Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 353
Corporate Name: Hays & Gossage
Folk Name: Hays & Gossage Gossage & Hornbuckle, and S. Campbell. J. M. Gossage. James A. Hays & Gossage
Incorporated:
Ownership:
Years of Operation:
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length:
Locations Served: Walker
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:
History: James A. Hays was a postmaster at Dodge, in Walker County, when he began sawmilling about 1882. His Webb & Hays Lumber Company went bankrupt in 1891, but he was soon sawmilling at or near Phelps. Hays & Gossage were reported to be cutting 25,000 feet daily at Phelps in 1893. W. T. Blocks believes that Hays soon died or Gossage bought him out, for many mortgages exist after 1893 for J. M. Gossage and Company at Roark's Switch. J. M. Gossage, in June, 1892, regained some of the old Hays equipment earlier auctioned off to Smithers, including a planer-matcher, three log cars and a tram engine. The final entry, in October, 1907, refers to the sawmill plant as “being the old Campbell outfit.” It seems that S. Campbell had leased the sawmill from before 1907 until it came under the control of the firm of Gossage & Hornbuckle, who would lease their sawmill near Huntsville to Campbell. J. A. Hays & Webb operated a sawmill near Phelps in the years surrounding 1890. On October 17, 1890, J. A. Hays sold to Carson, Sewall Co. and Halff & Neubauer Bros of Houston to pay for the debts of Hays and Webb Lumber Company to Carson et al ($6,110) and Halff & Neubauer ($4147). Hays and Webb surrendered 232 acres of land, Hays' half-interest in the store house at Dodge, the sawmill on J. M. Smithers land, which Hays had contracted to buy, two engines and boilers, one planer, one edger, one trimmer, one saw frame and fixtures, 40 feet of shafting, four tram cars, two slip-tongue carts, three wagons, 3/4 mile of tram road, thirty oxen, one tram engine, six tram cars, and the sawmill building. On February 3, 1891, Ben Campbell, trustee for J. A. Hays, sold most of the above property at the court house for a total of $425 to John T. Smithers, a member of Smithers, Beall & Co.