| Historicial Development: | This company was located in Phelps. M. B. Pursley had been operating a sawmill for about ten years at Phelps, according to the Lufkin Daily News, in 1943. Pursley sold the mill to George W. Guy on February 23, 1946. The equipment included a sawmill with a carriage, a husk, a 56-inch inserted tooth saw, a complete carriage track, one 36-inch Cornicks edger, one 20-ft double-end trimmer, a slab conveyor, live rollers, a sawdust blower with pipe and fan, a 100' blow pipe, one PA 100-horsepower unit for the planing mill, a #44 Burleson 6-inch by 9-iinch planer with three sets of cutting heads, one lacing machine, a knife grinder, a shavings blower fan, one 100-horsepower Red Seal Continental power unit, three lumber buggies, one 250-gallon gasoline tank, one 14-ft by 28-ft house, a sawmill building, a 8-ft by 10-ft feed house, one planer shed, four Ford trucks, three Nabors trailers, a 1944 Ford-Ferguson tractor four log wagons, four horses and two mules. Five days later George W. Guy changed the name from the Pursley Lumber Company to the West Sandy Lumber Company.
When Guy defaulted on his loans, Pursley retook operations at West Sandy Creek and continued to operate the plant. In November, 1950, a fire, ignited by sparks from a burning slab pile, devastated the sawmill facility. The planer, some trucks, and an amount of lumber were saved. The estimated loss was $50,000, which was partially covered by insurance. Although Pursley told Block he stopped sawmilling in the mid-1950s, a sawmill directory by Samson reported that Pursley was still at Phelps in 1957. |