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Peach River Lumber Company

The first sawmill of the Miller-Vidor Lumber Company was erected at Timber in 1902, and it operated under the name Peach River Lumber Company, beginning in June of that year. The mill was a 75,000 feet circular rig, and it assumed its parent corporation's name in 1910. The mill burned on February 24, 1909, but was rebuilt and operating again within six months. Woods operations in 1910 were conducted twelve miles from the town of Timber by a crew of twenty-five men on the Peach River & Gulf, the company line. Logs were hauled by friction feed in the mill to a shotgun feed log carriage. By 1910 four-fifths of the company's timber holdings were cut, leaving only about 5,000 acres. The mill probably cut out about 1912. There was no log pond at Timber, at the junction of Peach River & Gulf and the Santa Fe Railroad. Main sawmill building housed two small steam engines which powered the single Curtiss circular saw and related machinery. Machinery in front and behind the building were run by 14-inch by 18-inch and 13-inch by 18-inch engines, respectively. The plant included two Standard dry kilns, each with 2 rooms 20-ft by 104-ft and, together, they turned out 40,000 feet daily. Two Atlas boilers, each 12-ft by 60-inch, fed steam for the kilns. The planing mill was housed in a 80-ft by 160-ft feet building. A 14-inch by 20-inch stroke McGowan steam engine was fed by a T. M. 72-inch by 16-ft Nagle boiler. Planing mill machinery included one Hoyt matcher, one Hoyt sizer, one edger, and one resaw. Lumber went to the dry shed or to a 250-loading dock that could handle eight cars simultaneously. The rough dry shed building was 60-ft by 200-ft. All No. 2 and No. 3 grades of green lumber went straight to the green yard, where it was cross-stacked and left air-dry for four to six months. In 1910, 110 employees either rented one of seventy-five cottages or roomed in town. The mill had seventy-five incandescent lamps; the tenants none. See American Lumberman (Oct 8, 1910) for a map showing the Timber holdings.

Mill Details

Alpha Numeric Key:

MO

Owner Name

Peach River Lumber Company, a Miller-Vidor subsidiary. Darlington-Miller controlled output in 1904.

Location

Peach Creek, eleven miles east of Conroe, between Waukegan & Fostoria (Timber)

County

Montgomery

Years in Operation:

11

Start Year:

1902

End Year:

1912

Decades:

1900-1909,1910-1919

Period of Operation:

1902 to 1912

Town:

Timber, also Peach Creek

Company Town:

1

Peak Town Size:

Seventy-five nonelectrified tenant cottages

Mill Pond:

0

Mill Type
Product
Power Source
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