72 loads of black walnut logs hauled to Lesh, Sanders, and Egbert Co. in Goshen, Indiana on October 15, 1892.

Lesh, Sanders, and Egbert Co., which sold hardwood lumber of "all kinds, making a specialty of walnut and thin lumber" wholesale.  Their Goshen plant was only the second band mill in Indiana. 

Daniel A. Sanders was the president and general manager of the Sanders and Egbert Company.

Sanders and Egbert Co. expanded their operations by  building a second steam-powered sawmill, right here on the corner of Walnut Street and Sample Street in South Bend  in 1901, to take advantage of the excellent timber in the South Bend area.  By 1905, the company employed several hundred men and put about 20 million board feet of lumber on the market annually.

Harry Sanders rode the train and a bicycle from Goshen to South Bend every day from 1901 until 1915.  He passed away in 1967 at the age of 93, after working at the mill in South Bend for 66 years.

Daniel A. Sanders sent his son, Harry, to manage the South Bend mill, and left Egbert in charge of the mill in Goshen.  The partnership between Sanders and Egbert ended in 1928, and the South Bend plant became Sanders Lumber Co.

This aerial photo was taken of Sanders Lumber in 1958.

Harry's son, Dan Sanders, returned home to run the sawmill in South Bend when his father became ill.  Dan was a graduate of Harvard on a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, studying law.  Dan Sanders started the South Bend Wood Parts across Walnut Street from the sawmill in 1934.  It made wooden car parts, which were sold to Studebaker and Pontiac, and ammunition boxes for the US government during World War II.

The photo on the left is of the boilers that were hand-fed on this site from 1924 until they were refurbished in 2001.  The photo on the right was taken just after the west bank of kilns was installed in the early 1970s.

The boilers that we still use today were installed in 1924.  At the same time, the original sawmill was replaced with a new 8ft band mill.  In the late 1930s, wood product manufacturers began to demand kiln-dried lumber, so Sanders Lumber Co. installed two masonry track kilns with a capacity of 50-54 mbf of 4/4 lumber.  A pre-fabricated kiln building was added to the existing brick kilns in the early 1960s.  The west bank of dry kilns was built in the early 1970s, expanding the drying capacity to its current 170 mbf of 4/4 lumber

Chris Sanders, Walnut Street Hardwoods' dry-kiln operator and timber buyer, is on the left.  Bob House, Walnut Street Hardwoods' lumber sales manager, is on the right.

Chris Sanders, Dan Sanders' son, began work at Sanders Lumber Co. in 1950.  He stacked boards and scaled logs until becoming the dry-kiln operator.  After his father died, Chris became an owner and manager of Sanders Lumber Co.  Chris is still operating these same dry-kilns and is one of our timber buyers.  Bob House joined Sanders Lumber Co. in 1958 as a lumber inspector.  Bob soon became the yard foreman.  Today, Bob manages the sawmill and handles all of our lumber sales.

The fire at Sanders Lumber Co. in May 1978, and the reconstruction that followed. 

The sawmill caught fire in May of 1977.  The sawmill building, boiler house, and steam-engine room were all destroyed.  Sanders Lumber Co. constructed a new, two-story sawmill with a 7-foot Sanborn band mill, debarker, and edger, replacing steam power with electricity.  The lumber stacking machine and warehouse, where lumber is inspected, was built a few years later.

The photograph on top is of Wayne Calhoun, one of the 6 Calhoun brothers, cutting the spurs off an enormous white oak tree that he had just felled.  Wayne is looking over logs with a veneer buyer in the photo below.

The Calhoun Brothers Lumber Co. was started in their barn in 1976.  By 1978, they had purchased Stevens-Lowe Lumber Company in Wabash, Indiana.  Soon thereafter, the mill burned, and they were forced to find a new home.  They bought the Speedway Lumber Co. in Fort Wayne. 

This picture was taken of Pierson-Hollowell Forest Products in 1992.

In 1992, the brothers acquired Pierson-Hollowell Forest Products in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.  Wayne and Don moved to Lawrenceburg to manage the newly acquired facility.  The property was sold to Argosy, a riverboat gambling company, in 1994.  The facility was demolished to make way for a hotel.  The Calhouns, still using the Pierson-Hollowell name, moved to a facility in nearby Aurora.  By 1997 they found themselves moving again, this time to Nabb, Indiana.

This photo is of Virginia Log Co. in 1999.

Wayne Calhoun bought shares of Virginia Log Co. in 1999.  The face veneer mill is located in West Point, Virginia.  He managed the plant there until May of 2001.  At that point he made the decision to move back to Indiana.

These photographs were taken, when concrete was being poured and a new debarker was being installed became Wayne Calhoun, Inc.

Wayne Calhoun bought Sanders Lumber Co. in August of 2001.  As Wayne Calhoun, Inc., cleaning out and remodeling of the old facilities began.  The office was remodeled, the lumber warehouse, lumber stacking warehouse, and boiler house were all given a face lift, a silo was built, both boilers were rebuilt and mechanized, and a new debarker was installed before production resumed in January of 2002. 

The logo created for Walnut Street Hardwoods.

In August 2003, Wayne Calhoun, Inc. changed its name to Walnut Street Hardwoods, Inc.  The name was chosen to reflect the company's long history in a single location as well as the changes and growth that have taken place there recently.  In September 2003, we added a resaw to boost production and increase yield. This spring we modified our 2-saw edger into a 3-saw edger, and we started to sell our own Shredded Hardwood Bark Mulch. We’re always trying to make improvements, so check back with us soon to see what’s been happening on Walnut Street.