Taylor Lumber Co history

The Lester Group is a diversified company founded in 1896 in Martinsville.

J. H. Scales and D. G. Malloy took over the company in 1908 and formed the Perry Electric Company. It was not until 1905 that the residents of Perry first received electric service.

In 1907 this business became bankrupt and service was temporarily discontinued.

J. H. Scales and D. G. Malloy took over the company in 1908 and formed the Perry Electric Company.

In January of 1909 Fred Taylor sold his interest in the parent company and bought the Princeton operation outright.

In 1911 Major George E. Porter assumed control of the Perry Electric Company which was then serving 52 customers.

J. D. Scruggs was named general manager in 1913, and many improvements were made and its customers grow to approximately 325.

On July 1, 1925, The Perry Electric Company, controlled and operated by the General Utilities and Operating company of Baltimore.

In 1928 the firm became a father and son partnership.

A 13 KV tie line was constructed between Foley and Perry in 1929, thereby enabling the utility to secure power from Brooks-Scanlon Corporation.

Taylor County Historical WritingsFlooding in Taylor CountyJoe Cruce and his dog CapLumber and AgriculturePhosphate Company OpensThe Aucilla HuntWPA writer's project 1930's

The hurricane of 1935 caused damage roughly amounting to $10,000 in Perry.

In January 1938, Perry had 511 customers.

In 1940 a 22 KV tie line was constructed between Perry and Madison, and energized in November of that year.

McDermid, whose lumberyard and mill are at 1941 Elmwood Ave., says survivors such as Frontier and Newfane Lumber are partially responsible for some of their competitors' failures.

The property of the Burton-Swartz Cypress Company, which operated here for more than 25 years, was acquired by Lee Cypress company, and saw mill operations began by this organization in 1943.

Reprint from The Taylor County News, April 12, 1945

In June of 1950 Rumsey Taylor Jr. received his degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and joined his father.

Taylor Brothers was founded in 1952 by Robert B. Taylor, Sr.

In 1953 the firm was again a father and son partnership.

Jim Carpenter Company began operations in 1955.

In 1960 the firm was incorporated.

In 1972, a manufacturing department was added to Princeton Lumber Company, manufacturing radio and speaker cabinets for Arvin Industries.

In the fall of 1978 he returned to Princeton to join the business.

In 1981, Dixon Taylor (2nd son of Rumsey Taylor, Jr.), also graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Civil Engineering and went on to work for Brown & Root Construction.

The company grew and moved to its current location at 905 Graves Mill Road in March 1985.

Standing in the back: Rumsey Taylor, Sr. circa 1986

He initiated his timber and wood products consulting career in 1988 with Widman Management Consulting and that business was later sold to Sandwell Inc.

"If you drew a line with a radius of 30 miles away from City Hall, 42 retail lumber yards within that area have closed or gone bankrupt since 1990.

In 1992, R.E. Taylor & Associates Ltd. was formed based on Russ’s initial fifteen years’ experience in forestry and wood products and his five years of domestic and international consulting.

In 1995, International WOOD Markets Research Inc. was created with the objective of publishing selective market reports to complement the firm’s ongoing consulting projects.

Rumsey Taylor, Sr. passed away in 1996.

He started spending time in Europe in 2000, with initial efforts focused on assessing rapidly expanding sawmilling and lumber-export activities.

The firm’s Southern Hemisphere adventures continued to Australia, where in 2001 they were retained by Hancock Victoria Plantations to secure a major sawmill investor to utilize timber from an expanding plantation pine forest.

There are maybe a dozen survivors," says Ronald Schopf, who retired in 2002 as New York state regional vice president for Babcock Lumber Co. in Orchard Park.

Their travels and project work led to the publication of three multi-client reports on Russia starting in 2004.

Russ Taylor has been involved in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN–ECE) since 2005 through its Timber Committee and UN–ECE/FAO Team of Specialists on Forest Products Markets and Marketing.

Starting in 2011, Russ launched the very successful annual conference series, the Global Log & Lumber Conference, that continues today.

Building Supply of Manassas opened in Manassas, VA in the fall of 2015.

The Lester Group, Inc. started Fortress Door Company in 2016 in Fredricksburg, VA. Lester Group hired a team of very experienced door manufacturers.