Dennis Bearden Family: Sharecropping and Labor in Lumber and Turpentine Part 4

Several of Dennis Bearden's grandchildren continued to work in the lumber industry.

The World War I draft registration cards dated 1917 listed both Estes and Jonas Bearden as working in Kokomo. Estes’ household included his wife and three children, who lived in the Barto community of Pike County. Jonas (also recorded as Jones) lived with his wife and one child in a community I have not yet been able to identify. James and his father Lucius worked at the Fernwood Lumber Company . Chalmers Bearden was employed one hundred miles north of Pike County by the Eastman, Gardiner & Company in Cohay, Smith County.

Eastman, Gardiner & Company was a family-owned company. When the lumber supply was depleted in one area, the company moved its operation to another site.  The Cohay lumber camp was unique because it was established from portable building structures that were moved from the Wisner lumber camp to Cohay using the nearby railroad. 

During the 1920s, the once-thriving lumber industry began to decline. Many lumber companies had stripped vast tracts of longleaf pine and hardwood forests, leaving the land barren with little effort to replant. The growing use of cardboard for shipping further reduced the demand for wooden materials. Likewise, the turpentine industry declined as steel replaced wood in shipbuilding, eliminating the need for turpentine to waterproof vessels. The introduction of cheaper synthetic substitutes led to the fall of natural turpentine production. As a result, sawmill towns and turpentine camps, which were once teeming with workers, gradually disappeared, leaving widespread unemployment in both industries.

By the 1920 census, Estes had found work with the railroad, while James was employed at the planing mill in Pike County. A decade later, in the 1930 census, Jonas and Chalmers Bearden were listed as farmers in Madison County, and Lucius Bearden had also returned to farming in Pike County. There was an economic shift as many former industrial workers turned to farming for survival.

-----The Tree Gardener 

 

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