The Orange Lumber Company traced its origin to a combination saw and shingle mill built at Orange in 1876 by McKinnon, Jackson and Downs. Known at first as McKinnon, Jackson and Company, the firm became John McKinnon and Company in 1879 when McKinnon bought out his partners.135 The first mill is believed to have had a capacity of about 30,000 feet of lumber and 25,000 shingles daily. When the 1880 Products of Industry census for Orange County was made, the following mill statistics were recorded:136
. . . John McKinnon and Company, Orange, Texas. Capitalization: $35,000; employees: 25 throughout year; daily work hours: 9 in winter, 11 in summer; daily wages paid: skilled, $3.00, unskilled, $1.50; annual wages paid: $10,000; months in operation: 12; equipment: one 4-gang saw, 2 circular saws, 2 boilers, one 80-horsepower steam engine; raw materials and value: cypress logs worth $31,000, mill supplies worth $500; product: 5,000,000 feet of lumber, 2,000,000 shingles; product value: $50,000; origin of logs: Sabine River swamps--mill did no logging.
About 1888, John McKinnon's health began to fail, and he sold a majority interest in his company to M. T. Jones Lumber Company of Houston. A Galveston editor observed in the same year that:137
. . . J. McKinnon and Co. own a fine mill and a planer of a little smaller capacity. Their machinery is modern and their Mr. John McKinnon is an active, energetic millman. They commenced with small mills and gradually acquired their present proportions.....
By March, 1889, the name of the McKinnon mill had been changed to Orange Lumber Company. In that year the mill had a capacity of 60,000 feet, but all shingle-making by the company had already ceased.138 About 1891, the controlling interest of a neighboring sawmill, Wingate and Company, also passed to M. T. Jones Lumber Company, and for a few years, John McKinnon was also active in the management of that firm.139 Also in 1891, the Orange Lumber Company was converted into a joint stock company. In 1898 M. T. Jones died, and his nephew, Jesse H. Jon, the new head of the parent firm, M. T. Jones Lumber Company, promoted C. F. Pannewitz of Orange as general manager of both the Wingate and Orange Lumber Company sawmills. Under Pannewitz, the Orange Lumber Company shipped 25.4 million feet of lumber in 1901 and 30.2 million feet in 1902. Also major improvements were added to the Orange Lumber sawmill in 1902 when a huge Corliss engine and a gang saw were installed. By 1904 the Orange Lumber Company was reported as cutting 150,000 feet daily, with 225 mill hands on the payroll. But some of Pannewitz' best efforts came to naught as the Wingate sawmill at Orange burned down for the third time in April, 1902, and the Orange Lumber Company's plant burned down on March 28, 1905.140
The Orange Lumber Company's property was immediately rebuilt, however, and by September, 1906, the new mill's cutting capacity was reported once more as 100,000 feet daily.141 Very little is known by the writer about the last years of that sawmill. It did manage to help supply the great demands for lumber at Orange during World War I. Gateway To Orange observed that the Orange Lumber Company plant burned for a second time about November, 1918, and since its stumpage reserve was about exhausted, the mill was not rebuilt. And the screech of its mighty band saw was silenced into the dustbin of history.142
Used with permission.
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