SWLA Historical Association

Members of the Historical Association met on August 15, 2006 in DeQuincy, La. to dedicate and unveil the Newport Industries historical marker. The marker sits on the Burger King grounds (on the corner of Hwy. 27 and Hwy. 12), former site of the Newport plant. [Map of De Quincy].

The securing and placement of the marker is a joint undertaking of the Southwest Louisiana Historical Association, the City of DeQuincy, and the Ex-Newport Employees’ Club. The location of the marker is courtesy of the Burger King Corporation and its District Manager, Mr. Barney Buxton.

Harry Methvin organized the ceremony which included comments from Jerry Bell, mayor of DeQuincy, and Nell Hayes, past president of the Association. Entertainment of a historical nature was provided by Hershel Frazier, singer/songwriter, who sang his Stump Plant Song and Harry Methvin who recited his composition of The Stumper’s Prayer. Among the attendees were former employers of the Newport Industries plant and Judy Douglas, granddaughter of Harry Smith, former manager of the Newport plant.

NEWPORT INDUSTRIES

Between 1890 and 1930, large lumber companies moved into southwest Louisiana to harvest Longleaf Pine. After 1930, most of the companies ended logging operations, leaving thousands of acres of pine stumps. In 1919, W. Burns Logan, Sr., a chemical engineer, arrived in DeQuincy to explore the possibility of processing the pine stumps into pine oil, turpentine, and rosin. Logan found the area rife with high quality pine stumps and established the Acme Products Company. The Acme plant stood on 26 acres at the southeast intersection of Highways 12 and 27. Purchased by Newport Industries in 1928, the plant soon employed as many as 450 men. Independent contractors, known as “stumpers,” provided the raw materials. Stumpers dynamited the stumps from the ground and transported them to the plant for processing. Stumping was a dangerous pursuit. Premature explosions or flying debris killed several area men. Yet the plant had a tremendous economic impact on the area. Soon area residents began referring to DeQuincy as “Stumptown” and DeQuincy High School named its yearbook “The Pine Stump.” By 1957, the supply of stumps had dwindled and Newport Industries closed the DeQuincy plant.

In nineteen nineteen, Mr. William Logan
Came to this area after completion of the logging.
He was a chemical engineer when he came to this place
He wanted to see for himself all the pine stumps going to waste.

They had designed a method to subtract rosin from this pine
And turn it into pitch and rosin and good old turpentine.
So the plant was built in our little town
And immediately the economy turned around.

The first stumps were hauled by wagon and a team
A Ford Motor Company was established that really changed things.
Hundreds of men were working in the plant and the woods
Things in old DQ were really looking good.

The plant processed twenty-five hundred gallons a day
Of course turpentine was the main stay.
Sixteen hundred gallons of turpentine, nine hundred gallons of byproduct
The naval stores was shipped out daily, by rail and truck.

With an auger the stumper drilled into the tap root
Then he’d insert the dynamite, loaded for the shoot.
When he lit the fuse and the blast occurred
The stump was usually blown up out of the earth.

Then he would drill into the stump’s very heart
Because he had to blast the stump apart.
This was backbreaking work, that’s easy to understand,
Because the wood had to be loaded on the truck by hand.

The bulldozer came on the scene, with it’s great big fork
It lifted the stump out of the ground and caused a lot less work.
Then came the unloading rig, and that was fine,
Using a crane the whole load could be unloaded at one time.

Progress was being made, things were not as hard,
There were thousands of tons of wood on the stockpile yard.
The plant was really humming, all things were plumb,
Daily they were filling drum after drum.

There was a powder house just off McFatter Road
And the outer covering was shot full of holes.
I never did understand why a nut would shoot this house
A hundred cases of dynamite exploding would have wiped DQ off the map.

The economy really grew in our little town
Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, and Studebaker dealerships did abound.
There were four saloons, a honky tonk, two theaters and a drive-in
And there were eleven churches trying to stem to sin.

World War II really changed things, all the young men were gone,
But the older men and the four F’s continued to carry on.
With almost everything rationed, the men still toiled
Our military needed the turpentine, rosin and oil.

In nineteen forty-five, after the war was over,
DeQuincy was still basking in an economic field of clover.
This went on for a few more years, the stumps began to disappear
Though it wasn’t really talked about, some began to fear.

Stumps were found in Texas, across the old Sabine
Every morning before daylight, the trucks thru small towns streamed.
You’d arise before daylight, in the heat and the cold
and drive more than seventy miles, just to get one load.

In nineteen fifty-seven, no stumps could be found
So it was evident, the plant would shut down.
The last load was hauled in, the last whistle blew
And that ended the stump era, in old DQ.

In the last 49 years, things have really changed
Instead of smelling turpentine in this spot
We smell burgers from Burger King!

When steel rails met the pine trees,
this, our fair town, was birthed.
Those simple days with simple ways
We now recall with mirth.

And in mind’s eye, we backward glance
As we recall the best.
So if you will, dear God above,
Just grant this one request.

Yes, take me back to Stumptown,
That speck upon the map,
Where children teethed on splinters
And sometimes blasting caps.

O, take me back to Stumptown
To that village sweet and kind,
Where we all bathed in pine oil
And gargled turpentine.

Yes, take me back to Stumptown
Where men down on their luck
Still offered thanks for family
And a ragged old stump truck.

Please take me back to Stumptown
Where trucks rumbled ‘cross the track,
With kids from two to twenty
Clinging to the headache rack.

Take me back to Stumptown,
To that hamlet so serene,
Where hope did spring eternal,
And the trees were evergreen.

So when this ship has crossed the bar
And joined the anchored sort,
Just guide me gently, if you will
Into that old new port.

But if it’s not within your will
To grant this meek request,
Then, rub your hands with rosin, please,
And draw me to your breast.