Sawmill |
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C. R. Cummings Export Company |
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Location: Across the river from Wallisville
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| Corporate Name: C. R. Cummings Export Company Local Name: Owner/Company Affiliation: C. R. Cummings Export Company Location: Across the river from Wallisville County: Chambers Comment on Periods of Operation: 1898 to 1915 Capacity Comments: 60,000 feet daily in 1915 Type of Mill: Pine, cypress, white ash, and cottonwood (ninety percent of production was board stock in 1915); ties, shingles Power Source: Steam Equipment: Two small circular sawmills at first, then a band saw and a shingle mill about 1901, later adding a planing mill, dry sheds, and dry kilns. Mill Pond: Yes City/Town: Wallisville Company Town?: Yes Size of Company Town at Peak: 128 in 1905 Associated Railroads: Exported production via the Trinity River and Galveston Bay Historical Development: The Wallisville mill of C. R. Cummings was a consolidation of his earlier mills at Liberty and Anahuac in 1898. The company began the move by constructing a river log boom and taking a twenty-year lease from J. J. Maye for a mill site on twenty-five acres on the west bank of the Trinity. The company bought the Horatio from the Liberty Lumber Company, after the latter's destruction during the great storm of 1897, for shipping lumber to the gulf for export, along with the steam tugs Helen and Dick. The business remained small through 1900: only 44 workers in the county were listed as lumberman. With the Stephens Mill, John Cook's mill, and the Kilgore & Beckwith mill competing for mill hands, all of the mills were small by necessity and certainly did not do their own logging until at least 1901. In 1905, Cumming Export bought 1,600 acres of pine forest and built a company tram from it to the mill at Wallisville, in order to meet a contract for manufacturing 30,000 ties for the Galveston market. Its tram road was known as the "Cummings Express," which ran east to Turtle Bayou, then north to Spinks Creek and into south Liberty County. At its logging camp at Clark was located semi-permanent housing, a blacksmith shop, and a commissary. The company employed more than 200 men at busy peaks of operation. Cummings bought a thousand acres of timberlands in the B. M. Spinks and 1,600 acres in the T. Devers surveys. The mill employed a segregated work force of whites, African-Americans, and Mexicans. A boiler explosion killed a Mexican and three African-Americans in 1913. The great storm of 1915 destroyed the mill. More than thirty sawmills in Texas and Louisiana were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. Comments: C. R. Cummings may have had an interest in the Cummings & Retlig pine and hardwood mill at Sabine, Jefferson County, in 1905. Cummings, F. A. Langhen, and G. A. Weber incorporated the Galveston Creosoting Company in 1906. Data Sheet: J. Gerland, M. Johnson Date Prepared: JKG 12-1-93, MCJ 04-02-96 Bibliography: J. C. Nellis and A. H. Pierson. Directory of American Sawmills. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1915. 212. Rosalie Fincher. "The History of Liberty County." M. A. thesis, University of Texas, 1937. 74. Liberty Vindicator. January 10, 1896. October 8, 1897. February 12, 1904. February 5, March 12,1909. Reference Book of the Lumbermen's Credit Association, January 1905. Chicago: Lumbermen's Credit Association, 1905. Reference Book of the Lumbermen's Credit Association, January 1907. Chicago: Lumbermen's Credit Association, 1907. 55.American Lumberman. March 4, 1905; April 7, 1906, 56. J. S. Harry. The History of Chambers County, Texas. Dallas, 1981. 141. (Galveston) Daily News. December 10, 1896. Corps of Engineers. Cultural Resources Evaluation of . . . The Cummings Lumber Mill etc. Baton Rouge: July 1985. 27-37. Liberty County Deed Records. Vol W: 370-371, 457. (Beaumont) Journal. January 15, November 13, 1904. February 26, 1905. The Gulf Coast Lumberman. September 1, 1915. W. T. Block. "The Cummings Mill Operation and Machinery." Unpublished manuscripts. Alpha: CH Number: 4 Years of Operation: Start: 1898 Years of Operation: End: 1915 Years of Operation: Number: Years of Operation: Decades: 1890-1899 Capacity: 60000: 1915 Company Owned Tram?: Yes Mill Type : Pine Sawmill, Hardwood Sawmill, Planer, Shingle Power : Steam, Steam Band Saw Production : Rough Lumber, Crossties, Other Commentary: M. Johnson Commentary Date: MCJ 04-02-96 |
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