Morrison and Eppinette, Historical Ouachita County, p. 117
Sawmills
The sawmill at Eagle Mills, Arkansas, was one of the large operations in Ouachita County from the 1890s to 1923.
Photograph Courtesy of Imogene Beard
The Freeman-Smith Lumber Company operated at Millville, Arkansas, near Bearden from the 1890s to 1926.
Photograph Courtesy of Imogene Beard
The commissary located at the (Freeman-Smith) mill supplied most of the goods necessay for the workers and their families.
Photograph Courtesy of Imogene Beard
The wood yard at Freeman-Smith boasted this "three-spot" rod engine of the Ouachita Valley Railroad. Mr. C.P. Beard is the brakeman on the engine.
Photograph Courtesy of Imogene Beard
Family groups posed with ox teams used to pull heavily laden log wagons near Frenchport about 1915.
Photograph Courtesy of Gertrude Moore
A horse-drawn log wagon is shown being repaired by workers near Bearden about 1920.
Photograph Courtesy of Imogene Beard
A portable steam-driven sawmill is pictured in operation on Judge Frank Tate's Oakland Farm in the early 1900s.
Photograph Courtesy of Ruth Tate
John Nunn Parker's turn-of-the-century sawmill and cotton gin was located on the north side of the Chidester Highway about three miles from Camden. The buildings are (left to right) the cotton scales, the sawmilll, the engine room, and the gin. The roof of the office building is visible in the background. The complex was destroyed by the explosion of the steam boiler on November 5, 1917. The mill and gin were rebuilt and continued operation until the decline of cotton farming in Ouachita County after World War I. James B. Parker, son of John Nunn Parker, is standing on the roof of the gin.
Photograph Courtesy of Joe R. Parker