East Texas Historical Association

Henry Lutcher

The lumber industry in the United States dates from colonial times. Settling a new land demanded that resources be utilized, and timber was among the most important. The first sawmill in America dates from 1623 in Maine and was used to supply construction materials. By the 1840s many of the forests had been cleared, and industry leaders migrated westward into New York, Pennsylvania, and the Great Lakes states; in the 1870s lumbermen began looking for new sources. Some, like Midwestern entrepreneur Frederick Weyerhaeuser, focused on the Pacific Northwest. Others, like Pennsylvanians Henry J. Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore, came to East Texas and created lumber empires.

Henry Jacob Lutcher was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 1836, to German immigrant parents. He worked as a butcher and a farmer before entering the lumber business in Pennsylvania. In 1862 he joined Moore, originally from New Jersey, in a partnership that proved successful. By the mid-1870s, however, they faced dwindling forests and decided to look elsewhere to continue their business.

After briefly examining Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which were already crowded with ambitious lumbermen, Lutcher and Moore came to East Texas in January 1877. Their trip took them to Palestine, Houston, Beaumont, and Orange, where they met prominent citizens and inspected various sawmill operations. They also toured the forests extensively, spending days on horseback along the Neches, Angelina, and Sabine rivers. After two weeks the partners decided to relocate their lumber operation to Orange, Texas, and set about building a mill and buying thousands of acres of woodlands in Texas and Louisiana.

While Moore split time between Texas and Pennsylvania, Henry Lutcher moved to Orange in 1878 to direct operations, and soon became one of the town's most important industrialists. He led the fight to dredge the Sabine River and make Orange a deepwater port; he invested heavily in railroads, including both the Orange and Northwestern and the Gulf, Sabine, and Red River lines. The Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company mill, in addition to such concerns as the Red Cypress Door and Sash Company, the Orange Mercantile Company, and the Orange Ice, Light, and Water Company, helped the city develop into an important economic center.

Henry Lutcher and his family members-his two daughters married into prominent families, the Browns and the Starks-ran the various Lutcher and Moore companies as community enterprises. They paid employees in cash, not company scrip, and refused to impose company-town status on Orange. Instead, they endowed libraries, hospitals, parks, and churches. Henry Lutcher set a standard for civic philanthropy later emulated by such notable lumbermen as John martin Thompson, John Henry Kirby, and Thomas L. L. Temple.

Henry Lutcher died in Cincinnati on October 2, 1912, after a debilitating stroke. He was interred in the family mausoleum in Evergreen Cemetery in Orange. To get there from the west, take I-10 to exit 873 (Hwy. 62), then travel south to Hwy. 105. Take that east to S. 10th St, then north two blocks. The cemetery is at Jackson and S. 10th. From downtown Orange, head south on Market Street to Jackson, then west to the cemetery.

For more information about Henry J. Lutcher, see Robert Maxwell and Robert Baker, Sawdust Empire (Texas A&M Press, 1983) or the New Handbook of Texas. To learn more about East Texas history, contact the East Texas Historical Association at Stephen F. Austin State University or visit the ETHA web site at http://leonardo.sfasu.edu/etha/.