[Granville-Hough] 2 Feb 2009 - Tung Oil Orchard

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:46:49 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: [Fwd: Tung Oil Orchard] 2 Feb 2009

    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
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
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