| COLLECTION INFORMATION | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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Size: 2 boxes, 2 ledgers Acquisition: Gift, Access: Open for research Processed by: |
Enoch W. Frost began lumbering with a small portable sawmill as early as 1881 in the region around Texarkana. He expanded his operations and became associated with a group who formed the Frost-Trigg Lumber Company in 1897. In 1907 Edwin Ambrose Frost, son of Enoch, in conjunction with Clarence D. Johnson, organized the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company which merged with Frost-Trigg. The company was developed by E. A. into a complex lumber operation and was for a time the largest lumber manufacturer in Northeast Texas and Northwest Louisiana. Clarence D. Johnson, who was born in New York, came south and began his sawmill career working as a trimmer in a Louisiana mill in 1885. Johnson worked his way up through the mill and eventually became the first vice-president of the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company.
In 1910 Frost-Johnson further expanded with the purchase of the Hayward mill and more than 50,000 acres of pinelands in Nacogdoches and adjoining counties, together with the Nacogdoches and Southeastern Railroad. Frost Johnson became Frost Lumber Industries in 1925 and three years later acquired another major Texas property with the purchase of the Waterman Lumber Company. With the death of E. A. Frost in 1950, the stockholders voted in 1952 to sell to Olin Industries who shortly thereafter sold to the International Paper Company.
[Forest History - Frost Johnson Lumber Company]
Box 1
Folder 1: Deed to E. B. Hayward for tracts in Nacogdoches and Angelina counties for Hayward Mill, 15 January 1902.
Folder 2: By-laws of the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company of Texas, ca. 1907.
Folder 3: Charter of incorporation for the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company of Texas, 17 March 1910. (typescript copy)
Folder 4: Affidavit of change of name of the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company to the Frost Lumber Industries, Inc., with related correspondence, 1925-1936.
Folder 5: Correspondence regarding stockholders meetings, including some proxies, 1911 -1931.
Ledger Minute book: directors meeting minutes and stockholders meeting minutes; also related matters including proxies, correspondence, and agreements, 1911-1931.
Box 2
Folder 1: Correspondence, business, 1925-1947. (scattered)
Folder 2: Nacogdoches & Southeastern Railroad Company materials, includes brief history and copies of time sheets (1913 and 1928), 1943, 1947.
Folder 3: List of Deeds to Frost-Johnson, including mill site grounds, from 1902-1922, received from Shreveport office March 1930.
Folder 4: Operating contract and conveyance, Frost-Johnson companies to Republic Production Company and Federal Petroleum Company, one-half certain mineral rights, 12 January 1917.
Folder 5: Deed, Kirby Lumber Company to Frost-Johnson Lumber Company, 1 July 1921. (typescript carbon and photostat)
Folder 6: Agreement to lease materials for use in tram railroad track, between Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company and Frost-Johnson Lumber Company, 28 July 1921.
Folder 7: [Tenancy agreement and] Contracts with Frost Lumber Industries, 1929.
Folder 8: [Tenancy agreement and] Contracts with Frost Lumber Industries, 1930-1939.
Folder 9: Tenancy agreement and Contracts with Frost Lumber Industries, 1940-1947.
Folder 10: Conveyance of Cleburne and Joyce LaGrone to Thomas Wooten of Frost Lumber Industries lease, 12 Aug 1952.
Folder 11: Personnel matters, including insurance claim-related correspondence and payment receipts, 1926-1949.
Folder 12: Statement of merchandise statistics for camp store at Waskom, Texas, July and August 1949.
Folder 13: Inventories for items with costs, apparently at Waskom company store, 1944.
Folder 14: Business related miscellaneous items, 1930s-1940s.
Folder 15: Maps and drawings:
(a) colored hand drawn map of Frost timber holdings in Shelby County,
cat 1912.
(b) plan of proposed connections, Shelby County extension with the GC&SF
Railroad near Duff, Texas, 1925.
(c) pencil-drawn on lined paper, Nacogdoches & Southeastern Railroad
route, cat 1938.
(d) pencil drawing of Frost Lumber Mill, Nacogdoches, ca. 1940.
Folder 16: Olin Loo, vol. 1, no. 1, Shreveport, Louisiana, Frost Lumber Industries division of Olin Industries publication. Includes a history of Frost Lumber Industries, January 1953.
Folder 17: In memory of Edwin Ambrose Frost, engrossed copy of Memorial prepared and presented to family members by Directors, 1950. (accompanied by typescript copy)
Folder 18: Histories of the Hayward and Frost Lumber companies by Dr. Robert Maxwell and others, 1906, 1935, ca. 1964.
Folder 19: Newspaper clippings relating to activities of the company and its closing, 1935-1956.
1 ledger, Employment records, September 1937-April 1953.
Includes name of employee, date of employment and termination, previous
employers, physical description, number of dependents, person to contact
in case of emergency, and type of work and wages earned.
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