Missouri Lumber and Mining Company

The company was formed by Pennsylvania lumbermen who were eager to exploit the untapped timber resources of the Missouri Ozarks to supply lumber, primarily used in construction, to meet the demand of U.S. westward expansion.

The lumber mill there grew to be the largest in the country at the turn of the century and Grandin's population peaked around 2,500 to 3,000.

[2] They purchased an additional 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) in Carter County in the 1870s, for an average cost of $1/acre,[3] and joined with two others from Tidioute, John Livingston Grandin (Elija's brother) and Jahu Hunter, a lumber and oilman, to form the company.

[2] In addition to the inexpensive land, the investors thought the generally poor population would be eager to work for the company.

[3] All four partners remained in Pennsylvania while John Barber White, a successful Tidioute mill operator, was hired to move to Missouri and run the company as its general manager.

The land included thousands of acres of short-leaf Southern yellow pine as well as smaller amounts of hardwoods.

The location is near the current city of Williamsville, Missouri and could mill six million board feet of lumber annually.

[2] It was difficult to transport the lumber for sale as the closest railroad was 10–15 miles (16–24 km) away at Mill Spring.

[3] Lumber had to be moved to the Iron Mountain Railroad depot there first by teamsters with oxcarts and then loaded onto railcard for transport to market.

[2] The company tried for many years to obtain direct rail access to the mill, but Iron Mountain refused to provide it.

In 1884, despite owning 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of timberland in the county, the mill was never able to utilize its capacity and was closed because of the transportation issue.

The company made a distribution deal with the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railway (KFS&M).

The railroad agreed to construct an 81 mi (130 km) spur from this line running from Willow Springs, Missouri to MLMs land in the Current River Valley in exchange for a guaranteed minimum amount of lumber shipments.

A five-year agreement between the companies in February 1887 specified that MLM would ship all its lumber going west of the Mississippi on the KFS&M or its affiliates.

[3] Later that year, the Cape Girardeau Southwestern Railroad extended a line from the east allowing the mill to more directly supply eastern markets as well.

[b][5] There were six million board feet of lumber in the Grandin yard waiting to be shipped when the railroad arrived in June 1888.

Using standard gauge allowed the log cars to be transported the final leg to the mill over the Current Railroad tracks.

The company recruited skilled workers from other regions of the country that also had large timber operations and used mostly locals for unskilled work.

[8] In addition to the headquarters building and other commercial and service structures in Grandin, MLM built homes that it rented to employees with families.

These houses were two room-wide, one room-deep rectangular structures, often with front porches and rear lean-tos added.

Various other social organization were supported by the company, such as the Knights of King Arthur, to "promote a healthy and productive workforce".

[2] From around 1890, MLM staffed a small hospital with doctors to maintain the health and productivity of its workers and their families.

Funded by a monthly fee ($0.75 for single workers and $1.25 for those with families, collected from each employee), the clinic provided unlimited health care.

[2] Although the majority of positions were held by men, the MLM used many women as stenographers and clerks, putting the company "in the forefront of the feminization of office work" in the 1890s.

It was important for timberland to be near the railroad as the cost of extending logging tramlines through the difficult terrain was estimated at $1,000 per mile [2] Much of the timber in the county was cut with the land being then repurposed for agriculture.

The new owner of the KSF&M, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway offered a reduced rate for lumber shipped from northwest Shannon County.

With the supply of nearby trees diminishing rapidly over the next several years, the last logs in the area were cut in 1909 and the mill was closed in 1910.

At one time, MLM considering donating land to the federal government to establish a national park.