USA > Texas > Cherokee County > A history of Cherokee county (Texas) > Part 9
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The New Birmingham Iron & Improvement Co ... $3,500,000 Tassie Belle Furnace 150,000
New Birmingham Pipe Works. 150,000
Joe D. Baker Brick Co.
15,000
New Birmingham Electric Light & Power Co. 25,000
New Birmingham Steam Laundry. 5,000
Cherokee Manufacturing Co. 500,000
Southern Hotel Co 75,000
New Birmingham Ice Manufacturing Co.
25,000
6County Surveyor L. T. Moore, formerly a New Birmingham real estate dealer, is authority for this statement.
7'There is a conflict of opinion as to the cause of the New Birmingham fail- ure. In the heated debate of the Hogg-Clark campaign in 1892 the Hogg sup- porters maintained it was the Baring Brothers' failure and not the Alien Land Law enacted in the first Hogg administration. When confronted with the panicky conditions of the early '90s and the consequent drop in the price of pig iron, the New Birmingham company's initial financing proved inadequate. Herein doubtless lies the basic cause of failure.
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
F. W. Bonner & Sons Bank 100,000
New Birmingham Planing, Sash & Door Factory 25,000
Times Publishing Co. 10,000
New Birmingham Building Co.
50,000
$4,630,000
Land Companies-
Copeland Land Co. $ 50,000
Kansas & Texas Land Co. 50,000
Dickinson Land Co. 100,000
Number of brick business blocks.
15
Number of residences
300
Number of men employed at Tassie Belle Furnace and ore beds 271
Amount of wages, etc., paid per month ___ $15,000 to $18,000
By 1892, however, lot sales showed a significant decline. The panic of 1893 caused deferred payments on lots previously sold to be defaulted. The Tassie Belle furnace-named for Mrs. Blevins-was blown in. The charcoal beds and the power plant were destroyed by fire. Their destruction marked the end. The Jacksonville Banner, July 2, 1893, reported New Birmingham was dead. People moved away and houses fell into decay. By the beginning of the 20th century the Iron Queen was numbered among Texas ghost cities. For more than a quarter of a century after the town was deserted the grand old Southern Hotel, in charge of a caretaker, stood guard over the site. It burned March 31, 1926. In 1932, in the construction of the new Highway No. 40, the last gaunt brick shell, once a high school, was razed.
When the New Birmingham Company went into the hands of a receiver, James A. Mahoney purchased the property. In 1906 the present New Birmingham Development Company was char- tered, his heirs being the chief stockholders.8 Through long, lean years the new organization clung to the majority of the Cherokee acreage in which, in the '90s, so many millions had been sunk. Then a market for its timber helped pay taxes. Later oil lease rentals supplemented the timber income. Finally the oil boom of 1934, with the discovery well on New Birmingham Develop- ment Company land, staged a sensational comeback. A telephone message from Mrs. Guinn brought Edgar M. Sousa, president of the company, from New York to Rusk by swift plane.
8F. B. Guinn became the company's local representative. After his death in 1932, Mrs. Guinn succeeded him.
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DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
THE STAR AND CRESCENT
In 1890-91 the Cherokee Iron Manufacturing Company, incor- porated by Abraham Brittin, J. Watts Kearney, J. G. Schriever and other New Orleans capitalists, built the Star and Crescent furnace in the first Dickinson Addition to New Birmingham, about a mile east of Rusk. F. W. Bonner, E. C. Dickinson and R. A. Barrett were among the Rusk stockholders in the com- pany, Barrett being local manager of the plant, which employed some three hundred men. Unprepared for the drop in the price of pig iron occurring soon after it began operation, the company failed to weather the panic of 1893. In March, 1894, the property was sold at auction to Frank A. Daniels of New Orleans for $32,250. The original cost was estimated at $175,000.
In February, 1907, the Star and Crescent was again "the talk of the day." The iron industry was to be revived. W. H. Oatley, president of the Rusk Iron Company, had returned from the East where he had purchased material for refitting the abandoned furnace. In April newspapers boasted the Star and Crescent whistle could be heard three times a day. Elation, however, was short-lived. The plant was closed to put in new ovens. The panic came and it was never reopened.
No matter which of the assigned causes was the real reason for the failure of the iron projects of the '90s, no one questions the supply of iron ore. Periodically leasing becomes active; a new boom looms just around the corner.
There is, in fact, much to support the theory that development will yet come. The discovery of oil and gas will perhaps help to solve the fuel problem, which so fatally hampered past endeavors. This new fuel can be used in preparing the ore for smelting and in all subsequent operations for the manufacture of iron products. Gas can operate the machinery for washing impurities out of the ore and for driving out moisture. In this way the ore can be concentrated from fifty per cent to seventy-five per cent metallic iron, thereby reducing the cost of the coke necessary to smelt it. Gas can also be used in rolling mills and foundries.
Furthermore, the drilling of oil wells has demonstrated the existence of lime deposits for fluxing purposes and coal deposits suitable for making coke, the one fuel essential to smelting. In New Birmingham days lime was shipped from Austin. Coke for use in the state's "Sam Lanham" furnace was brought from West Virginia.
Although the steel interests have hitherto prevented American
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
capital from financing iron development in the South, the day will doubtless come when Northern capital invested in the gas and oil business will promote the iron industry as another outlet for its fuels.
CHAPTER IX
DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES-TIMBER AND OIL
TIMBER
WHITE oak, red oak, post oak, blackjack, bluejack, hickory, walnut, chinquapin, cherry, pine, cypress, sycamore, sweet gum, mulberry, elm, holly, dogwood, maple, locust and so forth- practically every variety of timber found in Texas grows in Cherokee County. Naturally the old-fashioned sawmill, whip- sawing a small daily output, was the first manufacturing plant. The earliest deeds refer to mills. In 1832 Colonel John Durst was operating a sawmill on his vast plantation. Day's mill on the Rusk-Palestine road was a landmark in the '40s. Joe C. Rushing, afterward Cherokee County representative, established the first sawmill in the Jacksonville territory, obtaining his "power" by building a dam across Gum Creek. Although pioneer houses were built of logs, lumber was in demand for floors, window and door frames and coffins. The finest of virgin pine was used for rough boxing plank. Although some were operated in ante-bellum days, steam mills came into general use only after the Civil War. The Spain mill on the Rusk-Linwood road and the Pryor mill in the Lone Oak community, near Rusk, did an extensive business in the post-war decades.
With outside markets made available by railroad construction, the timber industry increased in value during the '80s and '90s. Among the larger mill operators were Comer Fariss & Dial, and C. J. Chronister, both companies located near Forest. C. J. Chronister operated under his own name for a number of years. Then, in 1896, he sold to the Chronister Lumber Company his sawmills and planing mills; fifty-six head of oxen used for logging, with their bows, yokes and chains ; log wagons ; and three and one-half miles of steel railway. J. Lipsitz was president of the Chronister Lumber Company and S. W. Littlejohn secretary. Littlejohn is still the manager of the company, the largest mill operators in the county.
The increased demand of the first decade of the 20th century gave still further impetus to the Cherokee lumber industry. Although not in the chief timber belt, the Rusk territory received
87
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
approximately $200,000 in timber money in 1906, sixty-three cars of lumber being shipped from Rusk in the month of Novem- ber. During this sawmill boom, the heyday of the small operator, some localities were within the sound of fifteen mill whistles. As timber stands were cut out, the owner moved his mill to another location. One could trace his trail by hills of rotting sawdust. Operators of this period, in addition to some already mentioned at earlier dates, include J. A. Bowman, B. H. Everett, Sharp & Andrews, and N. A. (Jack) Slover. Among large stationary mills established during the decade were the Arkansas Lumber Company, largely financed by Missouri capital, with its principal office at Wells, and the Blount Decker Lumber Company, organ- ized at Alto in 1908, with a capital stock of $150,000.
With the advent of good roads and auto trucks more remote timber became marketable. The radius of operation was extended from three or four to twenty or more miles from the railroad. The post-war period, in which the speculative builder erected houses to be sold on the installment plan, led to a persistent demand for cheaply manufactured lumber. Its defects could be partially covered up with paint and minimized through the use of attractive architectural designs. Second growth pine, once considered valueless, now found a ready market. Inevitably the timber supply in many sections of the county was exhausted and mills closed. The curtailment of markets during the depression years closed many others and greatly reduced the output of those continuing to operate. At present the NRA code restricts the output.
Since 1922 the Southern Pine Lumber Company has main- tained a camp at Fastrill, twelve miles southwest of Rusk, which serves as a base for its extensive logging operations in Cherokee County. Today Fastrill has a population of more than six hun- dred, two churches and a four-teacher school. The company furnishes the land, teams and tools for men to farm during off- hours and a community canning plant to aid the conservation of their produce.
When business was at its peak the Fastrill monthly payroll was $30,000; the annual output fifty million feet of lumber. Fifteen hundred trees have been cut in a day. According to Superin- tendent F. Goetzman, the rings on one tree proved it to be one hundred and seventy-five years old. Numbers of the patriarchs among the Neches River pines have had more birthdays than the Constitution of the United States. Officials estimate that, oper-
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DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
ating at the present rate, it will take eight or ten years to exhaust the Southern pine holdings.
Under the present government regulations on each acre of forest land there must be left one hundred trees, four to seven inches ; ten trees, seven to eleven inches; and three trees, eleven to twelve inches in diameter.
In addition to the hundreds of mill employees, hundreds of Cherokee workmen have found employment as tie-makers and basket and crate factory workers.
The rise of the basket and crate industry is linked with the development of the fruit and vegetable industries. Pioneer honors in this field belong to Edgar Aber and Fred Haberle. In 1891 Aber, a general contractor, established a brick plant in Jackson- ville and in connection with it sold other building materials. Haberle, his brother-in-law, worked for him. One evening the latter, tired of seeing thousands of Cherokee dollars spent in other states for shipping containers, went to the Aber home with the suggestion that they make containers out of the Cherokee County gum, for which there was then no market. Aber was quick to vision the possibilities. The two "went into figures," decided they "could do pretty well at it" and then did it.
Aber added a veneer machine and several basket stapling machines to his wood-working plant and began to test their theories of production. Cottonwood and poplar had hitherto furnished material for the basket and crate industry; people were doubtful about gum. The new product had a hard fight getting on the market but, despite predictions of failure by always-present skeptics, the venture succeeded. Thus, in 1896, was established the first basket and crate factory, not only in Cherokee County, but in the state. Buyers discovered that gum was the best material for the package. By 1897 Aber containers were being shipped as far as Denver, Colorado. Later the bushel basket was added to the four-basket crate and the peck box. With the substitution of lugs for the four-basket tomato crate, pine found a market. Before the depression the factory was annually shipping approximately three hundred cars of fruit and vegetable packages.
About 1898, W. W. Slover established the second factory in connection with his sawmill at Turney. Northern capital was quick to see the opportunity for profit and the industry spread. In 1912, outside the prison walls at Rusk, the Penitentiary Com- mission established what was reported to be the largest box and crate factory in the state. It now operates as the Texas Basket
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
and Crate Factory. Today fruit and vegetable crops from Wash- ington to Mississippi are harvested in Cherokee boxes, baskets and crates. Nine factories, some large, some small, are in opera- tion. In addition to the pioneer factory, long-time operators include P. T. Butler of Rusk, N. A. Slover of Dialville and the Alexander Factory at Jacksonville.
The largest of the four state forests, which contains 2,360 acres of short-leaf pine obtained from the Prison Board, is located near Maydelle. It is used to demonstrate the growing of timber as a crop for profit and for study of the effect of fires on forest growth. One of the CCC camps, established as a part of the National relief program, is located on it.
OIL
For more than three decades both local and outside capital have intermittently endeavored to discover Cherokee County's big oil field.
In 1901, Max R. and Ralph H. Orthwine, young men of St. Louis recently come into possession of a large inheritance, acquired an extensive acreage on both sides of the Angelina River and began drilling on the east bank about a mile below the mouth of Mud Creek. Artesian water appeared, the driller died and activities ceased before their Cherokee County leases were tested. The second effort was sponsored by Doctor A. H. McCord, J. S. Wightman, Wade B. Neely and other Rusk citizens. The well, located about half a mile east of Sulphur Springs, was abandoned at some sixteen hundred feet. J. F. Beall of Rusk, whose unwavering faith in the existence of oil in Cherokee County spanned four decades, together with other Rusk and Jacksonville citizens, promoted the next activity. A well was drilled two miles northeast of Summerfield in 1914-15. Water broke in, their money gave out and the project proved futile.
Alto staged the next activity. In 1919, local men, including Gus Rounsaville, F. F. Florence, H. H. Berryman, E. J. Hol- comb, E. M. Decker and W. T. Whiteman, organized the Chero- kee Oil and Gas Company. Largely through the efforts of W. H. Black, James I. Perkins, Jr., E. J. Holcomb and E. P. Palmer, they leased approximately 60,000 acres of land at an annual rental of ten cents per acre and let a drilling contract near Brunswick. Following this a number of wells were begun, a good showing at one time boosting leases to the unprecedented price of thirty dollars per acre, but inadequate financing, together with lack of proper machinery and the exact geologic knowledge of today,
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DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
proved an ever-present handicap. Woodbine sand was not yet the driller's goal.
With the coming of J. A. Colliton the history of Cherokee County oil development reads like fiction. Akin to the frontiers- man of old, driven by the challenging spirit of the true pioneer, "Jack" Colliton blazed a trail which led to the discovery of the vast East Texas oil fields and won for himself the title, "Father of East Texas Oil."
Here is his story, the story of a man able to "take things on the chin and smile."
In 1921, Colliton acquired an 18,584-acre block of northeast Cherokee County leases. Before drilling he sought to interest the major companies. Officials who were his friends sought to dissuade him; the venture was a waste of time and money. One company's representative boldly offered to drink all the oil Cherokee County could produce. All ridiculed the idea of the existence of oil. Not an acre could he sell. Nothing daunted, he located a well on the Jowell survey.
Modern wells have prosaic beginnings, but not so with the Colliton No. 1. Spudding in was a gala event for which, quoting the Troup Banner, "the whole countryside and several townsides turned out." More than a thousand people were present. The Jacksonville Rotary Club sponsored the program and Jackson- ville stores closed for the occasion. Gus S. Blankenship, the Rotary president, was master of ceremonies. Oratory was inter- spersed by music from the Rusk College band. Advance publicity had brought representatives from the state dailies for copy. At last the big moment arrived. Amid lusty cheers, four of the most distinguished of Jacksonville's pioneers-J. A. Templeton, W. A. Brown, J. H. Bolton and Wesley Love-afterward heralded in New York newspapers as the millionaire drilling crew, turned on the steam and sent the drill earthward. February 20, 1922, became a marked day.
But Colliton faith was soon to have another test. The casing parted at twenty-six hundred feet and all efforts to correct it proved futile. The derrick was skidded and Colliton No. 2 quietly spudded in. Some six months of ups and down led to the oil sand, December 5, 1923, but more difficulties delayed bringing in the well until the following March. Oil flowed over the derrick. In bottles, pails, jars and what-not, visitors carried it away for proud display. In the midst of such wild excitement the casing collapsed and the well had to be abandoned.
A boulder fell against the casing of the third well and a fourth
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
one was begun. By this time the Colliton resources were exhausted. An appeal to Colonel Humphreys of Mexia-Wortham fame led to the formation of the Colliton-Humphreys Company early in 1926.
Work was resumed, but the drill stem twisted off at thirty- three hundred feet and the hole had to be abandoned. Still Jack Colliton clung to his faith. Moving over three hundred feet, the drill started again. Finally saturated oil sand was cored. Produc- tion seemed certain. Colonel Humphreys must have some of the thrill. The well was shut down to await his arrival from Denver. He wanted friends from West Virginia. At last the stage was set, but the chief actor failed to appear. Of gas pres- sure there was none. The oil refused to flow.
Two more wells were drilled on the Ousley tract without pro- duction. First and last, Colliton and Humphreys lost over a mil- lion dollars in the Cherokee venture. In 1927, after selling his home and furniture to pay bills, Colliton drove out of Jackson- ville with exactly $37.50 in his pocket. The story is continued in his own words:
"Where now? East to Shreveport. West to Fort Worth. I don't care which."
"Better spend the night in Fort Worth and think it over."
Thus the die was cast. Mrs. Colliton voted "West."
The next day they drove to Oklahoma City and the breaks started the other way. Putting over an advertising campaign, which secured the capital necessary to save a friend's option in the Seminole field, brought him $15,000 in cash and again put Colliton in the oil game. Since 1928 he has continued to play it in California and Oklahoma City.
Despite the loss of a fortune, the Colliton effort in Cherokee County was not in vain. Big companies became interested. Although lack of cash to meet the rental payments forced Colliton to drop his Boggy Creek leases, the Humble Company discovered the Carey Lake field. For weeks "Dad" Joiner of Rusk County discovery fame lived in the bunk-house where the Colliton wells were drilling. Enthusiasm was contagious; the East Texas field amazed the world.
In addition to the Colliton and the Alto activities, Cherokee oil operations of the '20s included the Olander test four miles east of Rusk, gaily begun with a big barbecue and abandoned because of exhausted resources, and the Magnolia test nine miles north- east of Rusk, to which salt water wrote finis.
With Joiner's discovery of the East Texas field, the major
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DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
companies again sought Cherokee leases and the '30s ushered in a more extensive drilling campaign. Prior to June, 1934, seven- teen producing wells were drilled in the territory adjacent to the Rusk and Smith County lines, but wildcat deep tests in the Tecula, Maydelle, Alto and Box's Creek sectors proved disappointing. Not until June 3, 1934, with the bringing in of a Woodbine sand producer, the Wood-Young New Birmingham Development Com- pany No. 1 on the Levi Jordan survey, did decades of wildcat. faith have their reward. Until two salt water wells checked the mad buying there followed one of the greatest lease and royalty campaigns ever staged in Texas. The Wood-Young well brought the total number of Cherokee County producing wells to. twenty- one.
Aside from the benefits derived more directly from its oil wells, it may be noted that drilling for oil has revealed the exist- ence of coal deposits which will doubtless prove a future com- mercial asset and that seven pipe line companies have lines through the county materially increasing the county and school tax receipts.
CHAPTER X
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
CHEROKEE COUNTY has been an influential factor in making the so-called East Texas diversification experiment a successful agricultural program on which fruit, berries, melons, tomatoes and other crops share the honors of cotton as cash crops, while corn and the grain sorghums are used for feed and forage.
THE PEACH INDUSTRY
Many of the first Cherokee settlers started peach orchards with trees left by the Indians. The earliest advertisements of Cherokee farms boost fine orchards as a selling point. Yet, had the Inter- national and Great Northern Railroad Company chosen a man of less vision as its Jacksonville agent in the '70s, recognition of the fruit crop as a commercial asset might have been indefi- nitely postponed. Born a hustler, C. F. (Cul) Collins had not long been at his new station before he determined to pick up additional cash by shipping the plums, cherries, berries and peaches hitherto allowed to waste. Jacksonville boys were enlisted in the project, contacting the growers, gathering the fruit and bringing it to the shipper. Through such cooperation a thriving business was established. The next impetus came from the enthusiasm of R. W. (Yank) Smith, a clerk in the Ragsdale store, whose hobby was the development of new varieties of peaches. With marketing of fruit successfully demonstrated, orchard planting became a popular side line.
Records for the '80s show extensive express shipments, the Cherokee peach having already won distinction for its unusual flavor, said to be due to the iron in the soil. The fruit was first shipped in white pine buckets covered with cheese cloth. In 1889 farmers reported 1,659 acres in peaches, valued at $29,265. Peach growing as a real commercial project, however, dates from 1893, the year refrigerated cars first made possible carlot ship- ments. As a result of this successful season-Jacksonville being credited with shipping more fruit than any point in Texas- thousands of trees were planted. Orchard acreage continued to
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AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
increase until the county's peach shipments reached their peak with 1,204 cars in 1912.
After its signal initial success the Cherokee peach industry, however, struck a snag. Inexperienced orchardists had over- planted, often on soil and surfaces not suited to their purposes. Lack of knowledge concerning control of early blooming and the use of the smudge pot resulted in the loss of crops when weather conditions were unfavorable. The appearance of the San José scale and other insect pests demanded scientific care of the orchards. The expense of spraying added to the difficulty of securing intelligent labor, together with marketing troubles, led large numbers of early orchardists to turn back to "reliable cotton."
Among local promoters of the peach industry, either as growers or shippers, were J. S. (Jake) and Wesley Love (no relation), James G. Boles, S. Z. Alexander, C. D. Jarratt, A. Y. Shoemaker, H. L. Hodge, O. D. Jones, C. H. Richmond, F. B. Guinn, J. E. Bagley, E. C. Dickinson and Doctor A. H. McCord. Investments in the peach industry also included much out-of-state capital.
The largest and most widely known orchard was established by the noted Michigan peach-grower, Roland Morrill. Observa- tion of the superiority of the flavor and color of the Cherokee peach which competed with his Michigan fruit on the Chicago markets brought Morrill to Texas. The Morrill Orchard Com- pany, organized in 1902, acquired 12,500 acres of land in the southern part of Cherokee County, built its own town, Morrill, and a railroad connecting its acreage, planted 1,400 acres in peaches and began early vegetable farming on a wholesale scale. After spending some $300,000 in the development of their project the stockholders grew dissatisfied with the returns. The company finally went into the hands of a receiver and Roland Morrill returned to Michigan, where he died in 1923. George C. Davis of Chicago purchased the majority of the Morrill holdings and Gerald Fitzgerald became director of his agricultural projects.1
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