the one which he started a year later in Garner, Iowa.
     George G. Woodford, brother of Truman and great-grandfather of the present owner, in 1879, purchased an interest in the business, and came from New York with his wife and 18 year old son, Charles R. Woodford, grandfather of the present owner to live here. Both George G. and Charles R. Woodford began at once to work at the yard and each continued to do so until the end of his life.
     Charles R. Woodford, grandfather of the present owner conducted the affairs of the business from 1890 until his death in 1937. From time to time other lumber yards were acquired. At one time the Woodford-Wheeler chain involved some 12 lumber yards in North Central Iowa. Clear Lake, Ventura, Garner, Britt, Chapin, Goodell, Charles City, Pomeroy, Thornton, Meservey, and Fonda were some of the communities involved.
     Esther Woodford Ashland and her husband, L. Earl Ashland, mother and father of the present owner, took over the ownership and direction of the business in 1937 continuing until her death 47 years later in 1984.
      James F. Connell, husband of the present owner, Marcia Ashland Connell, came to Clear Lake from Iowa City in 1950 to assume management of the business. He served as General Manager of the business for 50 years until 2000 and passed away in 2002. There were 9 lumber yards in the Woodford-Wheeler chain at one point in his tenure.
      Marcia Ashland Connell, the present owner, also assumed an active management role during this time and remains active in management to this date. She became owner after her mothers death in 1984.
     In 1989 the company was merged into the Clear Lake Independent Telephone Company as a separate
operating division and operates today as a separate operating division still known as Woodford-Wheeler Lumber Company. Clear Lake Independent Telephone Company, yet another Iowa Century Business previously owned by the Woodford and Ashland families, is now owned by Marcia Ashland Connell and her daughters Janet Connell Lovell, Susan Connell Magee and Sarah Connell Ohlrogge.
     Although Marcia Ashland Connell, the owner, is still active in management of both the telephone and lumber company businesses and is president of the Clear Lake Independent Telephone Company, general day to day management responsibilities are now being carried out by the owners daughter and son-in-law, Janet Connell Lovell and Thomas A. Lovell.
     The Woodford, Ashland, Connell and Lovell families, the owners, have always taken a leadership role in the Clear Lake community and have been instrumental in their contributions to the growth of Clear Lake and the Iowa community. Helping at an early date to bring telephone and lights and gas to Clear Lake, their contribution of the Woodford Island to the State of Iowa, their contribution of the Woodford-Ashland Lone Tree Area to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation for public use and their contribution of fund drive direction and money to our new Public Library.