Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 48
Corporate Name: Spring Creek Mills
Folk Name: None
Incorporated:
Ownership: Solomon N. Beard
Years of Operation: 1903 to ca. 1910
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: Several miles
Locations Served: Spring Creek (Montgomery)
Counties of Operation: Montgomery
Line Connections: International & Great Northern two miles south of Willis
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: 1903: W. T. Carter and Brother (Camden) sold to S. N. Beard of Willis one 3 cylinder 7x7 Shay locomotive, six narrow gauge log cars, and 120 tons of 35# rails. Other assets Beard was known to have for logging included horses, mules, three log wagons, one truck, and four lumber dollies.
History: Solomon N. Beard, a Montgomery County sawmiller, operated in the triangle of Montgomery to the west, Willis to the northeast, and Conroe to the southeast. His tram road was used for logging. W. T. Carter and Brother (Camden) sold to S. N. Beard of Willis one 3 cylinder 7x7 Shay locomotive, six narrow gauge log cars, and 120 tons of 35# rails. Price was $6500, $1500 cash and $5,000 in 33 notes. Other assets Beard was known to have for logging included horses, mules, three log wagons, one truck, and four lumber dollies. Keeling notes that S. W. Beard at Willis had a narrow gauge logging tram road. Beard with partners acquired the Spring Creek Sawmill Company sawmill in 1907 nearby at Willow. See entry. An undated inventory of tram equipment that belonged to Spring Creek Mills included the following: one 11-ton, 8-inch by 8-inch cylinder Shay locomotive; eight logging cars; twelve cant hooks; six log carts; one log wagon; seventeen yokes for oxen and thirty-four ox bows; twenty pull chains; one 50-ft loading chain; two pair of swamping tongs; twelve shovels; four 6-ft crosscut saws; one set of crosscut saw filing tools; one hatchet; six pair of saw handles; fifty feet of 5/8-inch close link chain; and seventy-five feet of 1/2-inch close link chain.