•Part 1
Banter about Washington Parish somehow always winds around to the woods. Touring the magnificent Mobile camellia garden of forester Rick and Joyce Crow in mid-February, my husband Rodney and I enjoyed fantastic conversation with the landowners. For the record, there is nothing nicer than walking through the woods with a forester. Having lived and done forestry work in Covington, Rick Crow commented that Southern longleaf pine is quite fast growing up in Washington Parish. That it is - we have prolific pines in this part of the world. Different regions of our country feature different species. On Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia National Park in Maine, in May, Rodney and I took note of pitch pine and white pine, native to the Eastern United States.
But it is the Southern longleaf pine that Washington Parish is known for - timber is, and has been, a significant part of our economy. The talk of the town. In fact, the piney woods lured many of the pioneers to this region. The city of Bogalusa owes its very existence to the long leaf pine, and the Goodyears - Charles Waterhouse Goodyear and Frank Henry Goodyear who arrived in Washington Parish in 1905. They brought the Great Southern Lumber Company into being. It is C. W. Goodyear's book "Bogalusa Story" that tells the story, serving as a constant reminder on my bookshelf.
As I have written columns on the ponderous log wagons, the log trains of the New Orleans Great Northern "N.O.G.N." railroad, and the logging camps that resembled villages, the bloom may be off the rose. But timber is a topic close to the heart, and pocketbook, of many locals. Cutting and replanting is a pretty commonplace, and lucrative, endeavor in Washington Parish. The last time we cut, our timber man uttered the magic word - "poles" - music to my ears. It turned out that the pines had grown straight as an arrow, just like the precise rows in which they had been planted by my father - a military man. Loads of poles.
While what we have is on a small scale, there have been, and are, those in our community who have large tree farming operations. And these tree farmers have been recognized for such. I am reminded of the late Margie Yates Jenkins, a close family friend. The daughter of Fred Whithurst Yates and Camille Gardner Yates, she was married to Bryant Edward Jenkins. The couple had five children: Margie Ann, Jeffery Edward, Mark Yates, Frederick Bryant, and Timothy Allen Jenkins. Selected Louisiana Tree Farmer of the Year - a huge honor - Ms. Margie was a pioneer in horticulture and agriculture. Friend Dick Richardson, and an expert in the field of forestry in his own right, notified me that I had failed to mention this particular honor - one of a multitude - of Ms. Margie's in the first series of columns I penned on her. Suffice to say, it was a mistake that I didn't make twice.
There was also Dr. Thomas Charles Williams "T. C. W." Magee, local dentist and civic leader, whose vast land holdings facilitated his tree farming. Between 1939 and 1978, he planted over one million trees in the Florida Parishes. And he was a finalist for the Louisiana Tree Farmer award in both 1978 and 1979. The son of Joe N. Magee and wife Lula Jenkins, Dr. T. C. W. was the husband of Mary Wortley Gilmer Magee "Sister Mary." They were the parents of the late Mary Elizabeth Magee Macias (1930-1990) and Margaret Magee Joffrion.
Dr. T. C. W.'s mother Lula Jenkins Magee and my grandmother Emma Elizabeth Jenkins Brumfield were sisters, making him my mother's first cousin. The sisters were the daughters of Charles Abner Jenkins and wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wascom Jenkins. With these family ties, it was Dr. T. C. W.'s memoir, transcribed by his daughter Mary Elizabeth and kindly shared with me by his daughter Margaret, which enlightened me on his early life, and particularly the timber. The chronicle of his early years found in "Recollections of T.C.W. Magee, D.D. S. Tulane University Dental School 1922-1927" was mesmerizing.
As early as boyhood, Dr. T. C. W. was fascinated by the forests in Washington Parish. Of the Magee family move from Springhill to Franklinton in a log wagon pulled by oxen in the early 20th century, he described his early observation:
"Being quite young, I am sure that I would not have remembered any ordinary event. However, I recall it as an exciting trip. There were no highways of any sort then, not even a graded road or a road with any ditches, only flat winding trails through the forests and woods. Our trail road led through the tall virgin pines that showed growth rings when cut of up to 150 and 200 years of age. These were long leaf Southern Yellow Pines and they were buttressed or flared out near the ground where their giant brace roots looked like huge varicose veins gradually disappearing into the soil nourishing them. As we rode along behind the team of slow moving oxen we had plenty of time for observation. It was necessary to keep a sharp lookout as the rough terrain caused the furniture to jostle and shift about, risking the chance of losing items. I remember how excited I became several times when the front wheels would climb up on some of the roots and flared stumps causing the load to lean over as if there was going to an upset. Then it would straighten up when the wheels fell off the other side. This would be followed with the same action by the rear four wheel section. Sometimes the front wheels on one side would tilt the load one direction and the opposite wheels on the rear would give the other movement causing a writhing, twisting serpentine effect and that scared me into thinking the wagon was going to turn over."
•Stay tuned for more on Dr. T. C. W. and the timber, next week.
