Source: PRCH, Lucy Beard, Canvasser, August 12, 1936
When the early settlers came into what is now Pearl River County, they
found a wealth of timber in the long leaf pine. Vast
acres were covered with this beautiful and valuable timber. They began
to cut the trees and build their homes of the logs and
to clear it away for their fields. So plentiful it seemed that these
settlers thought nothing of caring for the trees at all. Log
rollings were held and giant logs rolled together and burned. The owners
did not dream they were destroying a gold mine.
The only people at that time who objected to this slaughter of trees
were the Indians. How they grieved to see their loved
pines cut and destroyed. Very soon the northern capitalists saw the
opportunity to make a great sum of money by buying the
timber from the settlers at ridiculously low prices and holding it
until they should see fit to make it into lumber for the market.
Much of this fine timber sold to the northern man for $1.25 per acre.
Very few of the people kept their timber.
About the time that the timber was being bought so rapidly by the companies,
the settlers were cutting giant logs and floating
them down Pearl River to Gainesville and the coast where they were
made into ship timber. Many of the older men tell
stirring tales of the dangers and thrills of the river men as they
rode their rafts of logs to market.
One citizen told me that he had cut down giant pines with an ax, the
desired length ready to haul for ten cents a tree. The
means of transporting this timber to the mill was by water. The first
logging was done with a two-wheel cart, the wheels
about six feet high pulled with three or four yoke of oxen. The cart
had a long tongue and a windlass with a set of hooks that
was used to pick up the logs about two feet high in order to clear
any obstacle on the ground. With the high wheels they
could drive over logs with the cart. In those days they had very crude
tools compared to what they have now. 5 There were
no cross-cut saws, files, etc. The trees were cut down with an ax the
desired length thirty to fifty feet depending on the order
they had The axes were sharpened on a grinding stone.
The carts picked the logs up and carried them to the landing. They were
hauled two or three miles sometimes and only one
log at a time - they only made two or three trips a day on long hauls.
These landings were places where they put the logs in
the water to float them down to market. Some of these locations still
bear the names of those old landings. Some of the
logging men floated their logs loose in the river. The only raft was
the one they built the kitchen on, it was carried behind the
logs. Boards were put over the cracks in the legs and dirt put over
the boards (the boards were hewn). On this a fire was
built and they cooked their meals in Dutch ovens.
Some wonderful times and some good meals were had on those trips, for
it took several days to run the logs to market.
They had venison and wild game in abundance. When it was too wet to
stop over and sleep on the banks of the river, they
slept on the kitchen. They had a tent to stretch over the kitchen when
it rained to keep their groceries dry. The crew usually
consisted of about six or seven men, two in the front, two in the center
and two in the back and often an extra man who was
a pretty good cook. The crew was paid from $1.25 to $1.75 per day and
their board. The drive consisted of from 300 to
500 logs, sometimes more. Very often the logs would get jammed together
in the bend of the river and it would take lots of
hard work to get them loose. Some of our citizens logged as far up
on Pearl River as twenty miles south of Jackson. The
logs were carried to Pearlington and other points on the Coast. There
a boom was stretched across the river to catch the
logs. An inspector then came and inspected and scaled the logs. The
logging men received $5 and $6 per thousand for the
choicest heart yellow pine logs.
After the railroad came through the county the saw mills began to locate
here. Of the 20,000 people in the county in l921,
l0,000 were employed in the lumber industry. In 1929, there were fifteen
saw mills operating in Pearl River County. The
camps that grew up around these saw mills were small towns and furnished
excellent markets for the farmers produce.
Among the larger mills in the county were Edward Hines, Weston, Goodyear
and Williams Yellow
Pine. There were numerous smaller ones.
The early settlers chief occupation was stock raising in this part of
Pearl River County. Some of the cattle men owned as
many as 1500 head. There were no registered cattle, the cattle at the
time being native scrub stock. They were never fed in the winter. They
were trained to graze on the hills in the spring and
summer and put in the swamps in the winter where there was an abundance
of cane. Once a year the cattlemen had a
meeting place where they would drive their cattle to brand and mark
them. They only milked enough milk for home use. The
cattle were shipped and sold on the market. There was not any good
blooded beef cattle as they could not survive on the
open range. The males were marked the first year and and were raised
on the open range till they were about two years
old., then they were trained to work as teams, haul logs, pull wagon
and plow. Some were trained to plow single and some
double. The ox teams were the principle means of conveying logs to
the mill and general hauling in those days. Just recently,
a Mr. Loveless was trying to buy a team of oxen; he says he still finds
them best for logging. A yoke of steers now sells for
about $80 dollars.
Source PRC History about 1935- Rube Spiers, Josh smith, Milton Wheat,
Jim Loveless, Otis Stewart, H.R. McIntosh and
Wiley Stockstill
The houses built by the first settlers on the hill were mere shanties.
There were no saw mills to furnish lumber, and the timber
was split from the tree with the axe and fro. Probably the oldest house
now existing in Natchez is the one occupied by Mrs.
Postlethwaite, on Jefferson street, between Union and Rankin. It was
at one time kept as a tavern by a man named King,
and was t
People Helper Vol. ? No.?
he stopping place of western men on their return from New Orleans,
after selling out their flatboats of produce.
Man
Man is two sexes, male and female. Since the primitive days, it has
been the custom or duty of the man or adult male of the
human spices to make the living. The red man hunted and fished, brought
in the game, led the way and carried a gun ready
to go to war to protect his family and land. Woman
It was the Indian womens job in primitive days to rear the children,
work in the fields, do the cooking, grind corn meal,
make baskets, mats, follow the men and carry the loads. They carried
the papoose in a basket on their back.
When the white settlers came, subtract papoose in basket and add house
cleaning, spinning, weaving, knitting, teaching and
keeping the home fires burning during the Civil War. ed...
You often hear great men as well as others say, "All that I am I owe to my mother."
Source PRC History
More stories
http://www.gulfcoastplus.com/histsoc/pearlriv.htm
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