Lutcher and Moore , from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, relocated in Orange and began building their first mill, the Crescent & Queen, known as the Upper Mill and bought the L. Miller Lumber and Shingle Company plant, known as the Lower Mill. The firm also operated mills at Tyron, in Orange County, as well as in Louisiana. The census of 1880 enumerated the sawmill plant with a d capitalization of $60,000. Sixty employees earned an annual wage of $35,000. Skilled labor earned $3.50 daily and unskilled drew $1.50 daily. Employees worked eleven and a half hours daily for the ten months the plant ran during the reporting period. From sawtimber worth $75,000 and supplies valued at $5,000, fifteen million feet of lumber and seven and a half million lathes were produced, with a retail value of $150,000 annual.
The firm began building a Louisiana tram road to Nibblett's Bluff, sixteen miles north of Orange, in 1885, that supplied its needs for forty-five years. In 1905, the Gulf & Sabine railroad included 100 miles of main and lateral tracks, ten locomotives, and 151 log cars. The company paid a monthly wage of $22,000 by 1905 to its employees, who worked ten-hour days. The Great Depression and a lack of sawtimber ended milling at Orange. Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company leased Lutcher's log reserve in Newton County.
During the 1930s, the company operated a retail and wholesale distribution yard at Orange. During World War II, Lutcher & Moore ran a few small mills north of Orange, cutting rough lumber. It also established a small planing operation at Orange that was still running in 1948 and later ran a sawmill until about 1970. In 1966, the company employed sixty-five men in reforestation. Shortly thereafter, Boise Southern Co. of De Ridder, Louisiana, gained all stock in the company.