Sound wormy : memoir of Andrew Gennett, Lumberman / edited by Nicole Hayler ; with a foreword & afterword by John Alger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gennett, Andrew.

Contributor:

Hayler, Nicole.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gennett, Andrew.

Lumbermen--Southern States--Biography.

Lumbermen.

Lumber trade--Southern States--History.

Lumber trade.

Physical Description:

1 online resource e (xix, 218 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens [Georgia] : University of Georgia Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Set in what remains some of the wildest country in the United States, Sound Wormy recalls a time when regulations were few and resources were abundant for the southern lumber industry. In 1901 Andrew Gennett put all of his money into a tract of timber along the Chattooga River watershed, which traverses parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. By the time he wrote his memoir almost forty years later, Gennett had outwitted and outworked countless competitors in the southern mountains to make his mark as one of the region's most seasoned, innovative, and successful lumbermen. His recollections of a rough-and-ready outdoors life are filled with details of logging, from the first "cruise" of a timber stand to the moment when the last board lies "on sticks" in the mill yard. He tells how massive poplars, oaks, and other hardwoods had to be felled and trimmed by hand, dragged down mountain slopes by draft animals, floated downstream or carried by rail to the mill, and then sawn, graded, and stacked for drying. He tells of buying timber rights in a land market filled with "sharp" operators, where titles and surveys were often contested and kinship and custom were on an equal footing with the law. Gennett saw more than potential "boardfeet" when he looked at a tree. He recalls, for instance, his efforts to convince the U.S. Forest Service to purchase undisturbed areas of wilderness at a time when its mandate was to condemn and buy up farmed-out and clear-cut land. One such sale initiated by Gennett would become the Joyce Kilmer Wilderness in North Carolina. Filled with logging lore and portraits of the southern mountains and their people, Sound Wormy adds an absorbing new chapter to the region's natural and environmental history.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

FOREWORD. Woods Bulls and Ballhooters: The World of Andrew Gennett

Editors Note

Preface

ONE. My Birth and Childhood

TWO. Gennett Family History

THREE. Lebanon Law School

FOUR. Entry into the Lumber Business

FIVE. First Run of Logs, February 2, 1903

SIX. New Camps on the Chattooga River

SEVEN. Depression, 1904

EIGHT. Visions of Timber Deals, 1905

NINE. Episodes in Madison, South Carolina

TEN. Romance of Rabun County

ELEVEN. Recollections of Clayton, Georgia

TWELVE. Sawmilling on Tessentee Creek, 1907-1908

THIRTEEN. Removal to Franklin, North Carolina

FOURTEEN. The Weeks Act of 1911 and Land Sales to the Government

FIFTEEN. Eminent Domain

SIXTEEN. Marriage to Julia Bell Tate

SEVENTEEN. Appalachian Logging Congress

EIGHTEEN. Interesting Experiences While Cruising Timber

NINETEEN. Running Band Mills in Tennessee, 1919-1933

TWENTY. Perversity of Inanimate Objects and Peril of Lumber Industry

TWENTY-ONE. Failure of the Revenge Theory

TWENTY-TWO. Inevitability of Lawsuits in the Lumber Industry

TWENTY-THREE. Struggle and Stress in the Lumber Industry

TWENTY-FOUR. The Necessity of Luck

TWENTY-FIVE. Periods of Economic Panic

TWENTY-SIX. Resumption of Timber Purchases for Speculation

Afterword

Notes

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

W

Y.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1-282-79582-1

9786612795824

0-8203-3787-0

OCLC:

676699454