The Thompson Collection:
A Rare Photographic Look at Lumbering in East Texas
by
Carol Riggs
Director, Texas Forestry Museum
Early settlers to East Texas found vast expanses of virgin pines, the westernmost
extension of the great southern forests they left behind when they came
to Texas. In the beginning the trees were felled for log cabins, but in
many ways the timber was considered a hindrance to the agricultural lifestyle
the settlers knew and preferred. They simply wanted to clear the land so
that they could plant the crops necessary for their existence. Prior to
the Civil War, East Texas was dominated by a subsistence agricultural economy.
Very little trade occurred with the outside world.
Some of the first recorded history of the forest industry in Texas begins
in the early 1800's with a water-powered sawmill near San Augustine, reported
to have originated in 1819. After that time, sporadic mills, mostly water-powered
sash mills, dotted the East Texas landscape. In 1830 what was apparently
the first steam powered mill in Texas began to operate at Harrisburg. Most
early mills produced from 500 to 2000 board feet of lumber daily. Mills
employing circular saws were not in general use until the beginning of the
Civil War. In 1860 there were about 200 sawmills in Texas, employing 1,200
people. Most of these were small mills, easily moved to new locations when
the resource was exhausted.
The early lumber industry in Texas struggled for several reasons, but the
primary problem was transportation. By the Civil War, railroads skirted
the Pineywoods on all sides, but most lumber products from the interior
had to be hauled to market by wagon over poorly maintained roads. Some timbermen
along rivers were able to raft their logs to mills downstream, and then
transport the finished product to the Gulf Coast for shipment. But most
East Texas rivers were ill-suited for dependable rafting. It wasn't until
the 1880's when railways began to crisscross East Texas, and lumber companies
could build tramways into their holdings, that the forest industry really
began to boom.
Against this sketchy backdrop of the early history of forestry in Texas,
one of the major lumber dynasties of the Pineywoods stands out. An excellent
collection of photographs, taken in 1907 and 1908 for a special edition
of the American Lumberman, documents the extensive interests of the Thompson
family throughout East Texas.
The Thompson lumber interests across East Texas, including lumbering practices,
millsites, timber holdings, and the people who made it all work are documented
in the photo collection.
John Martin Thompson, born in Georgia in 1829, came to Texas with his father
and mother in about 1844 when he was 15 years old. The elder Thompson, Benjamin
Franklin Thompson, eventually amassed over 10,000 acres in the vicinity
of Kilgore. Thompson's plan was to grow cotton on this property. The vast
stands of shortleaf yellow pine on the land probably had a great influence
on the future direction of the Thompson fortunes.
When young Thompson was 20 years old, he and his younger brother, William
Wirt, were sent to school at the Western Military Institute in Georgetown
Kentucky. In 1852, after two years at school, the brothers returned to Kilgore
and were set up with a combination flour and sash sawmill in partnership
with their father. This was the home near Kilgore into which John Martin
Thompson moved his bride. They eventually had six children.
The brothers had a series of sawmills that were destroyed by fires. With
each disaster they built a larger and more modern mill.
In 1881 all of the Thompson lumbering interests were moved to what was to
become Willard in Trinity County. From Trinity, the Thompsons and partner
Henry Tucker had ridden down the right-of-way of the coming Missouri, Kansas
and Texas Railroad, or Katy. Six hundred forty acres of land were selected.
They thought this would be enough acreage to supply the mill for its lifetime.
The mill they erected there produced from 12,000 to 13,000 board feet of
lumber a day.
At the time these photographs were taken there were still vast stands of
virgin yellow pine for the taking.
The mill at Willard was completed in 1881 before the railroad reached the
site. In 1887 Thompson & Tucker bought a tram steam locomotive, and steel
crews built tramways into the areas that were to be cut.
Working ahead of the spurs, flatheads or sawyers, as the loggers were called,
felled the massive trees with crosscut saws. (Note the bottle of turpentine
with pine straw in the back pocket. This was used to clean the blade.)
To continue the article...
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©Jere
L. Jackson, Stephen F. Austin State University, P.O. Box 6134, Nacogdoches,
Texas 75962 USA
E-mail: jjackson@sfasu.edu