Fullerton in Vernon Parish, Louisiana — The American South (West South Central)
Fullerton
Myths & Legends - Vernon Parish Parish
Photographed By Cajun Scrambler, October 12, 2018
1. Fullerton Marker
Inscription.
Fullerton. Myths and Legends - Vernon Parish Parish.
Center Panel. , In 1906 Samuel Holmes Fullerton organized the Gulf Lumber Company. The company purchased 106,000 acres of timber for $6,000,000 and invested more than $3,500,000 in buildings and machinery to construct a mill. Built entirely of steel, iron, and concrete, with no combustible materials, the mill had an annual capacity of 120,000,000 board feet, with five double-cutting bands and an output of 350,000 board feet every ten-hour shift. Suddenly, southeast Vernon Parish held the largest southern pine mill west of the Mississippi. A Gem of a Mill in the Golden Age of Louisiana Lumber, When the town was under construction, newspapers described Fullerton as "one of the most picturesquely beautiful mill towns" in Louisiana and a "city whose streets were planned and carefully laid out by practiced engineers." Fullerton had a total population of about 3.000, and the mill employed nearly 650 men. The company built 400 houses for white workers and 144 houses for African-American workers, all with running water, bathrooms, and toilets. Generators at the mill furnished electricity to all quarters. Ice was brought in by rail and stored at the icehouse near the depot. Like the typical company town, the Gulf Lumber Company owned everything in Fullerton, but beyond that, Fullerton was unique. Fullerton was noted for its friendly spirit. Former residents remember the town being like one happy family. The town was expertly planned, and the amenities rivaled any other comparable Southern town. A Square Deal, The Fullerton commissary was respected, as well. Many commissaries in other mill towns paid in company money, prohibited competition, overcharged for poor quality merchandise, and charged high interest rates. The Fullerton commissary, however, did not take advantage of its position as the only store in town and kept prices fair. Unusual Amenities for the Deep South, The Gulf Lumber Company also provided a large two-story hospital staffed with quality doctors and nurses. For $2.50 a month, a married worker's entire family could see the doctor. It had a dentist office, cafe, post office, drugstore, barbershop, public telephones, bank, feed store, and even a Ford dealership. For recreation, citizens could watch a motion picture show, enjoy the public swimming pool, or cheer for the town's baseball team. The town boasted an elementary school and a high school. In other mill towns, fathers moving from mill to mill uprooted children, but Fullerton had an unusually stable workforce, so many children completed high school. The town had a Boy Scout troop and both a Protestant and a Catholic church. Though its first hotel was destroyed by fire, Fullerton built a new Hotel Des Pines, equipped with spacious rooms and hot, pampering baths. Diners ate exquisite 8-course meals, not boardinghouse fare customary to other mill town hotels. Trees Don't Last Forever, In addition to the large lumber mill, the Gulf Lumber Company built a lathe mill, planing mill, several dry kilns, and a turpentine distillery that produced 15 barrels of turpentine spirits and 45 barrels of rosin per day. Fullerton also had the only alcohol plant in Louisiana where wood chips and sawdust were successfully converted into alcohol meant for drinking. All of these operations were meant to keep workers employed after the last tree was cut. The Last Tree, Each morning the steam whistle signaled the start of work at the giant Fullerton mill, but one day the whistle didn't blow. The loggers had reached the last tree. The cutting of the last tree was a ritualized celebration. The people of Fullerton gathered around to witness the end of the world as they had known it. To make the cut, the Gulf Lumber Company selected a white and a black sawyer who had worked the longest at the mill. After the tree fell, folks counted the rings on the stump and found the last tree to be 800 years old.,
Left Panel. , The Rise and Fall of Peckerwood Mills Louisiana forests provided nearly everything to the early settler of No Man's Land. Settlers used straight pinewood trunks to build their log houses and barns and used split logs in their rail fences to keep livestock penned. Furniture, flatboats, firewood, bread bowls, barrel staves, sidewalks, cisterns, coffins, and other things made of wood were all derived from the tall pines. Enjoying an isolated and simple life, pinewood settlers also turned to the forests for extra income to purchase what they couldn't grow at home. Using a simple ax, the men cut trees in nearby woods and then sold the wood to companies who used it as fuel to run their steamboats and locomotives. To earn a little extra cash, some settlers established small but permanent sawmills known as "peckerwood mills." If a rancher needed lumber for his barn or a settler needed boards for his home, the man in need sought nearby peckerwood mill. These small-scale mills relied on saws run by steam or waterwheels and produced only small amounts of lumber: Still, the mills supplied locals with enough to meet their needs. A settler could purchase lumber in stock, place an order for boards to be cut, or (to save a few dollars) supply the mill with logs to be milled into lumber. Peckerwood mills were located near the mouths of rivers and streams because the early sawmills depended on the water for transporting the cut logs and finished lumber. Railroads Usher in the Louisiana Timber Boom In the late 1800s the spread of railroads changed the timber industry. Railroads provided large timber companies a way to move logs cut far from rivers and streams. Opening up great areas of previously unreachable timberland, railroads made it possible to build the large sawmills that would dominate the industry by the early 1900s. Sawmills also used railroads to ship finished lumber to growing markets in the north. Lumber Transformed No Man's Land The timber boom utterly changed the landscape of Louisiana's No Man's Land. Once a railroad ran through an area, investors scrambled to buy land and build a mill. Once a mill was built, workers flocked to the area to gain employment. From the 1890s to the 1920s timber towns quickly spread throughout Louisiana's Neutral Strip, also dramatically altering the region's population. Timber towns meant new workers. Swedes, Germans, African-Americans, Italians, and many, many more people came for work cutting trees in the woods or pushing logs through the mills. Lumber companies brought with them surveyors, company managers, and bosses proficient in cutting timber and turning a profit. Quickly, the population in the area changed. Long-time settlers and entrenched families became neighbors with migrant mill workers and newly arrived mill foremen. Suddenly, the men running the peckerwood mills were in an intense competition, and it was for far more than simply trees.,
Right Panel. , Loggers, A Breed All Their Own In the days of Fullerton, turning trees into lumber was a difficult and dangerous process. Insects, snakes, irate oxen, sharpened axes, and unheeded saw blades made working in the woods hazardous. Loose limbs and "widow makers"--cut branches or trees snagged in the tops of other trees-often fell on unsuspecting loggers and ended their lives. The long hours of dangerous work made loggers a superstitious and quirky group. They looked at the world differently. They had their own way of doing things and even spoke what amounted to their own language. Workers who cut trees with axes and crosscut saws were known as "fallers" because the men could direct a tree to "fall" in a precise location. The giant crosscut saws, up to twelve feet in length, required incredible effort, and the fallers worked in pairs to operate the massive saws, which were known as “misery whips" or "Swedish fiddles. First, one faller notched the side of a tree with an ax. Next, the pair walked around to the opposite side of the trunk and sawed with the crosscut. The men then inserted wooden wedges in the gap to guide the fall. Fallers took great pride in having trees fall exactly where they planned. The best fallers developed esteemed reputations with the workers since they avoided injuring their fellow loggers. Once the trees were down, "buckers "climbed atop the trunk and cleared it of branches and brush. Next, the buckers took crosscut saws and cut the tree into sections sized for easy transport. "Scalers" then walked the logs to determine how many board-feed were cut. Scalers also earned a reputation from the men because they kept a record of how many board-feet each bucker cut during the work day, and a bucker's pay was determined by the scale. Once the logs were cut, oxen and mules pulled the lumber to the loading dock. Then, steam and diesel engines, called "skidders," pulled the cut logs to the temporary railroad tracks called spurs. The trains shipped the logs to the mill. Once at the mill, "sawyers" shaped the logs into lumber. Sawyers operated the saw carriage and were responsible for cutting the logs to their predetermined thickness. A sawyer was highly skilled, and as a result, usually the most respected and best paid laborer at the mill.
Center Panel
In 1906 Samuel Holmes Fullerton organized the Gulf Lumber Company. The company purchased
106,000 acres of timber for $6,000,000 and invested more than $3,500,000 in buildings and machinery
to construct a mill. Built entirely of steel, iron, and concrete, with no combustible materials, the mill
had an annual capacity of 120,000,000 board feet, with five double-cutting bands and an output of
350,000 board feet every ten-hour shift. Suddenly, southeast Vernon Parish held the largest southern
pine mill west of the Mississippi.
A Gem of a Mill in the Golden Age of Louisiana Lumber
When the town was under construction, newspapers described Fullerton as "one of the most picturesquely
beautiful mill towns" in Louisiana and a "city whose streets were planned and carefully laid out by
practiced engineers." Fullerton had a total population of about 3.000, and the mill employed nearly
650 men. The company built 400 houses for white workers and 144 houses for African-American
workers, all with running water, bathrooms, and toilets. Generators at the mill furnished electricity to
all quarters. Ice was brought in by rail and stored at the icehouse near the depot.
Like the typical company town, the Gulf Lumber Company owned everything in Fullerton, but beyond
that, Fullerton was
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unique. Fullerton was noted for its friendly spirit. Former residents remember the
town being like one happy family. The town was expertly planned, and the amenities rivaled any other
comparable Southern town.
A Square Deal
The Fullerton commissary was respected, as well. Many commissaries in other mill towns paid in
company money, prohibited competition, overcharged for poor quality merchandise, and charged high
interest rates. The Fullerton commissary, however, did not take advantage of its position as the only
store in town and kept prices fair. Unusual Amenities for the Deep South
The Gulf Lumber Company also provided a large two-story hospital staffed with quality doctors and
nurses. For $2.50 a month, a married worker's entire family could see the doctor. It had a dentist
office, cafe, post office, drugstore, barbershop, public telephones, bank, feed store, and even a Ford
dealership. For recreation, citizens could watch a motion picture show, enjoy the public swimming
pool, or cheer for the town's baseball team. The town boasted an elementary school and a high school.
In other mill towns, fathers moving from mill to mill uprooted children, but Fullerton had an unusually
stable workforce, so many children completed high school. The town had a Boy Scout troop and both
a Protestant and a Catholic church. Though its first hotel
Photographed By Cajun Scrambler, October 12, 2018
2. Fullerton Marker
Center Panel
was destroyed by fire, Fullerton built a
new Hotel Des Pines, equipped with spacious rooms and hot, pampering baths. Diners ate exquisite
8-course meals, not boardinghouse fare customary to other mill town hotels.
Trees Don't Last Forever
In addition to the large lumber mill, the Gulf Lumber Company built a lathe mill, planing mill, several
dry kilns, and a turpentine distillery that produced 15 barrels of turpentine spirits and 45 barrels of
rosin per day. Fullerton also had the only alcohol plant in Louisiana where wood chips and sawdust
were successfully converted into alcohol meant for drinking. All of these operations were meant to
keep workers employed after the last tree was cut.
The Last Tree
Each morning the steam whistle signaled the start of work at the giant Fullerton mill, but one day the
whistle didn't blow. The loggers had reached the last tree. The cutting of the last tree was a ritualized
celebration. The people of Fullerton gathered around to witness the end of the world as they had known
it. To make the cut, the Gulf Lumber Company selected a white and a black sawyer who had worked
the longest at the mill. After the tree fell, folks counted the rings on the stump and found the last tree
to be 800 years old.
Left Panel
The Rise and Fall of Peckerwood Mills Louisiana forests
Photographed By Cajun Scrambler, October 12, 2018
3. Fullerton Marker
Left Panel
provided nearly everything to the early settler of No Man's Land.
Settlers used straight pinewood trunks to build their log houses and barns and used
split logs in their rail fences to keep livestock penned. Furniture, flatboats, firewood,
bread bowls, barrel staves, sidewalks, cisterns, coffins, and other things made of wood
were all derived from the tall pines.
Enjoying an isolated and simple life, pinewood settlers also turned to the forests for
extra income to purchase what they couldn't grow at home. Using a simple ax, the
men cut trees in nearby woods and then sold the wood to companies who used it as
fuel to run their steamboats and locomotives. To earn a little extra cash, some settlers
established small but permanent sawmills known as "peckerwood mills."
If a rancher needed lumber
for his barn or a settler
needed boards for his home,
the man in need sought
nearby peckerwood
mill. These small-scale
mills relied on saws run
by steam or waterwheels
and produced only small
amounts of lumber: Still, the
mills supplied locals with
enough to meet their needs.
A settler could purchase
lumber in stock, place an order
for boards to be cut, or (to save a few dollars) supply the mill with logs to be milled
into lumber. Peckerwood mills were located near the mouths of rivers and streams
because the early sawmills depended on the water for transporting
Photographed By Cajun Scrambler, October 12, 2018
4. Fullerton Marker
Right Panel
the cut logs and
finished lumber.
Railroads Usher in the Louisiana Timber Boom In the late 1800s the spread of railroads changed the timber industry.
Railroads provided large
timber companies a
way
to move logs cut far from
rivers and streams. Opening
up great areas of previously
unreachable timberland,
railroads made it possible to
build the large sawmills that
would dominate the industry
by the early 1900s. Sawmills
also used railroads to ship
finished lumber to growing
markets in the north.
Lumber Transformed No Man's Land
The timber boom utterly changed the landscape of Louisiana's No Man's
Land. Once a railroad ran through an area, investors scrambled to buy
land and build a mill. Once a mill was built, workers flocked to the area to
gain employment. From the 1890s to the 1920s timber towns quickly spread
throughout Louisiana's Neutral Strip, also dramatically altering the region's
population.
Timber towns meant new workers. Swedes, Germans, African-Americans,
Italians, and many, many more people came for work cutting trees in the
woods or pushing logs through the mills. Lumber companies brought with
them surveyors, company managers, and bosses proficient in cutting timber
and turning a profit.
Quickly, the population in the area changed. Long-time settlers and entrenched
families became neighbors with migrant
Photographed By Cajun Scrambler, October 12, 2018
5. Fullerton Marker
mill workers and newly arrived mill
foremen. Suddenly, the men running the peckerwood mills were in an intense
competition, and it was for far more than simply trees.
Right Panel
Loggers, A Breed All Their Own In the days of Fullerton, turning trees into lumber was a difficult and dangerous process.
Insects, snakes, irate oxen, sharpened axes, and unheeded saw blades made working in
the woods hazardous. Loose limbs and "widow makers"--cut branches or trees snagged
in the tops of other trees-often fell on unsuspecting loggers and ended their lives. The
long hours of dangerous work made loggers a superstitious and quirky group. They looked
at the world differently. They had their own way of doing things and even spoke what
amounted to their own language.
Workers who cut trees with axes and crosscut saws were known as "fallers" because the
men could direct a tree to "fall" in a precise location. The giant crosscut saws, up to
twelve feet in length, required incredible effort, and the fallers worked in pairs to operate
the massive saws, which were known as “misery whips" or "Swedish fiddles.
First, one faller notched the side of a tree with an ax. Next, the pair walked around to the
opposite side of the trunk and sawed with the crosscut. The men then inserted wooden
wedges in the gap to guide the fall. Fallers took great
pride in having trees fall exactly
where they planned. The best fallers developed esteemed reputations with the workers
since they avoided injuring their fellow loggers. Once the trees were down, "buckers "climbed atop the trunk and cleared it of branches
and brush. Next, the buckers took crosscut saws and cut the tree into sections sized
for easy transport. "Scalers" then walked the logs to determine how many board-feed
were cut. Scalers also earned a reputation from the men because they kept a record
of how many board-feet each bucker cut during the work day, and a bucker's pay was
determined by the scale. Once the logs were cut, oxen and mules pulled the lumber to
the loading dock. Then, steam and diesel engines, called "skidders," pulled the cut
logs to the temporary railroad tracks called spurs. The trains shipped the logs to the
mill.
Once at the mill, "sawyers" shaped the logs into lumber. Sawyers operated the saw
carriage and were responsible for cutting the logs to their predetermined thickness.
A sawyer was highly skilled, and as a result, usually the most respected and best paid
laborer at the mill.
Erected by State of Louisiana Myths & Legends Trails and Byways. (Marker Number 4.)
Location. 30° 57.801′ N, 93° 7.355′ W. Marker is in Fullerton, Louisiana, in Vernon Parish. Marker is on Pitkin Highway (Highway 10) near Parish Road 366, on the right when traveling east. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Pitkin LA 70656, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Credits. This page was last revised on November 21, 2022. It was originally submitted on January 13, 2022, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. This page has been viewed 171 times since then and 24 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on January 13, 2022, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana.
