The story of Samuel "Sam" Harrell Smith, Jr.'s (1911-1993) contribution to the local dairy industry is best relayed in his own words. With paper and pencil, Mr. Sam recorded his own history, and as a by-product that of our area, in "Sam's Story" which he wrote in the late 1970's or early 1980's. The son of Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr., and Lillie Mae Pennington Smith, he was quoted in the book "Baywood and Beyond - Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Harrell Smith, Sr. and Lillie Mae Pennington" by Sylvia Kelly Smith in 2020, as follows:
"In 1946, the [area] dairy farmers (being unhappy with their situation), struck for higher milk prices. Fifty-five farmers were sent to the penitentiary for stopping mail trains to search them for milk being shipped to New Orleans.
By 1948, conditions were so bad that the business people of Franklinton (through the Chamber of Commerce) raised a little salary money to hire someone to help the dairymen with their problem. On September 1, 1948, I took this job and began studying the dairy problems. After attempting to get milk manufacturing plants in the New Orleans area to process surplus milk, it became apparent that we were up against doing the job at home through a cooperative. The job required a great deal of educational work among the dairymen, as well as the general public. Thus, I convinced the State Department of Education and Washington Parish School Board to financially support this project by hiring me as an adult education teacher.
In 1950, I began doing the educational work in classes and meetings with farmers and other people necessary to create a dairy cooperative with manufacturing facilities and central marketing agency---as well as training farmers to produce Grade A milk, holding meetings on economics of dairying, and so forth. The area I worked in covered Washington Parish and St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana, and Walthall, Pearl River, and Hancock Counties of Mississippi.
As a result of this effort, a dairy farmers' cooperative known as the Louisiana Mississippi Milk Producers Association was created.
In 1953, plans for the facilities including a manufacturing plant, truck storage, etc., were completed with an estimated cost of $500,000. In my position as adult teacher, I also served as manager of the Cooperative at no cost to the farmers. We (the Cooperative) were successful in getting a bond issue passed in Washington Parish to provide the money to build a milk manufacturing plant. The plant was dedicated on March 8, 1955, at which time I became the manager paid by the cooperative (LA MS Dairy Association).
The cooperative continued to grow and changed the name to Gulf Milk Association in 1958. I continued as manager until November of 1959 at which time I resigned and created the Smith Milk Company at Franklinton, LA…."
With Sam at the helm as owner/manager, the Smith Milk Company provided milk to stores, such as Schwegmann's, in New Orleans until December of 1969 when contracts weren't renewed, with everything going large-scale. Sam, however, continued to work in our community as a member of the Washington Parish Community Action Board, which aided those in need, helping them get training and jobs. He also served as president of the Washington Parish Fair Association in 1969.
Close to government retirement, Sam applied for a position as federal grain inspector, which application coincidentally contributed to this gold mine of material on his fascinating life. Naturally, he was hired and was able to complete his requisite work for retirement, though it required him to reside in South Louisiana during the work weeks. Sam Harrell Smith, Jr., died on October 16, 1993, at Riverside Medical Center and is buried in Ellis Cemetery.
Penning this series on the Smith family has been an intriguing endeavor, one that caused me to lose all track of time. Interestingly, it is time that Anna Juanita Lytle Smith, who was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in December of 1916, continues to keep for me. The stately grandfather clock of my father's that stands sentinel on the stairwell landing in our foyer was delivered to my childhood home on the Enon Road back in the 1970s, from Juanita Smith's shop - Juanita's Gifts and Fabrics - on Ellis Street in Franklinton. I was with my mother when she purchased it at Ms. Juanita's. A fond memory.
Digressing, though not at all what my father expected for his birthday, it was what my mother wanted him to have (delete the last three words of this sentence for the honest truth). But Daddy became enamored with it, ardently winding the chains and taking great pride in it. And after him, my husband Rodney, with the same ardor, continues the tradition today.
•Stay tuned for next week's conclusion of this series, which continues with the life of Juanita Lytle Smith, her mother Mattie Lytle, and the Smith children - Phillip Harrell Smith, Kenneth Wayne Smith, and James Qua Smith.
Smith brothers - left to right, Phillip Harrell, Kenneth Wayne "Wayne," and James Qua "Qua" Smith in their youth. Sons of Samuel Harrell Smith, Jr., and wife Anna Juanita Lytle Smith.
