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Note: William Ruffin (W.R.) and family lived on the Tyer homestead with his Mother, Rutha Jane, and sister, Evie Idella. After a few years, when his sister married Luther Tyer, W.R. bought his sister's part of the homestead and helped to build a new house for them not far away. Rutha Jane moved to the new house with "Della" and her new husband. Nine children were born at the Tyer Home Place. Each family member joined in the farming chores, raising cotton, corn and many types of vegetables and fruits for sale, as well as for home use. W.R. had a great interest in farming, incorporating agricultural practices that were ahead of his time. He had orchards with apples, pears, peaches, and plums , as well as extensive pecan orchards. He was always trying to better his orchards by grafting for stronger trees and improved fruit. W.R. enjoyed playing the organ and piano. He was a church organist for many years. He also repaired and sold organs. The Tyer family had a dairy with a cream separator, from which they sold milk, cream, and butter in Timpson. W.R. also sold union Carbide lighting systems. In addition, W.R. Tyer leased part of his land for a sawmill. People brought logs by oxen to the mill. He became interested in saw milling and started his own mill in the early thirties at the Tyer Home Palace. Later, in about 1934, the saw mill was moved to the city of Timpson, Texas, and the new sawmill was located about one half mile from the downtown area. Apparently W.R., about this time, changed the spelling of his surname from "Tyre to Tyer". The saw mill, an air dried treatment process, became one of the largest employers in Shelby County and the city of Timpson, Texas in the 1940s and 1950s. He acquired a government contract during World War II to supply lumber for building Army camps. It also supplied big timbers for derricks in the East Texas oil fields around Kilgore and Longview, Texas. Many Native Americans, primarily from Oklahoma, lived on the saw mill grounds and were employed at the saw mill. Eugene Tyer and his younger brother, Leonard, both worked at the saw mill. Eugene Tyer moved his family to Port Arthur, Texas in about 1942. Leonard Tyer, upon the death of his dad became the owner. Upon the death of Leonard Tyer in 1981 the saw mill interests were acquired by Jerry B. Nix, husband of Linda Kay Tyer. In about 1946, Eugene Tyer and his wife, Lottie Estelle Rhodes, went into the retail lumber and hardware business in Port Arthur, Texas. The business was also known as Tyer Lumber Company. Lumber was readily available, just after World War II, from his dad, W.R., and from saw mills in the areas of Kirbyville and Jasper, Texas.
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