The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
Menu
Admin Sign-In

Flint Lumber Company

The Flint Lumber Company was a major commercial lumber, milling, and logging enterprise established in Avon Park in November 1918 by northern investors.[taplines-mutual] Capitalized by Philadelphia lumbermen, the company served as the primary industrial anchor of Avon Park’s southern rail corridor during the post-World War I agricultural and building expansion.[sanborn-1920][taplines-mutual]

Corporate Organization and Land Holdings

Florida’s own charter ledger dates the company exactly. Charter no. 8778, “The Flint Lumber Company,” principal place of business Avon Park, capital stock $75,000, was filed on 9 November 1918, and the letters patent that brought the company into legal existence were issued on 12 December 1918; the treasurer’s affidavit that a tenth of the stock had been subscribed and paid followed on 28 December.[sos-charters] The company was chartered directly under this title and was never incorporated as the “Penn-Florida Lumber Company,” though modern architectural literature compressed this name with George Flint’s broader regional syndicate.[carlisle-flint-building]

George Flint was a Philadelphia capitalist of substantial standing who directed his commercial empire from the 11-story Flint Building at 219–225 North Broad Street.[carlisle-flint-building] His connection to the Avon Park firm is independently documented in Philadelphia banking records: a list of the directors of the Bank of Philadelphia and Trust Company from about 1930 records “George Flint, Flint Lumber Co., 219 N. Broad St., Philadelphia.”[hsp-bank-directors] The syndicate financing Flint’s Florida operations also chartered the Penn-Florida Cattle Company in Avon Park on 16 February 1920 (Charter 9498, capital $300,000) to hold and graze cutover timberlands.[sos-charters-1920]

Evidence: single-source. The details of timber acquisition — that Flint organized the company with L. F. DeBordenave as vice-president and general manager (who concurrently managed the affiliated Penn-Jarratt Lumber Company in Marianna), that it bought a 21,000-acre tract of virgin longleaf and slash pine known as the McArtin tract, and that it had expanded to about 71,000 acres by October 1919 — rest on one railroad-history page.[taplines-mutual] No contemporary local deed has been found that names the McArtin tract.

Milling Infrastructure and Logging Railroad

To process its timber the company built a plant on the west side of the Atlantic Coast Line track, which the Sanborn surveyors placed with a single printed caption, “Located 1¼ Miles S. of P.O.” An Avon Park report of April 1920 puts it on Alligator Creek, “just outside of the city limits.”[sanborn-1920][ocala-star-1920-04-01] The surveyors also recorded how slight its fire protection was: “No watchman. No fire apps. Power. Steam. No lights.”[sanborn-1920]

  • Sawmill and Planing Mill: The physical complex featured an engine-powered steam sawmill, heavy planing mill, dry lumber sorting sheds, elevated timber loading platforms, an integrated tram system, and an industrial refuse burner.[sanborn-1920]
  • Logging Railroad: A compilation of Florida logging railroads records the company at Avon Park in 1920 with a logging railroad and a mill of 60,000 feet daily capacity.[flarr-lumber] That it ran sixteen miles of standard-gauge track with two steam locomotives is recorded only on one railroad-history page and has not been corroborated.[taplines-mutual]
  • Crate Mill Development: To utilize the smaller timber and off-fall lumber unsuitable for heavy construction framing, the company facilitated the erection of two specialized crate manufacturing plants on adjacent parcels: the Mutual Crate Company and the Avon Manufacturing Company.[sanborn-1920][taplines-mutual]

Transition to Citrus Packaging and Logging Succession

By 1924, having cut out the prime virgin timber from its initial tracts, the Flint Lumber Company transitioned its logging operations to the Phil Lacey Logging Company, which operated over Flint’s standard-gauge track network to haul remaining timber.[taplines-mutual] During the sixty-day summer mill shutdowns, laid-off mill laborers were employed in laying new logging spurs through the eastern flatwoods.[tampa-trib-1924-06-15]

The company’s sawmill infrastructure provided the foundation for the Mutual Crate Company and Avon Manufacturing Company, which manufactured upwards of two million citrus boxes and vegetable crates annually for the Florida Citrus Exchange and regional growers throughout the 1920s.[tampa-trib-1924-06-15]

Labor Force and the Mill Quarters

The Flint Lumber Company recruited hundreds of African American laborers and timber workers from northern Florida, Georgia, and Alabama to staff its woods crews, logging trains, and sawmills.[taplines-mutual]

To house this industrial workforce, company housing was constructed directly adjacent to the mills east and west of the Atlantic Coast Line trackage.[sanborn-1920] The November 1920 Sanborn survey recorded forty-five buildings there, lettered rather than numbered because the ground was never platted: a run A to P beside the Flint mill, a run R to Z further south, and a third run beginning again as A.1 to X.1 by the crate mills. Forty-four are marked as dwellings; the forty-fifth is a two-story boarding house.[sanborn-1920] This settlement formed the historic core of the Mill Quarters (or Crate Mill Quarters), supporting community institutions such as Saint John Baptist Church and the pioneer Crate Mill school.

Archival Record

No operational records, corporate ledgers, or vertical files concerning the Flint Lumber Company survive in the archival collections of the Avon Park Historical Society or the Highlands County Historical Society.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Secretary of State of the State of Florida, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, list of corporations chartered 1917-1918: charter 8778, The Flint Lumber Company (references/florida-secretary-of-state-corporation-charters.md) (1918) · official
  2. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, List of Bank of Philadelphia and Trust Company directors, circa 1930 (1930) · archival
  3. flarr.com, Florida lumber companies and their logging railroads, The Florida Railroad History Website (2018) · secondary
  4. The Ocala Evening Star, The Ocala Evening Star, 1 April 1920, page 1: an Avon Park report placing the Flint lumber mill on Alligator Creek outside the city limits (1920) · newspaper
  5. Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Avon Park, Florida (November 1920, Sheet 4) (references/sanborn-1920-avon-park.md) (1920)
  6. Donald R. Hensley, Jr. / Tap Lines, The Logging Railroads of the Flint Lumber Company & Mutual Crate Company (2026)
  7. Secretary of State of the State of Florida, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida, list of corporations chartered 1919-1920: charter 9498, Penn-Florida Cattle Company, and charter 9039, Penn-Jarratt Lumber Company (references/florida-secretary-of-state-corporation-charters.md) (1920) · official
  8. Dennis Carlisle (GroJLart), Hidden City Philadelphia, From Obscure to Ostentatious: The Flint Building (2013) · secondary
  9. The Tampa Tribune, Mutual Crate Co. Enjoys Great Year, The Tampa Tribune, 15 June 1924, page 14 (1924) · newspaper

Something here wrong, or incomplete? The Society would rather know. Tell a volunteer.

Have a question about this record?

← Back to collection

Ask A.P.

Ask the archive

    Try asking:

    0 / 500

    A.P. answers only from the Society's own archive and cites what it used. Questions are not linked to you; search history is stored on your device only (how it works).Ask a volunteer for anything it cannot answer.