| History: | The Lodi Lumber Company had a tram road from its mill at Lodi, in western Marion County, to the tracks of the Texas & Pacific. In 1906, the company was leasing land for four years to erect tram roads from the mill to the railroad.
The firm of Dunn, Wurtsbaugh, Rand were reported to be cutting 50,000 feet daily in 1893 at Lodi. A deed of trust in 1894 reveals that the company was logging on 2,000 acres of J. P. Alford; equipment mentioned in the document included the sawmill, a dry house, a lumber yard, two narrow-gauge locomotives, twenty-two logging cars, ten mules, and a tram leading from the mill.
A Cass County deed of trust filed in November, 1896, in which Lodi Lumber gave Ed Rand a trust deed for the sawmill, planing mill, the dry kilns, and the tram fixtures for $25,000, reveals some kind of relationship with Kildare Lumber Company at Kildare. Rand was involved in both companies, according to county records in Cass and Marion.
Through 1905 and 1907, according to Harrison County records, Lodi Lumber was expanding into the western part of Marion County. Wurtzbaugh leased stumpage for years, which was located about twelve miles northeast of Marshall in order to run a tram road from the mill to the Texas & Pacific. The company also either leased or bought out right W. T. Williams' sawmill plant at Kelleyville. Wurtzbaugh's office was located at Jefferson the next year.
This plant may have been dismantled after 1910 and moved to Jefferson where it was listed as M. H. Wurtsbaugh at Jefferson in 1928. |