Tyler Car and Lumber Co. began as a foundry and machine company about 1886 and then branched into lumbering in Smith and Angelina counties. It foundered during the Panic of 1893. A letterhead from 1890 reads “Tyler Car and Lumber Company., General Founders and Machinists. Iron Fronts, Sash Weights, and all Iron and Brass Castings Neatly and Promptly Made. . . . [and also] Manufacturers and Wholesale Lumber Dealers.” The earlier name for the manufacturing lumber company was the Long Leaf Lumber Company, headquarters at Tyler. An 1887 letterhead for the company lists John Durst, president, Jno. B. Douglas, vice-president, and Chas B. Bonner, secretary. The Tyler Car & Lumber Company was located at Tyler, in Smith County, from about 1885 to 1895. Its primary officers were A. L. Clark and John Durst, both prominent, local businessmen.
The Tyler Lumber Company, headed by A. L. Clark, was located west of the County courthouse in Tyler on West Erwin Street. Clark's company was assimilated into Tyler Car & Lumber in 1887. Clark became president of the company eventually. Durst and Clark joined others in raising a $14,000 mortgage on other property in 1891 for expansion, probably for its sawmill at Michelli, in Angelina County. The Tyler Car & Lumber Company were reported to be cutting 60,000 feet daily in 1893 at Tyler. The Tyler Lumber & Mfg. Co was a subsidiary of Tyler Car & Lumber. It had a mill at Michelli, in Angelina County, from about 1890 or 1891 to 1899, which was sold to Cameron & Company. Clark and Durst were also officers in 1897 in the Tyler Electric Power & Light Company, the property of which was adjacent to that of Tyler Car & Lumber. The company could not recover from financial losses in the Panic of 1893. Nothing could prevent the Sheriff's Sale of the company and its assets on West Erwin to Galveston Dry Goods and the Jennette Lumber & Shingle Company in 1897.