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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 | |
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