Beaumont: Lumber Mill City of the Nineteenth Century

Before oil, Beaumont ran on logs. A Wiess family history says oxen dragged them to the Neches and they floated down to the mills, with oxen still working the woods until 1885. It dates the first circular mill to 1859, built by Ross and Alexander to cut 2,000 feet a day, and credits the Bremer mill of 1869 with 1,500. It says Otto Rull built a mill and died of yellow fever soon after. Kirby formed his lumber company in 1901 from about fourteen mills, and many Texas firms had cut out their timber by the 1920s.

What the plaque says

Beaumont: Lumber Mill City of the Nineteenth Century Beaumont, situated in forests, was a timber town at birth, and marked this site "Steam Mill Square" on its original plat. By 1840, Lucien Hopson had a saw pit on a canal to the south, floating in logs and floating out lumber. Hand-powered shingle and sash mills were soon operating. In the 1850s, steam mills were initiated. Pre-1861 mill firms included Phillips, Ross & Alexander, Otto Ruff, and A. J. Ward. After the Civil War (1861-65) brought ruin, the mills helped the city recover. Bremer Lumber, Goldsmith & Reagan, Long & Long, and Pipkin & Haltom were operating by 1870. Beaumont Lumber Company, Olive & Sternenberg, Reliance, and the Smyth Brothers (Eagle Mill) were here by 1877. Later came Adams & Milmo, Globe Planing Mill, Industrial Lumber, Miller Vidor Lumber, Neches Lumber, the Southern Land & Lumber Company, and Texas Tram & Lumber Company. About 1900, tycoon John Henry Kirby bought several of the Beaumont mills. By the 1920s nearby forests were depleted. Log-floating on the Neches gave way to hauling by railroad, and the city mills were phased out in favor of mills in the woods. (1977)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 1.3 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 3.5 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 17 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Nancy Tevis — steps away
• Beaumont — steps away
• Henry Millard — steps away
• William G. "Bill" Hall — steps away