Newspapers: A History of Trout, Louisiana -Revised 10-04; Part II, LaSalle Parish, La. Submitted by Jack Willis Date: 16 Oct 2004 Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and Cockleburrs Date: 04 Oct 2004 ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** A History of Trout, Louisiana -Revised 10-04 Part II Trout Creek Lumber Company cranked up their milling operations officially with the felling of the first log on March 01,1905 by "flatheads" Masters and Warner,with the first log being 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, with company engineer H. N. Tannehill laying out the town proper, and crews of craftsmen supervised by one John Casey erected the buildings. In the first consignment 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. Standard housing rental was $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 and first pastor was W.F. Roberts. A painting contractor from Monroe, La. named Turrentine painted all of the buildings. The Colored quarters were located directly opposite the mill site for easy access of the occupants with 108 houses constructed for them, along with a hotel and for some unknown reason, management decreed that all the Colored quarters buildings 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 and the reason being was that the mill didn't saw any lumber shorter than 12 feet, thus by sealing up the wall with 12 foot long boards, this saved sawing off the already uniform length boards to obtain a shorter ceiling, resulting in speedier construction, and besides, higher ceilings were supposed to make the houses cooler. If you believe this bit of trivia 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, with all being 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 everywhere resulting in swarms of mosquitoes in spring, summer and fall. 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 because management built the towns adjacent to the mills for easy access; this also brought an introduction to noise, fumes and debris from the saws, boilers and smokestacks, with some form of dust permeating everything. Then, there were the inevitable steam whistles dictating your every waking moment, and would strike terror in every resident's heart when at night the whistles and bells were used to warn of fire nearby. The Masonic Hall featured some of Construction Foreman John Casey's finest workmanship featuring a huge Easter Star emblem over six feet in diameter emblazoned in the floor of one section of the top floor which was a work of art. Casey used a variety of indigenous woods with different textures and hues 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 which worked in the logging woods were white, illiterate, local family men for the most part with their work uniform consisting of a floppy, broad-brimmed hat, overalls and brogan shoes, all 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 "flathead's" 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 and 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. to begin a 10-hour day. They had an hour off for dinner and then worked until 6:00 p.m. Some of the logging crews had to roll out on pre-dawn trains pulled by slow, powerful Shay locomotives. Often the woman of the house often getting up when the alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning and she'd have to 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, biscuits and some cane syrup in a lard bucket so the man of the house could set out walking, or riding to the rail yard. Some crews had to travel from 20 to 30 miles, which necessitated riding a bench in boxcar. When they got in at night, often hours after dark, they then had to walk home to get a few hours rest and then get do it all over again the next day, six days a week. Pairs of "flatheads" were required to fell 10 trees per day with these trees having to be cut up into logs 12 and 22 feet long to be hauled or towed to rail side by the teamsters. The teamsters were made up of two different classes. One was the muleskinners; 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 to 1908 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 continuous 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... GR&C-6/20/01 Rev.10/04 Jack Morgan Willis