Sawmill Museum Blog: I hail from Lumberton...

Lumbertons abound all over the map. One would think these towns were lumber centers, as towns are usually either named after people or the physical characteristics surrounding the town. The most prevalent and perhaps oldest Lumberton is Lumberton, North Carolina, the town that claimed the life of Michael Jordan's father. I say the town because some studies show it might be the environment and demographics in Lumberton that cause such violence. The town was also the fictional setting for David Lynch's rather disturbing but yet amazing movie, Blue Velvet. The real town sits in the home of the Lumbees, a Native American tribe, and it rests on the Lumber River in Robeson County, North Carolina. Yet, how did it get its name, and what about other Lumbertons?

Screen Shot of Lumberton in David Lynch's Blue Velvet

The of Lumberton, North Carolina received its name in 1787 from General John Willis, a resident of the area and oh by the way, a Revolutionary hero. The river it sits on, Lumber River, originally was named Drowning Creek. According to Wikipedia, it was in 1809 that the name was changed to Lumber River to recognize the lumber industry. The citation can also be found in Robeson County by K. Blake Tyner. So when you read that the town got its name for being on the Lumber River, what gives?

What gives is the age of these industries. The Lumbee River, the Drowning River, or the Lumber River all made Lumberton a vital point in the log drives down the river in the late 1700s. Lumberton for a time developed a heavy timber industry. When the industry shifted, the structures disappeared. Cotton became king.

Yet, Lumbertons abound. Jim Brown, in his book Foot Prints, talks about life in Lumberton, Mississippi. He talks about how Lumberton received its name during the very beginning of the South's lumber boom. The industry boomed in the early 1900s -- note when Clinton's reign ended. Lumberton was one of many sawmill towns in Mississippi like Picayune, Sumrall, Wiggins, and Laurel.

New Jersey calls home to a Lumberton as well. Lumberton, sits on the Rancocas Creek (a necessity for any lumber town). This Creek made Lumberton a trading hub, and in the early Republic, lumber was a hot commodity going through Lumberton. Oddly enough, there seems to be hardly a mention of the role of lumber and/or sawmills in the town's largely agrarian history. Lumberton established itself in the early 1800s, but it's history is a tale of trading hub and Jefferson idealistic farming. Still though, lumber was just a small aspect of the trading hub in Lumberton.

To me the most logical home to a Lumberton is the one in Hardin County, Texas. Starting as a shipping point for the lumber industry, the point of Chance-Loeb became Lumberton when the railroad established a stop.