Document text
tifo Histories History of R. W. Wilbert
Ofe let* 1208 1411 Avemne
2 words Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1239
Lindsay M. Bryan
Lin HISTORY OF
O. W. WIMSTHR„ TURPHITINZ MAX
"Yeah, man. I was boon in a turpentine *aap. spout near about
forty years in the business, an would& been in it yet if the bottom:
hadn't...a dropped out of it. I've soaked up so mueh turpentine in
my life that if you run as through a still right now, I reckon you'd
A
git about ten gallon outs. me."
The speaker, a 40..year old veteran of the turpentine woods,
chuckled at his Jost as he sat on the trout porch of his weathered
one-story home in an old residential past of Tampa. H. stretched
his long wiry frame in the porch rocker, ran long fingers through a
shook of wavy brown hair, and his level gray eyes took on a remInoseent
look as though gasing back through the endless vistas of guiesioamding
pines that had been the secse of his life. He wont on:
Men I say I was bairn in a turpentine eamp I mean Jist that.
My father was *onager of a 20...erop naval stores place, as we lived
in the camp near Eastman, Georgia, an was bairn right in that vamp
in 1899. There was six children of us, an as soon as us boys was old
enough we shore had to work, helpin around the still or the °emissary,
or work as water boys. When I was about two years old my folks moved
to another camp at Bay Lake, Florida.
'I started to school there when I was six, in a little one -room
log schoolhouse in the woods. I started in the turpentine business
as a water boy when was eight, an finally worked myself up to manager
of eight camps at $250 a month.
26102
-2
Life History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
"My folks believed in education, an I was sent to school
regular when I was a boy, but worked in the summers. When I was
about tan years old we moved to a camp at Martin, seven miles from
Ocala, an I was promoted to talley "man" --keeping tally on the
number of trees boxed or streaked by each nigger. Niggers do all
the labor in the woods, an most of the work around the still.
The manager, foreman, commissary men and woods riders are all white
men. At each camp there will be from 50 to 200 niggers, accordin
to the number of 'bropOworked. A crop is about 10,000 trees.
"The white folks live in fairly good homes at one side of the
camp, and the nigKers in their quarters at the other side in two
or three-room cabins or board houses. We always aimed to have
separate quarters for the single niggers to keep them from messin
up with the married men's wives. But this didn't always work, and there
was many a fight on account uv them mixin at night in the woods.
"By the time I was 12 years old I begun to learn how to make
boxes an streaks, an do everything else in the woods an at the still.
A box is a deep out in the tree to ketch the gum, an streaks are
shallow gutters out in the trunk of the tree to lead the gum down
into the box. In late years most turpentine men use cups attached
to the tree to ketch the sap or gum, instead of the deep boxes
they used to cut. The cup system makes the trees last longer. The
dip squad travels through the woods with a team or truck loaded
with barrels into which they collect the gum, an then haul it to
the still to be refined into spirits of turpentine. The gum is
about as thick as thick syrup, and when heated the rosin settles
to the bottom of the still, and is drawed off hot into barrels.
Life History History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
"When I WPS about 13 years old I started to ride the woods*
an WFS foreman of the dippin squad. I rode three crops, an that
was a man's work. About 1914, when I was around 15, we moved to
Loraine, Manatee County, about 12 miles from Bradenton. At this
camp the bosa thought I was too young to ride, so he give me a job
as talley man and inspector of box =Van. By this time I was an
expert box cutter myself, and could tell the niggers how to do it
right. If a box aint out exactly right its no good at all. I
worked part of a yar there, an then got a job guardin ‘convicts
in a turpentine plaoe at Punta Gorda,
"All this time I was goin to school in the winter, and when
I was 16 years old I graduated from high school at Ocala. Next
I aot e job as manager for Mx. Hamp Lowther who had a 30 -crop
place at Verna, Florida. There I worked in the commissary some,
an worked as woodsman, ridin one ride, besides actin as manager.
I worked there and at other camps till I joined the army and went
to France in 1917. After the armistice I came to Tampa. Then in
1919 I got the idea I could get rich raisin canaloupes, so went
to Ocala and tried it a year an lost 4500 I had saved. My canta-
loupe crop wp,s a plum failure. So I decided I'd better stick to
turpentine."
It will be noted that Mr. Wimsterts speech varied at times
from rural Florida dialect to the better diction of his high
school influence.
"In 1920 I went to work as over -rider over eight woodsmen
on a 100 -crop job at Nalaca, Florida, but there came a Blimp in
-4
Life History of R. W. Withart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryas
the price of turpentine and the force at this place was out to
about nothing, includin me; so I left there and the next year when
the market picked up a little I got another job, as foreman of a
40 -crop plaoe at Miakka. Another drop in the price of tarps laid
me off there in 1922. Up to then hadn't had much time to think
about gittin married, but now, with nothing else to do, I remem-
bered a nice gal I'd met in Polk County, so I went a-oourtin up
there an married her. Then I got a job as manager at Camp Four
in Polk County, for Mr. W. O. French.
*In 1922, I think it was, I was offered a better job, as
mtnager of eight camps owned by a New York concern at Opal,
Okeechobee County. This was a big virgin woods in low, swampy
country, and the outfit was a big one of 120 crops. There I hod
charge of 400 niggers and nine woodsmen (riders). I got $250 a
month end held that job for two years. Then come the damdest
rainy season ever saw in Florida. It poured down for weeks, and
water stood knee deep all over the woods. We had to set around in
camp and do nothihg. There was 400 heada niggere an 30 heada
horses an mules eatin up rations, an besides the wet weather made
the horses and mules backs all sort so we couldn'ta worked em any-
how. I shore had a mess 0 trouble on my hands. An to make every-
thing worse the big bosses in New York kept telegraphin me an wantin
to know why no production. Finally I got mad an told es to go to
hell an git somebody else, an I walked and waded off the job.
"Next I worked a while as manager of a 30 -crop job at Camp Cook,
near Panama City. All this time, remember, the prioe of turpentine
-5
Life History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avelino
TampaiL Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
kept goin down, an that was mostly the reason I changed jobs so
much. Whenever the demand for naval stores got slack the operators
would shut down or out wages. Substitutes for turps and rosin were
comm n on the market, and besides many plants had begun to distill
the product from stumps pild lighterd knots. This cheap stuff made
it almost impossible to operate a regular turpentine business at
a.profit.
"By the latter part of 1924 I had some money saved, so I went
to Spring Park, Harlon County, and bought me a 10 -crop turpentine
place of my own, and 200 acres of farm land. Then the Florida
boom begun, and my laborers all left and went to the cities or up
North where they could git higher wages. I coulet make a livin
on my place, so I quit and went to road contractin for a while.
Then from 1926 to the latter pert of 1932 1 worked for Aycook
Lindsay, bi; Florida turpentine men, as manager pad later as top
rider over all their camps in Dixon County. In 1934 the price of
naval stores again hit bottom, and I went to Venus, Florida, as
superintendent of a logging camp.
"In 19:37 I beard that the government of Haiti wanted an experi-
enced turpentine and timber man to survey the pine forests of that
country for possible sources of turpentine and lumber, and I sent in
my application along with fine letters of recommendation I had from
the leading turpentine and lumber companies of Florida. There were
a lot of other applicants, but I got the job and went to Haiti in
193? to take up that work.
"When I got to Port-au-Prince, the capital, the government
furnished me with a military escort, guides, camping equipment,
Life History History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
laborers, and everything necessary to explore and survey the immense
forests there. The timber resources there were practically undis-
covered and undeveloped. In two trips I spent about two years there
in all, and discovered approximately 22,000,000 acres of good tur-
pentine producing timber, absolutely virgin, and of such growth thst
most if the tees will out 12x12 timbers 50 to 70 feet long. I
established a turpentine still there and it is now in commercial
production."
As he told of these accomplishments, the Florida turpentine
expert rose and paced the floor in enthusiasm. His eyes glowed
with a discoverer's fain's*. His rather fine profile lit up with
intelligent interest in his subject, as he continued:
"They don't know what they've got down there/ There's millions
of dollars in the finest virgin timber, and with labor at 20 cents
a day they can produce naval stores to compete even with the °heap
synthetic substitutes."
When asked about the home life of the Negroes in the Florida
turpentine camps, Mr. Wimster smiled, relaxed, and again became the
"boss man" of the resinous Florida woods:
"Turpentine niggers are a class by themselves. They are
different from town nigvers, farm laborers or any other kind.
Mostly they axe born and raised in the camps, and don't know much
about anything else. They seldom go to town, and few of them ever
saw the inside of a school house. In nearly every mop there is a
jack -leg preacher who also works in the woods, and they usually
have church services on Sunday at one or another of their houses.
Life History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Tlorida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay X. Bryan
And every camp has its Ijookl, as they are now called, but the
original name of this kind of a joint was a 'tusk'. This is a
house where the men and women gather on Saturday nights to dance,
drink moonshine, gamble and fight. Between dances or drinks,
young couples stroll off into the woods and make love.
"The supreme authority in a oamp is the foreman. To the
niggers he is the law, the judge, jury and executioner. He even
ranks ahead of God to these people. In Imeakin to him they all
call him 00aple. Among themeelves they call him 'The Man'. An
believe we, he better be a man fun the ground up. If he ever
rtands for any back talk or shows a streak of yellow he's through,
an might as well quit. For they lose all respect for him and won't
mind him. Even though they keep up a pretense of respect to his
foe, they'll laugh at him behind his back and gang up to make his
life so miserable he'll soon have to leave. They like to be ruled
by an iron hand an no velvet glove.
"Seems like I always had a knack of handlin labor. Rein bean
an raised with turpentine niggers I learned their nature. They ail
liked me because I was fair and firm, an they'd do anything for me.
If I quit a job and went to another, ever last nigger on the place
would follor me if I told em to.
"host camps ara so deep in the woods that law officers don't
bother em much. Outside of murder, the officers usually leave it
up to the camp foreman to make and enforce his own laws. At least
that's the way it used to be. In the old days there were very few
legal marriaes or divorces. For the sake of good camp government
.e.
Life History of H. W. Wishart
1008 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
and economy in housing, it was to the interest of the foreman to
see that all unattached men and women got 'married' to each other.
This was done by what the workers called a bonudesary weddinl.
The foreman was a purty good match maker, and when it was decided
between him and a couple that they should 'marry up with each other',
they simply went to the commissary and were assigned a house, and
an account for rations and clothing was opened for the pair. Then
they took their supplies to th house given them and began house-
keepin together. This was a 'commissary marriage'. Once in a great
while, when a oouple had some extra money and wanted to put on
would
style, they/have a lootehousel marriage* That is, they would go to
the courthouse at the county seat, get what they call a 'pair ol
licenses', and be legally married."
An incident brought to mind by Mr. Wimster's account of these
marriaes was told the writer in 1916 by J. A. Stevens, foreman of
a turpentine camp in the backwoods of Manatee Oounty. About fifty
Negro couples in the camp had long lived together there without
benefit of "cotehouse or clergy. One aged pair had ben married
by comtlissary wedlock and lived together happily for more than fifty
years, and had raised a large family of grown children. Somehow
a white preacher from the North heard of this unholy state at the
camp and made such loud complaint that county officials finally,
and perhaps .reluctantly, issued orders that the Negro couples must
be legally married or cease living together. As a result, Mr.
Stevens said, he had to pay for some fifty marriage licenses in a
bunch and hold a*mass wedding* in which all the commissary -wed couples
Life History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, florid&
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
were legally united in one grand ceremony. To the Negroes it meant
nothing but a big adventure and a gar holiday, he said.
Whet asked about feuds between bosses at different camps over
recruiting each other's labor, Mr. Wimster ohuokled reminiscently
and said:
"Sure, we was always tryin to steal laborers from each other.
All of us did it; sometimes just for fun, and sometimes because we
needed em. We got right mad sometimes, but there was never any
shootin. I remember one time when I was foreman of a camp in
Polk County. You see, the great pastime of all turpentine niggers
is gamblin, mostly playin 'skin'. This is purely a nigger's game,
played with ordinary cards. Well, one Saturday night after pay day
forty of my men was playin akin, when one of the owners of our
outfit, a northern man, came to camp and saw em. He said Aothing
to me, but next day in Bartow he told the sheriff to come out to
camp and arrest them for gamblin4 They were all taken to town,
fined 435 each and jailed. My boss refused to pay their fines,
so they sent one of my nigger* to a rival camp to indirectly drop
a hint that the foreman could get these 40 men by paying their
fines an takin ON4 He fell for it, an hurried to town where he
paid cm all out an started'em to his camp. It was Christman time,
an he staid in town an went on a big spree for several days.
"I met the gang on their way to his camp, and said: oRly,
you niggers, come on back home an go to work, an /Ill see you
ain't bothered no more about gaMblin.' They all whooped for joy,
an followed me pack an went to work again for me. A week or so
lo
Life History of R. W. Wishart
1208 14th Avenue
Tampa, Florida
August 22, 1939
Lindsay M. Bryan
later I met the man that paid their fines, an said to him, 'Row's
tricks?' He was lookin mighty glum, an said: 'Rotten as hell.
Whilst I was oelebratin Christmas some dam son of r bitch stole
40 good niggers from me, an they cost me $35 a head. I wisht I
could find out who got em.'
sympathized with him plenty, an it was weeks afterward
before he found out it was me got his hands. By that time he had
stole somebody elsels niggers and got over his, mad, so when we met
we jist joked about it.
"Yes, them was the days, but I reckon they're gone for good..
The turpentine business is done for in this country, an I don't
think it will ever come back. Me? I'm goin back to Haiti soon,
an maybe I'll stay there."