THE PEAVINE RAILROAD
The Camp
A little village or camp for the Peavine employees sprang up in the quiet wilderness surrounded by oak, Chestnut, Popular, Hemlock, Maple and other tree species, at the foot of the mountains in close vicinity of the logging operations so the employees could walk to work. In the green forest deer, bears, turkey buzzards, wild cats including Links and Bob-cats and Black Panthers, wild turkey and other wild animals roamed freely. The animals and the Peaviners co-existed well there, sharing water and habitat as well. Many buildings scattered near the camp formed the little village.
Logger and skidder crews of the John Heilman Lumber Co. pose in front of their lumber camp located at the base of the mountain. Circa 1911
The Camp Commissary
The commissary was the center of the camp's activity. The building was a large one story, vertical weathered board structure, raised about three or four feet off the ground on wooden stilts with a covered porch. It was located very close to the housing section of the camp. The front of the building had a Velvet Smoking Tobacco tin sign, complete with a large bull and a couple of other smaller tin product advertisement signs nailed to the boards. The Peavine tracks had been laid to the side opposite of the office addition.
Shoppers on foot, stopped into the community store all day long. Mrs Pearl Reaves Laws (m. Charlie Laws), commissary clerk and daughter of Cal Reaves (w. Flora Belle "Florie" McCoy), the blacksmith, assisted them.
They could expect to find soap, brooms, kerosene, matches, Velvet brand smoking tobacco and pipes for smoking, candy, school supplies such as pencils and tablets, fabric, thread, buttons, bib overalls, socks, shoe laces, and dry goods, canned food items such as dried beans and salt pork, flour, corn meal, fresh produce, hardware and other necessaries to run a home. Children needing a pencil or tablet for school also popped in before class began.
Peavine employees could charge such items against their wages by using a line of credit called a "scrip", sometimes called a dugaloo or doogaloo. The charges were taken directly out of the workers pay-checks.
The Greystone Post Office which had opened on July 1, 1902, was also located in the commissary. Folks could send and receive letters and mail order packages there. The post office closed November 15, 1919.
The store's inside looked similar to the one in the following picture:
Inside White Lumber Company Commissary near Elk Park, NC (ca 1911)
Photograph contributed by Marty Masker.
Several other buildings were included in the camp all encircled by the brushy green embrace of the forest. Among them was the main boarding house or bunk house which was a two story, wooden structure with many rooms. The lower floor had a covered porch with a some-what long, wooden ramp leading to it, directly from the train tracks. The ramp was built up off the ground to protect the workers from mud and water.
It is believed that the camp grub hall was located on the first floor of the boarding house. First cut wood from the camps saw mills had been thrown from the train and was kept piled up in front of the house to be used as heating fuel and keeping the cook stoves running.
The main boarding house with bunks upstairs and the kitchen, dining room downstairs at the John Heilman Lumber Camp. Tracks of the Greeneville & Nolichuckey Railroad are in the foreground. Circa 1911
Lady on the left is Minnie Painter, waitress, age approximately 20yrs
Lady next to Minnie is Elizabeth Painter, housekeeper, age approximately 64yrs
The Peavine Grub House
The Peavine grub house kitchen and large dining room were located on the first floor of the bunkhouse, the largest building in the camp. It was a happy and comforting place, many considered it the heart of the logging camps. A cook, usually a man, and one or more assistants were employed by the management. Ruth Harrison, born 1895, mother of Joe Harrison, lived at home and worked in the kitchen as the cook's helper, before she was married. She and the cook, sometimes called the cookee, spent long hours baking sourdough bread, cakes, fried pies and oven pies. Together they washed vegetables, peeled potatoes, and stirred large pots of boiling food. She carried water for cooking and cleaning vegetables and wood for the cook stoves. When the meal was over, and the men were back at work, she washed the dishes and swept the kitchen floor.
A weekly order for food supplies was made by the cook and the boss would go to town, via the train for them. He brought back canned goods bought in gallon cans, large sections of salt pork, dozens of eggs and coffee by the pounds, flour in 196 pound barrels. The camp used 10 such barrels a week, among other things. Local farmers sold extra produce to the camp, fresh vegetables like beans, corn, tomatoes, watermelon, milk and butter, beef, sheep and pork.
At meal time, the men sat at long tables on wooden benches. They served themselves filling tin plates, from bowls of food set on each table. Tin Cups were offered for coffee, glasses were placed at each plate for water, lemonade and sassafras tea. They could have whatever and as much as they wanted, as hard labor called for healthy appetites. If the men had plenty to eat to replace the energy they lost in the mornings, they would be as productive in the afternoon.
Breakfast was served at 5:30 am, which was eaten in the light of a kerosene lamp. A typical breakfast consisted of fried potatoes, eggs, different meats of ham steaks, sausage and bacon, with biscuits and coffee. Minnie Painter was a waitress in the Peavine dining room. She served the men water and other drinks, refilled bowls, kept bread baskets full and kept the dining room neat, cleaning any spills and swept the floor after every meal.
The men not living in the camp walked from home up to the cutting sites on the mountains. They got out of bed well before daylight, dressed, ate breakfast, then used their kerosene lanterns to light the way up the mountain. Once they reached their destination, they hung their lanterns in a tree to work by until daylight. They worked until dark and then used the lanterns again to get back down the mountain to home. The company usually furnished the noon meal at the cut site.
The noon and supper meal usually consisted of choices of salt pork and beef, and a variety of vegetables such as beans, potatoes, beets, corn, greens, cabbage, turnips and some times pea soup and stews and of course corn bread, biscuits, sourdough bread, cakes and pies and lots of coffee.
Men working up in the hills, farther away from the grub house at noon, had their food taken to them on carts. They sat on logs and held their tin plates in their laps.
Supper was eaten after the quitting time steam whistle was blown.
The Peavine Boarding House
The bunk house was mostly for the single men who had left their wives and mothers back home. For about $3.15 per week, the men could have a warm bunk bed and three square meals a day. The camp grub house looked very much like the one in the picture below:
Photograph used by permission of Minnesota Historical Society. Photographer: William F. Roleff
Typically, bunk houses were not the cleanest places to live. Occasionally bed bugs and lice also found their way in, on not-so clean bodies. The men itched all over from the bites. Even with lice powders, there was not an effective way of ridding the place of them, kerosene was about the only cleaning method of the day, but the bugs always came back.
Elizabeth Painter was the housekeeper. Her responsibilites would have been washing the sheets, dusting and sweeping around and under the bunks. The sheets and linens would have been scrubed on a wash board and hung to dry on a clothes line. She may have washed the kitchen linens and likely also cleaned the camp office.
In the logging camps in the late 1800s personal hygiene was secondary to survival and productivity, so bathing was done as needed. There was no time set aside for sharpening razors or daily shaving. Those who shaved usually only cut their whiskers on Saturday night.
Early in the 1900s logging camps, like the Heilman outfit, began furnishing a bucket station or small wash area for the men. These areas were especially handy for washing dirty hands before each meal. When hotter weather rolled around and sunshine lingered long after quitting time, many Peavine employees swam and bathed naked in the cold spring-fed creeks after work. At night, in the boarding house, after supper, the men told stories of the day's activities, read a little in their Bibles, wrote letters home and nursed sore hands.
When the men returned home to their wives and mothers after weeks and months of working in the camp and living in the bunkhouse, the ladies most likely burned their work clothing, hoping to keep the pesty bugs from infesting their homes. A good scrub in the portable bath-tub with lye soap usually protected the home.
Local Employees
The local men, not living in the bunkhouse, got out of bed well before daylight, dressed, ate a hearty breakfast then walked from home up the mountain to the cutting sites, using lite kerosene lanterns to light the way. If it was still dark when the loggers arrived, they let the flame burn until daylight. The loggers got to work immediatly. They sawed down huge trees using cross cut saws, calling out, "Timber" just before the tree fell. The limbs and other brush was moved out so cross-cuts crews could saw the tree into sixteen foot long long logs. The tree cutters moved on to another tree until the noon steam whistle blew to signal dinner time.
Their lunch pales were left hanging on near-by tElizabeth Painter was the housekeeper. Her responsibilites would have been washing the sheets, dusting and sweeping around and under the bunks. The sheets and linens would have been scrubed on a wash board and hung to dry on a clothes line. She may have washed the kitchen linens and likely also cleaned the camp office. ree limbs. The old tin coffee cans with lid and handle, protected the contents of sausage and potato biscuits, tomatoes, boiled eggs, pie slices and other savory southern delicacies.
For the resident employees up in the hills, at the cut site, the company furnished the noon meal via oxen pulled carts.
They ate dinner, stopping the work for 30 minutes only, then got back to work.
In the shorter daytime lighted days, they were forced to lite the lanterns again to see get back down the mountain to home.
The Office
An office which had been built onto the commissary, as an end addition took care of hiring and payroll and other important papers. The office had three windows and an outside door with steps going down off a small square ramp in the rear. There was a second door leading to the porch of the commissary for a partially covered walk in the rain to the company store door. The office was run by Mr. Bunah Basil Tullock born circa 1890. He was the bookkeeper, pay master and secretary. It was similar to the White Lumber Company office in Elk Park, NC shown in the following picture taken about 1911:
Noah Lewis, Lack Griffith, Clyde Ephraim Pearce
Photo contributed by Marty Masker.
The Heilman Lumber Company's commissary and main office (at left).
The Stables
The camp had stables for the horses, mules and oxen which supplied valuable moving muscle in the logging operation.
The animals were stabled at the Old Forge, Campground parking lot at Horse Creek Recreational Park. The stables not only housed the animal's food, but gave the livestock safe refuse at night from roaming wild cats, wolves and bears in the forest. They were looked after by the teamsters and their foreman who took great care of them.
Teamsters had separate housing from the loggers, near the animals, because they had to be up earlier in order to have the teams ready when the loggers needed them. After the livestock received their early morning meal, they were harnessed in their gears for the day ahead. Teams of horses were matched for speed and weight. The teamsters typically only worked with the teams. No one wanted to lose a team under a pile of carelessly placed logs or to a wild animal. The Peavine operation used several mules which were cheaper to buy or lease.
Houses associated with the Peavine operation were scattered up the creek.
The Blacksmith Shop
Also on site was a blacksmith's shop for making repairs to the machinery and U shaped shoes for the livestock. A local blacksmith, John Calvin 'Cal' Reaves was hired after James D. Letterman, blacksmith, age 35 in 1910 who had worked for the Heilman Lumber Company left. Mr. Reaves fit in perfectly with the White Lumber Company and the loggers just as Mr. Lettermen had. Mr Reaves wore denim dungarees with suspenders and a typical large leather apron to help protect him from hot sparks. The apron had long leather tie strings which he wrapped around his waist and tied in front. Huge forearms bore a few burn scars from his trade.
One of his jobs as blacksmith was mold iron rods into shoes and shoe nails for the horses. One horse shoe hanging in the blacksmith shop was the biggest Vesta Reaves, his daughter, had ever seen.
Much metal was heated and pounded and bent to keep the animals and the operation's steel machinery going. A bucket of spring water was always on the ready to cool the metal piece.
Mr. Reaves owned at least two of the horses leased to the Peavine. They were the Percheron breed, which were especially large. Sharlene Jones Gregg's mother remembered Vesta (Sharlene's grandmother) talking about two horses from time to time, noting that they were the largest horses she had ever seen.
Jim Gunter holds the reins of a team of horses (Percheron breed) owned by Cal Reaves and leased to the railroad in this photo. One of them was called Ole Meg and the other was called Bird. Sharlene Gregg's great-grandfather, John Calvin 'Cal' Reaves, worked at the Peavine as the blacksmith when Hugh White owned the company. Sharlene's mother remembered Vesta (Sharlene's grandmother) talking about two horses, they were the largest horses that she had ever seen. Cal traded horses with Mr. Jim Holt in Greeneville on McKee Street. Holt Stables was next to the little brick warehouse. Mr. Holt married Cal's sister making them brothers-in-law. Cal broke logging horses that he got from Mr. Holt. One of his jobs as blacksmith was to make shoes and shoe nails for the horses. One shoe was hanging in the blacksmith shop. It was the biggest horseshoe that Mr. Reaves daughter, Vesta, had ever seen. Cal was a little man, he may very well be in the photo with the horses.
Jim Gunter holds the reins of the team of large horses, in this photo below. One of them was called Ole Meg and the other was named Bird.
Team of horses as seen in this Peavine picture.
The shop would have looked something like the picture below, which was taken in another camp.
 Photograph used by permission of Minnesota Historical Society. Photographer: William F. Roleff |  Peavine Blacksmith - Lawrence Hallum Tools - Hoof Trimmer, Fuller Photo courtesy of Teresa Dunbar Johnson |
Portable Saw Mill
Thomas Philip Jennings running the steam engine that powered the portable sawmill.
Photo courtesy Bryan and Joyce Ramsey. Tom 'Papaw' Jennings is Bryan's grandfather.
Portable sawmill behind oxen team as seen in this Peavine picture.
Peavine Water Flume
Two company water flumes were located in Phillips Hollow and Bullen Hollow. The flumes were used to transport lumber sawed from a portable sawmill in mountains down to the base of the mountain, via the water.The lumber floated down the flume right into the hands of men down below who stacked it on the spot until it could be picked up by the train.
Set-Off Houses
In a good, flat spot at the base of the mountains, several feet from the creek and spring, very near the commissary, the camp offered a housing area for the families.
The lumber jack, from outside the community, and his family were furnished set-off houses, some called them spring houses or shanties, brought in by the railroad and set off along the tracks. The early made, mobile homes which measured about 8x10 feet, sometimes painted red, were made of vertical, unplaned boards and offered no insulation from the cold winds. One entry door on the long side and small window on the opposite side were the only openings in the structure. The little tin roof peaked just enough to let the rain and snow slide off.
Pot belly and little square cast iron stoves were used for heating the home and cooking the food. The stove sat on the wooded board floor which rested on sturdy floor joists.
Two feet wide concrete walkways made with crushed field stone in the mix, divided the family area with set-off houses on both sides of the walk. It started at the edge of the tracks and went straight through, the whole length of the living area and stretched back to the spring. A step or two as needed, was placed outside of the buildings so the people could get in and out of their temporary homes easily. Furniture, such as feather and straw tick beds and a table and chairs for eating, were furnished by each family. Coal-oil (kerosene) lamps were used for lighting after dark. For larger families, extra houses were used as needed. Mother used the dining table to wash the dishes in large pans, prepare food, and iron the family's clothes. Wooden pegs mounted on the walls around the room held the Sunday clothes and an extra set of work clothes. Tin plates and cups were stacked on the table after washing. The cast iron skillet and stew pot were hung on the wall near the wood stove used for both heating and cooking. Eating utensils were dropped into a jar and stored on the table. Extra blankets and towels were kept in a family trunk, where the Family Bible was usually stored. Childrens' play things were kept under the bed. Children usually had things like a checker set, bean flips, pull toys, or rag dolls, all of which were usually homemade. Children used cigar boxes to store treasures like arrowheads and marbles, and sometimes doll clothes. Father's gun was hung over the bed.
Photo used by permission of Jim Thurston and Little River Railroad Museum in Townsend, TN
Bethany School
Mothers with children lived in the camps to be close to their husbands. They gave the camp a feeling of a real community.
Barefoot school-aged children, with lunch pails in hand, walked about 1 1/2 mile to Bethany, a two room school house, for learning reading, writing and arithmetic. Bethany, which also educated other children in the area, had been built by the Presbyterians. The schoolhouse was located in a cozy setting on a cleared spot in the mist of the forest on a good stone foundation. It offered education for grades 1-8.
Photo (ca 1914) courtesy of Terry Harrison
The school yard had a make-shift ball diamond out to the side, for recess fun and lunch time. After the lunches of various foods like boiled eggs, sausage, ham, tenderloin, tator and jelly biscuits, sweet potatoes, bacon sandwiches, apples and different pies fried and baked were eaten, and all had had a fresh dipper of cold water from the spring, the children could play. The teacher usually set on the steps watching the children and graded papers as they worked off their lunches. The boys joined in a game of base-ball and the girls jumped rope and placed field stone in rows to mark off rooms for their pretend play houses. When lunch time was over, the teacher rang her hand bell, calling the children indoors again. Across the wagon trail road from Bethany, a water tank for the steam boiler for the trains had been placed for easy access. Reminders of the logging company were every where in the community.