Major-Sowers Saw Mill Co.

Standard gauge, 60-lb rail Headquarters:  Mill Locations: Epley, MS (Lamar County) 1911-1921                           Tallahala, MS (Perry Co.) 1922-1929 Mill Capacity: 80,000 ft/day (Tallahala mill) Years of Operation: 1909-1929 Miles Operated: 10 miles (Epley) Locomotives Owned:	Equipment: 1 Clyde Rapid Loader, 18 flat cars.	Click Map for Larger Version
History by Gil Hoffman and Tony Howe: The National Lumber Company was incorporated at Hattiesburg, Perry County, on October 3, 1908 by L. L. Major and W. J. Sowers, both of Hattiesburg, with authorized capital stock of $50,000. On April 23, 1909 the charter was amended to change the name to Major-Sowers Saw Mill Company and to move the domicile to Epley, Lamar County. Epley was 14 miles west of Hattiesburg, on the Mississippi Central Railroad. In the spring of 1909 a sawmill with a cutting capacity of 60,000 feet per day was built at Epley. The mill was a single circular type with machinery by Filer & Stowell Company.  On August 15, 1921, the Major-Sowers Saw Mill Company bought from the Tallahala Lumber Company its timber holdings and cut-over lands in Perry County and logging railroad extending from Hattiesburg eastward to Tallahala for $400,000. In April 1922, the a new sawmill plant from at Tallahala was completed and began operation. The sawmill at Tallahala was a Filer & Stowell single circular type with an 8-ft. horizontal band resaw and cut about 80,000 feet daily. This mill cut its last log on January 31, 1929 and closed.
Major-Sowers Saw Mill Co.'s large mill at Tallahala about 1920. View looks south across the Mississippi Central tracks.		Major-Sowers Saw Mill Co.'s mill at Epley about 1915 looking west.
Aerial view of the Tallahala mill looking northwest.	A log train arrives at the Epley mill about 1910. View looks north.	Another aerial view of the Tallahala mill. Most of the town appears north of the mill in this photo.
50-ton Heisler with a trainload of choice logs on the way to the Tallahala mill to be used to redeck "Old Ironsides" in the 1920's.	The timber dock at Tallahala.	The mill pond and jackslip of the Tallahala mill.
	Major-Sowers planing mill at Tallahala.
ROSTER by Gil Hoffman:      Road No.   Type   Builder   C.N.   Date   Cyls.   Dri. Dia.   Engine Wt.   Previous Ownership   Disposition   1   42-2 Shay   Lima   2158   4/1909   3-10x12   29½   84000   New. Cost $6,583.50.   Transferred to Tallahala, MS, in 1922.   5   50-2 Heisler   Heisler   1182   1910   15x12   36   100000   Eureka Lumber Co. #5, Eastabuchie, MS Returned to factory & resold to: Major-Sowers Saw Mill Co. #5. On hand by 12/1910.   Transferred to Tallahala, MS, in 1922. Leakesville Veneer & Lumber Co. #5, Leakesville, MS, ca. 1929. Scrapped 1949.

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For more information contact Tony Howe at howe6818@bellsouth.net or David S. Price at dsprice46@bellsouth.net