In 1900, the Bancroft mill was rated at 90,000 feet daily. During 268 days the mill operated in 1900, it manufactured 23 million feet of lumber, averaging 85,800 feet for each work day. For the first year that Kirby operated the sawmill, George Bancroft raised the mill's output to more than 26 million feet in 345 operating days. The count must have included some night shifts since Sunday mill operation ordinarily was seldom conducted in East Texas. Bancroft resigned in October, 1902 (although he remained on the job a few weeks longer), and noted that Kirby had refused to increase his $250 monthly salary.115 However, Bancroft had organized and become president of the Orange National Bank in 1901, and he probably wanted to work full-time as a banker.116
In 1901, the Bancroft mill had no dry kilns, but it had developed an elaborate system of air-drying. A system of rails carried the lumber dollies from the sawmill to the yard and from the yard to the planer. In the yard, "stationary bins" ten feet wide were built for air-drying the lumber, over which roofs were built to keep out the rain. The date that each "bin" was stacked full of lumber was then recorded, and after four or five months, each "bin" was emptied on schedule and sent to the planing mill for dressing.117 By 1904, a number of "Porcupine" brick dry kilns had been added by Kirby with a daily capacity for steam-drying 30,000 feet.118
No company commissary was maintaind at Orange by either Bancroft or Kirby because a number of mercantile houses were located nearby. Hence, despite three major sources of information about the Bancroft or Kirby mill, no explanation was offered about how either company paid off its employees in an age when "mill checks," good only at the company store, was the norm in East Texas. In 1902, Kirby employed 85 men at "Mill D," and E. W. Bancroft, who continued to log "Mill D" until Kirby bought him out, worked fifty loggers on the 13,800-acre pinery at Whitman's Bluff. Very quickly, Kirby began logging "Mill D" over the Orange and Northwestern Railroad from Buna as well, in case the Sabine River water level fell too low to permit logging from Whitman's Bluff.119
As of 1904, Kirby had made no significant changes in mill machinery, except adding the dry kilns. The saws still consisted of a double-circular rig, edgers, trimmers, slashers and cut-off saws, but no band or gang saws had been added. The planing mill consisted on one Hoyt sizer, one Hoyt matcher, one Holms matcher, one Houston moulder, one resaw, one rip saw, and one picket machine. In March, 1904, a Santa Fe sawmill circular credited "Mill D" with a daily output of 150,000 feet and with one sawmill and two planers. However, the writer considers that source to be in error since Kirby's inventory of a month earlier does not verify it.120
It is unclear exactly why Kirby's "Mill D" failed so miserably to produce a profit after October, 1902, except that the company obviously suffered greatly after the loss of George Bancroft as superintendent. After Bancroft left, Kirby only owned the company for the next 33 months before selling out to Miller-Link Lumber Company on July 1, 1905.121 In February, 1904, Kirby carried the "Mill D" saw and planing mills on its inventory at $90,569 and its dry kilns at $13,154, for a total of $103,723. However, Kirby Lumber Company sold its Orange plant to Miller-Link for only $60,000. One record of 1902 noted that George Bancroft was "the most successful (manager) in the bunch of mills owned by Kirby Lumber Company." Bancroft noted as well in his "Retrospective" that after he resigned, Kirby tried "several mill managers at their sawmill in Orange," inferring that Kirby replaced its mill superintendent there at the rate of one each year. Perhaps it would have been more profitable for Kirby Lumber Company had it given George Bancroft the raise that he sought.122
Used with permission.
Back to Orange County History Page
Back to Orange County
TXGenWeb
USGenWeb