Ken,
Hoping not to put words in Jayson's mouth.
From the location it would be tulip poplar, the wood is marketed as yellow poplar, the latin is liriodendron tulipifera. ID is usually pretty easy by eye. I think if you break paragraph after "Thanks, Jayson" and maybe put in "PS" it will then be clearly his writing

Jayson,
Also check the age of neighboring buildings, south and east of there within 100 miles would be the swath of Sherman's "bummers". They ran a heavy footprint roughly 40 miles wide through there. Often leaving only chimneys as "Sherman's sentinels" on the landscape.