When the Zwolle Loggers & Forestry Festival kicks off on Friday and Saturday, May 12-13, there won't be many around who can remember felling logs with cross-cut saws, skidding with mules, loading with "Logger's Friends" and cross-haul chains. But one will be there, or close by, who saw it happen--Jimmy Phillips of Zwolle, who is coming up on his 96th birthday later this year. Mr. Phillips will be recognized as the Zwolle Festival's Oldest Logger for 2006.

Jimmy Phillips was born November 25, 1910 at Converse, in Sabine Parish just up the road from Zwolle on Highway 171, son of Alice Conterio and Dugee Phillips.

During the period just before and after the turn of the 20th century, Sabine Parish was the scene of big-time logging in the longleaf pine hills and river bottoms along the Sabine river, before anyone ever thought of a Toledo Reservoir. Many young people grew up quickly to take responsibilities which today wait until later years. Accordingly, Jimmy entered the workforce at age 14, with Kirby Lumber Company at Silsbee, Texas. As he matured, the majority of his work career was spent driving log trucks for a number of the contractors and mills in the West Louisiana-East Texas timber region. Among his employers were E.B. Malmay, Granville Martinez (father of "Pie" Martinez one of the founding leaders of the Zwolle Loggers & Forestry Festival), Melvin Martinez, 4-L Lumber of Fisher, and Mansfield Hardwood Lumber Co., for which he hauled for ten years.

He worked for Sabine Lumber Company, later acquired by Boise Cascade, and retired at in 1964 from Boise. Following this be worked another ten years as a driver with Junior Palmer and Bob Rowe, logging contractor.

Mr. Phillips is the father of four children, two sons, Jimmy of Zwolle, Shorty of Kiethville, daughter Thelma Anthony of Florien, and a son, Buck, deceased. He has three step-daughters, Mrs. Sue Lovitt of Many, Mrs. Raymond Remedies of Zwolle, and Debbie Britt, of Zwolle, and three brothers and one sister, deceased.

His son-in-law, Raymond Remedies, is also a retired forest worker, who worked with his father-in-law for several years. Mr. Remedies began working for Sabine Lumber Co. at age 18, and soon was given training for a logging supervisor post. He began work for Willamette Industries in 1973 as logging superintendent, then became manager of the Zwolle area in 1980. After the buy-out by Weyerhaeuser, he worked for the new owners for two years until he retired.

A grandson-in-law of Mr. Phillips, Frankie Sepulvado, is a logger, and a grandson, Chance Malmay, at age 11 has expressed a desire to become a forester.

Mr. Phillips has 14 grandchildren, and numerous great and great-great grandchildren. He is a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Zwolle. He looks forward to his 96th birthday, and says he plans on making it to 100.

Back