Temple-Inland

Early Years

In 1893, when Thomas Louis Latane Temple, Sr., founded Southern Pine Lumber Company on 7,000 acres (28 km²) of East Texas, Angelina County, timberland. Temple built the town of Diboll around his company, and by 1894 the first sawmill was operating, cutting 50,000 board feet (120 m³) of old growth timber each day. During the next few years, Southern Pine Lumber Company continued to expand its operations in Diboll. In 1903 the company built its second sawmill and in 1907 created a hardwood mill. In 1910, Temple Lumber Company was formed and established operations in Hemphill and Pineland, both in Sabine County, Texas.

In 1934 Thomas Temple died, leaving his son Arthur with 200,000 acres (810 km²) of land and a company that was $2 billion dollars in debt. Three years later the Hemphill sawmill was destroyed by fire, and Temple Lumber Company operations moved to a smaller mill in Pineland. Recovery was on the way, however.

During these early years and through the housing boom following World War II, Southern Pine Lumber primarily produced basic lumber products, both hardwood and pine, for the construction and furniture industries. By the 1950s technology offered new directions and opportunity for growth. Southern Pine Lumber Company began converting chips, sawdust, and shavings into panel products. In subsequent years, the company pioneered the production of southern pine plywood, particle board, gypsum wallboard, and other building materials.

Credit for substantial growth in the 1950s was due to the aggressive leadership of the grandson of Thomas Temple, Arthur Temple, who took over in 1951. Under his direction, the company used technological advances in the forest industry to expand the company's production and reduce its debt. In 1954 Southern Pine Lumber built a new plant in Diboll for fiberboard production, using wood waste and whole pine chips to make asphalt-coated insulation sheathing. Southern Pine Lumber of Diboll and Temple Lumber of Pineland merged in 1956, taking Southern Pine Lumber's name.

In 1962 Southern Pine Lumber purchased the controlling interest in Lumbermen's Investment Corporation of Austin, Texas, a mortgage-banking and real estate development company that became a wholly owned subsidiary in the early 1970s. In 1963 gypsum wallboard production began with the purchase of Texas Gypsum, of Dallas, that also became a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. That same year, Southern Pine Lumber set up a joint venture with United States Plywood Corporation to build a $3 million plywood-sheathing plant at Diboll. The plant, supplied with raw material from 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) of Southern Pine Lumber's timberland, was designed for producing plywood for sheathing, rock decking, sub-flooring, and industrial uses. After several successful years of operating the plant as a joint venture, the company bought out United States Plywood.

In 1963 Southern Pine Lumber Company changed its name to Temple Industries, Inc., and built a pilot plant in Pineland to make particle board from sawdust and shavings. After 70 years of business, the company's land holdings had grown to more than 450,000 acres (1,800 km²). In 1964 Temple Industries expanded into financial services, including mortgage banking and insurance.

In 1966 the company built a stud mill at Pineland. In 1969 it rebuilt the Diboll sawmill a year after it was destroyed by fire and, also that year, acquired two beverage-case plants in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Dallas. Two new wholly owned subsidiaries joined Temple Industries in 1969. Sabine Investment Company of Texas, Inc. was formed, and Temple Associates, Inc. was acquired.

The 1970s were even more significant for the company, beginning with the production of medium-density siding and the expansion of the fiberboard operation. Temple Industries formed Creative Homes, Inc., in Diboll, to build mobile and modular homes for approximately four years. In 1971 the company built a new particle board plant in Diboll, and in 1972 acquired AFCO Industries, Inc., manufacturer of do-it-yourself consumer products. That same year Temple's West Memphis, Arkansas, gypsum operation began production.

Temple-Eastex

The decade, however, was defined by the events of 1973: Time Inc. acquired Temple Industries and merged it with its Eastex Pulp and Paper Company subsidiary to form Temple-Eastex Incorporated. Eastex Pulp and Paper had been founded in the early 1950s by Time and Houston Oil Company, as East Texas Pulp and Paper. Houston Oil's 670,000 acres (2,700 km²) of southern pine and hardwood provided raw material for the new paper mill, opened at Evadale, Texas, in 1954. Time had purchased Houston Oil's 50 percent ownership in 1956, thus acquiring the 670,000 acres (2,700 km²) of timberland.

When Time created Temple-Eastex, magazines were providing only about one-fourth of Time's sales, and Time officials decided to expand the company's more profitable forest products business. Both companies were looking to diversify; Time's underperforming stock made it vulnerable to takeover. Temple met with Eastex president R.M. (Mike) Buckley, and the arrangements were made. Time bought Temple Industries for stock, and the Temples became Time's largest outside shareholders.

Temple-Eastex produced lumber and other building materials, in addition to paperboard used for household paper products. In 1974 Temple-Eastex opened a new particle board plant in Thomson, Georgia, and a new plywood plant in Pineland, Texas. In 1975 the stud mill at Pineland was automated, and all operations except plywood and studs were phased out. That same year Temple-Eastex installed an innovative process for bleaching of pulp, required for white paper products, in the Evadale mill, as part of an expansion in kraft pulp capacity. The $55 million Temple-Eastex expansion boosted Evadale production by 17 percent. The company stayed busy during the late 1970s with openings, closings, purchases, and moves. A wood molasses plant was built in Diboll in 1977 to use the wood sugars found in the waste water from fiber products. The following year a $100 million capital improvement was begun at Evadale to further enhance operations there. In 1978, Arthur Temple became vice-chairman of Time and served in that position until 1983. In 1979 Temple-Eastex moved into new corporate offices in Diboll, while the nearby plywood operation was closed permanently.

The 1980s started off smoothly with some improvements at the Diboll mill. In 1980 a plastic-foam operation was put on line to manufacture urethane for rigid-foam insulation, and the company's newest and largest wood-fired boiler began operation. A new chip mill and log processing operation was constructed in 1982 in Pineland to supply chips to Evadale, plywood and stud logs to Pineland, and fuel for all other operations. In 1982, however, the company was fined $40,000 by the Texas Air Control Board for violating state particulate rate and opacity standards. In addition to the fine, the Evadale kraft pulp and paper mill was required to install two electrostatic precipitators.

Herman C. Krannert started in the corrugated packaging operation in 1914 when he was hired by Sefton Manufacturing Company a Chicago-based firm, to make ventilated corrugated boxes for the shipment of baby chicks. These boxes met the growing need for lightweight and inexpensive containers to replace traditional wooden crates and barrels. In 1918 he was transferred to Anderson, Indiana, where he was plant manager of the Anderson Box Company.

In the beginning, Anderson Box Company purchased all of the “Chick Pullmans” from Sefton. They bought in large quantities and resold in smaller lots. In this way Anderson developed its own trade name and prestige with the farmers and hatcherymen in states surrounding Indiana. Krannert’s superior skill, motivation, and innovations at Anderson were rewarded with the company president’s invitation to become a director. There was one restriction: Krannert would be required to vote as the president voted. Feeling this directive was unprofessional and unethical, he resigned his position in 1924.

He moved to Indianapolis, IN and in 1925 organized his own company, the Inland Box Company. In 1930 the company’s name changed to Inland Container Corporation and opened its second box plant in Middletown, Ohio. The third box plant, in Evansville, Indiana, was added in 1937. From the beginning of Inland, Anderson Box Company’s volume gave it a substantial backlog. It was doubly advantageous because Anderson’s shipment demands came in the off-peak months of December through March, while Inland’s volume was low. In this way there developed the close coordination between Anderson’s and Inland’s business to utilize to the best advantage the manufacturing and shipping facilities provided.

Thanks to Krannert’s hard work and shrewd business sense, the company thrived and expanded. It survived the Great Depression of the 1930s due to the demand for corrugated boxes for domestic commerce. By 1939, the company had acquired its fourth box plant and initiated vertical integration. During World War II, the United States government began buying large quantities of Inland’s moisture-resistant “V-Board” boxes. The growth accelerated in the mid-1940s as the number of sites, the range of products, and the base of customers expanded.

In 1945 Inland planned a mill venture to produce Kraft containerboard from pine trees in the south at Macon, Georgia. Kraft paper linerboard is one of the components used in making all types of containers. This gave Inland an assured source of supply for a portion of its requirements. Inland’s program of expansion has moved rapidly since 1946 in both mills and box plants.

During the 1960s the thrust of Inland’s planning was directed to growth through the development of new products, more efficient packaging systems, geographic expansion, and acquisitions. By the early 1970s, Inland Container was America’s second-largest manufacturer of corrugated shipping containers, with a complex of 25 plants grossing $200 million in annual sales.