East Texas Mill Towns & Ghost Towns Volume 2($14.95Value)

Description

For decades, historians in East Texas have dreamed of completing an anthology of the hundreds of sawmill towns and ghost towns that resulted from the great timber boom between the 1880s and 1920s. Some writers have made a few attempts at collecting and recording some of the towns, but their works have been limited and were focused on the more famous sawmill towns like Browndell, Manning, Ratcliff and Bessmay. In the 1990s, W.T. Block, fascinated by the rich history of the lumbering industry, began a methodical review of sawmill towns and ghost towns in every East Texas county with a timber relationship. Learning of his work, the Pineywoods Foundation of Lufkin made a commitment in 1993 to publish Mr. Block’s work, beginning with Volume I of “East Texas Sawmill Towns and Ghost Towns” Volume 2 contains Hardin, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Sabine, Shelby and Trinity counties. Volume III, to be published by the Foundation later, will include the remainder of the Texas counties with sawmill histories. The publishing of “East Texas Sawmill Towns and Ghost Towns” is a fitting endeavor for the Pineywoods Foundation, which traces its own genesis to the forest products industry. The Foundation was created in the 1980s by a gift from the now defunct Southland Paper Mills Foundation. In 1940, Southland Paper Mills, Inc. pioneered the production of the South’s first pine newsprint from East Texas trees. Many of Southland’s founders were, in fact, early sawmill owners in East Texas, including the Kurth, Temple, Henderson, Thompson, and Weiner families. Readers, especially those who have lived or worked in a sawmill community, will find Mr. Block’s efforts are fascinating and illuminating. His attention to detail and his ability to produce a comprehensive picture of each sawmill and its community has done much to further develop the history and heritage of the forest products industry in East Texas. Bob Bowman Administrator The Pineywoods Foundation Lufkin, Texas