Erata Mill Co.

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	Equipment:	Click Map for Larger Version
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.
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.

                                     HOME                                              ABOUT  US                                              LINKS           

For more information contact Tony Howe at tonyhowe76@yahoo.com or David S. Price at dsprice46@bellsouth.net