24. Gerber’s Tannery

Water Street looking south from South Street, Douglas

Tanning leather was one of the first industries to be established here in the mid-1800s. The abundance of hemlock trees meant that hemlock bark, necessary for tanning leather, was easy to obtain. Many of the raw cow hides were shipped in from the Chicago stock yards. It was an foul-smelling business.

Daniel Gerber was an early Douglas entrepreneurs who invested in leather tanning, fruit farming, basket making and real estate. He purchased a tannery established by the Wade family at Tannery Creek in 1864, enlarged it and processed hides until he sold the business in 1871 to the Wallin family, who operated another tannery at Dingleville.

By the 1880s, the last of the easy-to-harvest hemlock trees were gone and the tanneries closed.