| History: | W. W. Waterman Lumber Company bought lands from Trekell & Rounds Lumber Company in Panola and Harrison counties during 1907 and built a mill at Blocker, earlier known as Leigh, and at times later as Peach. A deed of trust executed on January 18, 1911, reveals the company operated 8-mile standard gauge tram road with 45-pound rails, a 42 1/2-ton Baldwin locomotive, a 23-ton Climax locomotive, and an American log loader. The Gulf Coast Lumberman reported on April 1, 1918, that fire at the facility destroyed the sawmill, dry kilns, and two large sheds; estimated total loss was about $100,000. W. W. Waterman later sold out his lands and property in Panola and Harrison counties to Frost Industries Corporation of Texas.
Keeling notes that a dozen rod locomotives operated on the Blocker tram line, obviously an unwitting inclusion of the many engines operating on the 100-plue-mile Waterman chartered tram road, the Texas & Gulf, that ran from Marshall, in Harrison County, to Waterman, in Shelby County. This tram road later became the foundation for the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe route from Timpson through Carthage to Marshall. |