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Sawmill Supermarketsby
Bob Bowman | |
You
can find a model of sorts for today’s Wal-Mart superstores by looking back to
the 1880s and early 1900s in East Texas. In those days, successful lumbermen decided
that if their employees were to live and work in sawmill towns like Diboll, Keltys,
Camden, Wiergate and Groveton,
they needed a place to purchase life’s necessities.
So they came up with
the forerunners of today’s Wal-Mart: commissary stores. Under one roof the early
lumber companies like Southern Pine Lumber Company and and Wier Long Leaf Lumber
Company provided everything from cornmeal to coffins.
With a single visit,
a sawmill worker and his family could cash a paycheck, buy the family’s groceries,
pick up feed for their cows and pigs, purchase clothing or sewing goods, pick
out furniture, and visit a doctor.
The commissary also became the center
of the community. The prices were usually reasonable and in some sawmill towns
employees paid for goods with tokens issued on wages earned. At first the tokens
were metal and later became wax-coated coins of various denominations and colors.
During the Great Depression in the1930s, T.L.L. Temple kept many of his employees
at Diboll on the payroll, even though they earned only a few dollars a day. They
spent most of their wages on food at the commissary, buying fresh beans, cornmeal
and peas--ten cents for two pounds.
The availability of cheaply priced
food was one of the reasons Temple kept his hands while other sawmills were losing
men. With the demolition of the Diboll commissary (the only one with a Texas Historical
Marker) earlier this year, East Texas has lost most of its old commissaries. The
only one still left is the old Trinity County Lumber Company store at Groveton,
which was built in the late l800s.
Standing in the downtown area, the
commissary is fondly remembered as having the atmosphere of a big happy family.
A long front porch across the front of the two-story building was often used as
a stage for local entertainment and traveling performers. Some other commissary
stores which have disappeared include:
• The Angelina County Lumber Company
commissary at Keltys, near Lufkin. Built in the l880s, the store was demolished
in the 1960s when the lumber company was sold. During its heyday it served as
a supermarket, post office, and drug store.
• Wier Long Leaf Lumber Company
built its commissary in 1917 when the Wier family started harvesting timber in
Newton County. The sawmill ceased production in 1942 and the commissary was torn
down two years later. However, a good collection of old photos from Wiergate’s
boom years, including some of the commissary, is on display in the town’s post
office.
• W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company built a commissary when
the lumber company was founded in 1898. The store operated a unique system of
pulleys and canisters for carrying sawmill tokens and cash from the first floor
to a cashier’s cage on the second story. The store was razed by Champion International
when it purchased the lumber company in the 1960s. Temple-Inland, in recognition
of the role the commissary played in Diboll’s history, plans to build a scale
replica of the building as part of a new entrance to the company’s industrial
complex. It will house meeting rooms, security offices and other facilities. Even
though most of the old commissaries are gone, they will remain an entrenched part
of the memories of anyone who has ever lived in a sawmill town. |
All
Things Historical
August
29, 2005 Column
Published with permission
(Distributed by the East Texas
Historical Association. Bob Bowman of Lufkin is a past president of the Association
and the author of more than 30 books about East Texas.) |
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