Workday Wednesday: Timber

Not all of our ancestors were farmers, or they were farmers during the spring, summer and fall, but resorted to other occupations during the winter months. The community of Zorah (today’s Caton community) became a magnet for timber beginning in the late 1890s and continuing into the early 20th century. In fact, in September 1901, the Zorah correspondent to the New Bern Journal wrote, “The young men of this place are somewhat scarce just now. Something like a dozen are engaged in the timber business near Kinston.” [New Bern Weekly Journal, September 10, 1901, p. 4]

In December 1903, C.B. Knox and John R. Wiley were building a cotton gin, saw and grist mill. [New Bern Weekly Journal, 1 Dec 1903, p. 4]

In March 1905, the New Bern Daily Journal announced the opening of David P. Whitford’s saw mill. A log rolling was held the same week, in which William P. Toler (my great-great grandfather) had his thumb mashed off and Silas Toler was also injured.

Found on Newspapers.com

One of the earlier companies to start logging in the Zorah area was Broaddus and Ives Lumber Company. Timber deeds from residents of Zorah to that company start appearing around 1901. By 1916, the company began installing a logging railroad to move timber from the pocosins of Zorah to Cool Springs (near Askins) to float the timber down Swift Creek and the Neuse River to New Bern. [See Right of Way deed from C.H. Toler and others to Broaddus and Ives Lumber Co., 3 Feb 1916, Craven County Deed Book 210, page 435]

Back in the mid-1980s, I would go with my uncle Donald Toler to visit Joe Dawson Toler on Sunday afternoons to hear him tell tales of life in the community when he was growing up. Joe Dawson was born in 1902, and he once told of working in the log woods and of using a pump car on the old tram roads throughout Caton. He also told of the trouble getting steam up in the engine to get enough speed to pull the cars of logs up the hills created by the many creeks and branches between Caton and Cool Springs.

The photo below depicts a typical logging scene from the Caton area. I have seen two copies of the photo from different families with ties to the Caton area. I once showed it to Joe Dawson, and he identified himself as one of the young men (second from the right). Unfortunately, the other men in the photo have not been identified.

Joe Henry Hughes wrote a biography of his grandfather, Henry Willis Wetherington, titled Henry Willis Wetherington: Timber Company Man, 1883-1964. That book, written in 2008, gives some of the history of the timber industry in Eastern North Carolina as it affected the life of Henry Wetherington, who was born in the Caton community. Wetherington got his start with Broaddus and Ives and eventually worked for North Carolina Pulp Company. For those interested in reading a copy, the New Bern-Craven County Public Library has a copy that you can check out.

Logging and the timber industry is still an important industry to the people of the Caton community. Weyerhaeuser and numerous logging companies employ many from the area.