Sulphur River Lumber Company
William Buchanan, the future lumber magnate from Texarkana, established a sawmill complex at Buchanan Station, in Precinct 1 of Bowie County, sometime before 1880. E. P. Cowan joined him shortly thereafter. During the reporting period of the Census of 1880, the large sawmill operated for eight months . It was valued at $30,000 and Buchanan paid from $1.50 to $3.25 per day to forty employees. The work day was twelve hours. Buchanan did not do his own logging. In December of 1883, Buchanan and Cowen sold out to Sulphur Lumber Company, an operation of Herman Munzheimer, who also bought the nearby Jones & Bemis sawmill plant at Sulphur Station at the same time. Sulphur Lumber Company had two large mills, one at Buchanan and the other at Sulphur Station, in the 1890s. According to the Galveston newspaper report of 1893, one mill was cutting 85,000 feet daily and the other 90,000 feet daily.
American Lumberman reported in January 1899 that Gus Munzesheimer's sawmill at Sulphur Station burned with an uninsured loss of $3,000. The sawmill was destroyed, only the planing mill being saved. Munzesheimer was not going to rebuild at the Station but intended erecting a new mill at Red Water of about 50,000-ft capacity next to the tracks of the Cotton Belt. Munzheimer had probably closed the Buchanan Station mill before 1899.
Mill Details
Alpha Numeric Key:
BO
Owner Name
Sulphur River Lumber Company, Gus and Herman Munzheimer. William Buchanan and E. P. Cowen.
Location
Buchanan Station, about fifteen miles south of Texarkana
County
Bowie
Years in Operation:
20
Start Year:
1879
End Year:
1898
Decades:
1870-1879,1880-1889,1890-1899
Period of Operation:
1879 to 1899
Town:
Buchanan Station
Company Town:
1
Peak Town Size:
Unknown
Mill Pond:
2
