| Historicial Development: | Stephen White's multi-purpose operation of a sawmill and a grist mill manufactured lumber and ground meal. Valued at $3,000, it had raw materials including $761 in sawlogs and $3,750 worth of corn. It carried a monthly saw mill payroll of 3 men averaging $18 each and 1 men at the grist mill making $20 monthly. The sawmill produced 468,000 feet of lumber valued at $4,680 and 3,500 bushels of cornmeal valued at $4,200.
White was notable in the early affairs of Houston County, one of the original petitioners in 1837 for the creation of the county, as the county's first district clerk, and in 1839 as a justice of the peace.
Randolph was an early Houston County community situated to the east of Crockett. White probably shipped any export of cornmeal and lumber at Hall's Bluff and Alabama on the Trinity River. The coming of the International & Great Northern to Crockett in 1872, with greater opportunity for transportation, led to the demise of this early East Texas community. |