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Shays and Musket Balls
Logging Railroads of Mississippi
On this page I will attempt to provide information on as many Mississippi logging railroads as possible.Seeing how there were at least 600 of them,that might take a while...
Much thanks to Tony Howe, David Price, and Gil Hoffman for the massive contribution to the information on Mississippi logging railroads. Little would be known if it were not for them. Thanks!
Estes Lumber Co. 1915-1920
The Estes Lumber Company was a partnership composed of Robert Lee Mitchell,
Floyd Herrington and W. S. Pettis, all of Ellisville, MS. The company purchased
the sawmill, logging railroad and timber holdings of W. W. Estes, at Estes,
Winston County, on February 24, 1915. The sawmill was of the circular type with
a cutting capacity of about 35,000 feet per day and produced shortleaf and
rosemary pine lumber and timbers. Estes was on the Gulf, Mobile & Northern
Railroad, four miles south of Louisville. R. L. Mitchell was manager of
operations and Floyd Herrington was in charge of sales. The standard gauge logging railroad ran
westward for about 8 miles. The company had one Shay weighing about 17 tons (C/N
1998) which was traded in on one 28-ton Shay (C/N 2571).
Legan & McClure Lbr. Co. 1920-1931
On April 1, 1920 the entire holdings were sold to the Legan & McClure Lumber
Company, of Morton, Miss., for ,000. This purchase included the sawmill,
railroad and timber holdings comprising some 15,000 acres of shortleaf pine in
Winston County. Another tract of timber was purchased from the Sumter Lumber
Company, of Electric Mills, MS. Stockholders of the company were, to a great
extent, also stockholders in the Hall & Legan Lumber Company, of Morton, MS, and
the South Arkansas Lumber Company, of St. Louis, MO. George W. Legan was
president and general manager. The sawmill had a cutting capacity of 85,000 feet
per day. By 1931, the railroad ran about 18 miles eastward.
Legan-McClure cut the "King Shortleaf", reputedly the larggest shortleaf in the world, located 16 miles east of Louisville. The tree survived a tornado that leveled the surronding forest, and was spared the saw due to its massive size. However, lightning hit it in the early 20's, and the tree began to die.Legan-McClure brought in a 16 foot crosscut saw to harvest the tree. It was 120 feet long, and 7 feet 3 inches wide across the stump. The tree was three miles from the logging railroad, so it was hauled in using oxen. Interestingly, the tree was(and still is to a lesser extent) famous in that area. In fact, it was included in schoolbooks on Mississippi history.
Of personal note, one of my great-great aunts worked as a secretary for Estes, and later Legan-McClure, and took some photographs of the operations there. I now own them, albiet in a somewhat detoriated condition.
Locomotives owned by Legan & McClure at Estes included 28-ton Shay (C/N 2571),
42-ton Shay (C/N 2122), 42-ton Heisler (C/N 1235), 40-ton 0-6-0, 47-ton Baldwin
2-8-0 (C/N 7157), and 72-ton Baldwin 2-8-2 (C/N 52246, formerly Sewell Valley
#6). The company also owned 35 log cars and 25 skeleton log cars.
Lamiss Lbr. Co. 1931-32
The company went into receivership and on April 6, 1931 its assets were sold to
the Lamiss Lumber Company, a Louisiana corporation. In May 1932 the Lamiss mill
was taken over by the J. M. Griffin Lumber Company which had just cut out at
Holopaw, Florida. The Griffin operation specialized in pine timbers, special
cuttings and rough and dressed finish.
(This info from Tony Howe)
Eastman, Gardiner and Co. 1891-1937
One of the largest companies in Laurel, MS, E-G was founded by a partnership of the Eastman and Gardiners of Iowa. They ran a lumber buisness there until 1891 when George S. Gardiner purchased the holdings of George Kamper,a German lumberman. His small, somewhat run-down mills were located in and around Laurel. Kamper operated a pole road running east of Laurel.
In 1893, E-G, with George S. Gardiner as president, C.C. Eastman as treasurer, and L.C. Eastman as secretary, built an upgraded mill in town.After using a short standard gauge road running east, powered by a Baldwin 0-6-0 named "Nancy", they soon focused on the territory to the northwest, running to the Leaf River. They embarked upon a massive buying campaing in 1899,and built a main line running from Laurel to a connection with the Gulf & Ship Island in Saratoga.The line was sold to the G&SI in 1899, but trackage rights were reserved by E-G.The company later bought tracts of timber west of the Leaf, and also purchased a tract north of Ellisville. It was logged via a spur off of the Gulf, Mobile, and Northern. However,logging operations would be primarily centered north of the G&SI Saratoga branch. In 1930 E-G bought the logging railroad of the DuBois Lumber Co. that ran from Lake south. The company built a connection to the road and logged their holdings along it.
Meanwhile, the company developed several log camps, including Cohay I, Cohay II, Cohay II, Wisner, Beartown, New Camp(Leaf River), Rogers, Brady, and one near Soso.They used portable houses, as well as camp cars permanently attached to a pair of trucks.The portable houses were moved by means of a steel rod that was lowered into the house,a nut-bolt-washer assembly attached, and then lifted by a Barnhart loader off of a log car to the the ground.Some of the camps contain a couple thousand people, and Wisner Camp was incorparated.
Railroad operations made use of a large roster of locomotives, including was perhaps the most unusual Shay roster in Mississippi.Lima Shays c
numbers 515, 566, 570, 2515, 1550, 2307, 3139, all bought brand-new by E-G, were equiped with full-length canopy roofs, a very defining feature. Even after the cabs were removed, most likely during the early 20's(none of the former camp residents I have talked to remember the long roofs), the high mounted whistles and unusually shaped domes and stack continued to bear evidence of their past. E-G also owned several rare and unusual rod locos.The company owned a very rare Baldwin 2-4-4-2,a rare type of Baldwin 2-4-0, and a 4-8-0, probably the only one to ever run in Mississippi. The 2-4-4-2 was returned to Baldwin, but the little 2-4-0 was used quite often on passenger and crew trains, and at least a few times on log trains.All of the locomotives, and skidders as well, were painted very nicely with the name of E-G's railroad, the Laurel & Tallahoma Western.The skidders were home-built, and were big 4-line machines with a mule rehaul system. No.1 was built from steel, and was a very impressive contraption. No.2 was wooden, but otherwise fairly similar to No.1. There was supposedly another skidder, but we have been unable to find any photographs of it. E-G used a fleet of Barnhart log loaders to load their log trains.All of their equipment burned wood, although the engines were converted to coal during the 20's.To produce a steady supply of wood,E-G built a wood-cutting car.This car was equiped with a saw blade fo quartering the logs into sections, and a chopping blade to split the sections up into fuel.
Operations drew to a close in 1937 when the Green Lumber Co. officially took over(Charles Green had been president for several years).The locomotives and rolling stock sat on the deadline until 1940-1941,although Shay No.71 was borrowed by nearby Masonite Lumber Co. for mill switching. However, time had run out for the railroad, and it was cut up for scrap, ending the history of one Mississippi's largest and longest-lived lumber companies.
(There is far more information on this company, and hundreds of photographs.Don't expect this article to be the last word on E-G on this site.)
Pearl River lumber Company 1891-1909
This lumber company ran the largest operation in Lincoln County, Mississippi, yet timbering operations lasted only ten years. The company was founded by David J. Batchelder. He had once been in buisness with the Eastmans and Gardiners of Iowa. They had toured the state in search of new timberland, the Eastmans and Gardiners choosing Laurel, Batchelder deciding on Brookhaven. He founded the Pearl River lumber Company on March 3, 1891, in partnership with Charles Wells and Alfred Smith, both from Iowa. In May of l891, they began buying lands, finishing in l894 after aquiring 30,000 acres. In March of l899, the Pearl River Lumber Co. of Mississippi, composed of Batchelder, the Moretons, and various Brookhaven businessmen. The old Iowa company sold all its holdings to the new company on March 25,l899. About one year later, the company began construction of a mill on a 281 acre site on the edge of northeast Brookhaven. It had a daily cutting capacity of l50,000 feet. It was a very advanced and efficiient mill equipped with many automated features and in l903, an electric light system. On the west side of the mill a company town was under construction, replete with on office building, two-story hotel, commissary, and 235 company houses. It was incorporated in August, l901 as Pearlhaven, with a population of 300. By l904 it had grown to l,0l7.
The company's logging railroad was standard gauge running east of Pearlhaven. The line was bought from the Illinois Central who leased materials for the construction of the line. It was extended east of Brookhaven, running in a winding pattern, which gave it its local name, the "Peavine". By the summer of l900,the company owned a 32-ton 4-4-0, No. 1, and a 42-ton 4-6-0, No. 2, both bought from the Illinois Central. Realizing that the rod engines would work well only on the mainline, the company bought a 3 truck, 90 ton Lima Shay in October of l900, followed by the purchase of a second, identical Shay, a 50-ton 2-8-0, and a 3-truck, 60-ton Shay, numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6, respictively. In 1903 70 log cars and 3 American log loaders were in use. Pearl River was one of the first lumber companies in the South to use this machine(see "Skidders and Loaders")
Their log camps were typically equiped with 60 various camp cars and 60 one room shacks. There were commisary and office, kitchen and dining, bedroom, machine shop, blacksmith shop, and horse barn carns, many built from boxcars. The horse barn was an unusual railroad car built with moveable sides and openings for the feed troughs. Large flaps folded out and gates and dividing fences swung forward to form the barn.
By June of 1902, the mainline ran 13 miles east of Pearlhaven into the new community of Nola, named after the man who donated the land for the station, and had built a country store along the line. In 1903 news broke that the IC planned to buy the Pearl River's line and extend it east to Monticello. After much stipulation and stalling by the IC, a deal was finially struck on June 11, 1904. The line was incorparated on November 4, 1904 as the Brookhaven and Pearl River Railway. The line was completed to Monticello on December 9, 1904. The new railroad caused much excitement for the little town, and a giant barbecue was held December 15, with 2,500 people turning up, despite the dreary, cold weather, along with a brass band.
The new railroad company began operation on January 17, 1905, and began running daily mixed trains, 101 and 103 leaving from Brookhaven, trains 102 and 104 departing from Monticello.
Not long after, a new plot began to take shape involving the Goodyear brothers of New York. They had begun to buy up vast areas of timberland in Mississippi and Lousiana. They planned to build a large sawmill in Washington Parish, Louisiana, and build a 60-mile long railroad. They were also obtaining options in several lumber companies, including the Pearl River. They organized as the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad Company of Louisiana in Janurary of 1905, later incorparating in Mississippi. On May 6, 1905, it was revealed that the Goodyear syndicate had bought the entire capitol stock of the Pearl River Lumber Company, along with all the company holdings. With the profits from the sale, Batchelder and two associates bought the Tremont Lumber Company in Louisiana, while the Moretons went on to establish the long-lived Central Lumber Company. I.C. Enochs became the new president of the Pearl River, and began to buy new motive power. The Goodyears as disclosed plans to build their NOGN from Slidell, Louisiana to, guess where, Monticello, Mississippi.
(more coming!)
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