This collection is a partial record of the Burt and Brabb Lumber Company from 1890-1912. While incorporated in Michigan, the company maintained operations in Ford, Kentucky in Clark County. This small community, located where the Cincinnati-Knoxville division of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad crosses the Kentucky River, had approximately 2,500 inhabitants during this period. The Burt and Brabb Lumber Company operated two saw mills, a planing mill, a box factory, dry kilns, and a yard at the Ford site. In addition to its Clark County properties, the company maintained several booms on the Kentucky River and its tributaries and owned property and timber rights in Madison, Leslie, Harlan, Letcher, Perry, Knott, Bell, Clay, and Breathitt Counties.
Formed in 1890 as the Asher Lumber Company, the corporation subsequently changed its name in 1896 to the Burt and Brabb Lumber Company when Marvil I. Brabb and the Wellington R. Burt family assumed control. W.R. Burt, the company's largest stockholder, was at one time a receiver for the Toledo, Ann Arbor, and Northern Michigan Railroad and in 1888 was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the office of governor of Michigan. The company ceased business gradually and liquidated itself around 1906 when it became clear that its timber holdings had become depleted. Much of the company's lumber was marketed in Great Britain.
From the description of Burt and Brabb Lumber Company records, 1890-1939, 1890-1912 (bulk). (University of Kentucky Libraries). WorldCat record id: 12890285
