Bauxite stories from the past
Several years ago while volunteering at the Bauxite Museum, many visitors came by frequently to sit around the conference/work table and tell stories of happenings in “the good old days” around Bauxite. These were the best of visits.
Recently while doing a little research on a different matter, I came across several stories from before my time in Bauxite that I had never known before. The following are from the September 1944 issue of Alcoa’s newsletter, Pick and Shovel.
“We imported an experienced bauxite man from Georgia back in 1899 to open up our first mine, but a native of Saline County shut it down. The foreigner got a crew of eleven men together and put them to work clearing and stripping. A very good start was made.
“Then along came a friendly neighbor with a jug of firewater, from which he evidently had sipped freely. It was his idea that the miners and their foreman knock off long enough to have a round. The foreman vetoed this procedure, and the miners kept right on working - but not for long.
“The visitor had brought with him a double barreled shotgun as well as his jug. And he was so deeply offended by the rebuff to his friendly gesture that he cocked both hammers of his firearm and drove all the workmen, including the unfriendly foreman, off the job, thus effectively shutting down the mine.
“That night the Georgian lit out for his peaceful native state, vowing that Arkansas was too wild and wooly for him. The disturber of the peace was not prosecuted, but instead was hired as a miner the next day. For many years he worked soberly and industriously for our Company.
“About a dozen years later, when the mill site was only a slashing in the woods through which G. B. Rogers’ hogs roved at will, there was a bauxite curbed well on the flat near where the south oil house stood. One day a man with a broken arm was loafing on the well curb, with hogs rooting near his feet.
“A workman passed by and threw something at the bunched up hogs. This was a mistake. The herd reacted so suddenly and violently that the injured man lost his footing and was hurled into the well. Fortunately, he was able to hook his good arm over a two-by-four and hold on until he was pulled out of the well by the man who started the ruckus.
“W. A. Rucker was running the mill then and nobody dared tell him what had happened. However, a year later when Mr. Rucker finally heard the story, it was said that he liked to have died laughing.”
A third highlight of the early years was of another man who worked energetically at the Company in 1944.
“One day a worker while prying siding off a building stepped on a nail and ran it through his right foot. There was no hospital then nor first aid kits, so other workers dressed the wound by pounding sulphur into the wound with a wooden ramrod.
“The next morning, the victim was on the job again, not even limping. And before noon, he stepped on another nail with his left foot, and once more got the sulphur treatment.
“The third day, good as new, the worker came back and worked as usual, and did not step on any nails.”
In yet another story separate from those first three, but in the same September 1944 issue, was about G. B. Rogers’ retirement from the Company at age 82. Rogers was fondly called the “Grandaddy” of Bauxite.
“In 1892 when he was 30 years old, Rogers left home for Calhoun County, Tennessee, bound for Texas. However, when he reached this part of the country, he decided to go no farther.
“For the first four years, Rogers lived in Bryant. In 1896, he moved four miles westward to the region soon to be the site of Bauxite. There were only two houses in Bauxite at that time and all the country nearby was woods or farmland. It wasn’t very good land for farming at that time, according to Rogers. In fact he once refused to trade a mule for eighty acres of land in what is now Bauxite.
“Rogers was first employed by the Company (Alcoa) hauling lumber and logs for the sawmill in Bryant, but since 1896 he and his mule teams worked almost continuously for bauxite mining enterprises - the Perry-smith Company, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, the American Bauxite Company and finally the Republic Mining and Manufacturing Company. When Rogers retired, his mules still did pulling and hauling for the Company.”
These were all stories from the past that were thought to be worth reprinting for today’s enjoyment. This one issue of the Pick and Shovel is full of good stories and information about early life and people in Bauxite. It is the only issue that has been found to mention “Swampoodle,” as it was spelled back then.
The cover photograph for this September 1944 issue of the Pick and Shovel was of a mining area that was being created. The article described it as “a north-to-south view of a recent mine, a great gash in the formerly beautiful wooded countryside. This desecration of Nature is one of the tragedies of war. The new mine is known as “The Swampoodle” because of its proximity to our city’s western suburb, Swampoodle. The origin of this soothing name is shrouded in the mists of antiquity.”
This is the one and only time I have found that name of the western portion of old Bauxite printed anywhere in town news articles. It was spelled as one word; however, locals made it a two word spelling, Swamp Poodle.
A collection of all old issues of the Pick and Shovel from its inception, January 1944, through the last issue, April 1958, were compiled and bound by Alcoa in a set of hardback books. A few sets have been donated to the Bauxite Museum and will be well worth anyone’s time to visit the museum and review. There are many, many entertaining stories, familiar family names, photographs and company history that will keep you entertained for hours.
These are Miner Memories and some of them are not so minor.
Ginger English’s articles are published the first Sunday each month exclusively in The Saline Courier. Email: gingerclarence@gmail.com.