One of the Only Sawmills in the Area, Brightman Lumber in Assonet is a True Family Affair

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The site laser above the big blades at Brightman Lumber sawmill getscovered by sawdust before Ed Brightman Jr.'s workday is too old. He doesn’t bother to clean it.

A helpful tool to many who work the carriage in a sawmill, the site laser would only slow down Brightman, 44, as he begins the process of turning a round log into a wood rectangle for trimming into boards.

No knock on technology, he says; it’s just that he’s been manning the sawyer booth for so long — 25 years — at the family sawmill, it’s faster for him to size up the job by eye.

 Once he has squared his log — stripped naked by a debarker before it was dumped on he carriage — Brightman works his sawyer booth controls to set the wood into position for the job slicing. During this writer’s visit, the order was for 1,000 feet of boards, 1 inch by 12 inches.

The sawmill is one half of the two-armed business that is Brigtman Lumber, 181 South Main St. The other arm is the land-clearing business, run by Ed Brigtman Sr. The sawmill is the older of the two, started by John Brightman Jr. and wife Nancy (Ed Sr.'s parents) in 1978. Previously, the Brightmans, originally from Fall River, had worked land clearing for Connecticut and Rhode Island sawmills, where their typical work week consisted of taking their trailer, two logging trucks and two skidders (to drag the fallen and cut logs) on Monday to a worksite, return home on Wednesday, and then on Thursday make a second similar trip, with a return home Friday night or Saturday.

“My dad a dream one night,“ Ed Sr. says. “He said let’s have our own sawmill.“

Easier said than done? For sure. But John Brightman Jr. and wife Nancy knew how to get things done. They found the current business land on South Main Street, and bought it.

 Scouring the region, John put together a sawmill, piece by piece. Brightman Lumber Co. was born.

For the first three years or so of the sawmill/lumberyard it was very old school. The sawmill employees would have to lift and place the logs onto the carriage. The business thrived. And they modernized.

The Brightmans originally sold not only rough green (unseasoned) lumber but also their own finished lumber for home construction. They had 25 employees and ran two 8-hour shifts.

Courtesy: www.heraldnews.com