The Thompson Photographic Collection, continued...
Carol Riggs
Director, Texas Forestry Museum
Loading Platforms, Doucette
The railroads allowed East Texas lumbermen to expand their markets in all
directions.
More and more railroads crisscrossed the Pineywoods, and there was more
and more demand for southern yellow pine. More and more of the virgin timber
was cut out. Large-scale reforestation was not really begun until the Civilian
Conservation Corps was organized as a part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The
CCC replanted millions of acres of Texas trees.
In most sawmill towns, the company owned not only the timber and the mill,
but everything else in the town as well. Houses, schools, churches, medical
care - all were provided by the owners.
Typical workers' houses were unpainted, frame buildings.
Manager's Home, Doucette
Management was usually provided with nicely painted modern homes.
As would be expected, the sawmill managers would also have access to much
better than average furnishings.
This building housed the drugstore, post-office, ice cream parlor, and ticket
office for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in Willard.
Commissary, Willard
The commissary or company store had everything from groceries to tools.
Dry goods to furniture. Company housing usually included a small plot for
a garden or other use by the tenant.
Thompson Office, Houston
Because the Thompson interests had grown dramatically since 1881, the offices
were moved to the Commercial National Bank building in Houston in 1906.
The local operations were managed primarily by trusted family members, but
a major portion of the growing business was handled from Houston.
Russ Muckleroy, Kilgore
Besides documenting the Thompson lumber interests in Texas, the photographer
did some human interest studies. On such series depicts Russ Muckleroy,
who was at one time a slave of John Martin Thompson in Kilgore.
Russ Muckleroy & Charlotte Sample, Kilgore
Muckleroy who was 59 at the time of this photo, is shown with his mother,
Aunt Charlotte Sample.
Aunt Charlotte Sample.
Church, Kilgore
The Thompson family was well known for philanthropic efforts. This Presbyterian
church, erected in 1886 in Kilgore, was built through Thompson support.
The Thompson's were also major benefactors of Austin College in Sherman,
and of the YMCA in Houston, among many other projects.
There are some interesting sidelights to the story of the Thompson family.
Back in Kilgore, the elder John Martin Thompson had a daughter, Lou Della,
who married W.R. Crim, a merchant in town. On December 28, 1930, when the
second major oil well in the Kilgore area came in, it was on Crim property.
Mrs. Crim had been deeded the land as her "worthless" portion
of the family assets. This store, managed by Lou Della Crim's husband, was
built as a general store at one of the original Thompson millsites in Kilgore,
and moved to town in 1874.
John Lewis Thompson, son of John Martin Thompson, eventually became president
of several of the family business concerns, including the Thompson and Tucker
Lumber Co. in Willard. When he left to serve in World War 1, he deeded 12,000
acres of land around the Willard millsite to his wife, Helen Kerr Thompson,
in the event he should not return. The mill had closed in 1911 when the
available timber was cut over.
During Thompson's absence, Mrs. Thompson determined to develop a model agricultural
and stock farm as a demonstration that land denuded of its timber could
be made profitable. She renamed the area Woodlake, moved into what had been
the sawmill office, and went to work. Mrs. Thompson began with a high grade
of white-faced herefords, the first to come to Texas. From there she ventured
into vegetables, notable tomatoes, as well as cotton. At one time she had
one of the largest poultry operations in the state of Texas.
In 1933 a portion of Mrs. Thompson's land was sold to the U.S. Government
for a New Deal rehabilitation plan, the Texas Rural Communities Project.
The experiment, operated much like a commune farm, provided housing and
food for 100 relief families.
Thompson lumber interests in Texas continued for many years. Seven of John
Martin Thompson's sons were active in the business at one time or another.
Of special note was J. Lewis Thompson - one of the staunch supporters and
forces behind the origination of what was to become the Texas Forest Service.
He was also an important influence in the beginning of the reforestation
movement in Texas.
(From Willard, the Thompson interests expanded to several millsites, the
most important being the Thompson Bros. Lumber Company at Doucette, a second
Thompson and Tucker mill at New Willard, Thompson and Ford Lumber Co. at
Grayburg (Sour Lake), and the Rock Creek Lumber Company at Trinity.
Delivered at the East Texas Historical Association on February 26, 1988
Revised, September 1993
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L. Jackson, Stephen F. Austin State University, P.O. Box 6134, Nacogdoches,
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E-mail: jjackson@sfasu.edu