Historicial Development: | I. F. Miller ran a multi-purpose lumber and grain business in Center after 1900. His comb sawmill, shingle mill, and grist mill was located about a half-mile from city center on the Timpson Road. He was operating a grist mill as late as 1906. By 1907, he began divesting himself of sawmill activities, selling a sawmill to Hutto & Lloyd, and a planer and a shingle machine to T. E. Jones. His shingle plant, in 1908, consisted of a 25-horsepower Atlas boiler and engine, a Triumph shingle machine, one batting machine, two shingle and one batting saws, and 3-saw Dixie edger. He had a planing machine as late as 1909.
In late 1909, Levi Garrett defaulted on his mortgage to J. H. Goodwin, and Garrett's A. R. Smith shingle machine mortgage was picked up by Miller. But Miller was not down on all shingle competition: earlier that year he sold a gasoline engine and a planer to T. E. Jones, a rival shingle-maker.
Miller's equipment, with the changing and selling, included a 36-inch by 8-foot tubular boiler and a 36-inch shingle saw. In February 1910, he mortgaged much of his mill machinery to George Dilley & Son.
Isaac F. Miller, born in Louisiana and age 37, was enumerated at Precinct 1, residence 49, as a “shingle maker”
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