36" gauge, 20-lb rail
Headquarters:
Mill Location: Boice, MS (Wayne County)
Mill Capacity: 20,000 ft/day
Years of Operation: 1908-1910
Miles Operated: 2.5 miles
Locomotives Owned: 2
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Equipment:
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History
by Gil Hoffman:
Hiram C. Fonde began preparing for a yellow pine sawmill operation in
October 1906 with the purchase of 600 acres of timber along the Mobile &
Ohio Railroad, about a mile south of the village of Boice. The following
year, on October 14th, he purchased a mill site on the east side of the
M&O at Boice from Truman and Elizabeth Gray. About March 1908 he
purchased the Gray sawmill on this land and by installing new machinery,
raised its cutting capacity to 20,000 feet per day. Fonde continued adding
to his timber holdings from time to time with the last purchase being in
April 1910. Almost all of this timber was east of Boice in scattered blocks,
the farthest being about four and a half miles from the mill.
By the end of 1910 the mill had cut out and closed, as indicated by the
sale on December 9, 1910 of Fonde's Shay locomotive, log cars and rail to
the American Supply Company, of Mobile, AL.
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ROSTER by Gil Hoffman:
?
0-4-0T&T See
Note -1890
32½ 9x12
Purchased from Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Co., Birmingham, AL, on
3-12-1908. Gone by 12-1910.
? 2T Shay
Lima 348
4-1891 26
2-7x12 27000
Purchased from W. M. Carter & Co. #16, Haney, MS. Built as C. C.
Gibson & Son #1, Magnolia, MS; to Haskins Williams & Co.,
Birmingham, AL (dealer); to W. M. Carter & Co. #16, Sandersville, MS,
on 7-23-1898; transferred to Haney, MS, in early 1900. Sold to American
Supply Co., Mobile, AL (dealer); to C. C. Vaughn, Malcolm, AL, on
12-9-1910 (shipped on or before 1-1-1911); to Vaughn & Wright, Walker
Springs, AL; to Glendon Lumber Co., Glendon, AL, on 8-18-1913.
Note 0-4-0T&T built by Montour Iron & Steel Co., Danville, Pa.
This company built bridges, turntables and other railroad supplies and in
1890 built about a dozen 0-4-0Ts in various gauges for mine and industrial
use.
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