[Granville-Hough] 2 Feb 2009 - Tung Oil Orchard
Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough
gwhough at oakapple.net
Sat May 1 05:13:44 PDT 2010
I have attached Harold Hopkins' message after I mentioned in
December that Uncle Tom Richardson had a Tung orchard near Poplarville
which was destroyed by Hurricane Camille in August, 1969. His comments
have historical value as he was on the scene very soon after the event.
I wonder if the person he talked to was Uncle Tom. There is no way we
will ever know, but it is an interesting thought.
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From: harold hopkins <hhopkins3 at comcast.net>
Subject: Tung Oil Orchard
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:34:28 -0800
Re-reading your note, you said your uncle had a tung oil
operation in Poplarville and was wiped out by Hurricane Camille in
1960. I was sent down by the FDA to cover that Hurricane's effects
and to cover the FDA's actions at the time to assure that the
hurricane's effects and aftermath would not affect food supplied and
endanger health. Our inspectors looked at oyster and shrimp fishing
and processing, contamination of oyster beds, spoilages because of
electrical failures and other emergencies, and contamination in the
port cities of New Orleans, Mobile, and Gulfport. A high wave came
ashore at Biloxi and swept a large quantity of pesticides off the top
shelves of a large hardware/gardening store and scattered them on the
ground all around and a military guard from Keesler AF Base was
detailed to patrol and keep people from walking where the pesticides
were scattered. Our inspectors checked the operation of oyster,
shrimp, and fish processing houses and three or four ocean-going ships
that were washed ashore at Gulfport with cargoes of rotting fish. We
had planes flying over and inspecting Mississippi Sound -- as it's
called -- to assure the safety of fish products, and also inspected a
number of fruit juice processing plants. At that time my distant
cousin Wendell Lack (you may remember him) was State Forester --
appointed by his buddy John Bell Williams, the governor at the time.
The photographer and I had flown from Washington down to New Orleans
and were issued a government car to come to Gulfport. The coastal
bridges and highways were all out so we had to drive up to about
Poplarville, then go westward to US Highway 49, then south again. We
stopped at one place that was a tung oil operation and the tung trees
were completely flattened by the strong winds. The tung tree wood was
so tender that the trunks were sheared off at the ground. The owner
-- whose name I forget, if I ever heard it -- told me that this was
the end of his tung oil farming and that he was going to get out of
the business. Wendell said that the strong winds could not uproot the
coastal long-leaf pines (they spend about 10 or 15 years putting down
tap roots before growing up tall) but the wind twisted their trunks
so that the wood was no good for ordinary lumber and would have to be
made into plywood. I don't know how all this affected the turpentine
trade. When we got to Gulfport we had to sleep in a large National
Guard gymnasium on cots among hundreds of people. The Environmental
Protection Agency was a brand new agency and one of the guys told me
that they planned to dig up the pesticide-contaminated earth near the
hardware store in Biloxi and take it out to the Missississippi Sound
and dump it, and I told him that if he did he would lose his job
because that would contaminate the oyster beds. They wound up taking
that contaminated soil in trucks to the Camp Shelby reservation
grounds southeast of Hattiesburg and burying it in the soil there.
We had been smart enough to buy some bread and other food in New
Orleans before we left there and it stood in good stead. I had a
cousin living near Biloxi-Gulfport and we gave him some of the food
for his family. All the Smith county Lacks were descended from
Lafayette C. Lack a kind of preacher and brickmaker, and his wife
Martha Ann Hopkins, who was a daughter of my Great Grandfather Samuel
Hopkins. They had married in Scott County about the mid 1840s at a
place where Sam had migrated from Georgia. There were other Lacks in
Scott County but none of them were in Smith County. My GGF Sam lived
in Scott County for awhile when he first got to MS, and that's were
Lafayette and Martha married. After the Civil War they went on to
Texas to join other Hopkins relatives and Lafayette and two of their
children died out there near Waco and Martha returned to Smith Co. MS
with her sons Will and Josh and a daughter Cynthia, who married
Wilborn Glisson when he returned from the Civil War. In Hurricane
Camille, I saw some fishing type boats that were washed up and were
lying across railroad tracks and in other places.
Harold
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From: Tom Richardson <Tomr3 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Tung Oil Orchard] 2 Feb 2009
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 08:15:22 -0500
Granville and other extended family members,
First, let me say how I have enjoyed reading the many tidbits of
family history that you have taken the time to put together for
everyone. Your recollections offer an interesting view of life in
years past. And, I am pleased to see that predictions of your
expected passing were not accurate. The secret to life is to just
keep breathing, don't give up.
Concerning Harold Hopkins comment that he might have talked with your
uncle, my grandfather, Tom Richardson Sr. about the Tung oil industry
shortly after Camille; I have some recollection of a similar
conversation. In 1969 I was 19 years old and Grampa Tom sold his
plantation, farm is a better word, named Tung Acres. I have many
memories of spending time with Grampa Tom and Grama Pearl (Harlow
Richardson) in Poplarville, MS. They purchased this property and
raised Tung Nut trees and pecans after grampa retired from the New
Haven, CT school system in the mid 1950's. In 1969 they moved to a
small hill top rural property in Tigerville, SC to be near their
daughter, Elizabeth (Pulley).
When Camille hit in 1969 Tung Acres was devastated, perhaps worse
than most of the area. Grandfather speculated that the hurricane
created several small tornadoes that landed on their property. I
never saw the property immediately after the storm, but I recall him
saying that almost nothing was left standing. I do recall him saying
that "this is the end of the Tung oil business in Mississippi".
Apparently it had always been a marginal business due to frost damage
about every other year. Today I did a brief Google search for "tung
nuts, Mississippi" and came up with only one brief article <http://
www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-13327318.html> from 1992. Perhaps
Grampa Tom was right about the end of the industry. I believe Highway
49 is the highway that cuts right through the middle of Grampa Tom's
former property.
Tom Richardson 3rd
Durham, NH
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