Research: Sawmill Database

Alpha-Numeric Key: NA-12
Corporate Name: Clevenger Lumber Company
Local Name: Clevenger
Owner Name: Joe P. Clevenger
Location: Clevenger: just east of Dorr Creek bridge and north of Dorr Creek Road
County: Nacogdoches
Years in Operation: 11 years
Start Year: 1900
End Year: 1910
Decades: 1900-1909,1910-1919
Period of Operation: 1900 to 1910
Town: Clevenger
Company Town: 1
Peak Town Size: 200 in 1905
Mill Pond:
Type of Mill: Rough and finished pine lumber
Sawmill Pine Sawmill Hardwood Sawmill Cypress Sawmill
Planer Planer Only Shingle Paper
Plywood Cotton Grist Unknown
Other
Power Source: 100 horsepower steam engine
Horse Mule Oxen Water
Water Overshot Water Turbine Diesel Unknown
Pit Steam Steam Circular Steam Band
Gas Electricity Other
Maximum Capacity: 75000: 1906
Capacity Comments: 50,000 feet in 1904; 75,000 feet daily in 1906
Produced:
Rough Lumber Planed Lumber Crossties Timbers
Lathe Ceiling Unknown Beading
Flooring Paper Plywood Particle Board
Treated Other
Equipment: A complete lumber mill with a sawmill, planer, Arkansas dry kilns, circular, matcher, resaw, and cutoff saw
Company Tram:
Associated Railroads: Texas & New Orleans and company tram road
Historicial Development: Clevenger entered lumber business about 1898. His original mill was located about two miles west of Nacogdoches about 1899. When he cutout the timber, Clevenger moved in 1900 and 1901 to the final location on the Texas and New Orleans Railway. In 1902, he bought 585 acres from Blount & Wettermark for $4,977 in the N . de la Cerda grant about seven miles southeast of Nacogdoches. He added to it with 188 acres in the Isaiah Kirby Survey on the east side of Dorr Creek. By 1904, the mill at Clevenger was cutting 50,000 feet daily with the latest of sawmill machinery. Two miles of steel-rail tram road had been laid into the pineries west of the tracks of the T&NO. The mill employed sixty men regularly. The company tram road had three miles of road, one locomotive, and fifteen tram cars. The logging camp was known as Royal. Loggers earned $1.50 per day. Cutting capacity had been increased to 75,000 bd-ft daily in 1906. The community consisted of a commissary, forty houses, a school house, a church. The Company officers in 1905 were J. P. Clevenger, owner; B. M. Hickman, Manager; G. A. Dyer, Mill Foreman; Manager of the commissary and the postmaster, M. P. Hale; G. L. Watts, Woods Superintendent; B. J. Sisson, Mill Engineer; and Locomotive Engineer, C. A. Hawks. The mill burned in 1910 and was not rebuilt. Clevenger, in the 1910 Census records, was listed as living in Nacogdoches at residence 38, Precinct 1. His occupation was still that of a lumberman and sawmiller.
Research Date: LAT 08-08-93, JKG 12-15-93, MCJ 02-10-96
Prepared By: L. Turner, J. Gerland, M. Johnson