An excerpt from “Some Other Day: Remembering Empire” by the Empire Area Heritage Group
The T. Wilce Company of Chicago, Illinois was founded by Thomas Wilce St., in the late 1880s, and their business was the lumber industry. Mosts of the lumber was cut by sawmills located outside the city, and then shipped to the city by brain or boat. The lumber was then dried, and the finished product was made by the company’s special planing mills.
About 1888, three sons of Thomas, Sr., took over the business. They were George, Thomas, Jr. and Harvey. A short time later, a strip of land on Lake Michigan in the village of Empire, was purchased. A large circular sawmill was now built at the south end of South Bay Lake, and the Wilce Company was ready to operate there.
