| Alpha-Numeric Key: | HE-19 |
| Corporate Name: | Major Jerome Davis |
| Local Name: | Davis Mill |
| Owner Name: | Major Jerome Davis |
| Location: | Three miles west of Chandler on Highway 31 |
| County: | Henderson |
| Years in Operation: | 21 years |
| Start Year: | 1928 |
| End Year: | 1948 |
| Decades: | 1920-1929,1930-1939,1940-1949 |
| Period of Operation: | About 1928 to about 1948 |
| Town: | West of Chandler |
| Company Town: | 2 |
| Peak Town Size: | Chandler in 1940: 600 to 800 |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Railroad and bridge timbers, crossties, shingles, dimension, rough and dressed lumber
 Sawmill |
 Pine Sawmill |
Hardwood Sawmill |
Cypress Sawmill |
| Planer |
Planer Only |
Shingle |
Paper |
| Plywood |
Cotton |
Grist |
Unknown |
| Other |
|
|
|
|
| Power Source: | 8-cylinder straight-line gasoline-powered Buick and Packard motors
| Horse |
Mule |
Oxen |
Water |
| Water Overshot |
Water Turbine |
Diesel |
Unknown |
| Pit |
Steam |
Steam Circular |
Steam Band |
| Gas |
Electricity |
Other |
|
|
| Maximum Capacity: | |
| Capacity Comments: | Unknown |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Sawmill and planer with surfacer-matcher |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Unknown |
| Historicial Development: | According to Keith Davis, his father, Major Jerome Davis, was a farmer, rancher, and businessman of Chandler, Texas. He owned two farms and a filling station in Chandler during the 1920s. As the Depression developed, Major Davis expanded his economic opportunities when he bought a shingle machine and placed it in a pasture on one of his farms, located on Highway 31, three miles west of Chandler. Impressed by the fact that he had made money selling his shingles, he invested his earnings in purchases from an order house and developed a small, left-handed sawmill complex during the next year. His sawmill and planing mill were powered by eight-cylinder straight-line Buick and Packard engines. Working with a crew of six to eight men, Major Davis bought stumpage, harvested sawtimber with mules, and trucked the cut to the sawmill, where he milled timbers, crossties, dimension, rough and dressed lumber, and shingles.
Davis stopped manufacturing lumber about 1948. The reasons were that he believed it was difficult to keep good workers and that stumpage was becoming more difficult to buy and access. The sawmill complex was still standing in the pasture in 1994. |
| Research Date: | MCJ 05-04-96 |
| Prepared By: | M. Johnson |