Kimble County's First Sawmill

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Kimble County's first sawmill. Now settle in, because this one's got pioneers, river water, and a race against time baked right into the lumber itself. The year is 1877, and on the banks of the South Llano River, three men named Claud, Lon, and Sel Denman are about to do something nobody in Kimble County has done before.

They're starting a sawmill. From scratch. In the middle of Texas.

Now, a sawmill needs power, and out here there's no steam engine waiting on a freight wagon. What there is, is a river. And one of those Denmans, Claud, happens to be a stonemason.

So Claud does what a stonemason does. He builds a dam. A mill dam, right there on the South Llano, and that water starts doing the work that arms and backs can't do alone.

The river bends to the task, and Kimble County has itself a working sawmill. But here's where the story gets a little wild. The lumber these men cut, what folks called rawhide lumber, it came from local wood.

And the trick, if you can call it that, was timing. You had to use that wood green. Fresh cut.

Because if you waited, if you let it sit and breathe, it would warp. And once it warped, well, you couldn't drive a nail through it for love or money. So they built fast.

And the proof that they got it right is still standing today, over at 210 East Main, a house built from that very rawhide lumber, cut green and nailed before the wood decided it was done cooperating. Claud, Lon, and Sel Denman bet the whole enterprise on speed, and the river, and good stone work. Seems like they won.

What the marker says

Started 1877 on South Llano River by pioneers Claud, Lon and Sel Denman. Waterpower created by mill dam built by Claud, a stonemason. House at 210 E. Main is of their rawhide lumber, cut from local wood-- used green before it warped and got too tough for nailing. RECORDED TEXAS HISTORIC LANDMARK, 1966.