Clarendon’s vast stands of white and red pine became a much sought after commodity during the lumbering boom of the 19th century. Lumber quickly became the primary industry in Clarendon until the 1890s. Thomas Durrell is credited with being the first in the timber business in Clarendon. In 1831, he was operating a timber industry at Clarendon’s Mills.
By 1840, John Egan and the Gilmours were buying land north of the 9th Range of Clarendon and cutting and driving the timber down the Quyon River to the Ottawa River.Lumbering also became a necessary way of supporting a family farm through the winter. In the winter, men would leave their wives and families to head to the lumber camps in the northern parts of Pontiac County and they would not return until the spring. In more recent history, Hokum and Son operated a lumber mill on the 7th Line of Clarendon between 1973 and the 1980s.