Davis L. Long, CSA
1804 - 1875 (71 years)-
Name Davis L. Long Suffix CSA Born Mar 19, 1804 Hancock county, Georgia, USA 
Gender Male Census Jul 01, 1870 Beaumont, Jefferson county, Texas, USA [1] Died May 11, 1875 Beaumont, Jefferson county, Texas, USA Notes - A TALE OF "KING LUMBER:" GODPARENT OF BEAUMONT
By W. T. Block
http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/king.htm
In 1865, Davis Long of DeSoto Parish, La., joined his son, Capt. James Long, in the management of the Long and Co. sawmill. Four of his sons-in-law, William A. Fletcher, John W. Keith, and Frank L. and Joseph A. Carroll, were wed, respectively, to Julian, Haseltine, Sarah, and Martha Long. In time, the family connections formed an interlocking directorate over three of Beaumont's four largest timber-processing firms, as well as owned several mills elsewhere in East Texas and Louisiana.
In 1869, Long and Company employed nine men and manufactured 1,200,000 feet of lumber. After James Long's death in 1873, Fletcher and F. L. Carroll took over the firm's management and converted the mill to shingle-making, eventually producing 175,000 daily. In 1879, the firm employed 60 men and owned the only band saw in Beaumont, three circular saws, four boilers, and three steam engines. In the same year, it cut 24,000,000 cypress shingles worth $50,000.
By 1888, the annual cut of shingles was 36,000,000 a year. Long and Company purchased the first shingle-cutting machine in Southeast Texas. Its daily capacity was 80,000, and it was necessary to import skilled labor from Michigan to operate it. By 1878, Long's "O. K." brand of cypress shingles was the industry standard. By the time that Long Manufacturing Company was dissolved about 1897, the products of its shingle machines exceeded one billion shingles. The first telephone line in Beaumont connected the company office with the office of Beaumont Lumber Company in 1881. W. A. Fletcher as president, John W. Keith as vice-president, and John L. Keith as secretary-treasurer managed the firm for about 25 years.
In the brief span of four years, from 1875, when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad was rebuilt, until 1879, Beaumont and Orange became the hub for timber-processing unparalleled elsewhere in the South. With a combined population of only 4,000, the two communities produced 82,000,000 shingles and 75,000,000 board feet of lumber in 1879, production figures that would be quadrupled during the ensuing 20 years.
In March, 1877, the Long and Company owners, in partnership with John C. Ward, John N. Gilbert, and George W. Carroll, organized the Beaumont Lumber Company and the Beaumont Boom Co. They erected a large sawmill at the Neches River crescent, which is the present dock area. The firm eventually became the domain of the Carroll families.
In 1879, the Beaumont Lumber firm employed 50 men while cutting 10,000,000 feet of lumber and 2,000,000 shingles, worth $78,000. The sawmill was idle for two months each winter, while the millhands doubled as lumberjacks to raft logs down the Neches River. By, 1886, Beaumont Lumber Co. had increased its daily cutting capacity to 50,000 board feet, a figure that would double again by 1900 when the owners sold out to John H. Kirby.
In 1888, the Beaumont mill was cutting 60,000 feet daily, and its planing mill was dressing 50,000 feet daily. In 1887, that firm sold 35,000,000 feet and could easily have sold several million more had the railroad been able to furnish transportation. As a result, the officers chose to build barges and lighter finished lumber to Sabine Pass, where it could be shipped to coastwise and foreign ports. Beaumont Lumber Co. also owned Yellow Bluff Tram Company for hauling logs, several thousand acres of pine trees in Jasper County (where it built the town of Buna as a logging camp for its tram operations), and had a paid up capital of $239,000. And by 1890, the owners owned Nona Lumber Co. sawmill at Odelia, Hardin County, and Nona Lumber Co. of Louisiana, located at Leesville. Decades after the Nona mills had quit cutting lumber, the heirs and stockholders sold their pine lands to the Southland Paper Mills for $5 million about 1962. Under Kirby, the Beaumont Lumber Co. sawmill near the courthouse burned down in 1902 and was never rebuilt.
Person ID I125837 mykindred Last Modified Dec 18, 2016
Family Elizabeth Picard, b. Dec 25, 1807, South Carolina, USA , d. Aug 1857, De Soto parish, Louisiana, USA (Age 49 years) Notes - In 1860, William and Julia are living with their brother:
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1860 census, TX, Jefferson, Beaumont, p. 52, (M653-1298,p.420)
July 7, 1860, HH 305
J.M. LONG, 23, M, W, ???? miller, $2000, $3000, GA
Terice LONG, 23, F, W, GA
William D. LONG, 20, M, W, labourer, GA
Julian LONG, 13, F, GA
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1870 census, TX, Jefferson, Beaumont, p 29, (M593-1593, p.550)
July 1, 1870, HH 216/294
LONG, J.M., 33, M, W, lumber merchant, $6000, $400, GA
LONG, Terese, 33, F, W, FA
LONG, Henry, 11, M, TX
LONG, Ida, 4, F, TX
LONG, Sidney, 2, M, TX
LONG, Seawollo, 2, F, TX
LONG, Lilly, 10/12, F, TX
... in the same house, family 195
LONG, D.L., 65, M, W, lumber merchant, $6000, GA
LONG, Marietta, 25, F, GA
LONG, Fanny, 15, F, LA
POTTER, H, 28, M, W, sawyer, NY
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Children 1. Alfred Long, b. Oct 1831, d. Y 2. Sarah Jane Long, b. Oct 14, 1833, Hancock county, Georgia, USA , d. Jun 21, 1911, Waco, McLennan county, Texas, USA (Age 77 years)3. Martha Elizabeth Long, b. May 15, 1836, Georgia, USA , d. Feb 16, 1916, Beaumont, Jefferson county, Texas, USA (Age 79 years)4. Capt. James M. Long, b. Between 1836 and 1837, Georgia, USA , d. 1873 (Age ~ 37 years)5. William Davis Long, b. Jun 23, 1840, Georgia, USA , d. Apr 01, 1862 (Age 21 years)6. Marietta Long, b. Aug 29, 1842, Georgia, USA , d. circa 1886, Jefferson county, Texas, USA (Age 43 years)7. Emily Marion Long, b. Nov 1844, Georgia, USA , d. Y8. Julia Ann Long, b. Sep 08, 1846, Georgia, USA , d. Feb 25, 1918, Jefferson county, Texas, USA (Age 71 years)9. Haseltine Vandiver Long, b. Oct 13, 1848, d. Y 10. Fanny Long, b. circa 1855, Louisiana, USA , d. YFamily ID F40783 Group Sheet | Family Chart
- A TALE OF "KING LUMBER:" GODPARENT OF BEAUMONT
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Sources - [S14] 1870 US federal census, 1870 census, TX, Jefferson, Beaumont, p 29, (M593-1593, p.550).
- [S14] 1870 US federal census, 1870 census, TX, Jefferson, Beaumont, p 29, (M593-1593, p.550).
