Wilson Lumber Co. - Graham-Paige Mill

A newspaper article from 1928.

The Perry Herald

November 29, 1928

Two Great Industrial Enterprises Just Established In Perry

Graham-Paige Dimension Mill and Wilson Lumber Company are Great Assets To County

Florida's first big contribution to the manufacture of motor cars by December 15 will be a continuous stream of virgin hardwoods passing from the forests of Taylor County through two great industrial enterprises of Perry and over through freight lines to two body manufacturing plants at Wayne, Mich., and Evansville, Ind.

About 4,000,000 feet of lumber from the great forests of Taylor County are already stacked behind the saws of the Wilson Lumber Company plant, the first of the two to begin operations, and soon this same air-dried dimension lumber will be passed through huge kilns of the Graham-Paige Body Corporation and rushed to the factories in the northern states. And not long afterward Florida residents plus the 1,000,000 visitors pouring into Florida will be riding in Graham-Paige ( transcriber note – some of the pages have become brittle and some pieces are missing.) ------------- which the stout frame ------------ will be the cured prod ---------- bordering and over- --------------- highways in which -------- (missing at paper fold).

dry kilns of the latter corporation are nearing completion to face the yards of the Wilson Lumber Company. To make a start in the air curing, the Detroit-Florida company already has about 4,000,000 feet of fine hardwoods in stacks in the great yards. Changes are to be made so that all the dimension lumber as it comes from the Wilson company's mill will be stacked on trucks, riding elevated tracks running to every part of the yards and over leads direct into the big drying kilns of the Graham-Paige plant. By this very rapid and modern system not less than 4,000,000 feet of lumber will be moving from the mill of the Wilson Lumber Company through the yards, curing the desired time, and thence on to the kilns for the next step in the process.

The hardwood logs come into Perry and the Wilson mill from the timber tracks under a contract for a 10-year supply, over the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Live Oak, Perry and Gulf Railway. The logs are being hauled now a distance of about 17 miles and about 20 cars a day received. The cars are unloaded direct to the dog chains that carry them to the saws, the surplus going into the log stack being built up to maintain continuous operation 10 hours a day.

A. G. Wilson of Detroit is president of the company. The general manager is John Shippen, secretary of the company, and the assistant manager Edward S. Shippen. The company get electric current from the Taylor County Power Company and operates the plant with steam power generated in a fine plant with two 200-horsepower boilers. A high water tower gives water and fire protection. This water is of superior quality.

The Graham-Paige Body Corporation, W. H. Neeley of Detroit president; takes the lumber as it comes from the Wilson mill, controlling the air drying process from then on. Its operations with the yards cover about 25 acres. In the yards at this time, awaiting completion of the kilns, are immense stores of the hardwoods of the finest red gum, black gum, white oak, magnolia, bay, elm, ash and hickory. Much of the red gum, with its beautiful grain, in boards measuring 30 inches in width, it is readily observed, would bring fancy prices in the manufacture of victrolas, radio sets, furniture of high quality and in the interior finish of fine residences, banks and office buildings. These beautiful woods bring a sigh to some who look upon them and understand that they are to be hidden away under the metal finish of motor cars, the world never to see and appreciate the beauty in the rare woods of Florida.

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Perry plant nine kilns, of brick construction, 20 by 150 feet each, each equipped with piping for steam heat and jets for moist heat. The whole heating supply will be operated automatically, and to supply this heat the plant will include 500 horsepower water tube boilers and other equipment to give a capacity of about 75,000 board feet of lumber every 24 hours. A period of 60 to 90 days will be allowed for the air drying then the lumber will pass into the kiln, there the drying process will be carried on from seven to 14 days. The door at the exit end of the kiln will then be opened and the truck will deliver the lumber to a series of tracks, all under cover, from which point it will continue the process by delivery to the mill. The present unit of the kilns covers a space 100 by 190 feet; the delivery department and assembling tracks a still larger space and the mill 300 feet by 96 feet. This mill is an airy, finely lighter and ventilated building for working conditions of the highest standards.

The kilns, of the Moore type, have a capacity for 75,000 board feet at one charging and about 100 men will be employed in the drying process and in the mill. In the latter department the lumber, cut as it comes from from the Wilson Lumber Company plant will be reduced to the dimensions required by the body company at its plants, ready for the last cuts and finish as it goes into the motor car. When this ------ (some of article is missing because of a fold line in the paper) ---- of the Graham-Paige Body Corporation it will be given a final inspection and from platforms at the western side of the mill loaded direct into box cars. This platform will have roofing to prevent damage from moisture.

Three solid car loads of this fine lumber will leave Perry every day for the ---- (some of the article is missing because of a fold line in the paper) ----- Mich., and Evansville, Ind. And as three cars are unloaded in the northern mills and worked into the bodies of the motor cars this will complete the continuous chain process whereby the virgin forests of Florida are moving through the mills and on to northern centers, there to be converted into speedy machines of grace and high power. Many of them, no doubt, will turn back to Florida, carrying passengers who shall some day in the near future roll along through the very forests of Taylor County from which came the sturdy oaks and hickories and gums and wild cherries that give beauty of lines and strength to the very cars in which the visitors ride. The Evansville plant has been completed by Graham-Paige

Company at a cost of $1,500,000. The Perry plant will cost about $200,000 and the equipment and yards the plant will run to a total of about $350,000, so operations will represent an investment of $700,000. Construction of a second unit will bring the total to more than $1,000,000. 

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The Wilson Lumber Co/Graham Paige Mills

The Wilson Lumber Co/Graham Paige mills were jointly established in Perry in 1928, or there about. The Graham Paige Motor Car Co, a subsidiary, or closely related company, of the Dodge Motor Car Co, built a million dollar finishing plant just outside of what was then the Perry City Limits, south, to process hardwood lumber, furnished by the Wilson Lumber Co, into wooden automobile body parts which most, if not all automobile manufacturers featured at the time.

Graham Paige utilized the plant for the purpose intended for about a year at which time it, and all other automobile makers converted to all-steel bodies, so that it went out of business in Taylor County about as soon as it started. Later, in 1932, give or take a year, the Philco Radio and Television, of Philadelphia, leased the plant and manufactured “knocked-down” radio cabinets utilizing lumber furnished by the Wilson Lumber Co. The wooden parts so produced were shipped to Philadelphia for assembly. After some 18 months, the company decided the venture was not profitable and the company went out of business in Perry.

The Wilson Lumber Co continued in business for a number of years pursuant to its beginning as a partner with the Graham Paige people, and was finally acquired and operated for a time by the “Granger Brothers” of Lake City, Florida, and then it burned to the ground some time, I think, in the 1940’s.

This article is from the Memoirs of an Octogenarian by Sam Register.