Research: Sawmill Database

Alpha-Numeric Key:	CH-11
Corporate Name:	John W. Cook
Local Name:
Owner Name:	John W. Cook
Location:	Wallisville, on the east bank of the Trinity River
County:	Chambers
Years in Operation:	21 years
Start Year:	1895
End Year:	1915
Decades:	1890-1899,1900-1909,1910-1919
Period of Operation:	1895 to 1915
Town:	Wallisville
Company Town:	2
Peak Town Size:	128 in 1905
Mill Pond:
Type of Mill:	Hardwood lumber for the German export trade Sawmill Pine Sawmill Hardwood Sawmill Cypress Sawmill Planer Planer Only Shingle Paper Plywood Cotton Grist Unknown Other
Power Source:	Steam Horse Mule Oxen Water Water Overshot Water Turbine Diesel Unknown Pit Steam Steam Circular Steam Band Gas Electricity Other
Maximum Capacity:
Capacity Comments:	Unknown
Produced:	Rough Lumber Planed Lumber Crossties Timbers Lathe Ceiling Unknown Beading Flooring Paper Plywood Particle Board Treated Other
Equipment:	Sawmill
Company Tram:
Associated Railroads:	At Liberty: Texas & New Orleans
Historicial Development:	John Cook's sawmill next to Wallisville was noted in the Wallisville Age in 1899. It lasted until the great storm of 1915, for other lumber concerns in the area were active until that time in supplying the German wood market, as was Cook. The Horatio, C. R. Cummings' steamboat and flagship, was picking up “logs and lumber for Hamburg, Germany,” from Cook's loading docks at the mill, in 1899. The Gulf Coast Lumberman reported that more than thirty sawmills in Texas and Louisiana were damaged or destroyed by the hurricane. A photograph recorded the remains of Cook's sawmill after the great hurricane of 1915. The business remained small through 1900: only forty-four workers in the county were listed as lumberman in the census that year. 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.
Research Date:	MCJ 04-02-96
Prepared By:	M Johnson