A History of Orange Page: 58
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After the war, Russell bought a steam saw and shingle mill in Orange. It was
located on Market Street immediately south of the present Harding and Lawler
Lumber Company building. It was there that he perfected the present day method
of baling shingles. Although granted a patent for this on July 22, 1879, he neither
restricted the use of his process by others nor obtained payment for its use. The
Orange Leader in a special edition in 1895 said the following: In 1841, a mill was
built at Turner's Ferry near the junction of Big Bayou on the Louisiana side of the
Sabine River by Payne and Bendy. Old steamboat boilers and engines were used to
run a sash saw. The whole plant cost $3,500 and was the first steam saw mill that
was operated on the lower Sabine. 3500 feet was a good day's work for it. The mill
fell into the hands of Robert Jackson who tore it down, moved it to Orange, then
Green's Bluff. It was not a prosperous mill. After the war it passed to Remley and
Johnson and from there to R.B. Russell and finally burned down June 6, 1890.
Most people consider the industrialist, Henry Ford, to have been the first to provide
the five dollar a day wage for his employees, which he did in 1914. However,
according to the Products of Industry, 10th Census of the United States, 1880, the
R.B. Russell and Son Shingle Mill in Orange paid wages of five dollars a day for
skilled workers and $1.50 a day for unskilled workers at a time when the top wage
at all other sawmills in Orange was $3.50 a day. The average work day in the winter
at the Russell shingle mill was nine and a half hours. It was eleven hours in the
summer months. The Russell and Son Shingle Mill equipment consisted of one
four-gang saw, one circular saw, two boilers, and two fifty-horsepower steam
engines. Three schooners owned by the Russell mill carried the shingles to market.
The shingle mill was capitalized at twenty thousand dollars and employed a
maximum of fifty men and an average of twenty-five men in 1880.
The petition of Robert B. Russell, praying to receive the three degrees in Masonry
was received, read, and an investigation committee was appointed by the Worship-
ful Master of Madison Lodge at the stated meeting at candlelight April 29, 1854.
On May 27, 1854, the committee on the petition made a favorable report and
Russell was duly elected to receive the first degree in Masonry. On June 4, 1854,
he was introduced and initiated into the solemn mysteries of Masonry. (38) He
was passed on August 27,1854, but on August 7, 1854, previous to his receiving his
Fellowcraft degree, he became a stockholder in the organization created to build a
Masonic Hall and school by buying a ten dollar share. Thus, he showed his
agreement with the Masonic principle of supporting public schools even before he
was raised a Master Mason on September 30, 1854.58
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Orange County Historical Society (Tex.). A History of Orange, book, 1998; Orange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth312851/m1/62/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Orange County Historical Society.