| Alpha-Numeric Key: | TY-34 |
| Corporate Name: | Kirby Lumber Company Mill M |
| Local Name: | |
| Owner Name: | Kirby Lumber Company Mill M . Earlier Doucette and Chapman., and Doucette and Barclay. |
| Location: | Woodville |
| County: | Tyler |
| Years in Operation: | 11 years |
| Start Year: | 1900 |
| End Year: | 1910 |
| Decades: | 1900-1909,1910-1919 |
| Period of Operation: | Doucette, 1900; Kirby, 1902 to 1910 |
| Town: | Woodville |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | 1000 in 1904 |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | Originally ties, later all grades of finished and unfinished lumber and timbers
 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: | 60000: 1905 |
| Capacity Comments: | 20,000 in 1900 to 60,000 feet daily by 1904 |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Originally a single circular sawmill. Kirby rebuilt a complete mill with single band before 1904. It had a bandsaw, edger, trimmer, and a shotgun feed for 24-foot timber. The planing mill included a sizer, two matchers, and a moulder. The steam dry ki |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Texas & New Orleans.
|
| Historicial Development: | Peter A. Doucette joined with L. J. Chapman in building a small sawmill operation at Woodville. It was running in March 1901. A small mill, designed to cut mainly ties at 20,000-ft daily, it was located in excellent stands of timber, however, and the newly formed Kirby Lumber Company began negotiating for the mill's purchase in September 1901. The American Lumberman in February 1901 that the firm was out of business, and it became Kirby property on January 1, 1902, and the new owners began immediately to build a larger mill which was well into operations by 1904. The original mill of Doucette and Chapman had no mill pond, and it is uncertain if Kirby had constructed one for their new band mill which cut around 65,000 feet in a one-shift ten hour day. The Southern Industrial and Lumber Review in March 1909 reported that B. F. Bonner had not ordered the older circular mills at Woodville, Beaumont, and Village to begin operations, being the oldest in the chain and furthest from the timber. “[M]ost of the men in touch with the situation,” noted the article, “are firm in the belief that it is the intention of the company to let these mills remain idle.” Kirby apparently abandoned operations at Woodville sometime before 1911, since the Woodville mill does not appear on the company's railroad map for that year. Employment increased from sixty in 1902 to 200 in 1904, due to the Kirby Lumber Company's purchase of the plant and subsequent enlarging of the operation. In June 1904 it was reported that the Woodville plant had as much as four million feet of lumber on the yard. Sawing medium long leaf timber, the mill was logged for by Camp 12 with the same tram network which also logged for the Kirby mills at Village and Silsbee. A Kirby evaluation of the Woodville mill in 1904 remarked that the mill was “one of the strongest single band mills.” In 1904, its appraised value was $42,300, growing later to $90,930.62. The Southern Lumberman noted in 1908 that the mill would be moved to Newton County because logging it was very costly. |
| Research Date: | JKG 8-2-93, LT 8-9-93, MCJ 04-09-96 |
| Prepared By: | J. Gerland, L. Turner, M Johnson |