Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code:	44
Corporate Name:	Rice Lumber Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership:	Jonas Shearn Rice and William M. Rice of Houston and Colonel F.A. Hyatt of Beaumont.
Years of Operation:	ca. 1882- 1906
Track Type:	Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length:	Fifteen
Locations Served:	Hyatt, three miles south of Warren, on Hickory Creek, Tyler County. Fifteen miles of tram roads existed in 1904.
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:	Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:
History:	John Henry Kirby told St. Clair Reed that the first logging tramroad was built by William Marsh in the 1870s. There were certainly tramroads associated with the Rice Lumber Company sawmill on Hickory Creek at Hyatt, three miles south of Warren, where it connected to the Texas & New Orleans. The Hyatt mill had been constructed sometime between 1882 and 1884, and logging trams would have been necessary to transport the logs from the pineries to the mill. Another section of tram was necessary to connect the lumber plant with the trunk road at Warren. Fifteen miles of tram existed in 1904. More than lumber moved on the company tramroad. The Rice Company also acted as a factor and dealer in cotton, hides, and country produce. The American Lumberman noted in 1906 that the company still had a logging railroad.