The Anderson-Tully personnel at the Memphis office. c. 1926.

Founded in 1889 as manufacturer of vegetable crates, the company that would later become Anderson-Tully Lumber Company soon moved from its Benton Harbor, Michigan base to Vicksburg, Mississippi, on the banks of the Mississippi River. As a major intersection for railroad and river traffic, Vicksburg was an ideal shipping hub. Even more important, the area’s fertile, alluvial soil and long growing season create perfect conditions for growing a wide variety of quality hardwoods that are the equal of any in the world.

Christopher J. Tully, founder

Over the next century the company grew to become one of the largest hardwood producers in the United States — and one of the very few able to cut timber on a sustained yield basis on company-owned land. The Vicksburg facilities expanded to include two double band mill sawmills, twenty-four dry kilns, a planer mill, and a four-position inspection and sorting area. Anderson-Tully Worldwide emerged as a globally successful marketing arm and formed the International Hardwood Resource to provide reliability in supplying greater volumes of quality hardwoods to customers around the world.

W.E. Houser and red gum veneer logs. c.1936.

In 2005, Anderson-Tully Lumber Company, with more than 300,000 acres of hardwood timberland in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, merged with The Forestland Group (TFG), the only timberland investment management organization focused on investing in naturally regenerating hardwood timberland. In 2008, TFG acquired the hardwood assets of RoyOMartin, which included 10,000 acres and harvest rights on an additional 138,000 acres of FSC-certified timberland and its hardwood sawmill in LeMoyen, Louisiana. TFG named Anderson-Tully Worldwide as exclusive sales and marketing agent for the new Louisiana Hardwood Products brand, which stands for the same long-term practice of responsible forest management as Anderson-Tully Lumber Company.