Allen-Peavy Lumber Company
The Nona-Fletcher Lumber Company, previously of Nona and Fletcher, operated a sawmill at Kountze sometime after 1930. A Beaumont newswriter noted, in 1936, that the mill had been built within the previous two years. It could cut about 30,000 feet daily from its fifteen million feet of stumpage that the company owned. The mill used a single band saw and had a planing mill. Its business manager, P. S. “Pink” Wiggins, served Nona-Fletcher at both Fletcher and Kountze in that capacity since 1918. After the sale of the sawmill to Smith-Feagin in 1948, Wiggins served as its manager for several more years. Cecil Smith refurbished the mill in late 1950, increasing the cutting capacity to about 35,000 feet daily. He employed about 75 men in the mill and another 60 in the woods.
Although Smith-Feagin Lumber Company at Kountze was listed in the 1957 edition of the Directory of Wood-Using and Related Industries in East Texas, it had been bought by Clark Allen in June 1953 for $200,000. He renamed the business the Clark Allen Industries. He improved tenant housing, put in a box factory, and started shipping wood chips to Champion Paper Company. The old Smith-Feagin sawmill company became a part of Allen-Peavy when Allen permitted A. J. Peavy, head of Peavy-Moore Lumber of Shreveport, to invest in the company. Clark Allen still kept Clark Allen Industries separate.
Mill Details
Alpha Numeric Key:
HD
Owner Name
Allen-Peavy Lumber Company. Smith-Feagin Lumber Company. Nona-Fletcher Lumber Company.
Location
Kountze
County
Hardin
Years in Operation:
42
Start Year:
1934
End Year:
1975
Decades:
1930-1939,1940-1949,1950-1959,1960-1969,1970-1979
Period of Operation:
Nona-Fletcher, 1934; Smith-Feagin, 1948; Allen-Peavy, 1953 about 1975.
Town:
Kountze
Company Town:
1
Peak Town Size:
Unknown
Mill Pond:
1
