| History: | A sawmill operation ran for more than twenty years, 1885 to 1908, at Clawson, six miles northwest of Lufkin and adjacent to the tracks of the St Louis Southwestern. The T.R. Bonner and Company sawmill built the sawmill and operated it until fire destroyed the it and dry kilns on August 23, 1891. A.L. Clark, president of the Tyler Car and Lumber Company, became trustee of T.R. Bonner and Company; he soon conveyed the burned mill and properties to the newly-formed Clawson Lumber Company on December 30, 1891. The mill was rebuilt and was advertised as cutting 75,000 feet per day in 1897. For a time the mill served as a Foster Lumber Company contract mill, and was sold by Clawson to the Foster company on April 20, 1903. The Henderson Land and Lumber Company then operated the mill under lease for nor more than five years. The Foster Company was not pleased with the initial operations of the Clawson mill under Henderson management. The demise of the mill is uncertain, for a deed by that date refers to a tract of property as adjoining the property on which “Clawson's mill was situated.”
A deed of 1891 indicates that the Clawson mill operated a narrow gauge (three feet) tram line, and rail property consisted of one locomotive, eight log cars, and three and a half miles of track. According to Bowman, the logging camp was at Caruthers, and undoubtedly continued under the Henderson Land & Lumber Company. |