Ernest Bicknell was appointed National Director of Relief Operations for the American Red Cross after its 1908 reorganization and began work on October 1, when his first challenge became the Metz fire. With President J. D. Hawks and D&M Railroad employees, he oversaw distribution of relief supplies and lumber for shacks for homeless residents. On October 20 he wrote that the adopted shack measured 14 by 16 feet, had three small rooms, fixed bunks in the two smaller rooms, rough lumber walls covered with tar paper, and a roof built the same way, and that about 165 shacks would be needed. Because burned trees had to be cut and sawed within a year to remain usable, he took pride in using $900 of Red Cross relief funds to reopen a sawmill to process lumber. In Pioneering with the Red Cross, he wrote that this helped farmers save their lumber and rebuild their homes, restored the sawmill operator’s ability to serve the community, and advanced rehabilitation of the neighborhood with minimal outside intervention and shared local effort. Ernest Bicknell was the great uncle of longtime Rogers City mayor Beach Bicknell Hall. He later directed Red Cross overseas operations before, during, and after World War I and remained active in national and international Red Cross work until his death in 1935.