George E. Tomlinson, Lumberman

George Edward Tomlinson (1873−1953) came to Kentucky from Michigan and made a name for him­self in Winchester.  He proved his busi­ness acu­men in the lum­ber indus­try, start­ing a com­pa­ny that still car­ries on today.  Tomlinson also took a major role in the civic life of the city. 

Born in Bay City, Michigan, George Tomlinson grew up in the lum­ber busi­ness.  His father was a lum­ber man­u­fac­tur­er, and his broth­er, W. H. Tomlinson, ran his own lum­ber com­pa­ny, W. H. Tomlinson & Company.  When George came to Kentucky at the age of 17, he already had four years of expe­ri­ence oper­at­ing a band­saw.  He found ready employ­ment on the band­saws at the Asher Lumber Company at Ford.  They changed their name to Burt and Brabb Lumber Company in 1896 after being acquired by two Michigan natives, Wellington R. Burt and Marvil I. Brabb, who helped turn Ford into a major indus­tri­al center.

In 1900 Tomlinson found­ed the Reliance Manufacturing Company in part­ner­ship with George Hon.  Their mill at Bowen in Powell County pro­duced spe­cial­ty mill­work.  They moved the busi­ness to Winchester in 1901 and locat­ed on a sid­ing of the C&O Railroad near the freight depot and extend­ing all the way to Winn Avenue. 

After the fac­to­ry and lum­ber­yard burned in 1902—a $40,000 loss—Tomlinson rebuilt on a larg­er scale than before.  Reliance pro­duced raw lum­ber and fine inte­ri­or fin­ish­ings as well as shin­gles and bar­rels.  They had a large busi­ness sell­ing a line of spe­cial­ty build­ing mate­ri­als to mar­kets in Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.  In 1909 Tomlinson was elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Kentucky Retail Lumber Dealers Association. 

In 1910 Tomlinson sold his Winn Avenue mill to McCormick Lumber Company and incor­po­rat­ed on his own as the Tomlinson Company.  He erect­ed a new plant on Magnolia Street that focused on the pro­duc­tion of tobac­co hogsheads.  To improve man­u­fac­tur­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, he invent­ed an auto­mat­ic join­t­er, a machine for pro­duc­ing bar­rel staves for his hogsheads.  He was soon mak­ing 100,000 hogsheads annually.

Tomlinson’s inven­tive mind led to a num­ber of oth­er inven­tions.  A search turned up six U.S. patents issued in his name.  The most famous was for the Tomlinson Takedown Table.  These were pop­u­lar for ban­quet halls, where they could be quick­ly assem­bled or tak­en down for stor­age, as need­ed.  He expand­ed the Magnolia Street plant to pro­duce take­down tables.  In 1925 he secured a large order for his tables from the new Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. 

Tomlinson was a direc­tor of the Clark County National Bank before serv­ing as pres­i­dent of Winchester Bank for 20 years.  He served for many years as pres­i­dent of the Winchester Commercial Club.  During the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, in his capac­i­ty with the Commercial Club, Tomlinson inau­gu­rat­ed a “Winchester Day” and gave an exhib­it of Blue Grass his­to­ry, soil, cli­mate, pro­duc­tions and advan­tages in edu­ca­tion­al, reli­gious, social, aes­thet­i­cal and oth­er lines.  He served sev­en years on the Conference Board of Education of Kentucky, was a mem­ber of the Board of Directors of Wesleyan College, and was promi­nent in the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, where he was chair­man of the Board of Stewards, super­in­ten­dent of the Sunday school, and chair­man of the build­ing com­mit­tee in charge of erect­ing their $100,000 church on South Main Street.  He report­ed­ly owned the third auto­mo­bile in Clark County.

Tomlinson was elect­ed Winchester’s ninth may­or in 1922.  During his term, Winchester adopt­ed the com­mis­sion form of government. 

In 1896 Tomlinson mar­ried Maude Derickson of Powell County, a daugh­ter of Thomas Derickson, a lead­ing attor­ney of Stanton.  Maude enter­tained reg­u­lar­ly; her par­ties were often fea­tured in the Winchester Sun soci­ety col­umn.  She and her hus­band had two chil­dren:  a son Orlin who asso­ci­at­ed with his father in busi­ness, and a daugh­ter Laura.  George and Maude are buried in Winchester Cemetery. 

Following Tomlinson’s death, his grand­son, Gene Freeman, took over the com­pa­ny and expand­ed the busi­ness.  The com­pa­ny is still in oper­a­tion as the Freeman Corporation, which spe­cial­ized in wood veneer production.