"Well done, Miss Peggy, as always," the taller one said as they took their hats from the hat rack by the door. The shortest one said matter-of-factly to Solon, "I recommend the potato soup. Fit for Queen Victoria's table. Yes Sir, try the soup."
Miss Peggy's face turned nearly as red as her hair. "Mr. Silas, you do go on. Now you all get back to work," she responded. "Nice having customers with money to spread around this place. I had four new mechanics for Eastman-Gardiner from Milwaukee in just yesterday."
"Yes Ma'am, George here says we're nearly back to full operation," Silas Gardiner said.
George S. Gardiner joined in the exchange. "Yes, Miss Peggy, we are doing just fine. Most all the men are all back to work and we're recruiting up in Iowa and even out in Washington as well as elsewhere. Silas here has been on the road most of the fall with father talking to potential workers one day and investors the next," George S. Gardiner said as he led the three towards the door, he patted his brother's back and gave him a brother's teasing smile. Lauren Eastmen, the third diner and silent one, laughed out loud at the two's interaction.
"Fine gentlemen, those three," Miss Peggy said as she motioned Solon to a table along the wall. As she walked by the vacated table of the three who had just left she picked up a neat stack of two-bit pieces.
"Here we are, Hon, will this suit?" the gregarious hostess said as she paused at a small two person table neatly laid out with good dishes and utensils on a gingham table cloth. "Coffee, then?" she asked.
"Yes Ma'am, coffee is fine," Solon answered.
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"The first earnings from their mill went to the Mayor and city for a new schoolhouse. $600 it was," Peggy was regaling Solon about the good civil standing of the Gardiner brothers as he finished his meal.
Solon had ordered the soup and enjoyed it mightily. After two more helpings and more coffee, he sat satisfied and warm. His hostess had given him a bit of local history each time she brought Solon more soup and coffee.
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A family from Clinton, Iowa, two brothers, George S. and Silas W. Gardiner, and their brother-in-law, Lauren C. Eastman established Eastman - Gardiner and Company, in 1891. Lauren, vice-president, worked back in Clinton and throughout the mid-west and northeast securing financing. He also made contacts for sale of the long-leaf yellow pine lumber. Silas was treasurer. George, a president was in charge of the operators, supervising the set up and production of a huge modern lumber mill business that would produce 300,000 board feet of lumber a day. They'd recruited a whole crew of millwrights from other timber areas of the country to execute the plans for the mill. Folks from all over south and central Mississippi, west Florida and southwest Alabama had also been attracted by the mill jobs.