Winner, T. H. Fehrenbach Award, Texas Historical Commission
Sawmill communities were once the thriving centers of East Texas life. Many sprang up almost overnight in a pine forest clearing, and many disappeared just as quickly after the company "cut out" its last trees. But during their heyday, these company towns made Texas the nation's third-largest lumber producer and created a colorful way of life that lingers in the memories of the remaining former residents and their children and grandchildren.
Drawing on oral history, company records, and other archival sources, Sitton and Conrad recreate the lifeways of the sawmill communities. They describe the companies that ran the mills and the different kinds of jobs involved in logging and milling. They depict the usually rough-hewn towns, with their central mill, unpainted houses, company store, and schools, churches, and community centers. And they characterize the lives of the people, from the hard, awesomely dangerous mill work to the dances, picnics, and other recreations that offered welcome diversions.
Drawing on oral history, company records, and other archival sources, Sitton and Conrad recreate the lifeways of the east Texas sawmill communities.
Thad Sitton, of Austin, and James H. Conrad, of Commerce, are historians and writers with extensive experience in collecting oral history.
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Chapter One. Introduction
- Chapter Two. Panoramas
- Chapter Three. Feudal Towns
- Chapter Four. The Cornbread Whistle
- Chapter Five. Dancing on the Millpond
- Chapter Six. Cut and Get Out
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
After completing the book, I truly understood life in the sawmill communities, intellectually and emotionally. It was very satisfying. Conrad and Sitton write in such a manner to make one feel the hard life, smell the sawdust, and share the danger of tlƒ
![Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942 [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/8/8/9/2_1464496.jpg "Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942 [Paperback]")