Nichols Sawmill Road

Formerly the site of a sawmill and dusty trail in the early 1900s, present-day Nichols Sawmill Road winds along a largely residential area of Magnolia with segments still lined by historic tall pine trees from generations past.

"[The sawmill] was there ever since I can remember," Magnolia native and historian Celeste Graves said.

Now 95 years old, Graves said she has lived much of her life in Magnolia and remembers the sawmill's existence in her younger years. Graves said the mill may have closed down sometime after World War II, which would have put its operational lifespan between 30–40 years.

"I was quite young to pay attention to those things," Graves said. "So I don't remember when it went out of business."

In Graves' 2004 book "Magnolia Memories," Annie Laura Nichols recounts the history of her ancestor's family sawmill.

In the 1860s, Alabama native John Anderson Nichols came to Texas during the Civil War and settled in Montgomery County after a trip through the Florida Everglades, according to Graves' book. Traveling with his parents, Nichols originally brought livestock to establish a farm, but the abundance of dense piney woods in the area led him to become interested in another industry—lumber.

"[The sawmill] was there ever since I can remember." —Celeste Graves, Magnolia native and historian

After purchasing 600 acres in the early 1900s, Nichols built a sawmill shortly thereafter on Three-Mile Creek in Montgomery County. Nichols later relocated the sawmill to the Magnolia area along the curve of Nichols Sawmill Road near Turtle Dove Lane. The exact timeframe of the relocation is unknown, although historical accounts estimate it was before 1909.