| Alpha-Numeric Key: | OR-5 |
| Corporate Name: | Peavy-Moore Lumber Company |
| Local Name: | Orange |
| Owner Name: | Peavy-Moore, Miller-Link, Kirby-Mill D, Bancroft, Burton & Woodill lumber companies. This a two-record survey. See earlier record at Orange under Bancroft Lumber Company. Miller-Link, 1910: Joe Miller and Maurice Miller, Leopold Miller's sons, served |
| Location: | On the right bank of the Sabine one-quarter mile from center of town at Market St. |
| County: | Orange |
| Years in Operation: | 51 years |
| Start Year: | 1877 |
| End Year: | 1927 |
| Decades: | 1870-1879,1880-1889,1890-1899,1900-1909,1910-1919,1920-1929 |
| Period of Operation: | Burton & Woodill, 1874; Bancroft, 1877; Kirby, 1901; Miller-Link Lbr Co, 1905; Peavy, 1927. |
| Town: | Orange |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | 7,000 in 1906 |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Large cut timbers and bridge pilings for Mexican and European export; prime lumber and heartwood for European furniture manufacturers. One brand name was ‘Faultless.'
 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: | 90000: 1904 125000: 1909 125000: 1915 |
| Capacity Comments: | 90,000 feet of lumber daily in 1904; 125,000 in 1909. |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | A complete lumber mill with circular, edger, trimmer, shotgun feed. A planing mill with a Hoyt sizer, a Hoyt matcher, a Holms matcher, a Houston moulder, one resaw, one rip saw, and one picket machine. |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Orange & Northwestern Rwy. Texas & New Orleans Rwy. |
| Historicial Development: | The former Bancroft mill site became Mill D for Kirby Lumber Company. J. W. Link, attorney, handled the sale negotiations for a fee of $10,000. George Bancroft continued as superintendent at $250 per month until October 1902. The first year's output, 26,000,000 feet in 345 operating days, was not profitable. Kirby Lumber introduced modifications. Kilns were established in 1904 with an elaborate ‘air-drying' system for logs in a series of covered, ten-foot wide bins. A No. 77 American Woodworking matcher for dressing finished products was added in May 1909. Later dry kilns were of brick with a capacity of 30,000 feet of lumber daily. The appraised value in 1904 of the mill was $103,700. Longleaf pine timber from Calcasieu Parrish (La) and Newton County was rafted down the Sabine River or trammed overland from Jasper County during low water. Kirby Lumber and Miller-Link logged on each others lands by agreement, Kirby using some of the L. Miller timberlands in Newton County, and Miller-Link using Kirby logs from Whitman's Bluff on the Sabine. Timber up to forty-two feet in length could be sawed and dressed.
Kirby sold the mill to Miller-Link for $60,000 on July 1, 1905. Only a year earlier the inventory was valued at $91,000 and the dry kilns at $13,154. The mill began receiving in 1905 twenty-four car loads of logs daily from C. E. Slade lagging camp at Quigley, Jasper County, on the Orange & Northwestern Railroad. Company logging over the O&NWRR from Buna eventually replaced Tram Arthur at Whitman's Bluff on the Sabine. J. W. Link sold his interest to Miller in 1910. In 1915, Miller-Link was sawing 125,000 feet of yellow pine daily. Miller-Link boomed during WWI, building wooden ships to 318 feet in length. Miller-Link Lumber Company foundered and went bankrupt in 1927. The mill was finally auctioned at a bankruptcy sale to Peavy-Moore Lumber Company, and the sawmill was soon dismantled and moved.
|
| Research Date: | LT 08-09-93, MCJ 03-23-96 |
| Prepared By: | L Turner, M. Johnson |