Historic Crossett Homes Interpret Early Lumber Days
November 26, 2002
Historic Crossett Homes
Interpret Early Lumber Days
*****
By Gina Kokes, guest writer
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism
Sheltered under tall oak trees, the tidy cottage looks like a child's playhouse. The shaded porch has a white wooden swing, and the half-glass, half-wooden front door seems to reflect a gentler time when everyone was welcome. The house is painted "Crossett Gray," a steel blue color that contrasts sharply with the white trim and the white picket fence surrounding the lot. But this is not a playhouse; originally it was a company house built for married lumber mill workers in Crossett.
The town was carved out of the "great wilderness" of virgin hardwood and pine forests more than a hundred years ago in southeast Arkansas. An ambitious lumberman, Edgar Woodward "Cap" Gates, and his associates built a temporary sawmill in the middle of the forest in 1902 and erected tent houses for the laborers who would eventually run the permanent sawmills. Because Gates felt a steady and reliable workforce was the key to success, the lumber company literally created a town to support its employees. All the homes, businesses and land were owned and maintained by the Crossett Lumber Company until 1946.
The first permanent houses were "shotgun" houses, which were typically one room wide, one story tall and a couple of rooms deep. Southern folktales attribute the name to one's ability to fire a shotgun through the house from one end to the other since all the doors and rooms were arranged in a straight line.
The small size of the house meant rooms had to be used for multiple purposes. The first room often served as both a bedroom and sitting area, which was followed by another bedroom and a combination eating and kitchen space. Rent for a three-room house was approximately $6.75 per month and jumped to $8.00 month when electricity was added around 1915.
The interiors of these houses were modest. Small grooved boards lined the walls and ceiling and were painted the same color gray as the exterior. There were no drapes, which were considered luxury items, so dark green roll-up shades hung on the windows. Nails and a few small wardrobes served as closets. Occupants carried water into the house from outside spigots.
Each room of the house had one single naked light bulb and pull chain suspended from the ceiling. The lumber company supplied the electricity, and between 10 and 11 p.m. each night, company workers would flash the lights to warn residents that only five minutes of electricity remained for the day. Friday was considered "ironing day," which was the only time electricity was available during daylight hours so that housewives could ready clothes for Sunday services and the following workweek.
Workers' houses were identical and lined up neatly on wide streets. Tom Pat Cook, volunteer with the Crossett Historical Committee, recalls some of the humorous stories associated with living in company houses. Although liquor was banned in Ashley County, men traveled to riverboats to buy whiskey or visited the infamous bootleggers on the edge of the town.
"It's not too hard to imagine what might happen when a man celebrated, came home in the dark, and was confronted with row after row of identical houses with identical white picket fences," Cook said.
Many early residents have recalled hard work and long hours at the mill. Men were paid 15 cents an hour and worked 11-hour days starting at 6 a.m. with an hour off for lunch. The mill eventually moved to 10-hour days, which caused a few men to complain about an "excess of free time."
Money was tight. Almost everyone in town maintained gardens that produced fresh vegetables, and most town folks kept chickens plus a cow or pig in their yards. Meals were frequently supplemented by wild game, and it was reported that by the mid-1920s there wasn't a deer to be seen in Ashley County.
There was always a strong sense of community in the town. Because there was no health insurance, an injury or illness often necessitated the passing of a hat for donations. Early life in Crossett was, in many ways, closely tied to the churches, which also served as recreational centers for families and the many bachelors in town. Each year there was a Sunday school gathering where as many as 2,000 residents rode flatcars to a picnic site to enjoy a day of eating and games.
Nature was a force to be reckoned with in these early days. Tornadoes ripped apart the area without warning. Some residents remember storms with hail so large that dead owls could be found in the forest afterwards. Ice storms in winter snapped thousands of pine trees and damaged homes.
Because the homes were not insulated, severe cold weather tested the little stoves in the front room and kitchen. In the sweltering summer heat, squares of cardboard were often the only available fans. Some people built stoops onto the back of their houses and slept outside in summer. In doing so, though, they faced another adversary -- annoying insects.
The hardships the residents endured were tempered by unique entertainment. When a circus went bankrupt, Gates took the bear home for his children and had the merry-go-round set up in the back of the commissary for the town's residents. The lumber town also had a skating rink, a bandstand and a warm, spring-fed swimming pool.
Simple pleasures, though, might very well have been the most cherished. Long, wide benches in front of the commissary made a perfect meeting place where the citizens shared stories and caught up on news, especially on Saturdays when the store was open late into the evening. After services on Sunday, half the town might spend the day meeting the trains, which would arrive in the late afternoon and early evening, just to see who and what they carried. And luncheons and meetings of all sorts, as well as dances, were held at the Rose Inn, elaborate by early Crossett standards.
To help interpret the early days of their lumber company community, a group of Crossett citizens in 1985 relocated and restored one of the first three-room shotgun houses built in town. Through hours of volunteer labor, the Crossett Historical Committee has preserved a unique part of southern Arkansas history.
Tours of the Old Company House can be arranged through the Crossett Area Chamber of Commerce by phoning (870) 364-6591. The structure is adjacent to the City Park, which also has a playground, picnic tables and a 52-acre fishing pond surrounded by a three-mile paved walking trail. The Crossland Zoo, a small zoo exhibiting native and some exotic animals, is near the park.
####
Submitted by the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism
One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, (501) 682-7606
E-mail: info@arkansas.com
May be used without permission. Credit line is appreciated:
"Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism"
Historic Crossett Homes
Interpret Early Lumber Days
*****
By Gina Kokes, guest writer
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism
Sheltered under tall oak trees, the tidy cottage looks like a child's playhouse. The shaded porch has a white wooden swing, and the half-glass, half-wooden front door seems to reflect a gentler time when everyone was welcome. The house is painted "Crossett Gray," a steel blue color that contrasts sharply with the white trim and the white picket fence surrounding the lot. But this is not a playhouse; originally it was a company house built for married lumber mill workers in Crossett.
The town was carved out of the "great wilderness" of virgin hardwood and pine forests more than a hundred years ago in southeast Arkansas. An ambitious lumberman, Edgar Woodward "Cap" Gates, and his associates built a temporary sawmill in the middle of the forest in 1902 and erected tent houses for the laborers who would eventually run the permanent sawmills. Because Gates felt a steady and reliable workforce was the key to success, the lumber company literally created a town to support its employees. All the homes, businesses and land were owned and maintained by the Crossett Lumber Company until 1946.
The first permanent houses were "shotgun" houses, which were typically one room wide, one story tall and a couple of rooms deep. Southern folktales attribute the name to one's ability to fire a shotgun through the house from one end to the other since all the doors and rooms were arranged in a straight line.
The small size of the house meant rooms had to be used for multiple purposes. The first room often served as both a bedroom and sitting area, which was followed by another bedroom and a combination eating and kitchen space. Rent for a three-room house was approximately $6.75 per month and jumped to $8.00 month when electricity was added around 1915.
The interiors of these houses were modest. Small grooved boards lined the walls and ceiling and were painted the same color gray as the exterior. There were no drapes, which were considered luxury items, so dark green roll-up shades hung on the windows. Nails and a few small wardrobes served as closets. Occupants carried water into the house from outside spigots.
Each room of the house had one single naked light bulb and pull chain suspended from the ceiling. The lumber company supplied the electricity, and between 10 and 11 p.m. each night, company workers would flash the lights to warn residents that only five minutes of electricity remained for the day. Friday was considered "ironing day," which was the only time electricity was available during daylight hours so that housewives could ready clothes for Sunday services and the following workweek.
Workers' houses were identical and lined up neatly on wide streets. Tom Pat Cook, volunteer with the Crossett Historical Committee, recalls some of the humorous stories associated with living in company houses. Although liquor was banned in Ashley County, men traveled to riverboats to buy whiskey or visited the infamous bootleggers on the edge of the town.
"It's not too hard to imagine what might happen when a man celebrated, came home in the dark, and was confronted with row after row of identical houses with identical white picket fences," Cook said.
Many early residents have recalled hard work and long hours at the mill. Men were paid 15 cents an hour and worked 11-hour days starting at 6 a.m. with an hour off for lunch. The mill eventually moved to 10-hour days, which caused a few men to complain about an "excess of free time."
Money was tight. Almost everyone in town maintained gardens that produced fresh vegetables, and most town folks kept chickens plus a cow or pig in their yards. Meals were frequently supplemented by wild game, and it was reported that by the mid-1920s there wasn't a deer to be seen in Ashley County.
There was always a strong sense of community in the town. Because there was no health insurance, an injury or illness often necessitated the passing of a hat for donations. Early life in Crossett was, in many ways, closely tied to the churches, which also served as recreational centers for families and the many bachelors in town. Each year there was a Sunday school gathering where as many as 2,000 residents rode flatcars to a picnic site to enjoy a day of eating and games.
Nature was a force to be reckoned with in these early days. Tornadoes ripped apart the area without warning. Some residents remember storms with hail so large that dead owls could be found in the forest afterwards. Ice storms in winter snapped thousands of pine trees and damaged homes.
Because the homes were not insulated, severe cold weather tested the little stoves in the front room and kitchen. In the sweltering summer heat, squares of cardboard were often the only available fans. Some people built stoops onto the back of their houses and slept outside in summer. In doing so, though, they faced another adversary -- annoying insects.
The hardships the residents endured were tempered by unique entertainment. When a circus went bankrupt, Gates took the bear home for his children and had the merry-go-round set up in the back of the commissary for the town's residents. The lumber town also had a skating rink, a bandstand and a warm, spring-fed swimming pool.
Simple pleasures, though, might very well have been the most cherished. Long, wide benches in front of the commissary made a perfect meeting place where the citizens shared stories and caught up on news, especially on Saturdays when the store was open late into the evening. After services on Sunday, half the town might spend the day meeting the trains, which would arrive in the late afternoon and early evening, just to see who and what they carried. And luncheons and meetings of all sorts, as well as dances, were held at the Rose Inn, elaborate by early Crossett standards.
To help interpret the early days of their lumber company community, a group of Crossett citizens in 1985 relocated and restored one of the first three-room shotgun houses built in town. Through hours of volunteer labor, the Crossett Historical Committee has preserved a unique part of southern Arkansas history.
Tours of the Old Company House can be arranged through the Crossett Area Chamber of Commerce by phoning (870) 364-6591. The structure is adjacent to the City Park, which also has a playground, picnic tables and a 52-acre fishing pond surrounded by a three-mile paved walking trail. The Crossland Zoo, a small zoo exhibiting native and some exotic animals, is near the park.
Submitted by the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism
One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, (501) 682-7606
E-mail: info@arkansas.com
May be used without permission. Credit line is appreciated:
"Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism"
Submitted by the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism
One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, 501-682-7606
E-mail: info@arkansas.com
May be used without permission. Credit line is appreciated:
"Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism"