Weston Lumber Company Photographs

The H. Weston Lumber Company, located in Logtown (Hancock County) Mississippi, was founded in 1889 by Henry Weston. Weston, a Skowhegan, Maine native, was born January 9, 1823. His father, John Whitney Weston, owned a sawmill in Maine, and Henry Weston grew up working in almost every aspect of lumbering. In 1844 Weston moved to Wisconsin with his brother in an attempt to better his prospects. In Milwaukee, he was hired as superintendent of a mill site on the Eau Claire River. However, the harsh Wisconsin winters nearly killed him, so a physician recommended he move to the South -- either Louisiana or the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

In 1846, Weston arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, looking for work. He found employment in the lumber business as a sawyer for J. W. Poitevent in Gainesville, Mississippi, making $45 a month. Weston built a good reputation as a lumberman in the area and by 1848 was hired by Judge David R. Wingate to work at a sawmill in Logtown.

By 1856, Weston had formed a partnership with Henry and W. W. Carre to purchase Wingate's Pearl River mill at Logtown. Two years later the mill burned down, but the partnership re-built it and installed the best equipment available from the North. Unfortunately, the lumber business was disrupted by the Civil War after New Orleans fell to Union troops, and the partnership shut down the mill at Logtown.

After the war, the partnership re-opened the Logtown mill and started producing lumber again. By 1870 the sawmill churned out 5,110,000 feet of lumber per year. Four years later, Weston bought out his partners and purchased surrounding timberlands. He visited other mills to observe their operations, then began improvements in his own business. One of those improvements was the installation of the first planing mill on the Pearl River.

In 1889, Weston joined with two new partners, J. S. Otis and H. U. Beech, and re-organized the corporation as the H. Weston Lumber Company. During the following years Weston and his partners made millions of dollars, expanded their operations to a yard and office located in New Orleans, and built railroad lines to join with major railroads, such as the New Orleans and Northeastern. As a result of their operation, Logtown grew to a population of 3,000 people and changed its name to Westonia.

Henry Weston died October 29, 1912, but his sons took over the business, which continued to thrive until 1925 when the mill ceased sawing operations. Then in 1930, the mill shut down completely.

H. Weston Lumber Company was not the first located in Logtown. In 1845 the first sawmill was constructed by slave labor. Several years later, E. G. Goddard Lumber Company also built a sawmill in Logtown. Yet, it was Weston that made Logtown one of the most famous lumber producing sites in the United States.