| History: | Guy Croom and Archie Birdsong Matthews noted that a small mill operated about 1915 at Cochran, a small community several miles north of Lufkin on the tracks of the Houston East & West Texas. The Angelina County Bills of Sale records register a sale of lumber from the Cochran Lumber Company, located six miles north of Lufkin at Cochran Switch, to the William Cameron & Co in 1906. The partners were J. H. Cochran and W. T. Harklerood. Ted Maberry reported in The Redlander that Cochran died in 1909 and that the mill was bought by Luke S. Wright, who operated it until 1917. This would have been the Wright & Jones Lumber Company, including Raymond Jones. It had a full sawmill operation plus logging tram and sawmill community. Jones was the mill foreman, the logging contractor was Nemrod Berry, and Hiram Brown took care of the company teams. Brown had to have a leg amputated after a mule bit him so hard that the bones were crushed. Wright built a commissary and boarding house and about fifteen shot-gun houses.
Luke Wright moved the sawmill from Davisville to Hoshall in 1917. Cochran's Switch quickly disappeared. Wright also ran mills at Hoshall, Lukfin, northeast of Clawson, and at White City.
Luke Wright worked earlier for the Cameron Lumber company interests as a shipping clerk at Carmona and later at Saron. |