| Alpha-Numeric Key: | HR-24 |
| Corporate Name: | C. Bender and Sons |
| Local Name: | |
| Owner Name: | Charles Bender; Charles Bender, Jr.; Albert Bender; Eugene Bender; Frank Bender. This may have been a contract mill for Foster Lumber Company in 1903. |
| Location: | Humble |
| County: | Harris |
| Years in Operation: | 35 years |
| Start Year: | 1894 |
| End Year: | 1928 |
| Decades: | 1890-1899,1900-1909,1910-1919,1920-1929 |
| Period of Operation: | About 1894 to 1928 |
| Town: | Humble |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | 7,500 in 1928 |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Shortleaf yellow pine lumber
 Sawmill |
 Pine Sawmill |
Hardwood Sawmill |
Cypress Sawmill |
| Planer |
Planer Only |
Shingle |
Paper |
| Plywood |
Cotton |
Grist |
Unknown |
| Other |
|
|
|
|
| Power Source: | Steam
| Horse |
Mule |
Oxen |
Water |
| Water Overshot |
Water Turbine |
Diesel |
Unknown |
| Pit |
Steam |
Steam Circular |
Steam Band |
| Gas |
Electricity |
Other |
|
|
| Maximum Capacity: | 50000: 1893 60000: 1894 60000: 1906 60000: 1928 |
| Capacity Comments: | 50,000 feet daily in 1893; 60,000 feet daily in 1894; 60,000 in 1906; 60,000 feet in 1928. |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Planing mill before 1928. 1928: Band sawmill, planing mill, edgers, trimmers. |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Houston East & West Texas Railroad |
| Historicial Development: | C. Bender and Sons was a Houston-based lumber mill company with mills at Houston, Humble, and Holshausen (later Laurelia) in Polk County along the roadway of the Houston East & West Texas. The mill at Humble, which Albert and Frank Bender, in 1894, supervised, began and remained a planing mill for many years. The mill at Humble appeared in the 1905 and 1907 records of the Lumbermen's Credit Association. It is possible that at this time the mill was a contract mill of the Texas and Louisiana Lumber Company. The Southern Industrial and Lumber Review in March 1909 reported that the dry kilns and planing mill at C. Bender & Sons at Humble burned, including 400,000 feet of lumber. The loss was $30,000. The company insisted it would rebuild the planer and sheds.
In 1916, The Gulf Coast Lumberman noted that Bender & Sons were enlarging and rebuilding its planing mill at Humble. It had been destroyed by a lightning fire in 1914, with a loss that included the sawmill, kilns, and a hundred thousand feet of lumber. It appeared later in the listing of the 1928 edition of the Southern Lumberman's Directory of American Saw Mills and Planing Mills. Sometime before 1928 the Bender family changed the mill, possibly after the fire of 1914, to a band sawmill as well as a planing mill. |
| Research Date: | JKG 10-13-93, MCJ 05-09-96 |
| Prepared By: | M. Johnson, J. Gerland |