By Tom Kelly
Editor and Publisher

Five Louisiana loggers will be inducted into the Louisiana Loggers Hall of Fame at a special ceremony in Dodson on Thursday, September 17.

In addition to the Hall of Fame honorees, whose induction was delayed from last year by a seasonal windstorm in the area, a special recognition ceremony will honor a group of volunteers who worked to help dig the community of Dodson out from damage caused by a tornado which struck the North Louisiana village on Sunday, May 8 of this year.

A highlight of the evening will be a musical program by the Pine Ridge Quartet, a group of retired loggers turned gospel singers, who first began singing in public at Winnfield in 1949.

The program starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Dodson High School auditorium on Sixth Street. The public, especially Dodson residents affected in the tornado, is invited. There is no admission charge, although a voluntary donation will be accepted for the Quartet's expenses. For guests arriving from out of town, to reach the school auditorium from Highway 167 which is under construction in the downtown area, turn east on LA 126, at the flashing signal light, go three blocks to Sixth street, turn south (right) and go three blocks. The auditorium is on the right.

Inductees for the Hall of Fame are:
Benjamin Franklin Brown, born November 7, 1868 in Summersville, Missouri. In June, 1900, the U.S. Census lists Frank Brown, his wife and five children in Carter County, Missouri, and his occupation as "log hauler." Forty-two of his neighbors are employed in the logging industry. By 1902, Frank Brown and his father, John George Brown had "followed the mills" to Louisiana. They settled for a brief time at Alberta in Bienville Parish near Castor, where Frank and his wife have a baby son, born and died in 1902, buried in the Old Castor Cemetery. Leaving Alberta, they traveled further south to Sabine Parish, where they settled at Fisher. In 1908, at the age of 40, Frank was employed as a woods foreman by the Noble Lumber Company at Noble, Louisiana. He stayed in Louisiana until the 1950s, before returning to Missouri in his eighties, and died at Salem, Missouri in 1961 at the age of 93.

Owen L. Durand, Sr., born January 10, 1929. The Durand name has been in the logging industry in this area for many years. Owen Durand, Sr., began his logging career in 1944 at the age of 15, his first job working for his older brother, Dell Durand, skidding logs behind a pair of mules. After 26 years working for others, including one job as foreman for Southern Timber Company owned by Elmer Ewing, he started his own business in 1970. With only a fourth grade education he ran a very successful logging operation for 20 years, and was forced to retire in 1990 after suffering a stroke. The business he started is now owned by his son, Owen L. Durand, Jr.

Russell (Peck) Leavines of Gardner, Louisiana. He worked in Louisiana's logging industry from age 15 in 1931 to age 84 in 2000, logging west of the Red River in Central Louisiana from Natchitoches south to Oberlin. Despite mobility impairment, he still goes to the woods at age 92 whenever the opportunity arises, riding along and offering advice. peck Leavines was born December 3, 1916 in Gardner, Louisiana, ten miles west of Alexandria. He was one of seven children born to Thomas and Nanny Leavines, and his father was a log cutter who used crosscut saws and axes, skidding logs with mules and oxen. Several of his uncles were also loggers.

John Kermit (J.K.) Martin, Sr., was born in Winn Parish, Louisiana in 1915, and grew up under tough circumstances after his mother was killed by a falling tree he was one year old. Raised by different family members, by the time J.K. Martin was 18, he had acquired his first pulpwood truck, and a contract to furnish pulpwood for the Southern Advance Paper Mill at Hodge. In his own words, "When opportunity knocked, I always tried to open the door." He furnished wood for Continental Can Co. chipping operation in Winnfield, and later joined with his cousin, Denvor (Benny) Martin to found and operate Martin Forest Products, a major chip mill, in Winnfield. He always working within the extended Martin family, and today several operations bear his initials. Mr. Martin suffered a debilitating series of strokes, but continued to participate in the forest products operations until retiring to a nursing home, where he died in July 2001 at age 81.

James Nutt, was born in THornton, Arkansas September 1, 1931, the son of a farmer and logger. He attended Arkansas A&M University in Monticello after completing high school, and joined the Navy in 1952, serving as an airplane mechanic. Upon his discharge from the Navy, he came home and bought a "ground hog" sawmill, and got a contract in 1959 with a mill in El Dorado. After working up to running three crews by 1968, he sold his jobs in Arkansas and came to Louisiana, where he bought an operation from Louie White, operating out of Winnfield and Grayson. He retired in 1977, and in 1980 got a contract for Kirby Forest Industries and moved to Cleveland, Texas, where he worked until they sold to Louisiana Pacific in 1987. In 1991 he and Danny Dructor, now the executive vice president of American Logging Council, started a job together. Mr. Nutt retired for the final time in 2006. He was a past chairman of the Texas Logging Council, a member of the board of directors of Texas Forestry Association, on the board of First National Bank, and on the board of directors of Southern Loggers Cooperative until his death in 2008.

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