Historicial Development: | Selling his property west of Chireno in May 1899, T W. Jeanes moved his sawmill plant to the N. de la Cerda grant, along the tracks of the Texas & New Orleans in September, buying land from the Tyler Building and Loan Association and from Perkins, McKnight et al. He leased 100 acres of timber land from S. A. P. Dorman with the right to erect a sawmill within six years and cut the lease out. Two months later in November, he mortgaged his land and sawmill plant to J. P. Carter in order to finance his operation. The Nacogdoches newspaper noted in March 1902 that “Messrs Jeanes and Burnaman are erecting a big saw mill on the Dorman place four miles from town on the Marion Road.” They made two contracts in December 1902 with the Turner-Nabors Lumber Company of Beaumont to supply the latter with its entire sawmill cut until December 31, 1903. The Jeanes Bros had to install a dry kiln as part of their contract requirements. George W. Collier accepted a deed of trust from Turner & Nabers on August 14, 1903, in order to help the company finance its operations but was not able to complete the deal. Jeanes Bros. sold the mill to Turner-Nabors that month. Southern Industrial and Lumber Review, June, 1904, noted that the Turner-Nabers mill, about seven miles southeast of Nacogdoches, had been closed for some time and in the hands of a receiver. A note on a photocopy of the Turner-Nabors Lumber Company mill at Beaumont in 1910 noted that the Nacogdoches County mill had been moved in 1905 to Jefferson County.
The industrial plant in Nacogdoches County was located south of Nacogdoches along the tracks of the Texas & New Orleans, to which it was connected with about 500 feet of spur and sidings. The plant consisted of the sawmill, a planing mill, with equipment such as an edger, three 56-inch saws, a 24-foot Henderson trimmer, a log hauler rig and car, a slab car, a cut-off saw, and all belting, shafting, and pulleys for operating the mills. The operation was powered by a 45-horsepower steam boiler that ran two engines, one 12-inch by 15-inch and the second 10-inch by 16-inch. Logging equipment included two mules, forty oxen, and six wagons. The mill town was known as Vim. It had a commissary and about twenty to twenty-five tenant houses.
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