Ozan Lumber Company
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| Headquarters | United States |
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The Ozan Lumber Company was a major timber company based in Nevada and Clark County, Arkansas, eventually operating several mills and owning extensive timberlands. It was founded and owned by the Bemis family of Arkansas during the early 20th century, and was prominent during the 1930s and the Great Depression. The family company established a practice of replanting to create sustainable forests.
Texas businessmen J.H. Bemis and his cousin Benjamin Whitaker opened a mill in Prescott, Arkansas, calling it the Ozan Lumber Company. Bemis had moved to Texas from New York. One of his four sons, Horace Erastus Bemis (H.E.), who died in 1914, had purchased the Prescott and Northwestern Railroad. It played a vital part in transporting the timber and company supplies, supporting a vertical integration of the company.
H.E. Bemis operated the mill in partnership with his brothers, J.W. Bemis and William N. Bemis. It achieved its greatest success under direction by James Rosborough Bemis, known as J.R. Bemis, who was William's son. Over the course of the next decade the mill became extremely profitable. By the early 20th century, Benjamin Whitaker was no longer a part of the mills operations, having sold out to J.H. Bemis, the primary stock holder for the company.
Around the turn of the century, mill towns were developing all around Arkansas, most notably Graysonia, in Clark County, to harvest the pine forests. In December 1915, the Bemis brothers merged their company with the Grayson-McLeod Company, founders of Graysonia. By that time the logging camp had developed to a town of more than 1,000 people, with a movie theater, three hotels, numerous restaurants and cafes, a school and a church. With the merger, they renamed the company as Ozan-Graysonia Lumber Company.
J.H. Bemis died in 1918, leaving his sons to run the company. W.N. Bemis and J.W. Bemis were the main share holders, and both had been active in the company since its beginnings. In 1919, J.R. Bemis, son of W.N. Bemis, moved to Graysonia to learn the lumber business. He was twenty years old. He remained in Graysonia until July 1920, when he traveled to St. Louis, Missouri and began working with Don Lambert, learning how the lumber sales business worked from the standpoint of working off commission. By 1921, J.R. Bemis had returned to Prescott, Arkansas.
J.W. Bemis died in 1922, leaving William and his son J.R. as the only remaining Bemis family share holders. J.R. took over the management of the Ozan Lumber Company, while his father opened a wholesale lumber business in St. Louis. In 1929, J.R. and his cousin Hubert Whitaker opened a wholesale lumber business in Prescott, with J.R. managing the production and Whitaker handling the sales. The Ozan Lumber Company by this time was operating in Whelen Springs, in Clark County. Although the Great Depression had begun, the Ozan Lumber Company continued to operate, providing employment in that area.
