The White Deer Lumber Company & Saw Mill

White Deer Lumber Co's Saw Mill

John Duncan, a Lewisburg attorney, had business interest in many industries. In 1898/9 Duncan acquired land in White Deer from the Pardee estate.  In 1900 he moved men, locomotive and equipment to the land along the White Deer Creek. He constructed a mill north of White Deer at a site near the Joseph Wertz home. He called his railroad the White Deer Valley railroad, and it connected with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.  The road extended 10 miles west from the White Deer sawmill to Duncan's station, later called Tea Springs.

John Duncan operated a logging railroad from 1889-1900 in the Weikert area. Wishing to expand he built a sawmill near the village of White Deer and ran his narrow gauge (36”) railroad west toward the village called Duncan (now Carroll). Mr. Duncan died in 1906.  After his death, the Witmer and Steele Lumber Company bought out the former John Duncan rail line and extended the rails from White Deer to Loganton. From and article in the  125th Anniversary of Loganton and Sugar Valley by Ernest H. Geisewite

 After Duncan's death in 1904, his wife Clara liquidated his lumber holdings.  William Witmer and Sons purchased the White Deer Holdings in 1904 for $108, 852.

Passenger Coach Added To the White Deer Train to Loganton

August 1907

William Witmer and Samuel Slaymaker are credited for launching the lumbering industry in White Deer. Later they were joined by Charles and Harry Steele.  The Company of William Witmer and Sons was charged in 1896 after Williams death. His son Robert headed the organization. The Witmer holdings extended some 60 miles from the Bald Eagle state lands.  The last major company to be formed by the Witmer Group was the White Deer Lumber Company.

In 1907 the Witmer-Steel Company was founded when Harry Steel purchased 50 shared of the White Deer Lumber Company stock.

In 1917 the White Deer Lumber Company sold or transferred most of its equipment and closed both mill and railroad operations.  The company continued to operate for several more years, until a chestnut blight and the Depression cut further into the companies holdings.

In 1940, all of the sawed lumber was sold.

Charles Steele died in 1951, and the remaining holdings were liquidated.  

The Allied Chemical and Dye corporation bought the remaining White Deer lands in 1965.

The 1896 Sanborn Fire Map shows D. Bly as the owner

February 21 1919

The State Forestry commission purchased 20,392 acres from the White Deer Lumber Company.

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Lewisburg Journal, September 27th 1912

In 1912 the White Deer Lumber Company was selling the lumber from the Old Covered Bridge at Lewisburg.  The new steel bridge had been built in 1907, and it appears that the White Deer Lumber company had the job of dismantling the old wooden bridge.  They advertised that the boards were for sale across from the Lewisburg Woolen Mill, and that they would be a good purchase for farmers building corn cribs.  That means there are possibly corn cribs or other structures still standing on local farms, built from wood from the old covered bridge.

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/05/when-lewisburg-river-bridge-was-covered.html

1913 fires

November 19th 1916

Fire In A White Deer Lumber Camp

In 1914, the Lumber Company took William & John Cooner [the Cooner Family started the Hotel that is today the Watson Inn] to court over land they claimed to own, but to which the lumber company already owned a title to.

1916 - Future uncertain

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The White Deer and Loganton Railroad

  John Duncan operated a logging railroad from 1889-1900 in the Weikert area. Wishing to expand he built a sawmill near the village of White Deer and ran his narrow gauge (36”) railroad west toward the village called Duncan (now Carroll). Mr. Duncan died in 1906.  After his death, the Witmer and Steele Lumber Company bought out the former John Duncan rail line and extended the rails from White Deer to Loganton.  The borough of Loganton set an ordinance allowing the railroad to come through the town. In April 1906 permission was obtained to operate a passenger train and to carry US mail. The first passenger train arrived in Loganton May 10, 1907. Two round trips daily in the beginning, except on Sunday’s. The train departed from White Deer at 9:20 A.M. and arrived at the Loganton depot at 10:45 A.M. That depot was located east of the bridge that is south of Loganton on Rt. 447. The train then turned around for the return trip at the wye (in the field which is now owned by Becky Tyson Jodun to the west of the main road). Here also was the engine shed, and coal yard.   At 1:50 it left eastward for White Deer and arrived there at 4:10 P.M. making stops at Carroll and Mile Run. The stop at Mile Run was needed to replenish their water for the boiler. For the convenience of campers, picnickers, and woodsmen the train also make flag stops at Lick Run, Zimmerman, Clam Bake Springs, Greens Gap, Brungard and Duncan …now called Tea Springs.  One interesting fact … the conductor of the train, John Bubb, acted as mail carrier and transported the mail to the Loganton post Office in a wheelbarrow! In Carroll, the station master was James Daugherty and he transported the mail to Carroll post office the same way!

   On special days like for the Milton Fair, Lewisburg Fair, and the Tea Springs Picnic an excursion train ran.  Men would ride on the flat cars which were equipped with benches and rails and the women and children rode in the coaches. At Tea Springs, the company even had a band pavilion built and picnic tables, out houses and a refreshment stand for the comfort of the picnickers. 

  The primary business of the train was for logging. Several spurs were built to obtain the logs. One such spur ran from Carroll to Rauchtown for that purpose. When the logging was depleted, the railroad could not run on just passengers and mail. The last train left Loganton on May 31, 1916. Soon after the rails were lifted and moved to other areas. One of the four engines was sold to a brick plant in Watsontown and the other three went to Cornwall, Virginia.

Information taken from the booklet 125th Anniversary of Loganton and Sugar Valley.

The article was by Ernest H. Geisewite

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1914

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"Sawmills dotted the landscape, especially close to creeks like White Deer where logs floated through a series of splash dams to get to the sawmills at the Susquehanna Rivers edge for easy transport down river.  Allenwood lumber company operated mills near the mouth of White Deer Hole Creek and had the capacity to cut 40,000 feet per day from trees as large as 3 feet in diameter." -  UCRT

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Mad Dog Excitement Near The White Deer Mill

December 4 1910