Dennis Bearden Family: Sharecropping and Labor in Lumber and Turpentine Part 3

 

Murray Bearden was the son of Dennis Bearden. In 1900, Murray was enumerated in Fernwood, Pike County, in the federal census with his brother, Charles and his family. Murray was working at the sawmill. Charles was identified as a farmer.

United States Federal Census 1900 Pike County, Mississippi, SD 7 ED 116, sheet number 8  dwelling number 151, family number 151

Transcription  of Charles Bearden's family in Pike County, Mississippi, 1900 Federal census 

Murray Bearden married Ida Singletary on January 26, 1901 in Pike County.

 Pike County, Mississippi, January 26, 1901 File # 0047275 Book "H" page 427

 

Murray and Ida moved to Lyman, Mississippi, which is verified by his World War I registration on September 12, 1918.   He was working as a sawmill laborer at the Ingram-Day Lumber Company, which cut only long leaf yellow pine. 

WWI Regestration

Lyman, a sawmill town, was established with a post office around 1901 and was located in Harrison County, nine miles from Gulfport, Mississippi, near the Gulf of Mexico. 

In the 1910 and 1920 Harrison County Federal censuses, Murray and Ida were still residing in Lyman. Murray’s occupation was recorded as an “oiler,” meaning he was responsible for lubricating machinery, while Ida (also referred to as Ivy) worked as a washerwoman. Ida Bearden likely passed away in 1921. At the time of her death, no children had been identified for the couple, and her death certificate has not yet been located.

Following the death of Ida, Murray Bearden married Mattie King. In the 1930 United States Federal Census, the family was enumerated in Lyman, Harrison County, Mississippi, as Murray, his wife Mattie, and their five-year-old daughter, Bernice. By the 1940 United States Federal Census, Murray, Mattie, and Bernice were residing in Pearl River County, Mississippi. At that time, Murray’s occupation was reported as a janitor in a bank, indicating that he was no longer employed in the lumber industry. The last record located for Murray Bearden appears in the 1943 List of Educable Children for Poplarville, Pearl River County, which names him in connection with his fifteen-year-old daughter, Bernice.

More  Information To Come

----The Tree Gardener

Dennis Bearden Family: Sharecropping and Labor in Lumber and Turpentine Part 2

 Mississippi, along with Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas, was part of the “pine belt” with vast longleaf pine forests. Turpentine was harvested from pine trees by cutting into the lower part of the tree (boxing) and removing the bark. "V" shaped cuts into the tree (catfacing) to the inner wood of the tree caused the gum resin to flow from the tree and be collected into a container.

By Dorothea Lange - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsa.8b29660.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3396695

 The resin was then distilled. Turpentine and its byproduct, rosin, were made from the distilled gum resin of the pine tree. Tar and pitch were created by burning pine resin. A tupentine worker's day started at sunrise after receiving breakfast from the commissary store ending at sunset.  The expression "can't to can't"; can't see in the morning to can't see at night describes the work day.  The worker was usually Black and the foreman was White. The labor was harsh—chipping trees in the heat, hauling heavy barrels of resin, and enduring smoke and fumes at the still.  Because the resin was sticky, it clung to the shoes and even bare feet. The term "tar heel" originated from North Carolina barefoot workers who would get tar on their heels.

Turpentine and byproducts were considered a lucrative product. In 1909, the turpentine and rosin industry in the USA employed 44,524 individuals with 39,511 being wage earners.  "The value of products was $25,295,017; and the cost of materials, however, was $4,910,838 or 19.4 per cent of the value of products the value of manufacture being $20,384,179."

Turpentine, a key product of the naval stores industry, was historically used to seal wooden ships as early as colonial times. Beyond shipbuilding, it served as a solvent, paint thinner, and cleaning agent. Folk traditions also regarded turpentine as a remedy for ailments such as intestinal parasites, muscle pain, and infections due to its antiseptic qualities. Today, however, it is recognized as highly toxic and unsafe for ingestion, with potentially fatal effects.

 I was unable to find specific wages of the Mississippi turpentine worker in the early 1900s. Slave labor was used for production before the Civil War. A Florida turpentine worker's salary was $15 to $25 a month.  Payment for workers in lumber and turpentine camps was usually in the form of script or tokens, which could only be used at the company store. Non-farm workers nationwide at that time made $44-45 a month. The company store provided the workers with essential goods and they were given credit. The worker was many times unable to pay his debt for received credit. Workers could become indebted through credit from the company stores to cover their living expenses. This created a peonage system of debt servitude, which was against the law.

 Charles Bearden was the son of Dennis and Charity. Charles Bearden (Charles Beard) married Harriet (Harriet Stachie) on December 26, 1883.

Pike County, Mississippi December 26, 1883 File 0041806 Book A Page 270

Charles was enumerated as a wage earner in the 1910 Federal Census in Marion County at the Turpentine Plant with over 250 men.   This census record supports that the Enoch family was the probable established owner of the Turpentine Plant in Kokomo before 1912. The entire census of workers who were Black African American provided limited information.

"United States, Census, 1910", Marion County, Mississippi 3, SD 6 ED 106  sheet 27B for Chas Bearden

Transcribed 1910 Marion County Federal Census

 

Charles Bearden died in an accident, according to his granddaughter, before his father, Dennis Bearden passed in 1928.  I have been unable to locate his death certificate. 

Children of Lucius and Charles Bearden continued to work in the lumber industry.

 REFERENCE:

IPUMS: Turpentine and Rosin https://usa.ipums.usa

More information to come

----The Tree Gardener

Dennis Bearden Family: Sharecropping and Labor in Lumber and Turpentine Part 1

 In southern Mississippi, which included Pike County, agriculture and lumber became the backbone of the post-Civil War economy. Formerly enslaved people had to find ways to provide for their families. While a few were able to purchase or homestead land, many entered labor contracts that evolved into tenant farming and sharecropping. Dennis Bearden supported his family as a sharecropper in Pike County, Mississippi.  The presence of lumber companies and sawmills increased due to the abundant timber supply. For three of Dennis’s sons, Lucius, Charles, and Murray, survival meant finding work beyond the farm. His sons sought employment in the lumber and turpentine industries, which dominated the region. Lucius and Charles worked at the Fernwood Lumber Company.

One of the most influential was the Fernwood Lumber Company, incorporated in 1884 by the Enochs family. Under the leadership of Philip Henry Enochs and his brothers John Fletcher, Isaac Columbus (I. C.), and James Luther Enochs, the company established the town of Fernwood in Pike County. Fernwood was a company town where most of the businesses, housing, schools, and churches were developed or owned by the company. Fernwood Lumber offered employees non-transferable commissary coupons to purchase items at the company store. 

 The Enochs brothers built the first Methodist church in 1898 and a predominantly Black church in 1909. A separate "colored school" was built in 1913.   The company could control the workers' and their families' quality of life.  

Around 1912, the Enochs family organized the community of Kokomo in Marion County, where they established what was reportedly the largest turpentine distillery in the United States, along with commissaries that served both the logging camp and the distillery.

Lucius Bearden's age is uncertain. His birth predated the advent of birth certificates in 1912 in Mississippi. From various sources, his year of birth ranges from 1868 to 1878. 

Lucius was married to Lula Brown on December 21, 1899, in Pike County. At the time he married, his age was between 21 to 31 years old.

Pike County, Mississippi December 21, 1899  File # 0046708  Book "H" page 114

He was enumerated in the 1910 Federal Census in Pike County with his family. His employment was documented at the saw mill. He lived in rented housing. 

Lucius Bearden Pike County, Mississippi 1910 census transcribed

Lucius and Lula had five more children: Chester(1908), Edna Mae (1911), Rosa (1913), Augustine (1915), and Lillian (1919).

 In 1941, Philip Henry Enochs, Jr., took photographs of employees who worked at Fernwood Lumber Company at that time. A picture of Lucius Bearden was taken. 

 

Lucius Bearden 1941

Thanks to the Fernwood Foundation est. 1948 (https://fernwoodfoundation.org) for saving this valuable historical information

UPDATED 9/6/2025

More information to come

The Tree Gardener