A biographical sketch of Robert B. Russell is imperative at this point. He was born in Utica, New York, in 1817, but at an early age, he moved to San Augustine County, from which point he enlisted in the Texas Army and fought at the Battle of San Jacinto. The only San Jacinto veteran to reside at Orange, he is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, where in 1973 the author applied for and received a state marker (paid for by his two grandsons) from the State of Texas that now rests on Russell's grave; the author paid for its installation.86
Russell moved to Orange in 1854, where he ran a hotel and also served as the Confederate postmster until 1865. In 1877, after R. B. Russell had been manufacturing cypress shingles for eleven years, a Galveston editor reported that: "....Under its present management, Russell and Sons has sawed over 50,00,000 shingles."87
Despite the statement in the Southern Industrial and Lumber Review (Fn.85) about the Russell mill's cutting capacity, the mill discontinued manufacturing lumber immediately and its daily cut of shingles loafed along at about 75,000 throughout the 1870's. Several statements in a Galveston newspaper observed that:
. . . Russell and Sons have 4,500,000 shingles on hand
. . . .Russell and Sons mill is averaging 70,000 shingles daily.88
.. . .The shingle mill of R. B. Russell and Son started up again Monday and is now under full headway, turning out 75,000 shingles a day.89
. . .Russell and Son's mill is now averaging 400,000 shingles a week. They made a sale of a half-million to one party last week.90. . .The foundation and framework of Russell and Son's mill is finished, and the weather-boarding is now being put on
. . . .The mill of R. B. Russell and Son, which stopped running nearly two months ago in order to have a new foundation put under it and to rebuild the whole framework, started up yesterday.91. . . .
The following statistics for the R. B. Russell mill were recorded in the Schedule V, Products of Industry, census for the year ending July 1, 1880, as follows:92
. . . R. B. Russell and Son Shingle Mill, Orange, Texas. Capitalization-$20,000; employees-maximum, 50; minimum, 45; daily work hours-9 1/2 winter, 11 in summer; daily wages-skilled, $5.00, unskilled, $1.50; annual wages paid-$8,000; months in operation-5, idle for repairs, 7 months; equipment-one 4-gang saw, one circular saw, two boilers, two 50-horsepower steam engines; raw material and value-cypress logs worth $12,000, mill supplies worth $2000; product-10,000,000 shingles; product value-$25,000; origin of logs-Sabine River and tributaries. Mill did no logging, but shipped some shingles on its own schooners.
The life of the Texas hero, Robert B. Russell, soon came to a sad end late in November, 1880, when a Beaumont editor observed that:93
. . . Death of A San Jacinto Veteran--Our readers will be distressed to learn of the sad death of Mr. R. B. Russell, one of the best and most prominent citizens of Orange. One day last week, while looking at one of the (box) cars, which had been loaded with shingles at his mill, some of his men, not noticing him, ran another car down the track, and Mr. Russell was caught between the bumpers and received injuries from which he died last Tuesday morning. . . .
Although no other mention of Russell's schooner fleet has been noticed elsewhere, except in the 1880 census, it's obvious that the company owned its own schooners for transporting shingles to Galveston and elsewhere. Generally, the 1880's were years when lumber and shingles exceeded supply, and the shingle firm, redesignated Russell Brothers, prospered greatly. It is obvious, too, that sometime after 1880, Russell Brothers' mill was overhauled and new and improved shingle machines installed, for in March, 1889, their daily shingle cutting capacity was reported as being 125,000.94 In June, 1890, the Russell shingle mill burned to the ground and was never rebuilt, probably because the Sabine River cypress timber supply was almost exhausted, having already caused other shingle makers to cease operations.
In July, 1891, an unnamed Orange historian wrote that Russell Brothers shingle mill was "still in operation as a cypress shingle mill."95 The editor of Galveston Weekly News, however, quickly took the historian to task, observing that:96
. . . this historian who writes from Orange cannot be safely credited as he states that the shingle mill of R. B. Russell "is still in operation as a cypress shingle mill." As a matter of fact, the Russell shingle mill was burned down several months ago and has never been rebuilt. The mill site was sold last week to Messrs. W. H. Stark and Dr. (E. W.) Brown, sons-in-law of Mr. H. J. Lutcher, for $5,000. . . .
Used with permission.
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