Subseries contains the official business correspondence of the ICO and documents all aspects of company administration and operations. This correspondence was written or maintained by the company Secretary-Treasurer and, in more recent years, the ICO Manager. Initially the ICO used a letterbook system to manage its correspondence. Under this system copies of outgoing correspondence were recorded in letterbooks, while incoming letters were filed separately. After 1947 the company switched to a subject based filing system in which both incoming and copies of outgoing letters were filed together.
The outgoing correspondence in the letterbooks pertains to administrative and financial matters. There are directives to camps and depots, orders for supplies and letters to the various lumber companies regarding the movement of their logs, maintenance of the works, and wages paid to employees. The letterbooks also include copies of accounts with the lumber companies. Beginning in 1903, the letterbooks include a nominal index.
The corresponding incoming letters were filed alphabetically by year. Incoming correspondence contains a wide variety of letters and reports written to the ICO. There are letters from lumber companies, suppliers, shanty administrators, employees and their families, government departments and the general public. The breadth of this correspondence offers unique insight into the day to day operations of the company and its relationships with the lumber companies, governments, employees and local residents.
Subject correspondence contains similar topics as found in the letterbooks and incoming correspondence. In addition to administrative and financial matters, there are files on labour relations, property matters, complaints, wages, equipment and legal matters. Copies of directors and shareholder's minutes, budgets and financial statements (which are filed under the name of the accounting firm, Geo. A. Welch) were also kept with the correspondence.
In the final years of company operations, ICO manager W.N. Zwicker maintained a separate set of administrative files for reference purposes. Many of these files contain drafts of official correspondence, or summarize information found there. Other files, however, postdate the material found in the subject correspondence and offer insights into the winding up of the company. Like the official correspondence, Zwicker's files contain letters, reports, financial records, minutes of meetings, photographs, maps and plans. Some of the company's legal records, including leases, agreements, deeds and early documents relating to the ICO, the Coulonge and Crow River Boom Co. and the Quinze Rapids Improvement Company can also be found here.
Finally, the subseries contains a file of personal correspondence kept by ICO Secretary, Major E.C. Woolsey between 1927 and 1933. This file offers a glimpse into Major Woolsey's personal and family life, including the management of his investment portfolio after the stock market crash of 1929.
