Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code:	73
Corporate Name:	Kirby Lumber Company, Mill F
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership:	United Export. Yellow Pine Tie and Timber). Kirby Lumber Company, Mill F.
Years of Operation:	1898 to 1904
Track Type:	Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length:
Locations Served:	Three miles east of Silsbee, twenty-one miles north of Beaumont, in Hardin County, to the surrounding pineries.
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:	Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:
History:	The tramlogging and sawmilling operations were conducted at Lillard, in Hardin County, from 1896 to 1904. Located on the Gulf Beaumont & Kansas City Railway, this Kirby mill was originally built by Charles Martin and others of the Yellow Pine Tie and Timber Company in 1898. The mill operated only a short time before it was sold in 1899 to the United Export Lumber Company (Fort, Eastman, and Johnson). This mill under Yellow Pine and United Export was apparently a sawmill operation only. The mill was then transferred to the Kirby Lumber Company on January 1, 1902. For a time the Lillard mill was managed by C.P. Myer, manger at Silsbee and later central manager for all Kirby mills and logging operations. The mill was in full operation in February 1904 when a Kirby evaluation of mills was conducted, but it is believed the mill was dismantled soon thereafter. The Lillard post office was dismantled in 1904 and the records of the Lumbermen's Credit Association do not include a Kirby mill at Lillard as of January 1905. It was a small affair, and, although it had a small dry kiln and planing machine, the saws and planer shared the same building. Logging operations in February 1904 were being done eight miles east of the mill on narrow gauge tracks. Two 36” gauge locomotives were used. Timber being cut was short leaf with very little long leaf.