The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-06
By Will T. Sheehan

| SioSeet' LuhDer company or CrOsSelt- Ark, the Grant Lumber Company at selma, La. and the Jackson Lumber | Company at Lockhart Ala.
 The cementing force of these allied mills, each of which is in itself a great | industrial enterprise, is a collection of Iowa capitalists whose influence has Tor many years been almost paramount in the lumber business. Chief among them is Dr. J. W. watzek of Daven- port. who Is President of the Jackson Lumber Company and interested in the other mills Ex-Governor Jackson is 1 the First Vice-President of the com pany. and the Second Vice President is E. s. Crossett of Davenport, Ia who Is an associate of Dr. watzek in vari- ous big lumber mills. c. w. Gates ] another heavy holder of lumber inter- | ests, and who lives in St. Louis, IS Treasurer of the Jackson Company. The local officers who are in charge at Lockhart are W. S. Harlan. Man ager. and J. B. Rider, Secretary. of the Company and Superintendent of the mill.
 i MT. Harlan is one of the best known practical 1umbermen of the country. A connection with several of the i'm portant mills has given him a wide and most valuable experience. His asso- ciate in the management of the mill MT. Rider, has had an active connec- ton with the lumber concerns in which former Governor Jackson has had an interest. He was lately stationed at Ridersville, Ala, which place was named in his honor and at which place he managed d big lumber concern. The Original Purchase. The nucleus and which is in fact the greater part of the timber holdings of the company, was purchased as far back as 1889 by former Governor Jack son and his brother, Congressman Will | liam H. Jackson, of Maryland. At that time they bought tract of 120,- 900 acres of timber lands. These hold ings were later increased by the form CT Governor and his associates to 14S,- 500. The immense expanse of lands which the company at present owns is situated in Covington and Geneva counties. Alabama, and Walton Coun- | ty, Florida.
 It has been figured out that these lands will furnish the enormous total of over one thousand million feet of yellow pine lumber and fifty million feet of hardwood timber, which will be gathered with the same thorough ness as marks the harvesting of yell low pine lumber crop.
 The company operates its mill with
 
 ruthlessly and remorselessly denuded of their timber. No tree of less than | fifteen inches diameter is cut by the logging gangs or is gashed by the axes of the turpentine workers. Only the larger trees are being cut now. The smaller tres are left undisturbed until five, ten or fifteen years in the future | when they will be ripe for the saws and when the logging gangs will again lIA 1,atr oh hn In this way the mill people estimate that the Jackson Company will have timber to run their mill for twenty-five years when in all probability the tim Der lands of the other companies operating in the State will be exhaust ed within a period of fifteen years. With the original holdings of the Jackson Brothers as nucleus the ad- ditional lands were purchased in 1889 when the Jackson Lumber Company was formed. The company was incor- porated in that year with the follow ing stockholders. E. E. Jackson, w.. | NJ. Jackson, of Washington, H. l.. Davis and w. G. Warden of Philadelphia, Charles Lockhart and H. B. Phillips of | Pittsburg and Lester C. Smith of Mont gomery.
 Owners of the MiIl.
 In 1900 a two thirds interest in the | and other Iowa capitalists and new company was formed. In the new company former Governor Jackson re- l tained a one-third interest.
 | The manager of the mill, w. s. Har- Ian, arrived in that spot of the Coving- ton County woods which was to be- come the town of Eockhart in May 1902. The following July he began the active work of construction of the immense mill. It was no inconsiderable task, the building of such plant, a mill that was to saw the timber from 14S,500 acres of timber and which was to en- dure for the next quarter of a century. Within the next ten months the huge enterprise had been completed and the 1 first board had been sawed.
 | The permanent character of the mill may be seen by the statement that the saw mill proper was built upon a foundation of brick and that under meath the big gang saw in the mill house a car load of iron was sunk to give the gang saw absolute firmness
 There are too carriages for the logs | in the mill house one on either side of the building. One of them has a forty foot carriage and the other twenty foot carriage. These immense car riages. moved by a steam piston, shoot back and fort hike the chuttle on q | weaving mdCnlne reRarQleSS or Inelt
 weight of three men, a mass of ma
 chinery and an immense log fresh from
 the woods This mill building Is 7(
 by POS feet and it is equipped with the
 two latest make band saws and one
 gang saw. The gang saw has q width
 of ffty-three inches. The mill is
 equipped throughout with all other
 necessary saws of the latest make as
 well as with Tive rolls for carrying
 out the lumber and the waste. These
 Tive rolls" include a carrying chair
 TO fet long.
 The power for the mill is furnished
 by eight boilers each of which has {
 capacity of 175 horse power. These
 boilers not only furnish steam enougl
 to operate the mill but they give tho
 necessary steam for the dry kilns
 Two large engines are required by thu
 mill.
 The storage platform, the immenst
 space on which the lumber is left un
 til it is needed for shipment or fol use in the dry kilns, is so by 200 feet
 The plaining mill. model of its kind is installed In a building 200 by 23C
 feet.
 Except to the initiated lumber men
 figures of this sort are tiresome anC only few of them are here given, few that may give the lay reader al
 idea of the immensfty of the plant
 The speed with which great, heavy
 log can be pulled from big storage
 pond by heavy endless chains up {