history matters
the story of the historic phillips forest products
We're as proud of our history as we are of our wood products. Our story began many decades ago in a small town outside of Atoka, Oklahoma, where our founder Cecil Phillips was born into a family of seven children. From there, our story travels to the sawmills of Germany, the great Redwood forests of California, to the hometown of Hoss Cartwright, De Kalb, Tx, where it awaits patiently for it's next chapter. For the time being, we're producing kiln dried lumber, wood beams, architectural millwork, live edge wood slabs, mantels, and other high quality wood products right here in the great town of De Kalb, TX!
-dipalo-
(the story begins)
Before highways cut across the state and before Oklahoma was even much more than farmland and forest, sawmills were the heartbeat of its small towns. In the east, where the hills rolled with oak and pine, families set up rough-cut mills powered first by steam, then by sputtering gasoline engines. These weren’t great industrial giants—they were family outfits, the kind of places where fathers and sons worked side by side, turning logs into the lumber that built barns, fences, bridges, and homes.
Railroads pushed deeper into the state, and with them came new demand. Oak ties and bridge timbers were stacked high, cut by portable mills that seemed to chase the tracks. In the lean years of the Depression, mills kept communities alive, their lumber traded as often as it was sold. By the 1940s, the whine of the saw once again echoed through the woods as the war effort called for hardwood timbers and sturdy planks.
In places like Atoka County, men like Ernest Phillips and Monroe Allen ran their mills with grit and persistence. For families like his, the mill wasn’t just a business—it was survival, tradition, and a way of life.
-the 1800s-
the story of fernando adolphus phillips
As told by my grandmother, Velma Jean Phillips, circa 2008.
In her late seventies, Velma Jean had become deeply interested in our family’s genealogy. Dial-up internet had finally reached De Kalb, and with her husband Cecil and sister Wanda gone, she filled her quiet nights with research. A lifelong night owl, she and I often exchanged calls at unreasonable hours while I was studying architecture at RISD. Many of the images and stories that follow come from those sleepless nights and her meticulous scrapbooks.
One night she phoned, excited by a new discovery.
“We don’t know if he was stolen or sold,” she said, “but his name wasn’t Phillips. It was something like Shmittenburg.”
Her story began in Europe, around the 1860s, with a boy named Fernando—five years old, either taken or given to a ship captain named Phillips. In that era, desperate families sometimes entrusted their children to sea captains bound for America, hoping for a better life. Fernando grew up aboard ship, became the captain’s first mate, and remained by his side for life. On his deathbed, Captain Phillips told him, “Take my name. Go to my family’s estate in Pennsylvania. Tell them who you are.”
Fernando Adolphus Phillips did just that. He came to America, traveled west, met and married a Choctaw woman along the Trail of Tears, and settled near Atoka, Oklahoma. They had nine children. One was Ernest Phillips, who had ten more. Among them was Escar Phillips—father to seven, including Cecil Roy Phillips.
And from that boy on the ship, our family’s story began.
This image shows Fernando Adolphus Phillips as an older man, with his son Escar and his with Ethel Allen and their young son, Cecil Roy Phillips on the bottom right.
the 20th century
-moving into the modern age-
The Telephone - Television - Two World Wars - A Man on the Moon? - A Coup d'etat - The Cold War - Vietnam
In other words: Chaos Thru Control
1946
Germany
Cecil Phillips, a World War 2 Army veteran, worked sawmills in Germany while in the army. This was nothing new for Cecil, as his father and uncle Monroe owned sawmills in Atoka, Oklahoma, near his hometown.
After WW2, Germany's dense forests provided a crucial resource to aide the reconstruction of European states ravaged war. American military personal alongside Germans operated the sawmills to produce the much lumber products required for reconstruction.
In this photograph, Private First Class Cecil Roy Phillips can be seen inside the logging crane of which he was the operator.
In 1946, Cecil moved back to Atoka to work at his father's mill and with his uncle Monroe Allen who owned Allen Lumber in Atoka which is still in business today.
1950
tragedy
On November 11, 1950, John D Phillips died in while delivering a load of beams for his uncle Monroe Allen in Atoka, Oklahoma.
Monroe owned and operated Allen Lumber Company in Atoka, OK and was present during the accident. According to Monroe, the brakes on the truck failed causing John to T-Bone the lumber loaded truck into a ditch.
As a result, the beams crashed thru the back window killing John.
John was survived by his parents, one sister, and five brothers; one was those brothers was Cecil Roy Phillips.
Shortly after the death of his brother, Cecil Phillips moved his wife and two children from Atoka, Oklahoma to a logging community just east of Eureka, California to log the great Redwood Forest.
the great redwood forest
oklahoma to california
THE 1950's
The mill near Redwood Creek, California
1953
going to california
Logging was extremely important to California in the 1950s—both economically and culturally—especially in the northern part of the state where the redwood and Douglas fir forests stretched for millions of acres.
In 1953, following work, Cecil moved his wife, Velma Jean, and their two children, Dana and Reggie from Crystal, OK to a small logging community east of Eureka, CA, to log the great Redwood forests of Northern California. In California, their youngest son Chuck would be born on the way to the hospital in the back of a car on a logging trail.
1954
the crane operator
Pictured is Cecil Phillips atop a pile of Redwood logs in front of the crane he operated in northern California.
Crane operators are essential to logging. They move logs onto trucks and railcars, support transport from camps and rivers, and maintain equipment. The crane shown appears to be an American Hoist & Derrick 595C Crawler or a Bucyrus-Erie Crawler Crane.
Cecil Phillips stands proud on the log crane he operated in Northern California.
Velma Jean Phillips, her son Chuck Phillips, her sister Wanda Wall.
1955
Life in the logging camp
This picture, taken July 1955 featuring Velma Jean Phillips, her young son Chuck, and her sister Wanda Wall gives us a brief hint of what life was like in the California Redwood logging camps.
The workday was long, grueling, and dangerous. Many loggers had wives and families. Therefore, entire communities were developed around these logging camps where were in the middle of nowhere deep in the forest.
To make life easier, schools, churches, hospitals, and housing to facilitate the families were built forming communities.
A moment for art
showcasing the art of wanda Wall
The woman centered in the picture above with her sister Velma Jean Phillips is no other than Wanda Wall who would grow on to became a very talented painter. Wanda took to the arts at a young age and went on to become famous in her own right. Wanda moved to De Kalb, Texas in 1980 from Bakersfield, California, twenty years after her sister and Cecil.
She built a home and an art studio and continued to create amazingly beautiful works of art. She brought a beautiful point of view to our area and influence many people who still today carry on her appreciate for the arts and the beauty of this place.
Wanda moved on in 2007. She is now an Otter
back to the logging camp
video of the logging camp in the 1950's
This video gives us small insight into the lives of those who survived the logging camps of the 1950's in the California forests. Videos like this a true treasure to the human condition, they give insight to how those before us today lived with so much less and yet, still found time to be gracious and happy.
the logging camp
a first hand account of Northern California
Check out this interview taken circa 2016 with (name) who lived at the Northern California logging camp where Phillips family lived in the 1950's. On her way across the United States Geocaching, she took the time to stop in De Kalb and spend some time with us. I was a great reunion for our grandmother, Velma Jean Phillips.
This interview tells the origin of the Phillips' family history with the Seventh Day Adventist church. As told by (NAME), this account describes the moment Jean Phillips was baptized into the Seventh Day Adventist faith as she remained until the time of her death. Her son Reggie is a lifelong Seventh Day Adventist Pastor.
Today, in honor of Sabbath, our milling operation remains closed on Saturday, but you can visit one our Forest Store locations which all keep Saturday hours.
2018
the historic
The historic Phillips Sawmill during an East Texas snowstorm.
PHILLIPS FOREST PRODUCTS
A TEXAS HISTORIC BUSINESS
Phillips Forest Products – Texas Treasure Business Award Recipient
Established in 1958, Phillips Forest Products has been recognized by the Texas Historical Commission as a Texas Historic Business through the Texas Treasure Business Award program. This designation honors businesses that have provided employment and contributed to the state’s economic growth for 50 years or more.
The State of Texas formally acknowledges Phillips Forest Products for more than six decades of service, craftsmanship, and dedication. Its history embodies the spirit of perseverance and enterprise that strengthens local communities and preserves Texas heritage.
WOOD IS WONDERFUL™
enjoying our story? be a part of it!
check out some of our best selling gear below.
The Iconic Wood is Wonderful™ Hat
The official Historic Phillips Forest Products Shirt.
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2023
THE FOREST STORE hochatown
In 2023, we brought The Forest Store north from our Hooks, TX location, to open a second location in Hochatown, Oklahoma—just an hour’s drive away. Nestled at the edge of the Ouachita Mountains and near the clear waters of Broken Bow Lake, Hochatown has become one of the top vacation destinations in the region, drawing visitors from across the country and around the world. Known for its blend of outdoor adventure and rustic charm, the area offers hiking, biking, camping, fishing, and kayaking, making it a natural fit for our brand.
The Hochatown Forest Store gave us the opportunity to broaden our reach and expand our product base beyond lumber and slabs. Here, alongside our live-edge furniture and mantels, travelers can discover a wide variety of handmade home goods—cutting boards, butcher blocks, rustic décor, and unique woodcrafts that carry the same quality and craftsmanship as the millwork that built our reputation. For many, a visit to the Hochatown Forest Store becomes more than shopping—it’s a chance to take home a piece of East Texas and Oklahoma heritage, crafted from the same woods that have sustained our family business for generations.
2025
THE FOREST STORE waco
Located between Chip and Joana Gaines' Hotel 1928 and Tecovas cowboy boots on Washington avenue in downtown Waco, Texas, this location will serve as our flagship store.
Waco, Texas, has a history that stretches back to the mid-1800s, when it was founded along the Brazos River near a former Waco Indian village. The arrival of the suspension bridge in 1870, then the longest of its kind west of the Mississippi, made Waco a hub for trade and cattle drives, while the railroads soon solidified its role as a regional crossroads. The city became known for its cotton industry, higher education institutions like Baylor University, and for being the birthplace of Dr Pepper in 1885—the oldest major soft drink in the United States, created at a local pharmacy and now celebrated with the Dr Pepper Museum downtown. Waco has also endured tragedy, including the 1953 tornado that devastated downtown and the 1993 siege at Mount Carmel, but each time it rebuilt and grew. Today, Waco blends its frontier roots with cultural landmarks and economic revival, standing as both a historic Texas city and a modern destination.