In Montgomery County, Arkansas the timber felled was mostly shortleaf pine, shortleaf hardwood, and mixed upland hardwood. Rough cut lumber was hauled by mules from the sawmills [sets] in the area to Womble where the planer was situated. This mill proved to be one of the biggest employers in southern Montgomery County until the early 1950s. During the depression many men and youths left their farms and looked for work in the logging camps.
PLANER - YARD - TEAMS
April 1914 to June 10 1915 Time Book Monthly
(transcribed from a pay book that was purchased at a Hot Springs flea market)
The Mill run was ten hours a day, six days a week with every Sunday off. The men were paid monthly. The men were divided into three teams - Planer, Yard and Teamsters. C.N. Rowan appears to be the foreman for the Planer and Yard teams. *Men who appeared in the pay book April 1914 and still there in June 1915.
The planer men made $1.50 or $1.75 per day with Sid Baker $2, and W Benson at $2.50 and C.N. Rowan at $3.00 per day in April and in May a rate of $3.05 per day. Usually 15 full time employers and some part-timers.
The yard men made $1.50 per day, new men $1 per day and the water boy $1.50 / day. Usually 10 full time employers and some part-timers.
The teamsters usually made $1.75 per day with the new man starting out at $1.50 and the foreman, Will Dalton, at a rate of $2 per day. The mule was paid $1 / day in April 1915. Usually 9 full time employers in the teamster team.
Planer
Rowan* CN $3.00 Benson WC $2.50 Talleson BA $2.00 Barnes Jno. $1.75 Barker* Sid $2.00 Barrows Jno. $1.75 Bodine Steve Boyd JF $1.75 Burrson JA Burrson Doiby Dill Joe $1.75 Ganees Jess Hampton Jim $1.75 Honman JV $1.50 Jacks DF $1.75 Jackson Chas. $1.75 Johnston Hull $1.50 Johnson Wm $1.75 Middleton Tom $1.50 Mule Co. .75 Mullins Calvin $1.50 commenced 11 August Rice* Jno. M Roberts Henry D Rowan Chas. 50 cents per day in May, and in June 75 cents per day Sullivan Dan Summers JN Team Jo Upshaw JN $2.00 Vines GM $1.50 commenced 10 August Webb DB Walker TM
Yard Team
Rowan* CW Alford Ed Adams Sid $1.50 Adams Tom $1.50 Allen George Avants Ross Bates YD $1.75 June 1915 Benson Claud Blogg Ben Bolding Joe $1.50 June 1915 Bowling JW Bounds MG $1.50 in August Braddy JN Bullard Ross $1.50 June 1915 Carpenter EV $1.50 Clark LO Claude Harve ?laokes DF Dill Job $1.75 June 1915 Gossd BF Cunningham Dave Daniels RE Dill Joe $1.75 in August Ford Boyd $1.50 in April 1915 Franks Jack $1.50 in August Gaiver Jess Goldman ?KG Grant R Howell Chas $1.00 commenced 2 July Jacks DF $1.50 in June, $1.75 in August Jeams C.O. Jueker NG Johnson Will $1.75 June 1915 Johnston Andrew $1.00 commenced 7 July Johnston Lee $3.00 commenced 5 May rate King Orvel Lanier Jesse Lindsay Madison Lindsay Otis Middleton Tom Monroe Frank $1.50 Monroe JT $1.50 June 1915 Montgomery Wm M* Morris JW $1.50 Moson Joe $1.50 Water Boy June 1915 Neighbours* Henry $1.50 ?Nutlson Grady Payne RN $1.75 Plyber DB $1.75 Payne RN* Riddle RM Roberts Henry D Rowan Ben $2.00 commenced 21 Sept. Scroggins J $1.50 in April 1915 Shillito Jacob (Jake) Simpson Geo. Smith GS $1.50 Sullivan Geo. Suttle B Tolleson BA $2.00 Tolleson Tom $1.50 in August Tucker HH $1.50 April 1915 Upsha* JN $1.50 in August Walker TM $1.50 Wilson Grady $1.50 Wilson Marion $1.50 Wilson ?Herve $1.50
Teams
Dalton* Will $2.00 April 1915 Dalton* Pat $1.50 Allen Geo. $1.50 Barnes* Jno $1.50 Bell Jess $1.75 Bullard Dock $1.75 Davis Jess $1.50 Furlong N Howell* Chas $1.75 commenced July 26 Jamieson Arthur $1.75 Jameson Oscar Jamieson Ed $1.75 Lindsay Lee $1.75 April 1915 4 days Monroe Frank $1.50 Pettitt Geo. $1.75 last day 17th July Prowse Grover $1.50 Ray JH Richardson* Tom $1.75 Rowan Ben $1.50 Scott Rush Simpson Geo. $1.75 Smith* Jess $1.75 Smith Jim $1.75 Stepp Jno. $1.75 Tucker HA Woodard Jess Usually only six teamsters employed per month. *Still here in May 1915.
September 1914 No. 2 Mill Tram Teamsters
Wilkes JR $1.75 Bawcen Cara $1.50 Dearmore RD $1.50 Parten WP $1.50 Hogan Frank $1.50 Wilson Marion $1.50April 1915 Wilkes JR $1.75 Parten WP $1.75 Wilson Marion $1.75 Baldwin LC $1.50 Boyd Graves $1.75 Evans Alex $1.75 Moore Lee $1.75 Posey Frank $1.50 The odd days 1914 Bates Ted $1.50 Bates B $1.50 Bates Clifton $1.50 Duramore RB $1.50 Gilmore Joe Hogan CL $1.50 Hogan Roy $1.50 McCauley Wm $1.50 Moore Lee $1.50
Montgomery County: Our Heritage page 15
Young D. BATES, born at Big Fork on Nov. 8 1881. He
married Lenorna C. Spears in 1903. Their fourth son Biggs was born Sept. 7 1914
while they were living at a mill camp near Womble. In 1915 the family moved to
Womble and Young became yard foreman for the Black Springs Lumber Company. Once
in a while at night Young would go to open up the Black Springs Lumber Company
Store for someone to get material for coffin lining or clothes for the dead. As
there was no mortuary, funerals were not delayed. [Y.D. Bates name first appears
in the pay book Nov. 10th 1914 and he worked 10 hours that day for $1.50/day.]
Montgomery County: Our Heritage page 50
William DALTON came to Montgomery County in 1907
with his widowed mother and his three brothers, James, Luke, Pat and one sister
Lessie. "Bill" or 'Will" went to work for the Black Springs Lumber Company when
it started and soon became the timber man in charge of all logging operations.
He married Ida King, d/o H.L. King on June 12 1913. At the time Bill
started to work in the woods, all logging was done with mules. At one time the
company owned forty mules. The big mill was in Norman. In the late 1930s the
Black Springs Lumber Company started trucking lumber by trucks and Bill was put
in charge of this. His daughter Evelyn was bookkeeper for the company.
Bill sold his trucks and went to Indiana to work in the war industry. [Womble was
formed in 1907 and prospered as the railroad terminated there. Businesses were relocated
from nearby Black Springs to Womble about the same time as the new railroad.
First called Womble after brothers who lived in Black Springs and owned the 'Womble Timber
and Land Co.' The name of the town was changed in 1925 from Womble to
Norman.] [Luke Dalton and his son Gerald Dalton later owned a sawmill in Ola,
Yell Co., AR.]
Jesse
LANIER was born in 1876. He probably came to Montgomery
County in the spring of 1908, after marrying Etta Faught in Arkadelphia on April
16, 1908. Their first child, a son also named Jesse Lanier, was born in Caddo
Gap. By 1910, they were living in Womble, where daughter Willie (later called
Billie) Lanier was born. Thanks to the posting of the 1914 - 1915 pay book of
the Black Springs Lumber Company on this webpage, it's been learned that Jesse
Lanier worked as a yard man for the company, making $1.50 per day. Etta Faught
was the daughter of Levi FAUGHT (born 1851 in Mississippi) and Rebecca POLLEY
(this is a surname, not given name), of nearby Hot Spring County. Five of the
Lanier's eleven children were born in Montgomery County; Jesse Lanier (born
October 2, 1908 in Caddo Gap), Billie Lanier (born August 8, 1910), Mary Etta
Lanier (born June 2, 1912), Jack Marlin Lanier (born February 20, 1914), and
Reuben Lanier (born March 1, 1916), all born in Womble. The Lanier family lived
next door to James I. and Leah T. Burchell in the 1910 census for Womble.
Burchell was a blacksmith who resided in the area from about 1910 to sometime
after 1930. The Lanier family moved to Little Rock in 1916. Jesse Lanier died
there in 1940, and Etta in 1968. Information courtesy of
Suzanne Burnette. Posted August 17
2006
Montgomery County ArkansasGenWeb Project
Pine tree near the East Washita Cemetery -
probably not cut because it marks the cemetery.