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Kirby Lumber Company Mill N

One of Sam Allen and Company's several East Texas sawmills was located at Mobile, Tyler County, about six miles west of Colmesneil on the Trinity and Sabine railroad. The mill site was established in 1883, but much of the mill's early history has not survived. The plant was operating at 40,000 feet daily in April 1893, but it is not known for sure if this was the original mill. W.E. Trotti and Associates purchased the mill sometime before November 1897, and they organized the Southwestern Lumber Company. The new company installed many improvements and built a new planer which was operating by early fall 1897. Four years later, however, the Kirby Lumber Company assumed ownership (by contract) of the Mobile plant on January 1, 1902, classifying it as “Mill N.” Kirby soon rebuilt the saw mill proper, increasing its capacity to 60,000 feet a day. A Kirby company evaluation done in 1904 reported the timber supply as “limited to probably five years.” The mill was apparently operating in 1905, for a memorandum from Kirby to Santa Fe officials, requested “that the Receivers [of the Kirby Lumber Company] be permitted to cut the timber on an isolation portion of the Kountze lands before withdrawal of a tram road, timber to be milled at a mill near Mobile.” A newspaper clipping, identified as “Beaumont Enterprise, March 25, 1905,” found in the Texas Forestry Museum's W.T. Block Collection, reports the Mobile mill as “being dismantled.” The Mobile mill still appeared, however, in the Lumbermen's Credit Association records in January 1907. The mill was abandoned, it is believed, in late 1910. A Kirby Lumber Company railroad map for 1911 does not indicate a mill at Mobile. The Mobile plant appeared as Mill M on a company schedule in 1910. In addition to having no dry kilns, Mobile also had no mill pond, but water supply in the form of cold springs was reported as excellent. Kirby logged Mobile with Shay (geared) engines, and it was reported by the company in 1904 that the “rough country” around the mill necessitated the use of 36-in narrow gauge geared engines.

Mill Details

Alpha Numeric Key:

TY

Owner Name

Kirby Lumber Company, Mill N. Southwestern management was organized as D.R. Swift, president; B.A. Trotti, vice-president; and W.E. Trotti, secretary- treasurer and manager. Sam Allen & Company

Location

Mobile, six miles west of Colmesneil

County

Tyler

Years in Operation:

25

Start Year:

1883

End Year:

1907

Decades:

1880-1889,1900-1909,1900-1909,1910-1919

Period of Operation:

Sam Allen, 1883/1889; Southwestern Lumber Company, 1897; Kirby, 1902 to about 1907

Town:

Mobile

Company Town:

1

Peak Town Size:

69 in 1905

Mill Pond:

1

Mill Type
Product
Power Source
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