The stave mills were also getting in full swing in the late 1920s and early 1930s (sorry I can't be sure of exact dates but maybe someone else can) and much virgin white oak, pin oak and burr oak owned by the Forest Service was marked and sold for manufacturing staves. Since most staves were used to make whiskey barrels the white oak family was used exculsively because other woods would not hold whiskey, due to the construction of the wood grain.

The saw for making staves was in the shape and diameter of a barrel and had saw teeth on the open end, was mounted in a horizontal position and driven by flat belts and pulleys on the other end and with a carriage on a track with rollers that carried the stave bolt into the saw making a stave and extracted the sawn stave from the inside of the saw out to either a worker or in later days to a conveyor. The oak trees were of the very best quality and were cut into approximately 40" bolt lengths, split into quarters or more depending on the size and either carried, sledded or somehow moved to a location where they could be transported to the mill. To make barrels they had to have a top and bottom and these were called heads and so there was also heading mills. Generally they were located seperately from the stave mills. All of these contributed to the prosperity of Lurton as there was a number of them located at various locations not too far from Lurton.

Harry Sutton, Thank You for the above information...I am always interested in hearing about the old sawmills and men working in the timber... have heard my grandpa talk of the many stave bolts he cut back then...

My Grandpa Leither Edgmon and his two oldest boys, Ronnie and Harry Edgmon, worked at several sawmills in Newton County. Harry was known as Doodle...while working at a sawmill at Cowell, the boys were called Mutt and Jeff...grandpa called them that for years.

The family moved from Mossville to Swain in 1938, across the road, highway 16 today, and down below the hill from my Great Grandma Ruby Watson, right at Walnut Fork. Grandpa, Ronnie and Brack Champlin went to Washington state to work in the timber. Doodle stayed back and worked in the timber close to home.

They came back in '39, and the family moved up on the hill above my great grandma's house. The place where they lived was owned by Robert Edwards, it was the old Norton place. Grandpa, Doodle, Ronnie and Troy Watson, grandpa's brother-in-law, worked at the sawmill at Lurton at that time, and knew several Sutton men.

They would load up in grandpa's car and head for Lurton on Sunday afternoons. They worked at the sawmill through the week, staying at the mill camp in a tent, and would come home on Friday evenings.

One week Troy brought the measles home from camp. His brothers Fred and Clay, and Gum Watson a nephew, all came down with the measles. And before you knew it, Ronnie and Doodle had them too. The two of them stayed at great grandma's house, hoping to keep the measles away from their younger siblings at home. Great grandma had her hands full taking care of the six of them. But in short order, the fevers came up at grandpa's house and Carrie, Cricket and Pete came down with the measles. Grandma Daisy gave them shuck tea, made from corn husks, to break out the measles...my momma said that it tasted awful. Grandpa was kept busy going between the two houses trying to help take care of those that were sick...momma remembers it being so cold at that time, she said it is a wonder he didn't come down bad sick himself.

Grandma Daisy had her last baby, number eleven, Decemeber 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Ronnie and Doodle, the two oldest, went into the service shortly thereafter. In '42 the rest of the family was living at Hiwasse, in Benton County...the younger children then took their turn at having the measles...and grandma had them right along with them...grandpa was once again kept busy tending to the sick.

When momma recalls having the measles, she always says 'Papa was working at the sawmill at Lurton when me and the older kids got the measles...he was working at the sawmill at Hiwasse when momma and the younger ones had them'...

Thomas Ryker pictured with a wagon load of white oak barrels from heading mill and barrel yard at Ryker (located on the other side of the mountain from Lurton)...headed for shipment by rail in Madison County.