GRASS ROOTS AND COCKLE BURRS- Trout History, Part II, LaSalle Parish, La. 

By Jack Morgan Willis

Submitted by: Pat Ezell,

From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Wed., June 20, 2001
Thank You to Jack Willis and The Times -Signal for allowing the following to
be added to the Archives. 




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Grass Roots and Cockleburs

A History of Trout, Louisiana
Part II

Trout, Louisiana cranked up their milling operations officially with the
felling of the first log on March 01,1905 by "flatheads" Masters and Warner,
and the first log was sawn the same day in commemoration. When finished lumber
was being produced according to the dictates of management, the powers-that-be
then initiated efforts to fabricate a company town. The company engineer H. N.
Tannehill laid out the town proper, and crews of craftsmen supervised by one 


John Casey erected the buildings. In the first lot there were 60 houses
constructed for white residents, whose only condition to live in one of the
houses was that breadwinner be employed at the mill. A company house with
electricity and water cost $5.00 a month, no taxes. Some house cost $3.00 and
on up to the most expensive at 10.00. This village would eventually swell to
108 dwellings, a Company Commissary, a Masonic Lodge, a Methodist Church; a
combination Doctor's Office and barbershop, U.S. Post Office and a Hotel. John 


Casey had also constructed the Methodist Episcopalian Church in 1906. The
first pastor was W.F. Roberts. All of the buildings were painted by a painting
contractor from Monroe, La. by the name of Turrentine.. The Colored quarters
were located directly opposite the mill site for easy access of the occupants.
They also had 108 houses constructed for them, along with a hotel. For some
unknown reason, management decreed that all the Colored quarters building were
to be painted a dull red.


The mill town of Trout was literally carved out of the yellow pine forest.
About the only description that suited this first town in the area, was that
it was practical from a company viewpoint. The dwellings were all one-story,
with 12-foot ceilings. The reason the ceilings were 12 feet tall was that the
mill didn't saw any lumber shorter than 12 feet. By sealing up the wall with12
foot long boards, this saved sawing off the already uniform length boards to
obtain a shorter ceiling. Besides, higher ceilings were supposed to make the
houses cooler. Ask some of the former residents who laid up under the breeze-
stifling mosquito bars night after night, with the perspiration rolling down
their person. 


The company houses, as a rule, all followed the same floor plan. They were
what was known as "shotgun style", because you could have fired a gun down the
hallway in the center of the house, and hit someone sitting on the throne in
the back yard toilet. Each house faced a street and backed up on an alley,
with an outhouse in the rear, next to the alley.


There was very little effort to maintain drainage of the town, so when there
were excessive rains, water stood every where. This resulted in swarms of
mosquitoes. There were no screens on the windows, but the commissary sold
mosquito bars by the dozens, at a price.


There was absolutely nothing romantic about mill town life. As stated before,
the workers built the towns adjacent to the mills for easy access. This also
brought access to noise, fumes and debris from the saws, boilers and
smokestacks. Dust was everywhere. Then, there were the steam whistles that
dictated your every waking moment. But, they struck terror in every resident's
heart when they and bells were used to warn of fire nearby.


The Masonic Hall featured some of Construction Foreman John Casey's finest
workmanship. The huge Easter Star emblem emblazoned in the floor of one
section of the top floor was a work of art. The unique creation was over six
feet in diameter. Casey used a variety of indigenous woods with different
textures to provide startling contrasts of the Easter Star hallmarks vivid
colors. National and State office holders of the Organization, on visitations
to the Hall, were over whelmed at the obviously excellent artwork and
craftsmanship involved.


The year 1907 was when management and labor got it all together. The labor
force that worked in the logging woods was white, illiterate, local family men
for the most part.


Their work uniform consisted of a floppy, broad-brimmed hat, overalls and
brogan shoes purchased at the company commissary They took a bath in summer
every Saturday night in the millpond., whether they needed it or not. From one
"flatheads" own description, he related that by the end of the week their
overalls were so stiff with the rich resin off the crosscut saws, they would
stand in the corner where you could just jump into them every morning. They
were also so slick that "a cat couldn't climb a britches leg." The company's
work force, whether at the mill or in the logging woods, had to be in place
when the whistle blew at 7:00 a.m. They had an hour off for dinner and then
worked until 6:00 p.m. Some of the logging crews had to pull out on pre-dawn
trains pulled by slow, powerful Shay locomotives Often the woman of the house
would get up when the alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. She'd have to
build a fire and get the wood stove fired up to bake two big pans of biscuits.
Then she'd fry bacon and eggs, for breakfast and for dinner. She'd put bacon,
eggs and biscuits and some cane syrup in a lard bucket and the man of the
house would set out walking, or riding to the rail yard Some crews had to
travel from 20 to 30 miles, which necessitated a ride in a boxcar on benches.
When they got in at night, often way after dark, they had the walk home to get
a few hours rest and do it all over again the next day, six days a week. Pairs
of "flatheads" were required to fell 10 trees per day and these trees had to
be cut up into logs 20 feet long to be hauled or towed to rail side by the
teamsters. The teamsters were mad up of two different classes. One was the
muleskinners and the other group was the bull punchers. Mules were used mostly
in the hills because they were faster. But oxen with their wide tired eight-
wheel wagons proved their worth in the swampy areas of the Buchanan holdings.
The loading of the one ton logs at rail side onto the railroad cars was where
life got dangerous and many men were hurt, maimed for life or even lost their
lives. When a salesman of flatcar-mounted cranes asked one of the company
executives if the purchase of one of their devices wouldn't be better for the
company? He was said to have replied to the salesman, "Hell No! That crane
wouldn't trade at the commissary!" End of conversation. 


The loggers, the teamsters and the loaders were the main components of the
woods work force. To aid and abet these laborers were the rail gang that
maintained the tracks and a small horde of youngsters that scurried around the
logging operations carrying water to the workers, and gathering pine knots for
fuel for the locomotives.


Life rolled on in the town of Trout. In 1907 the first school was established
on a hill back of Trout and the Superintendent was J.P.A. Whatley, and the
first teacher was Commodore Walters. Dr. T.M. Butler, formerly of Centerville
(Summerville) came on board as another company Doctor. From 1907 to1908 a Mr.
Lynn was the office manager, then Charley North came back, and left again, and
a Mr. O.F. Wyman took his place.


J.A. Buchanan retired in 1910 and W.J. Buchanan became manager of the mill. In
1912 a picture show was established in the Masonic Hall, and was managed by
Ben Casey. It only operated for a few years. During the First World War,
nation wide business was at a standstill and labor was very hard to obtain.
In twenty-five short years, the Trout Creek Lumber Company had more or less
cut out their share of the virgin pine forest from which the company ventures
successes had been carved. Records indicate that in the operational time
period the mill had sawn over seven hundred million board feet of lumber. On
the morning of March 1st, 1905 when the first log was sawn, operations had
been almost continuos until October 4th,1929, and the company had employed
from 350 to 400 men in the various departments. The last whistle was blown at
the mill the next day, which was more or less a ceremonial rite, on Saturday
morning October 5,1929, less than a month before the Stock Market Crash. The
Trout Creek lumber Company mill had started work on a Friday and finished on a
Friday.

 
The advent of the closing of a mill was nothing new to the Buchanan hierarchy.
At this time William Buchanan had already been dead some six years. One
company official recalled that when the Minden mill had been consumed by fire
in 1918, it fell his lot to go into the Big Man's office and inform him of the
disaster. He knocked on the door and gained admittance, and told Buchanan the
bad news. Buchanan looked at him for a moment and calmly replied, "Son, that
sometimes happens", and turned back around to his desk and resumed his study
of a ledger.


The virgin long leaf pine forests William Buchanan had once ridden through on
horseback were no more.


JT-6/20/01 Jack Morgan Willis