Name/Title
James Lee [Cover]Description
Cover “from James Lee” addressed to “W D Ivey Esq / Beaumont / Texas” and postmarked "MAGNOLIA SPRINGS / APR / 1885 / TEXAS."Context
James Lee was an early settler of Magnolia Springs and at the time of this cover, owned the only general store in Magnolia Springs. He advertised his merchandise in the Jasper News-Boy, under the motto: "Quick sales and small profits.”
Lee also ran Lee's Mill, on Caney Creek ten miles southeast of Newton and forty-five miles northeast of Beaumont in east central Newton County. The site was named for a cotton press and water-driven mill operated by James Lee, who established a post office named Livonia in 1883. Livonia had been the name of the town when the Windhams operated the mill. As the mail was often misrouted, the name was subsequently changed to Lee's Mill. The construction of the Jasper and Eastern Railway through central Newton County in 1904–05 led to the growth of a number of small settlements and logging camps. Lee's Mill, however, was not on the rail line, and without the transportation thus afforded, the community gradually began to dissolve. The post office was discontinued and moved to Bon Wier in 1918; Lee's Mill no longer appears on maps. Its population numbered 200 before 1905 but only twenty in 1948.