| Alpha-Numeric Key: | HD-36 |
| Corporate Name: | Kirby Lumber Company Mill E |
| Local Name: | Silsbee |
| Owner Name: | Texas Pine Lands Association (1896-1901); Industrial Lumber Company (leased, 1898-1901); Kirby Lumber Company Mill E (1902- 1954). Bought by Santa Fe in 1936. |
| Location: | Twenty-one miles north of Beaumont at Silsbee |
| County: | Hardin |
| Years in Operation: | 59 years |
| Start Year: | 1896 |
| End Year: | 1954 |
| Decades: | 1890-1899,1900-1909,1910-1919,1920-1929,1930-1939,1940-1949,1950-1959, |
| Period of Operation: | 1896 to 1954 (operations transferred to new Silsbee plant) |
| Town: | Silsbee |
| Company Town: | 1 |
| Peak Town Size: | 3500 in 1934 |
| Mill Pond: |  |
| Type of Mill: | General lumber products. 1928: pine and hardwood
| Sawmill |
Pine Sawmill |
Hardwood Sawmill |
 Cypress Sawmill |
| Planer |
Planer Only |
Shingle |
Paper |
| Plywood |
Cotton |
Grist |
Unknown |
| Other |
|
|
|
|
| Power Source: | Steam with electric lighting; two engines, 200-horsepower each.
| Horse |
Mule |
Oxen |
Water |
| Water Overshot |
Water Turbine |
Diesel |
Unknown |
| Pit |
Steam |
Steam Circular |
Steam Band |
| Gas |
Electricity |
Other |
|
|
| Maximum Capacity: | 40000: 1896 60000: 1898 90000: 1904 50000: 1928 |
| Capacity Comments: | 40,000 feet of lumber daily (1896); 60,000 (1898); 90,000 (1904); 1928: 50,000 on sawmill and 100,000 on planers |
| Produced: |
| Rough Lumber |
Planed Lumber |
Crossties |
Timbers |
| Lathe |
Ceiling |
Unknown |
Beading |
| Flooring |
Paper |
Plywood |
Particle Board |
| Treated |
Other |
| |
|
| Equipment: | Sawmill with a circular (1896-1906), and perhaps band and circular after 1906. Planing mill and dry kilns (added after 1904). 1928: Band, resaw, planing mill, edgers, trimmers, dry kilns, logging road, electric light plant, commissary. |
| Company Tram: | |
| Associated Railroads: | Gulf, Beaumont & Kansas City and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Rwys |
| Historicial Development: | The site was the headquarters for Texas Pine Land Association, an early J. H. Kirby enterprise, in 1894. TPLA, to supply the mill of the Reliance Lumber Company at Beaumont with two million feet of logs monthly, however, had a surplus of logs, prompting the TPLA to build its own mill at Silsbee in 1896. The town was named for a Kirby business partner, Nathaniel Silsbee of Boston. In 1898, its capacity was increased from 40,000 to 60,000 feet per day, and the mill was leased to the Industrial Lumber Company of Beaumont. The lease expired in 1901, and the mill became Mill E, one of the original fourteen mills of the newly formed Kirby Lumber Company, on January 1, 1902. By 1904 the mill was connected by tram road with the Kirby mill at Village, on the Texas & New Orleans railway. This action allowed the Silsbee, Village, and Woodville mills to share the same logging camp (camp #1). Portions of the mill burned in 1906 and were soon rebuilt. The original planer was housed in the same building as the saw mill until at least 1906. The plant had no dry kilns originally. They were added possibly during reconstruction of the plant in 1906. In any event, they appeared in a 1911 appraisal of the mill. The appraised value of the mill in 1904 was $65,900. In 1911 the mill was valued at $277,500. The Silsbee mill cut long leaf pine mostly and some short leaf pine. Until the building of new Silsbee plant in the early 1950s, the sawmill at Silsbee regularly employed 250 to 275 workers. The mill ran nights often.
|
| Research Date: | JKG 10-13-93, MCJ 03-13-96 |
| Prepared By: | J Gerland, M Johnson |