#sawmills

Today’s #WorkerWednesday post brings us inside the tool room of the Hoopes Brothers & Darlington sawmill in Brooksville, Florida. A note on the reverse of this ca. 1907 photograph identifies the person on the far right as Frank Orville Reagan (1869-1937), the son of Owen Wily Reagan (1847-1909), the sawmill’s manager.

The company that owned the mill, Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, began in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1867 as a manufacturer of wooden spokes for wheels. By the 1880s it had become one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the United States, with mills and timber harvesting operations established throughout the southern United States.

The mill seen here was established in 1906. Hoopes Brothers & Darlington had originally established their Florida operations in nearby Ocala in 1899, but relocated after exhausting local timber supplies and to take advantage of cheaper railroad freight rates. Owen Wiley Reagan had also managed the Ocala mill, with his son Frank working as assistant manager. After his father’s death in November 1909, Frank took over operations of the Brooksville mill.

This #WorkerWednesday, we’re sharing this ca. 1915 photograph of workers with hickory logs at the Hoopes Brothers & Darlington, Inc. sawmill in Brooksville, Florida. While the hickory was harvested and milled in Florida, Hoopes Brothers & Darlington began in West Chester in 1867. The company manufactured wooden spokes for wheels.  By the 1880s, it was one of the largest wooden wheel makers in the country.  It remained in business long after other wheel factories had closed, manufacturing wooden wheels until 1972.

A rising variety of U.S. sawmills are shutting their doorways for good. Hardwood trade leaders are blaming years of tense commerce talks with China for misplaced enterprise. MANCHESTER, Tenn. – A number of U.S. sawmills are struggling to remain open after trade leaders stated years of commerce uncertainty have drained export markets and tightened margins. The Hardwood Federation estimates not…