36" gauge, 20-lb rail
Headquarters:
Mill Location: Erata, MS (Jones County)
Mill Capacity: 15,000 to 20,000 ft/day
Years of Operation: 1892-ca1900
Miles Operated: 5 miles
Locomotives Owned: 1
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Equipment:
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History
by Gil Hoffman:
The Erata Mill Company (owned by John S. Dabbs) purchased the Cox
sawmill, located about two miles north of Ellisville on the New Orleans
& Northeastern on May 22, 1891, and about March 1892 moved it to Erata,
Jones County, also on the NO&NE. The Cox mill was combined with a mill
already in existence at Erata. To finance this expansion the company signed
a contract with Mann Brothers, lumber dealers of Chicago, on February 22,
1892. Mann Brothers furnished the needed capital to improve the mill and to
keep it in operation in return for having a steady source of lumber
"sawed to their specifications." To meet the requirements of this
contract, a McPherson dry kiln was added in the summer of 1892. The plant
also included a planing mill. The cutting capacity of the Erata mill was
between 15,000 and 20,000 feet per day of longleaf yellow pine. The manager
was John S. Dabbs, formerly vice president of Kamper & Lewin
Manufacturing Company, at Laurel and Hattiesburg. In the summer of 1893 a
logging railroad was installed using secondhand equipment purchased from
Daniel McCoy, of Michigan.
After Dabbs death in early 1894, Edward Davidson, of Cook County,
Illinois, became owner of the mill property. On August 31, 1894, he
mortgaged the mill and railroad to H. S. Harris & Brother, a mercantile
firm in Chicago. The mortgage went into default and the Harris brothers
became owner of the mill and railroad. On November 1, 1895 the mill passed
into the hands of the Smith family, who had originally owned the land, and
through them to Robbins & Chandler, who ran the mill for several years.
In November 1896 the Harris brothers sold the logging railroad and its
equipment to B. L. Lowery, a sawmilll operator at Ellisville. In 1900 the
mill site was sold to the Erata Lumber Company. At that time the mill was
probably abandoned.
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ROSTER by Gil Hoffman:
? -4-
Baldwin 12x16
Purchased from Daniel McCoy, Grand Rapids, MI, on 7-5-93. Sold to B. L.
Lowery, Ellisville, MS, on 11-21-96.
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