| Historicial Development: | The Jeans sawmill at Bronson was noted as earlier as 1906, when it was cutting 20,000 feet of lumber daily. The Jeans family operated a number of sawmills in Nacogdoches, Angelina, San Augustine, and Sabine counties, and they spelled their names variously. “Jeans” and “Jeanes” were the two most common versions.
Mrs. Lou Ferguson came to own the S. A. Wallis sawmill by early 1906. She sold it to E. E. Jeans on 17 March 1906; the mortgage was canceled on 2 April 1907. Equipment listed included an engine, a boiler, a carriage, a saw husk, one circular saw, a slab car , the S. A. Wallis sawmill. Jeans was taxed on this property in 1907, 1908, 1909, and 1910. The E. E. Jeanes Lumber Company mortgaged on 21 August 1908 for a Hall & Brown #22 10-inch by 15-inch Mississippi double-surfacer planer-matcher for $1250.
The sawmill operated for many years at the same site. In the 1910 Census, Edward Jeans is listed as “mill man” and living in San Augustine County, at Precinct 1, residence. 260. Shirley Lewis, in an oral interview with Vernon L. Beasley, noted that the “E. E. Jeanes” lumber company operated at San Augustine in 1909. It was cutting 25,000 feet daily. The E. E. Jeanes Lumber Company sawmill mortgaged with T. W. Jeanes & Son for $27,000 his entire sawmill plant, machinery, tenant houses, wagons, teams, commissary goods, and all lumber.
San Augustine County records reveal that E. F. Jeans sold to Mrs. M. C. Burgess in 1935 “one planing mill complete, 1 #22 Hall & Brown planer, 1 H&B knife grinder, boiler, engine, sawmill complete, carriage, mandrel and saw husk, edger, trimmer, haul-up, boiler and engine for sawmill, and automatic saw grinder for $900.” The sawmill may have been closed for some time by 1935. |