Schafer Brothers Logging Company got its start in 1893 when brothers Peter, Albert and Hubert Schafer began logging on the family homestead 6 miles upstream from the mouth of the Satsop. The companies first donkey engine was purchased from Washington Iron Works. Hurbert went to work at the factory to learn how donkey engines were made and also to have all of his wages except for living expenses applied toward the cost of that first donkey engine. In 1913, they bought a 45-ton Heisler locomotive and laid tracks into the woods from Brady to usher in their railroad logging era. A shingle mill was purchased in Montesano in 1919, the first of many manufacturing plants the company would own through Grays Harbor County. Simpson Timber Company purchased Schafer Brothers Logging Company in 1955.
