The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 25
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The First Big Mill
for the return trip home. They changed at Hearne, where they caught
the Houston & Texas Central for Dallas. Again sleeping on the coach,
they reached Dallas at 7:oo A.M. and set about making desired con-
tacts in the shortest possible time. Local lumber dealers estimated that
about fifteen million board feet of lumber were sold annually in Dal-
las, mostly from mills on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which ran
west from Shreveport and Marshall. Moore described Dallas as a city
of about 12,000 people and having "a great many cheap buildings."37
Perhaps of greater significance was the call that the partners made
on William Cameron. At this time Cameron was forty-three years old
and an established owner of more than sixty retail lumberyards in
Missouri, Kansas, and Indian Territory as well as Texas. In addition
to Dallas, Cameron also had yards in Fort Worth and Waco. Im-
patient with any "losing proposition," Cameron was recognized as an
expert on market trends and lumber futures. Cameron was enthusi-
astic about the future growth of Dallas and Central Texas. He
agreed that the demand at that time was mostly for cheap lumber, but
the call for quality materials would improve as the town matured. As
Cameron talked, Moore made notes of his estimates of current pro-
duction capacity and potential consumption. According to Cameron
there was a continuing shortage of from thirty-five to fifty million
board feet per year of lumber that could not be supplied by existing
mills. This additional lumber was currently being brought from Chi-
cago and the Lake States. The bright future painted by William
Cameron was not lost on Henry Lutcher and Bedell Moore. This was
an opportunity to be in on the ground floor of a great bonanza.38
They returned home via Sherman on the Houston and Texas Cen-
tral and from there traveled to Denison, where they changed to the
Katy (Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad), which crossed Indian
37At Bremond the H.&T.C. had a branch line running to Waco. Moore was interested in
this rapidly growing town and secured information concerning its economic potential.
Because of time and train schedules it is unlikely that they were able to visit Waco. In
contrast to Austin, Dallas did not favorably impress Lutcher and Moore although they
recognized its potential for growth. Diary, 63-65.
38William Cameron had a career that rivaled that of his more famous Scottish coun-
tryman, Andrew Carnegie. Beginning as a poor youthful immigrant Cameron later built
a small retail lumberyard on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. He expanded
his holdings until he eventually owned more than sixty yards, thousands of acres of
pine timber, sawmills, and factories for finished wood products, plus flour and woolen
mills and other properties. He was a great benefactor of the city of Waco, where he
lived for many years prior to his death in 1899. Webb, Carroll, and Branda (eds.), Hand-
book of Texas, I, 275-276; R. J. Tolson, A History of William Cameron & Co. (Waco,
1925), 13-19; Waco Tribune Herald, Apr. 26, 1964; Diary, 65-67.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983, periodical, 1982/1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101209/m1/45/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.