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Sternenberg’s oldest son, G. Adolph Sternenberg, who acquired half of his father’s interest, became his Father’s understudy in the operations of the mill and tram road. The partners set each of their monthly salaries at $125.²¹

Apparently, the four partners established the value of all equipment, timber, and lands in 1889 at $90,500. In his indenture with V. A. Petty, Olive valued his half of the business at $45,223, and Petty agreed to pay him $22,611 in four equal, annual installments, beginning in 1890. No indenture between J. A. Sternenberg and his son is recorded in Hardin County.²²

There also appeared in 1889 the first newspaper description of the town of Olive and its sawmill, as follows:

The mill is located in the very heart of the long leaf yellow pine section, has a capacity of 65,000 feet daily, and the lumber turned out is of an excellent quality. Among the improvements recently added is a large dry kiln, with a storage capacity of 80,000 feet… Olive has a population of about 500 and is supplied with schools and churches for both white and colored [people]. Mr. [J. A.] Sternenberg spends most of his time in a house surrounded by trees, flowers, and vines, which at this time are laden with all the finest varieties of grapes, and the company is taking advantage of this fact and now planting a fifty-acre vineyard, from which good results are anticipated.²³

A year later, the same Galveston News correspondent was back on a tour of the East Texas sawmills, and he visited Olive during August, 1890. A noticeable improvement had taken place on the tram road, which by then had reached seven miles in length and employed two locomotives and 18 log cars. However, mill employees were back logging the forest, the previous method of contracting the logging having apparently proved unsatisfactory. The correspondent added:

Within the past year, many new improvements have been made at this place, among which may be mentioned a neat little passenger depot for the convenience of the public, one room of which is a post office, nicely arranged and well kept.

²¹Ibid., Volume O, p. 555.

²²Ibid., p. 562.

²³“Texas Lumber,” Galveston Daily News, July 27, 1889.

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