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Timber Industry Makes Its Mark

Several Companies Followed "Cut Out - Get Out" Policy

At the time the railroad was located
in Cleveland County, the area was
covered with vast stands of virgin
pine, oak, hickory, gum and cypress
timber. The completion of the railroad
allowed a method of transportation
to get the lumber to national markets.  
Prior to the 1880's there was no efficient  
method to market the products of mills.
After the railroad was completed
many companies came to the area and
established offices in Rison with the mill
sites located outside the city.
Several of the larger mills included the  
J.I. Porter Lumber Company, Kendal  
Lumber Company, Sallee and Ray  
Sawmill, Emerson Sawmill, (Uland  
Sawmill, Saline River Shingle and Lumber  
Company. The larger lumber companies
OXEN TEAM - Oxen were frequently used in the early days to pull timber from
the surrounding cut sites to the mills in Rison.
followed a "cut out" and followed a "cut
out" and "get out" policy and moved on
when their holdings of timber were exhau-  
sted. Typically they would lease for a
period of 20 - 25 years and then move
on when mill machinery began to wear
out. However, some of the smaller		 companies were locally owned and
continued to operate in the area for
many years cutting and selling "second  
growth" timber. Some of the locally
owned companies were: Choellmire
and Emerson, Buster and Griffith
Lumber Company,		 Dave Cash, Robertson and Ray, Bert
England, England and Tate, Gamer and
Knowles, C. L. Gamer and Sons, Davis
and Sadler, J. F. Doster, J. L. Williams,
W. D. England, Home-Gray Lumber Com-
pany, Anthony-Williams, and Rison Lumber
operators included: W. S. Amis, F. W.

  TIMBER AND THE RAILROAD - Not long after the railroad arrived
  at Rison, several spur lines sprang up around the area that made it much
  easier and faster for companies to haul the massive timber from the cut
  sites to the mills at Rison and elsewhere around the county.		   Culpepper, Charles L. Walker and J. L.
  Sadler. The Clio Lumber Company, which
  was begun in 1889, was located five miles
  north of Rison on the Cotton Belt at a small
  community named Clio. It was s subsidiary
  of the Bluff City Lumber Company of Pine
  Bluff. The Clio Mill was an exemplary milling
  operation that was given extensive coverage
  in 1909 in the American Lumberman Maga-
  zine, a prestigious industry publication. At
  that time the mill owned several thousand
  acres of timberland which amounted to
  several million board feet of lumber. In
  1909 the mill had 640 employees including
  432 men

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