Knox County had many lumber businesses over the years. One of these was the Reel-Blue Lumber Company, founded in early 1921. Reel-Blue was owned by Ellis Clinton Reel, who served as president and Tyler Gordon Blue, who held the job of secretary-treasurer. Blue was married to Finley Reel, the half-sister of his partner. The business had offices in the LaPlante building on Third Street between Main and Busseron Streets.
Reel, a Vincennes native, had previously had years of experience in the lumber business having held jobs at several different local firms, most notably the William Simpson Lumber Co.
Blue, an accountant, had been a teacher at the Vincennes Business College where he and his wife met.
Reel-Blue didn’t even have a lumber business in Vincennes when the company was established. In late February 1921, they were constructing a lumber yard at Petersburg. That was considered an ideal location, since Pike County’s coal fields were beginning to open and there was extensive building going on as miners drawn to the county for jobs needed housing.
On Feb. 25, 1921, Reel-Blue bought a lumber yard and planing mill on West Main Street in Washington. That business had been in operation for several decades.
Reel-Blue continued its expansion. In early December 1924, a lumber yard in Hazleton was acquired.
Reel-Blue sold lumber and millwork, builder’s hardware and supplies, paint, roofing, and glass. All of their buildings and trucks stood out since they were painted blue. The company’s slogan became “Buy Reel Lumber at Blue Yards.”
Reel-Blue Lumber ad from the 1937 edition of the Vincennes City Directory.
Circa 1927, Blue left the company, although it retained the Reel-Blue name. In 1930, he was employed as an office manager for a lumber company in Evansville.
Although the Reel-Blue offices remained in the LaPlante building, it wasn’t until 1928 that the company built a lumber yard in Vincennes. That spring, the new business opened on North Sixth Street between Locust and Depot Streets (531 East Locust). The company’s offices were moved there from the LaPlante building. Officers at that time were Ellis Clinton Reel, president; Earl Oliphant, vice-president; and Clarence Umfleet, secretary-treasurer and manager. The official opening took place on April 28.
Besides Vincennes, Washington, Petersburg, and Hazleton, Reel-Blue would open branches in Elnora, Elberfield, Griffin, and Indianapolis, as well as Lawrenceville and Robinson in Illinois.
Ellis Clinton Reel died of a heart attack, at the age of 69, on June 11, 1951. Burial was in Greenlawn Cemetery. Following Reel’s death, his son Robert Ellis Reel assumed the role of company president.
Cofounder Tyler Gordon Blue, who had continued working as an accountant in Evansville, died on Oct. 30, 1964, with burial in Evansville’s Park Lawn Cemetery and Mausoleum. He was 74 years old.
Reel-Blue continued in business until 1955, when it was taken over by the Vincennes Building Supply Company, Inc., under then company president Ellis E. Bonewitz.
— Brian Spangle can be reached at brianrspangle60@outlook.com. His latest book, “Vincennes, 1926: Three Tragedies,” is available for purchase at the Knox County Public Library’s McGrady-Brockman House and on Amazon.
