Inventory of the Development of Forestry in the Southern United States Oral History Interviews, 1958 – 1976

Descriptive Summary

Abstract: Forest History Society executive director Elwood R. Maunder, University of Florida Ph.D. candidate Roy R. White, Joseph A. Miller, and Charles Crawford conducted oral history interviews during the period from 1958 to 1976. Persons interviewed include foresters working for federal or state government agencies; loggers and land managers employed by private companies; lumbermen; a turpentine factor; a forest industry journalist; and paper industry executives. Interviewees include Clinton Hux Coulter, Walter Julius Damtoft, Elwood Leonard Demmon, Marc Leonard Fleishel, E. Worth Hadley, James Hart, Frank Heyward, Jr., Stanley F. Horn, James H. Jones, Herbert L. Kayton, Brooks Lambert, Edward Leigh McMillan, Joseph E. McCaffrey, Earl Mason McGowin, N. Floyd McGowin, Earl Porter, Arthur Bernhard Recknagel, and G. P. Shingler. The interviews collectively provide insight into early efforts to implement scientific forestry practices and conservation measures in the southern United States during the first part of the twentieth century. Topics discussed include: forest conservation; fire protection; naval stores; prominent American foresters; lumber, paper, and timber company operations across the South; educational outreach by the U.S. Forest Service; and the positive influence of logging engineer Austin Cary and chemist Eloise Gerry (b. 1885) on turpentining and logging practices in the southern United States.

Title: Development of Forestry in the Southern United States Oral History Interviews, 1958 - 1976

Repository: Forest History Society Library and Archives

Call Number: 7285

Language of Material: Material in English

Extent: 4.5 linear feet (41 file folders, 42 stenorette tapes, 3 reel-to-reel tapes, and 30 cassette tapes)

 

Collection Overview

Forest History Society executive director Elwood R. Maunder, University of Florida Ph.D. candidate Roy R. White, Joseph A. Miller, and Charles Crawford conducted oral history interviews during the period from 1958 to 1976. Persons interviewed include foresters working for federal or state government agencies; loggers and land managers employed by private companies; lumbermen; a turpentine factor; a forest industry journalist; and paper industry executives. Interviewees include Clinton Hux Coulter, Walter Julius Damtoft, Elwood Leonard Demmon, Marc Leonard Fleishel, E. Worth Hadley, James Hart, Frank Heyward, Jr., Stanley F. Horn, James H. Jones, Herbert L. Kayton, Brooks Lambert, Edward Leigh McMillan, Joseph E. McCaffrey, Earl Mason McGowin, N. Floyd McGowin, Earl Porter, Arthur Bernhard Recknagel, and G. P. Shingler. The interviews collectively provide insight into early efforts to implement scientific forestry practices and conservation measures in the southern United States during the first part of the twentieth century. Topics discussed include: forest conservation; fire protection; naval stores; prominent American foresters; lumber, paper, and timber company operations across the South; educational outreach by the U.S. Forest Service; and the positive influence of logging engineer Austin Cary and chemist Eloise Gerry (b. 1885) on turpentining and logging practices in the southern United States.

Collection Arrangement

1. Clinton Hux Coulter Interview
2. Walter Julius Damtoft Interview
3. Elwood Leonard Demmon Interview
4. Marc Leonard Fleishel Interview
5. E. Worth Hadley Interview
6. James Hart Interview
7. Frank Heyward, Jr. Interview
8. Stanley F. Horn Interview
9. James H. Jones Interview
10. Herbert L. Kayton Interview
11. Brooks Lambert and Edward Leigh McMillan Interview
12. Joseph E. McCaffrey Interview
13. Earl Mason McGowin Interview
14. N. Floyd McGowin Interview
15. Earl Porter Interview
16. Arthur Bernhard Recknagel Interview
17. G. P. Shingler Interview

 

Subject Headings

• Cary, Austin, 1865-1936
• Coulter, Clinton Huxley, d. 1987 -- Interviews
• Damtoft, Walter Julius, 1890-1976 -- Interviews
• Demmon, Elwood Leonard, 1892-1981 -- Interviews
• Fleishel, Marc Leonard, 1875-1961 -- Interviews
• Forest conservation -- United States
• Forest fires -- Prevention and control -- United States
• Forest protection -- United States
• Foresters -- United States
• Forests and forestry -- Alabama -- History
• Forests and forestry -- Florida -- History
• Forests and forestry -- Georgia -- History
• Forests and forestry -- United States -- History
• Gerry, Eloise, b. 1885
• Hadley, Evan Worth, b. 1898 -- Interviews
• Hart, James -- Interviews
• Heyward, Frank, b. 1905 -- Interviews
• Horn, Stanley Fitzgerald, 1889-1980 -- Interviews
• Jones, James Huston -- Interviews
• Journalists -- United States
• Kayton, Herbert L. -- Interviews
• Lambert, Brooks -- Interviews
• Logging -- United States
• McCaffrey, Joseph E., 1896-1975 -- Interviews
• McGowin, Earl Mason, 1901-1992 -- Interviews
• McGowin, N. Floyd, 1900-1981 -- Interviews
• McMillan, Edward Leigh -- Interviews
• Naval stores -- United States
• Paper industry -- United States
• Porter, Earl, b. 1898 -- Interviews
• Recknagel, A. B. (Arthur Bernhard), 1883-1962 -- Interviews
• Shingler, G. P. -- Interviews
• United States. Forest Service -- Officials and employees

 

Detailed Description of the Collection

1. Clinton Hux Coulter Interview, 1958.

Forest History Society executive director Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Clinton H. Coulter in Tallahassee, Florida, in February 1958. Topics discussed in the interview include: fire protection; industrial forestry; American foresters; forest utilization; and the pulp, paper, and turpentine industries in the southern United States. This oral history interview was published in the 1977 volume Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters, which also includes interviews with foresters Elwood L. Demmon, Walter J. Damtoft, and Inman F. Eldredge.

Biographical Information: Clinton Hux Coulter

Clinton Huxley "Hux" Coulter (d. 1987) is known as one of Florida's founding and preeminent foresters. During his twenty-five-year stint as State Forester, he is credited with developing the Florida Division of Forestry from a small organization into a statewide agency devoted to forestry, and with drastically increasing the state's forestry income. Born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Coulter entered the University of Michigan School of Engineering in 1924, but soon thereafter he transferred to the forestry school. In his late 20s he joined the staff of the newly formed Florida Forest Service, and in 1928 the first state forester, Harry Lee Baker, gave Coulter five thousand seedlings from which to develop the state's first demonstration plantings. This marked the beginning of a state reforestation program begun to improve forests devastated by the forest products industry.

Coulter was named State Forester in 1945, a post he held until his retirement in 1969. A renowned innovator in fire protection techniques, his policies encouraged interstate collaboration and state cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service. Under Coulter, Florida's protected acreage increased by more than three times, and the forest products industry became the second-largest source of income for the state.

Coulter's honors include his elections as vice president of the National Association of State Foresters in 1953 and as president in 1955. In 1958 he was named "Florida's Forester of the Year," by the Society of American Foresters, a professional organization that elected him as a Fellow in his senior years. In 1982 the Florida chapter of the Society of American Foresters established an annual award in Clinton Coulter's name; Coulter was the first recipient of the award. He died in 1987 in Tallahassee, Florida.

Note: The above biographical information about Clinton H. Coulter was drawn from the following sources: (1) Newland, Harrod B. "Florida's Hux Coulter."Forest Farmer 19 (February 1960): 15, 22-23; (2) "Forestry Awards Established to Honor Coulter and Spurr."Journal of Forestry 81 (March 1983): 185.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

2. Walter Julius Damtoft Interview, 1959.

Forest History Society executive director Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Walter J. Damtoft in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1958 and 1959. Topics discussed in the interview include: fire protection; industrial forestry; American foresters; forest utilization; and the pulp, paper, and turpentine industries in the southern United States. This oral history interview was published in the 1977 volume Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters, which also includes interviews with foresters Clinton H. Coulter, Elwood L. Demmon, and Inman F. Eldredge.

Biographical Information: Walter Julius Damtoft

Walter Julius Damtoft was born in Southport, Connecticut, on 11 November 1890, the son of Danish immigrants. Damtoft attended Prospect Street Grammar School and Bridgeport High School, graduating from the latter in 1907. He received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1910, and received a Master of Forestry degree from Yale the following year. Later in his career, Damtoft would receive honorary degrees from the Biltmore School of Forestry and North Carolina State College.

Damtoft's first job was with the United States Forest Service (1911-1920); he then went on to work for Champion Fibre Company, becoming the first full-time industrial forester in the South. For the next thirty years, Damtoft worked in positions of increasing responsibility at Champion, from serving as chief forester, to overseeing operations as an assistant division manager, to running a company subsidiary in Asheville as vice president and general manager. He spent 1951 in Washington, D.C., as acting director of the Forest Products Division of the Office of Price Stabilization. Damtoft then returned to Champion, where he worked until his retirement in 1958. His last position with the company was as assistant secretary/treasurer and director of the General Woods Department.

In addition to his full-time forestry career, Damtoft also served in a number of other positions: as chairman of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville; trustee of Memorial Mission Hospital; chairman of the District Board of Appeal of the Selective Service System; member of the N.C. Board of Conservation and Development; general chairman of the Southern Governors' Conference; and member of the Board of Managers of the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company. He also served as president of the North Carolina Industrial Council and director of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. Damtoft was very much involved in the forestry industry's professional organizations, notably as: president of the Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association; vice president of the Forest Farmers Association; vice president of American Forest Products Industries, Inc.; director of the American Forestry Association; and director of the Southern Industrial Relations Conference.

Walter Damtoft married twice. His first wife died during a great flu epidemic in 1918. He later married the former Dorothy Atkinson, with whom he had one son and one daughter. Damtoft died in 1976 of an unspecified illness at the age of 86.

Note: The above biographical information about Walter Damtoft was drawn from the following sources: (1) "Elwood L. Demmon."Who's Who in America (1970-1971): 84-85; (2) Maunder, Elwood R., ed. Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Forest History Society, Inc., 1977; (3) "Walter Damtoft, Forester, Dies." The Asheville Citizen (23 November 1976): 1.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

Preservation Copy of Audio Recording of Interview

3. Elwood Leonard Demmon Interview, 1958 and 1959.

Forest History Society executive director Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Elwood L. Demmon in Asheville, North Carolina, in February 1959. Topics discussed in the interview include: fire protection; industrial forestry; American foresters; forest utilization; and the pulp, paper, and turpentine industries in the southern United States. This oral history interview was published in the 1977 volume Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters, which also includes interviews with foresters Clinton H. Coulter, Walter J. Damtoft, and Inman F. Eldredge.

Biographical Information: Elwood Leonard Demmon

Elwood Leonard Demmon was born in Kendalville, Indiana, on 23 September 1892. He was the oldest of five children born to Elwood Frank Demmon and the former Blanche Voorheis. Demmon graduated from the University of Michigan in 1914 with an A.B. in forestry. Two years later, he earned an M.S. degree in forestry, also from Michigan.

Demmon's first job was with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, where he worked until 1924. He then took a job with the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, spending approximately six months in Central America studying rubber tree plantations. Demmon took the Civil Service examination in 1924, in the hopes of gaining employment with the U.S. Forest Service. While awaiting the results, he worked on a temporary assignment in St. Paul, Minnesota, under Dr. Raphael Zon; the assignment was at the Lake States Forest Experiment Station, and involved studying jack pine growth in Michigan and aspen growth in Minnesota. In 1925 Demmon received news that he had passed the Civil Service examination, and he assumed the position of associate silviculturist at the Southern Forest Experiment Station in New Orleans, Louisiana. He became acting director of the station in 1927 and was made director the following year -- a position he held for sixteen years. In 1944 Demmon succeeded Dr. Raphael Zon as director of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station in St. Paul, Minnesota. After seven years there, he decided to move back South and become director of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station in Asheville, North Carolina. He retired from that position in 1956.

After retiring from the Forest Service, Demmon chose to remain in Asheville. He took on various consulting projects later in his life, for both private corporations and government agencies. He spent some time in Formosa (Taiwan), where he advised the local government on its forestry problems. He also undertook a consulting project with the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio, regarding the cooperative fire protection situation under the Clarke-McNary Act.

Throughout his long career and in his retirement, Demmon gave a number of speeches and wrote many articles, including several for the Journal of Forestry. In 1961, Demmon wrote a book, Opportunities in Forestry, which went through one revision in 1967, and another one in 1975. He was also actively involved in the industry's professional organizations. Demmon was a member of the Society of American Foresters, and served as vice president (1952-1953) and president (1954-1955). He also held a membership with the American Forestry Association; later becoming director (1953 - 1955) and honorary vice president (1956). Demmon served as president of the University of Michigan Forestry Association from 1948 to 1950, director of the Forest History Society from 1958 to 1960, and director of the North Carolina Forestry Association from 1958 to 1963. In 1955 Demmon received an honorary doctor of science degree from North Carolina State University. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1956 for his contributions in forest research and forest policies. In the same year he received the National Civil Service League's Merit Citation.

Demmon married the former Doris Appermann, of Saginaw, Michigan. They had three children and seven grandchildren. Elwood Demmon passed away on 7 January 1981 in Asheville, North Carolina, at the age of 88.

Note: The above biographical information about Elwood Demmon was drawn from the following source: (1) Maunder, Elwood R., ed. Voices From the South: Recollections of Four Foresters. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Forest History Society, Inc., 1977; (2) "Society Affairs: Elwood L. Demmon 1892-1981."Journal of Forestry 79 (June 1981): 400-401; and (3) Demmon, Elwood L., comp. Genealogy of a Demmon and Allied Families. Asheville, N.C.: by the author, 1976.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

Preservation Copy of Audio Recording of Interview

4. Marc Leonard Fleishel Interview, 1960.

Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Marc Fleishel in New Oreleans, Louisiana, in April 1960. Topics discussed in the interview include: lumber trade associations; American foresters and lumbermen; timber and lumber companies; the Industrial Workers of the World; and the timber industry in the southern United States.

Biographical Information: Marc Leonard Fleishel

Considered a principal figure of the early American lumber industry, Marc Fleishel was one of a select group of industrialists responsible for developing lumber manufacturing into an important sector of the national economy. Fleishel was born in 1875 in Tyler, Texas. He began his career as a lumberman at a young age, and steadily worked his way up through the local mills. In the early 1900s he planned and became president of the Colonial Lumber and Timber Company of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1906 he helped organize the Gulf Lumber Company of Louisiana and served as its executive officer until 1913, at which point he moved to Florida and was responsible for building a plant for the Carpenter-O'Brien Company at Eastport. In Florida he was later named president of the Putnam Lumber Company, followed by a stretch as president of the St. Joe Lumber & Export Company and director of the Southern Cypress Manufacturers Association.

Fleishel was one of the charter members of the Southern Pine Association when it was formed in 1914, and in 1923 he was elected to its board of directors. Around this time he was also named to the board of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, and later served as president (1939-1943) and secretary (1950-1960) of that organization.

Widely known as a businessman and champion of good forest management, Marc Fleishel was also a philanthropist and civic leader in his community of Jacksonville, Florida. He married Marie Louise Brode in 1902 and had two children. Fleishel died in August 1961 in Jacksonville.

Note: The above biographical information about Marc Fleishel was drawn from the following source: "Final Rites in Florida for Marc Leonard Fleishel, Pioneer Lumberman."News Bulletin for the Building Industry (1961): 1-2. News release published by the Southern Pine Association of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

Preservation Copy of Audio Recording of Interview

5. E. Worth Hadley Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with E. Worth Hadley in June 1959 while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Austin Cary; chemist and naval stores expert Eloise Gerry; turpentining; fire protection; and the Southern Pine Association.

Biographical Information: E. Worth Hadley

Evan Worth Hadley (b. 1898) worked for the United States Forest Service from 1920 until 1943. His early Forest Service jobs were in New Mexico and Arizona, where he did technical field assistant work; later he advanced to positions of greater responsibility, such as ranger and district supervisor. In 1925 Hadley joined the staff at the newly formed Southern Forestry Experiment Station in New Orleans. He worked at the station until 1935, when he became general superintendent of forests and supervisor of the Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico, which Franklin Delano Roosevelt established by presidential proclamation in June 1935. Hadley remained in that position in Puerto Rico until 1943.

Note: The above biographical information about E. Worth Hadley was drawn from (1) the oral history interview with Hadley described in this finding aid, and (2) issues of the United States Forest Service's Directory published in the 1930s and 1940s.

Final Transcript of Interview

6. James Hart Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with James Hart in Flomaton, Alabama, in July 1959 while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: truck logging; the company's selective logging and turpentining practices; life in the company's logging camps; and visits to the camps by Austin Cary, who ran tests on experimental forestry plots on Alger-Sullivan land.

Biographical Information: James Hart

James Hart was a logger who worked for the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company from 1932 to about 1940. Michigan lumbermen Russell Alexander Alger (1836-1907) and Martin H. Sullivan founded the company's first sawmill in Century, Florida, at the turn of the twentieth century. The company aimed to run an intensive pine logging operation for about ten years until the native timber was gone, but manager E. A. Hauss implemented selective logging and sustained-yield management techniques that allowed the company to flourish for almost fifty years. James Hart lived in the company's logging camps while employed by Alger-Sullivan. He was apparently instrumental in convincing the company to embrace the idea of using trucks to transport logs from the woods to the company's sawmill and planing mill.

Note: The above biographical information about James Hart was drawn from the following sources: (1) the oral history interview with Hart described in this finding aid, and (2) website pages maintained by the Alger-Sullivan Historical Society.

Final Transcript of Interview

7. Frank Heyward, Jr., Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with Frank Heyward, Jr., in July 1959 in Bogalusa, Louisiana, while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Heyward's early work at the USFS Southern Forest Experiment Station with logging engineer Austin Cary, naval stores expert Eloise Gerry, and forester Charles Holmes Herty; New Deal forestry legislation; fire protection; Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association; Crown Zellerbach Corporation; and forestry in the southern United States.

Biographical Information: Frank Heyward, Jr.

Frank Heyward, Jr., was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1905. He earned a bachelor's degree in forestry from the University of Michigan in 1929, and went on to earn a master's degree in forestry from the University of California in 1930. After taking his master's degree, Heyward joined the U.S. Forest Service at the Southern Forest Experiment Station, where he remained for seven years. After a two-year stint as state forester of Georgia, Heyward joined the Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association as its first forester and general manager. In 1946 Heyward became director of public relations for the Gaylord Container Corporation in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Heyward also lent his expertise to two war efforts, serving as the pulpwood specialist of the Southern Region for the War Production Board during World War II, and as chief of the Pulpwood Branch of the Pulp and Paper Division of the National Production Authority during the Korean War. Heyward also owned and operated a 6,800-acre tree farm in Georgia.

Note: The above biographical information about Frank Heyward, Jr., was drawn from the following sources: (1) the oral history interview with Heyward described in this finding aid, and (2) Heyward, Frank. The Colonel William B. Greeley Lectures in Industrial Forestry, Number Two: History of Industrial Forestry in the South. Seattle: University of Washington College of Forestry, 1958.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

8. Stanley F. Horn Interview, 1976.

Charles W. Crawford conducted this oral history interview with Stanley Fitzgerald Horn in June 1976. Topics discussed in the interview include: Horn's career as a reporter for the forest products industry; trade associations; tree farming; reforestation; log transportation; and sawmill equipment used in Tennessee. Stanley Horn's reminiscences reported in this interview were published in the 1978 volume Stanley F. Horn: Editor and Publisher.

Biographical Information: Stanley F. Horn

Stanley Fitzgerald Horn was born on May 27, 1889, on a farm in Neely's Bend, Tennessee. He was the youngest of two sons born to Sadie Ashby (Graves) Horn and Williamson Williams Horn. Horn graduated from Fogg High School in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1906. His first job was an entry-level position with the Cumberland Telephone Company in Nashville, but his real passion was writing. Horn subsequently left the telephone company to join the staff at the Southern Lumberman (a trade journal published in Nashville). Except for a short stint at the Philadelphia Evening Ledger in 1914, Horn stayed with the Southern Lumberman his entire career, and eventually became co-owner of the publication.

In his role as editor of the Southern Lumberman, Horn traveled widely, visiting sawmills and attending lumber association conventions throughout the country. He played an active role in a number of lumber trade groups, and helped found the Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Association in 1917.

Horn was a prolific and versatile writer. He published This Fascinating Lumber Business (Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill) in 1943, but his interests varied widely, and he wrote several more books on Tennessee history and the Civil War. His published articles ranged from humorous paragraphs to the lumber business to baseball. He was an avid collector of books, and was co-owner of a minor league baseball team called the Nashville Volunteers.

Mr. Horn married Alice Beryl Williams in 1913, with whom he had one son and one daughter. He died in 1980.

Note: The above biographical information about Stanley F. Horn was drawn from the published version of this oral history interview with Stanley Horn: Horn, Stanley F. Stanley F. Horn: Editor and Publisher. An Interview with Stanley F. Horn Conducted by Charles W. Crawford. Edited by Linda Brandt, Ronald C. Larson, and Pamela S. O'Neal. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Forest History Society, 1978.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

9. James H. Jones Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with James H. Jones in July 1959 in Pensacola, Florida, while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Austin Cary; Eloise Gerry; Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company turpentining and logging operations in Florida and Alabama; and the company's conservation measures.

Biographical Information: James H. Jones

James Huston Jones was timekeeper, receiving clerk, and land agent for the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company, which held lands in Alabama and milled lumber at its primary sawmill in Century, Florida. He began working for company co-founder Martin H. Sullivan in 1897 and continued to work for Alger-Sullivan until the time of this interview. Jones often accompanied manager E. A. Hauss when he toured company operations with frequent visitors Austin Cary, a logging engineer, and Eloise Gerry, a chemist and naval stores expert.

Note: The above biographical information about James H. Jones was drawn from the oral history interview with Jones described in this finding aid.

Final Transcript of Interview

10. Herbert L. Kayton Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with Herbert L. Kayton in Savannah, Georgia, in October 1959 while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Austin Cary; forester Charles Holmes Herty; the Georgia Forestry Commission; and the turpentine industry in the southern United States.

Biographical Information: Herbert L. Kayton

Herbert L. Kayton was a turpentine factor who worked in the Georgia lumber and turpentine industry. In 1922 he joined other factors, exporters, turpentiners, farmers, and landowners who were concerned about the negative impacts of fire on forests to re-organize the Georgia Forestry Association. The organization worked under the leadership of Bonnel Stone to convince the Georgia legislature to pass fire protection legislation. The association's lobbying and educational outreach efforts led to the passage of such a law in 1925, and they arguably fostered the establishment of the Georgia Forestry Commission years before it would otherwise have been formed. Kayton sometimes toured woods operations with logging engineer Austin Cary and chemist Eloise Gerry), and he worked with them to convince local operators to use proper conservation techniques to increase the value of their products.

Note: The above biographical information about Herbert Kayton was drawn from the oral history interview with Kayton described in this finding aid.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

Preservation Copy of Audio Recording of Interview

11. Brooks Lamber and Edward Leigh McMillan Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with Brooks Lambert and Edward Leigh McMillan in Brewton, Alabama, in July 1959 while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Austin Cary and T. R. Miller Mill Company operations in Florida.

Final Transcript of Interview

Biographical Information: Brooks Lambert

Brooks Lambert was a logging superintendent for the T. R. Miller Mill Company in Alabama. The company had long held an interest in conservation and sustained-yield timber production, and in the 1920s T. R. Miller Mill Company sought the forest management advice of logging engineer Austin Cary). Cary began visiting the company's logging tracts whenever he was in the region -- a practice he continued for many years. Brooks Lambert usually accompanied Cary on his surveys of the company's thinning operations.

Note: The biographical sketch of Brooks Lambert was drawn from the oral history interview with Lambert described in this finding aid.

Biographical Information: Edward Leigh McMillan

Edward Leigh McMillan was a leader in the Alabama timber industry, known as "Mr. Forester" for his recognition and practice of scientific forestry methods. After receiving a bachelor of law degree from the University of Alabama in 1910, McMillan served in various professional capacities, including running a law practice in Brewton, Alabama. In 1950 he was named president of the T. R. Miller Mill Company. He recognized the advantages of forestry to the timber industry, becoming an advocate for forest protection from fire, disease and insect infestation, and reforestation by means of commercial planting. He also played a key role in the creation of Conecuh National Forest in Alabama.

The above biographical information about Edward Leigh McMillan was drawn from the following source: University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, Alabama Business Hall of Fame website.

12. Joseph E. McCaffrey Interview, 1964 and 1965.

Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Joseph E. McCaffrey in two sessions, one held in February 1964 and one in March and April 1965. Topics discussed in the interview include: McCaffrey's career in forestry, primarily with International Paper Company in the southern United States, since the 1930s; Consolidated Land Company; the Florida State Forest Service; trade associations; and industry journalist Stanley F. Horn. The recollections of Joseph McCaffrey gathered in this interview were published in the 1974 volume J. E. McCaffrey: Go South, Young Man.

Biographical Information: Joseph E. McCaffrey

Joseph McCaffrey's (1896-1975) career in forestry spanned more than forty-five years, during which he achieved wide recognition as a forester, forest engineer, and as a manager and consultant in the United States and abroad. Born in 1896 in Fulton, New York, McCaffrey graduated from the New York State Ranger School in 1916. After a brief period of employment with the Laurel River Logging Company, he enlisted in the Twentieth Engineers (forestry unit) and was sent abroad during World War I. Following the war, McCaffrey worked in various lumber industry positions in the southern United States before attaining employment with International Paper Company in 1928. Within ten years he had become general superintendent of wood procurement for the company's southern operations.

Following a second tour of military duty between 1942 and 1946, he rejoined International Paper Company and was made division superintendent in Georgetown, South Carolina. In 1954 he went to Mobile, Alabama, as assistant general manager of the Southern Kraft Division in charge of woodlands and was elected a vice president shortly thereafter. He retired from his position with the company in 1963.

McCaffrey served as an officer or director of almost every major forestry association in the United States, including the American Pulpwood Association, the American Forest Products Industries, Inc., the American Forestry Association, and the Southern Pulpwood Conservation Association. He was one of the organizers of the Fifth World Forestry Congress held in Seattle, Washington, in 1960. The Boy Scouts of America honored McCaffrey in 1963 with their coveted Silver Beaver Award in recognition of many years of service to that organization. His civic involvement continued until his death in 1975.

Note: The above biographical information about Joseph E. McCaffrey was drawn from the oral history interview with McCaffrey described in this finding aid.

Final Transcript of Interview

Original Transcript of Interview

Original Audio Recording of Interview

Preservation Copy of Audio Recording of Interview

13. Earl Mason McGowin Interview, 1976.

Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Earl Mason McGowin in Chapman, Alabama, in March 1976. Topics discussed in the interview include: his family's ownership of W. T. Smith Lumber Company; trade associations; the recreational and leisure interests of his father James Greeley McGowin; fire control; Chapman, Alabama, as a company town associated with the family business, W. T. Smith Lumber Company; and forest management activities of W. T. Smith Lumber Company. Earl Mason McGowin's reminiscences were published along with the recollections of N. Floyd McGowin, and Nicholas S. McGowin in the 1977 volume James Greeley McGowin: South Alabama Lumberman: The Recollections of His Family.

Biographical Information: Earl Mason McGowin

Earl Mason McGowin was born in Brewton, Alabama, on 18 November 1901. The son of famed Alabama lumberman James Greeley McGowin (1871-1934), Earl attended grade schools in Chapman, Alabama, graduting in 1918 from Greenville High School. At the University of Alabama he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was granted a B.S. degree in 1922. McGowin pursued post-graduate studies at Columbia University in New York during the Spring of 1922 prior to attending Pembroke College at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar from September 1922 to June 1925. After earning degrees in economics and political science from Oxford University, McGowin returned to Alabama to take up a position with the family-owned lumber business, W. T. Smith Lumber Company.

Although McGowin maintained a leadership role within the family company throughout his working career, eventually becoming company vice president, he spent many years as a public servant. McGowin held a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives for twenty years, serving five terms beginning in 1930. He took a break from politics during World War II to serve as an officer in the United States Navy prior to returning to the Alabama political scene. During his many years as a state legislator, Earl McGowin was an outspoken supporter of conservation legislation. His voting record led to his appointment in 1950 as head of the Alabama Department of Conservation, a position he held for four years. McGowin also served as a director or president of many Alabama lumber supply companies and industry trade associations, including a stint as president of the Southern Pine Association from 1941 to 1943.

Earl M. McGowin married Ellen Pratt of Birmingham, Alabama, in December 1937. They had two children, Florence Marks McGowin and Earl Mason McGown, Jr. Mr. McGowin died in 1992.

Note: The above biographical information about Earl M. McGowin was drawn from biographical sources in the Forest History Society Library and Archives and from (1) "Members in the News." Cruiser Forest History Society newsletter (Winter 1993): 6; and (2) "Earl McGowin New Director."Alabama Conservation (February-March 1951): 3, 16.

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14. N. Floyd McGowin Interview, 1976.

Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with N. Floyd McGowin in Chapman, Alabama, in March 1976. Topics discussed in the interview include: his family's ownership of W. T. Smith Lumber Company; the lumber industry during the Great Depression; the trade association work of his father, James Greeley McGowin; his father's relationship with mill employees; the recreational and leisure interests of James Greeley McGowin; and Chapman, Alabama, as a company town associated with the W. T. Smith Lumber Company. N. Floyd McGowin's reminiscences were published along with the recollections of Earl M. McGowin, and Nicholas S. McGowin in the 1977 volume James Greeley McGowin -- South Alabama Lumberman: The Recollections of His Family.

Biographical Information: N. Floyd McGowin

N. (Norman) Floyd McGowin was born in Brewton, Alabama, on 15 March 1900. He obtained a B.S. degree from the University of Alabama in 1920 and conducted graduate studies in 1921 at Columbia University and in 1923 at Oxford University. In 1924 he began a long career as a lumber executive working for the W. T. Smith Lumber Company, a company owned by his family. He attained the position of company president in 1934 and served in that capacity until 1966 when Union Camp Corporation bought the company.

McGowin was a leader of numerous organizations, including the American Forest Products Industries; the National Lumber Manufacturers Association; the Southern Pine Association; Southern Hardwood Producers, Inc.; the Alabama Historical Association; and the Forest History Society.

Floyd McGowin married Mary Alice Eastwood of Birmingham, Alabama, and had two children named J. Greeley McGowin II and Norman F. McGowin, Jr. He died in Greenville, Alabama, at the age of 81 on 24 April 1981.

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15. Earl Porter Interview, 1963 and 1964.

Elwood R. Maunder and Joseph A. Miller conducted this oral history interview with Earl Porter in October 1963 and February 1964. Topics discussed in the interview include: International Paper Company forestry operations in the southern United States during the twentieth century; logging camps; Wheeler and Dusenberry Lumber Company in Pennsylvania; Allegheny National Forest (Pennsylvania); Carbur Lumber Company in Louisiana; industrial forestry in the southern United States; and U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps projects in Florida.

Biographical Information: Earl Porter

Born in 1898 in Indian Lake, New York, Earl Porter grew up on a farm and worked summers on logging camps as a young man. He attended the New York Rangers School and studied forestry at the University of Washington. Immediately out of school, Porter was offered a job at the Wheeler and Dusenberry Lumber Company, where he worked until 1923. After stints with the Carbur Logging Company in northern Florida and with Brooks-Scanlon, in 1933 Porter began working for the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps, laying out conservation projects in Florida. He accepted a position as district superintendent with the International Paper Company in 1938, and went on to occupy positions of increasing responsibility until 1963, when he retired as manager of the woodlands department of the Southern Kraft Division.

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16. Arthur Bernhard Recknagel Interview, 1958.

Elwood R. Maunder conducted this oral history interview with Arthur Bernhard Recknagel in October 1958. Topics discussed in the interview include: American foresters William B. Greeley, Bernhard E. Fernow, Gifford Pinchot, and Richard McArdle; the conservation accomplishments of American presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt; Finch Pruyn Lumber Company of New York; St. Regis Paper Company of New York; the American conservation movement; and the Choctawhatchee National Forest in Florida.

Biographical Information: Arthur Bernhard Recknagel

Arthur B. "Reck" Recknagel (1883-1962) had a long and varied career in forestry as a forester with the U.S. Forest Service, as a professor of forest management, and later as a leader and consultant in the paper industry. A widely respected industrial forester, he was also a prolific writer, authoring many technical articles and books dealing with forest management, taxation, and the pulp and paper industry.

After graduating from the Yale School of Forestry in 1906 with a master of forestry degree, Recknagel served until 1913 as chief of forest reconnaissance for the U.S. Forest Service. Accepting an offer from Cornell University, he taught in the Department of Forestry until 1943, at which point he left to become area forester for New York in the Timber Production War Project, given the responsibility of developing timber supplies for the war effort.

Simultaneous to these assignments, Recknagel also served the Empire State Forest Products Association as forester and executive secretary from 1917 until 1948. After World War II and following a second stint in academia as head of the University of British Columbia forestry faculty, he accepted the position of technical director of forestry for the St. Regis Pulp and Paper Company in 1948. He retired from St. Regis in 1953 to enter practice as an industry consultant.

A member of the Society of American Foresters since 1908 and a chairman from 1940 to 1941, Recknagel was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1961. Arthur Recknagel died in August of 1962 in his home state of New York.

Note: The above biographical information about Arthur B. Recknagel was drawn from the following source: "Arthur Bernard Recknagel (1883-1962)."Journal of Forestry 60:10 (October 1962): 759. Obituary.

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17. G. P. Shingler Interview, 1959.

Roy R. White conducted this oral history interview with G. P. Shingler in Lake City, Florida, in June 1959 while conducting research for a Ph.D. dissertation on logging engineer Austin Cary (1865-1936). Topics discussed in the interview include: Austin Cary; chemist Eloise Gerry; and the naval stores industry in the southern United States.

Biographical Information: G. P. Shingler

G. P. Shingler began his forestry career with the United States Forest Service in 1923, when he moved to Georgia to begin advising southern turpentine factors about new conservation and distillation techniques. He often visited turpentine sites in Georgia and Florida with logging engineer Austin Cary and chemist Eloise Gerry. Cary advised operators about forest management and conservation; Gerry taught chipping techniques that improved resin production; and Shingler made recommendations for improving turpentine distillation, removing fire hazards, and reducing costs associated with naval stores production. Shingler helped modernize the naval stores industry by introducing the ten-ounce nursing bottle to improve distillation; by encouraging the use of recording thermometers to improve resin quality; and by suggesting the use of aluminum cups and aprons to prevent discoloration of resins.

Final Transcript of Interview

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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Development of Forestry in the Southern United States Oral History Interviews, Library and Archives, Forest History Society, Durham, NC, USA.

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Funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission supported the encoding of this finding aid. Support for digitization and outreach provided by the Alvin J. Huss Endowment.