Research: Sawmill Database

Alpha-Numeric Key: AG-23
Corporate Name: Long-Bell Lumber Company
Local Name: Lufkin Land
Owner Name: Long-Bell Lumber Company (Fidelity Lumber Company. Lufkin Land and Lumber Company: Enoch W. Frost, president; George A. Kelley, vice-president and manager; Edwin Ambrose Frost, secretary-treasurer; and T. L.L. Temple.
Location: Lufkin Avenue and Long Avenue in Lufkin
County: Angelina
Years in Operation: 31 years
Start Year: 1900
End Year: 1930
Decades: 1900-1909,1910-1919,1920-1929,1930-1939
Period of Operation: Began operations in 1900 and closed at the end of 1930
Town: Lufkin
Company Town: 1
Peak Town Size: 100 tenant houses
Mill Pond:
Type of Mill: Lumber
Sawmill Pine Sawmill Hardwood Sawmill Cypress Sawmill
Planer Planer Only Shingle Paper
Plywood Cotton Grist Unknown
Other
Power Source: Four boilers, 350 h.p. main engine, 85 kilowatt dynamo, and an electric light plant
Horse Mule Oxen Water
Water Overshot Water Turbine Diesel Unknown
Pit Steam Steam Circular Steam Band
Gas Electricity Other
Maximum Capacity: 100000: 1905200000: 1916
Capacity Comments: Daily 100,000 feet of lumber. Annual capacity of sixty million feet. 200,000 feet daily by 1916.
Produced:
Rough Lumber Planed Lumber Crossties Timbers
Lathe Ceiling Unknown Beading
Flooring Paper Plywood Particle Board
Treated Other
Equipment: A complete double band sawmill and lath mill. Seven steam dry kilns; four boilers; planer with nine machines, three sheds, machine shop.
Company Tram:
Associated Railroads: Houston East & West Texas
Historicial Development: The Lufkin Land and Lumber Company was organized in May 1899 as a joint venture of Enoch W. Frost, Edwin Ambrose Frost, George A. Kelley, and T. L.L. Temple. From at least August to December of 1899, orders were placed with Angelina County Lumber company for thousands of feet of lumber to construct the mill and company town. The plant was inside Lufkin city limits, but the mill town assumed its own identity as “Lufkin Land.” It chartered the Texas & Louisiana company railway in 1900, “tramming 32 miles,” with ten miles of extension to the east of the Attoyac River, into the suburbs of Broaddus in San Augustine County. By 1905, 200 to 300 men, working double shifts, were producing 60 million feet per year. The monthly payroll by early 1916 was $2,000. The company paid in tokens, which could be redeemed at the commissary. H. Matthews told Vernon Beasley that the sawmill town consisted of about one hundred tenant houses. Long-Bell Lumber Company bought out Lufkin Land and Lumber Company in 1905 and operated the plant until The Gulf Coast Lumberman reported on November 1, 1930, that the Long-Bell plant at Lufkin would close for good by the end of the year.
Research Date: JKG 9-20-93, MCJ 12-04-95
Prepared By: J. Gerland, M Johnson