L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company Records

Collection

Identifier: MSS-140

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of correspondence, minutes, maps, photo¬graphs, ledgers, and other documents concerning the L.N. Dantzler Company and related companies based in southern Mississippi.

Among the other companies represented in the collection are Bond Lumber Company, Cedar Lake Mill, Dantzler Shipbuilding and Drydock Com¬pany, W.C. Griffin Land Company, Gulf Ship Company, Handsboro Lumber Company, Lorenzo Land Company, Moss Point Land Company, Native Lumber Company, Ten Mile Lumber Company, and Vancleave Lumber Company. Geographically, the collection focuses on the counties of George, Harrison, Jackson and Stone, although other areas are also included.

Dates

1857 - 1971
Majority of material found within 1887 - 1966

Historical Note

Lorenzo Nolley Dantzler became a partner in the William Griffin Lumber Company after the Civil War. When the partnership dissolved in 1873, Dantzler began his own company with a small mill formerly owned by the Griffin Company at the mouth of the Pascagoula River. At different times the L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company's activities involved lumber sales, exports, shipping, shipbuilding, oil and mineral leases, land purchases and sales, naval stores, tung nuts, and forest management. The company was one of the largest shippers of lumber in Mississippi by 1913 but declining supplies of virgin timber saw its operations shrink during the 1920s. The last mill owned by the company closed in 1938 though it continued to hold land for tree farming. In 1966 the Dantzler Company was pur¬chased by the International Paper Company.

Source: Hickman, Nollie. Mississippi Harvest: Lumbering in the Longleaf Pine Belt, 1840-1915. Oxford: University of Mississippi, 1962, pp. 168-175.

Extent

80 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Series 1. Ledgers: 182 bound volumes, dating from 1887 to 1967.

Series 2. Foldered Records: Correspondence, minutes of stockholders' and directors' meetings, land records, maps, auditor's reports, photo¬graphs, timber estimates, and other documents, dating from 1857 to 1971. The folders in the series are listed alphabetically, with cross references to oversized items. The aerial photographs are described by date.

Series 3. Publications: ca. 1.5 cubic feet of published material, listed by title or subject. Additional published items are scattered throughout the folders. Other publications donated with the collection have been transferred to the library's general collection.

NOTE: Some of the documents in the collection have been damaged by water and/or mold. In some of these cases, photocopies have been substituted for the original records.