The story of Lurton and the Lurton Sutton Handle Factory by Harry Sutton From a Letter Written to Meredith Martin, a senior history student at Ark State College in Conway...as research for her thesis: The Rise & Fall of Lurton Arkansas

Dear Meredith,

I have decided to just answer questions you have asked to the best of my ability at this writing and do the continued history narriation at a later date. However, to answer some of the questions will take a certain amount of explaination and I will begin with where I left off with my 16-Feb-00 writing which I presume you have recieved.

Con't 1929:

As stated the early part of 1929 was very prosperous for I.C. Sutton. The handle factory was up and running and parts for the chair factory was now turned out on the semi-automatic lathes rather than by hand and the chairs were still assembled in the same old plant. Payment for the handle factory was made to the Bruners with hickory handles in the rough and made to government specifications and to their orders. The general stor took on a partnership by selling half interest to Elmer Hamm and things were going great. Then, I believe it was October 29 1929, the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the Banking Holiday and all banks were closed and the depression began.

This was the beginning of the"New Deal Area", WPA, CCC and many other government run organizations.

1. Wages in 1929 were about average for the time. $ 0.10, $ 0.12 1/2 and $ 0 .15 tops, per hour and remained about the same until the late '30s. Postage was 2 cents first class and my dad said "for the first time in his life it hurt to lick a postage stamp". Instead of money in those days most transactions were made by "bartering, trading or swapping goods". Times werehard but most people were happy and about everybody was in the same "boat".

In 1948 when Yvonne and I were married my wages was $ 0.35 an hour, $ 14.00 a week, and we saved money, bought our household goods, groceries and clothes, went to the show gererally more than once a week and enjoyed life. Even a penny had value in rhose days. More Later.

2. WPA days; New Deal going into effect was a great thing since it not only provided employment for many people, it did wonders for all the area. They built school buildings, court houses, bridges, public parks, outhouses for the public and many other useful projects and you can still see the WPA placard and date on many things as you travel around the country. Take alook as you travel and just about anywhere in the US you will find their sign.

3. Forest Service: I should have started with it first. The early forest rangers traveled on horseback in the area since there wasn't sufficent roads or transportation to justify other means. The US Forest Service owns and maintains many thousands acres of the Ozark area and manage timber sales and timber management. It also built the first telephone service to the Lurton mountain area and the many fire towers, most of which have been removed as of now. The towers in the general area of Lurton were located at the following locations:

Freeman Springs approximately 10 miles south on HWY 7, Fairview, (a small tower), located about half way between Lurton and Pelsor, (Pelsor was also known as Sand Gap at that time) Mount Judea 8 miles north on HWY 123, Ketcherside 8 miles northeast on Forest Service toward Bass (has a number now but I don't have it here), Round Hill tower on further on Bass road then east toward Richland Creek road and one blackgum tree with climbing spikes on it located between Lurton and Cowell. The towers were, all except the tree, connected with telephones and by communicating with each other and using their locater maps could pinpoint a fire in the forest acurately. During the depression, fire fighting was one of the most prosperous businesses. It may not be so, but there appeared to be two fire fighting crews in our particular area, one seeing to it that there were fires to fight and the other putting them out and then alternating between setting fires and fighting them. The government paid good wages for fighting fires. There wasn't a ranger station as such at Lurton but a small office was built and containers holding axes, rakes, shovels and food for the crew was kept on the porch of the general store and kept supplied for ready use. By the way the Forest Service did have vehicles to haul the firemen and equipment and was used until the CCC days.

4. Stave Mills. The stave mills were also getting in full swing in the late '20s and early '30s (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 whisky 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.

5. CCC camps. Another of Frankie's NEW DEAL projects and a great contributor to the welfare of Lurton, Arkansas along with many communities throughout the US. I thought Colleen gave a very good discription of a CCC camp and I may copy it into another narriation I am planning to put together soon (Someday).

We were blessed with an abundance of camps around Lurton. Within less than a ten mile area were located the following. Camp Pelsor, HWY 7 south across the road from Fairview Tower, Camp Sand Gap about a mile SW of Pelsor on HWY 123 toward Ft. Douglas and Camp Moore East of Ketcherside Tower near Richland Creek on the forest road. Then just alittle further past Camp Sand Gap and just beyond Ft Douglas was Camp Ft Douglas. Also Camp Lost Corner was near Hector, AR.

Not only did the men in the various camps replace the local firefighters they built numerous roads throughout the area, did TSI (timber stand improvement), some of which was to a little questionable to me as it looked like they killed a lot of the best of the native timber, however, that is just my personal opinion. I'm sure there is much more needs to be said of the CCC's and it may come to me later, but for now let us move back to Lurton again.

6. Lurton Changes. Not sure of the exact years again. My uncle Jay (Sutton) decided to move to Corpus Christi, Texas. He sold the cafe and garage to two separate parties. Andrew Smith bought the garage and "Big" Joe Hefley bought the cafe. This brought into the area a lot of different people and more families. In a short time perhaps two or three years Andrew Smith bought a farm in the Tarlton area and sold his garage to his brother Mitchell Smith and shortly thereafter Mitchell bought out the Hefleys and probation days lifted and he began selling beer and put a partition (to seperate) the garage and put in a juke box and Lurton became a very popular place, especially on weekends.

The cafe ceased to be and Mitchell's brother-in-law Harry Tatro having moved to Lurton and living in a tent up on the hill purchased some lots and built the hotel just south of the garage and dance hall. Tha Smith's and Tatro's are my nephew Lloyd's uncles. The hotel is in sad shape today but is still standing.

Even during the worst depression years the handle factory kept growing and adding more varieties of handles. The hickory handle line known as the striking tool line was the first line and consisted of handles for axe, hammer, pick and sledge, each with with it's own varieties, ex- axe= single bit, double bit, hatchet, scout, etc. The farming and industrial tool line was also added, which included hoe,rake, shovel and specialities from special orders. These were primarily made from ash timber. A salesman was hired an covered most of Arkansas and Oklahoma and sold to hardware stores, coal mines and shipments were made each week from the railroad depot in Russellville. Generally the shipments were on Saturdays and usually several people would ride to town on the truck to shop or just for the ride. There wasn't any truck lines operating at the time and the products were shipped to the nearest depot. Families with handle making experience were moved into Lurton to improve the operations. The Nolen family is one that comes to mind.

When WW II began the company ceased practically all local business and began making handles for the military full time running two shifts and empolying up to 60 people from many miles around. Handles were packed in wooden crates and a government inspector spent full time there for several years. Again the crates were hualed to Russellville and loaded on the train for their destination and were shipped to bases or military store rooms all over. It was very difficult to keep employees because the shipyards in California and the defense plants in Kansas City were paying very high wages (up to 75 cents and $ 1.00 per hour) and there were regular trucks hauling people especially to California. As soon as our employees could muster enough cash to get away, they left. I guess it wasn't all bad. A lot of the people leaving their homes decide to sell, lock stock and barrel. My dad was their scapegoat. He needed timber to keep his operation going and people began coming to him to sell their belongings. Dad had a man hired to scout land and determine the amount usable timber on their property and made an offer to that effect. When all was said and done he had accquired a little more than 14,000 acres of the Ozark mountain area. After the war and things were getting back to normal and HWY 7 was under construction and being paved.

The late 1940's now and the source of raw material getting more scarce a sawmill sight was purchased in Harrison on the banks of Dry Jorden Creek and ajacent to the Harrison stock yards and a mill was put in and began cutting squares for the Lurton plant. The year was 1946. We had trucks and trailers daily transporting the raw proudcts to Lurton and bringing finished products to Harrison for shipments. In addition to the railroad there were now truck lines that handled drop shipments so freight could use both. That was the beginning of the move to Harrison. A tomato canning factory near the sawmill went out of business and was used for a time to raise turkeys which didn't last too long. In 1952 negotations were made on the buildings and 18 acres of land. The building was re-vamped and wired for electricity to accomidate the machinery from Lurton.

Now, all the machines at Lurton were operated with lineshafts, countershafts and flat belts and each machine had to be adapted for and installed with electric motors for the new plant. It took time, first a dust collecting system from scratch. We never stopped operation at Lurton until the very last, then we continued to make baseball bats for another year after all the other machinery was moved. I was living in Harrison at the time and each weekend we would decide what machine we would move next and I would determine how to install electric motors and make a scetch, take it to the machine shop in Harrison and make the neccessary bases to install the electric motors. As a result we were making handles in both locations and before long all the essential machinery was running in Harrison and many of our employees moved with us and became residents of Harrison, AR.

The old general store in Lurton had ceased operation many years earlier and a new store was built just south of the hotel by W A Thompson and was later purchased by my brother Irving Sutton and the postoffice was moved there also. After we moved our operation to Harrison it wasn't long 'till practically everything in Lurton ceased to operate and Lurton became a ghost town.

Please note all of this is written as I remember it and there could be mistakes and or omissions since I used no notes. Just sat down and wrote!!! Hope you can use at least some of my carrying on. Didn't really mean to write a book!!! Good Luck on Your Project. Again, I must send this to my colleges,

Lloyd and Colleen. Harry Sutton

Colleen H. Rongey
529 Stewart Avenue 
New Orleans, LA 70123
504-737-8459

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