Kirby Lumber Company at Kirbyville, Texas, in 1902; excerpts from American Lumberman magazine.  
 
 
 
 
Source: American Lumberman. "Timber Resources of East Texas, Their Recognition And Development", originally published in American Lumberman November 22, 1902. Chicago: American Lumberman, 1902. pp. 153-162.
 
     
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  Excerpt from "CHAPTER XII., Logging Camps"  
     
 

The detailed operations at the different camps are much on the same basis. The company has at present thirteen logging camps, which cut on an average monthly about as follows:

Camp & Feet Cut
Buna (ships to Beaumont) -- 4,000,000
Trotti (logs Orange mill) -- 3,500,000
Bancroft, La. (logs Orange mill) -- 2,500,000
Kirbyville, Texas Tram (ships Beaumont) -- 2,000,000
Call (at present logging to Call mill) -- 2,000,000
Village (supplies home mill) -- 2,000,000
Silsbee -- 2,000,000
Ariola -- 1,500,000
Mobile -- 1,250,000
Woodville -- 500,000
Roganville -- 1,000,000
Fuqua -- 1,150,0000
Lillard -- 1,000,000

Total, log scale -- 24,400,000

This gives a total of about 24,400,000 feet of logs cut each month, which are furnished the various mills and by them reduced to lumber.

 
     
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  Excerpt from "CHAPTER XX, Mills H, J, K and L”:  
     
 

MILL “H,” KIRBYVILLE.
In addition to the logging camp maintained to the northwest of Kirbyville, which was formerly known as that of the Texas Tram & Lumber Company, and was used by it to supply its Beaumont mill, there is a small circular mill operated by the company at this point. It has an independent logging road and its own engine for furnishing logs, with about five miles of tram extending to the north.

The mill is of the ordinary type and cuts 35,000 to 40,000 feet of lumber a day, principally ties and timbers. The stock cut from the sidings is shipped to the Call yards, where all clear stuff is worked into finish, and the other is put in the yard.

To use R. B. Loveland's expression, “I was born and raised and got my first `timber sense' in. Lockhaven, Pa.,” which was at that time one of the leading saw mill towns of the state. In the fall of 1895 he went to Alexandria, La., where he became associated with the Union Lumber Company, and remained at that point until the fall of 1899, when he bought a small mill at Blanche, La., on the Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf railway, which he operated until the early part of 1902.

In December, 1901, he closed a contract with the Kirby Lumber Company to remodel the mill at Kirbyville and operate it on a contract basis. The mill was originally built by Conn & Co., of Kirbyville, but had never proved a money making investment. Mr. Loveland was given the mill to repair and operate and has made a success of it, cutting daily the full limit that can be produced by a mill of its caliber.

The operations of the mill are confined principally to timber cutting, which is the rule with most of the company's mills of this class. The output of the mill is fully up to the standard required by the inspectors, and the class of manufacture maintained by Mr. Loveland is all that could be desired.

The mill is operated on a contract basis, as stated, the company paying so much a thousand for cutting and delivering the timber on board cars ready for shipment.

The mill is supplied with logs by a 3-mile tram, which will be extended as needed. Only one engine is used to bring the logs from the forest to the mill, and the track is laid flat on the ground, which is not, however, quite so level here as at some of the other points, and the little engine pulling a train of ten or twelve cars sometimes finds it necessary to bite the load in two in order to make certain grades.

Water is supplied by a direct connected pump from a small creek a few hundred feet from the mill, and this is supplemented by wells that can be used in case of necessity, though the former source of supply has not failed so far.

The foreman, Z. T. Stump, who also acts in the capacity of filer at this mill, has a life of experience behind him that is rarely equaled. He has tried nearly all of the timber sections of the country, and knows the conditions obtaining in many sections. His principal regret now is that he did not come to Texas years ago instead of going from place to place, as he is satisfied had he done so he would now he wealthy in timber holdings.

For many years he was engaged in the manufacture of lumber in Arkansas, where through contracts for larger bills than he was able to handle the panic of the early '90s robbed him of the accumulated savings of years.

 
   
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Text and images were digitized and proofread from the original source documents by Murry Hammond. Contact Murry for all corrections and contributions of new material.