Our Story
by Deanna Snyder
Once he was big enough to shovel sawdust, Reeves worked at his father’s sawmill. By the age of sixteen, he was hauling lumber on a 1954 Chevrolet, six-wheel truck and received his CDLs to drive the tractor and trailer. He learned how to select cut the best timber, run the edger, the bulldozer and skidders, how to maximize the amount of lumber in a tree and how to market the lumber.
Typically leaving home around 4 a.m.., Reeves would haul lumber to a furniture company and be at the sawmill by 7:00 a.m. to swage his saw before the workers arrived. Once he began sawing, he would only stop for lunch, often sardines and crackers, or for mechanical purposes. At the end of the day, the lumber truck was loaded for the next day’s delivery. Once home, Reeves would do paperwork and make his phone calls to sell more lumber.
Periodically, a person would come up to Reeves at a gas station and want to purchase the logs/lumber on the truck in order to build a log home. He would then explain to the person what happens when a home is built with the green logs.
Becoming Honest Abe Dealers
One of Reeves’s sawmill customers was Honest Abe Log Homes. Rick Denton was the log buyer and draftsperson for the company and Reeves and Rick soon developed a friendship. Reeves was impressed by the staff’s friendliness and by the integrity with which Honest Abe did business. Because of this, Reeves decided to become a dealer to help that occasional person who wanted to build a log home.
When Reeves and I married, he was sawmilling full-time, and I was a school teacher. I knew nothing about construction, and Reeves worked the log home business along with the sawmilling. I would help as much as I could, but was pretty clueless.
Due to complications from back surgery, Reeves stopped milling, and we built a log home model on pure faith. After a couple of years, we build the business enough to become Dealer of the Year in 2006. We built Buffalo Ridge, a log home subdivision where our customers have become friends. They love to show our customers their homes.
During the last few years, Reeves has had multiple surgeries, and we’ve had ups and downs that life tends to throw, but we’re still with Honest Abe. Being dealers has been very rewarding. The friendships we have made with the company’s staff and with our customers goes well beyond just selling log homes. We are certainly blessed!
