| History: | Ruth Hansbro's research into the records of San Jacinto and Walker county leads her to believe that Delta Land & Timber had purchased the J. Bennette tram road, which ran from Old Security to Byspot. Byspot was Bennette's logging front and was named for his wife, Topsy B, only spelled backwards. W. T. Block believes that Bennette operated the road from Old Security to the woods, from 1900 to 1908, until he bought the McGregor mill, three miles north of Conroe at McGregor's Switch. He extended the road to the Switch.
The tram was referred to in Montgomery County records during the next two decades as the Bennette tram. Kirby Lumber Company bought twelve miles of the road in 1918 on behalf of its Santa Fe Tie & Lumber Preserving Company. At least one and possibly two portable mills were planned for milling operations in the Lyric and Bennette sections; a second mill would have required a twenty-five mile extension, according to Kirby Lumber Company records. How long Santa Fe Tie & Lumber Preserving operated the road is unknown.
By 1923, Tom S. Falvey had bought part of the original tramroad for his Tom-Lee Lumber Company. Tom-Lee Lumber Co tram road. In 1926, Tom-Lee Lumber Company failed and it was bought by H. S. Lilley, along with the tram road. Ms Lilley must have sold the tram later to Delta Land & Timber Company at Conroe. Hansbro writes that Delta Land & Timber bought Bennette's tramway in 1926 and operated it until 1931. Delta operated a commissary for the woods crew at Coldspring.
The Conroe Lumber Corporation operated the Delta (4-C) mill, on lease, from late 1933 until the end of October 1935. Ownership of the mill then transferred to Conroe the first week of November 1935. Included in the transfer were two Delta locomotives and seventy-five to eighty log cars, which were used for logging operations on the twenty-mile logging road. Throughout Conroe Lumber operations, the mill was poorly supplied with logs, often closing, sometimes for a month or more. The availability of timber continued to be sporadic, and, when logs did come, managers reported logging operations in a favorable light, commenting that the loggers were trying hard "to beat the band." Use of the Delta tram was closed, and logging was done off spurs on the main lines.
Keeling notes the J. O. H. Bennette tram road at Conroe, as well as the Conroe Lumber Company at Conroe with four rod locomotives. Keeling notes the J. O. H. Bennette tram road at Conroe as well as its successor companies, the Delta Land and Timber Lumber Company and the Conroe Lumber Company. He lists four rod locomotives for Conroe Lumber Company and four geeared and ten rod locomotives for Delta Land and Timber Company
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