| T&G Railway
connected forestry in region Former employees of Tremont industries remember 'Good Old Days' in reunion By MILDRED
KING SHELL The Tremont & Gulf Railway Company began around 1904, as a logging railroad in conjunction with Tremont Lumber Company during the height of the early timber boom operations. The railroad's history is related to that of Tremont Lumber Company as both were owned by the Joyce interests. The Chicago-based Joyce family, among whom were William T. Joyce, first president of the Tremont & Gulf, his two sons, David G. Joyce and James Stanley Joyce, and Beatrice Joyce Kean, the daughter of James Stanley Joyce, worked in the development of this region. The local airport was named for David G. Joyce, and the Village of Joyce was named for this family. In 1899 the Joyce family, who had previously operated sawmills on the Mississippi River in Iowa from timber logged in Minnesota, acquired a small sawmill at Tremont, Louisiana, in the pine hills of Lincoln Parish, and there Tremont Lumber Company was founded. The lumber industry in the South was beginning to boom, and sawmills were springing up overnight. The first major expansion following establishment of the Tremont mill was the organization of a logging railroad to operate between the mill and the company's pineland at Eros, Louisiana. This was the beginning of the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company, which was the vital link with logging operations. In rapid-fire order came the acquisition of more mills, along with more acres and more logging railroads, among those the Winn Parish Lumber Company at Dodson and another railroad, a mill at Pyburn, and finally in 1907 the Louisiana Lumber Company at Rochelle in Grant Parish, including two sawmills and the Western Railroad Company with ten miles of track. When a railroad link between Rochelle and Dodson was constructed, Tremont possessed a network of rail transportation ranging from Tremont in the north to Rochelle in the south, with links connecting Chatham, Jonesboro, and Dodson. The logging road became Tremont & Gulf Railroad in 1905 with William T. Joyce as president. At this time there was endless virgin pineland in the South, and the Tremont & Gulf was lined with numerous sawmills from which flowed an incredible output. After the logging road became a full-fledged railroad, development was begun in earnest and an extension from Chatham to Winnfield was completed in 1907. On September 19, 1907 the Tremont & Gulf rolled its first train into Winnfield. Afterwards the Tremont & Gulf built several branches, the first from Menefee, six miles north of Winnfield, to Pyburn on the Rock Island; another from Menefee to Rochelle; and another from Sikes to Jonesboro. Instead of using the telegraph, the railroad was operated by a telephone switchboard from the train dispatcher's office. In a reorganization in 1908 the road became the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company, and the general offices were located at Winnfield, where they remained. During the heyday of railroads in the 1920s the various lines serving Winnfield had 12 passenger trains and 8 freight trains running into Winnfield daily. The Tremont & Gulf had 71 miles of track in 1936, connecting with the Missouri Pacific at Rochelle, Illinois Central at Tremont, O N & W at Gulf Crossing, and Louisiana & Arkansas and Rock Island in Winnfield. It had 100 employees and a $150,000 payroll. In a book published in 1947, Lucius Beebe and C. M. Clegg, Jr. wrote: "By far the most enterprising and functionally animate of short lines we encountered in the Deep South was the Tremont & Gulf, which operates out of Winnfield, Louisiana, and maintains no fewer than six separate train movements, four scheduled and two unscheduled, daily over its 97 miles of well-kept iron. While the road is controlled by one of the vast lumber projects of the region, its freights and mixed consists are unusually various as to types of merchandise carried and its locomotives are among the most beautifully shopped and maintained anywhere in the South. A handsome green- and gold-painted Packard limousine with flanged wheels for the exclusive use of the roadmaster adds a panache of deluxe urbanity that might well be envied by more comprehensive railroad systems. "The Tremont & Gulf's motive-power roster includes four enchanting ten-wheelers built between 1907 and 1915 by Baldwin and numbered 15, 20, 24, 25. Of somewhat later vintage is No. 30, a Baldwin Mikado. All are oil burners, and their silvered rod assemblies, red and gold trim on the cabs and general air of spit and polish set them in a class with such proudly maintained motive power as that of the little Colorado and Wyoming ... "Every morning at one-hour intervals beginning at 6:30 the three trains roll out of Winnfield yards: one a solid freight which runs to West Monroe 40 miles away and return; a mixed freight and passenger on schedule between Winnfield and Tremont where it connects with the Yazoo & Mississipi Valley branch of the Illinois Central; and another freight with passenger accommodations in its spacious caboose on the 20-mile run to Waggoner, where it connects with both the Rock Island and the Louisiana & Arkansas." The authors wrote more about the maintenance of the motive power: "The T. & G.'s motive power is among the most beautiful in the South," and of the road's motive power, "which is spotlessly maintained in the quintessence of short-line chic." Responsible for the well-kept equipment were Jesse L. Corley, Superintendent of Motive Power, and his shop crew. Mr. Corley served 40 years with Tremont & Gulf, from May 25, 1919 to July 31, 1959. Lucius Beebe and C. M. Clegg, Jr. had this to say about Winnfield at the time of their visit in the middle 1940s: "In Winnfield, where the hotel was overflowing with oil riggers, derrick-men and geologists attracted by a nearby offset property that had come through against the expectation of everyone concerned, we were lodged in overstuffed comfort at the home of the local magistrate whose lady, palm-leaf fan in hand, made pin money by taking in travellers whose credentials passed her inspection and standards of respectability. For two dollars we mounted to a bedroom whose Irish linen sheets, shaded bed lamps and Niagaras of hot water could have spelled luxury in New York or San Francisco." On August 1, 1959 when the Tremont & Gulf Railway Company was sold to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the transaction closed a chapter of Winn's history which began more than a half-century before with the beginning of the timber boom. At that time trains were operated between Winnfield and Monroe daily, and Sunday when necessary, and between Winnfield and Rochelle daily except Sunday; but the operation had ceased to be profitable. Other railroads serving Winnfield in 1959 were Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company, as part of the KCS-L&A System; Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad; and Louisiana Midland Railway (formerly a branch of the L&A). Beatrice Joyce Kean, a descendant of William T. Joyce, was the sole owner of the Tremont & Gulf when it was sold to the Illinois Central in 1959. She was also the sole owner of Tremont Lumber Company at the time she died in 1973, leaving no descendants. She left her holdings to the Joyce Foundation; and Tremont Lumber Company was sold to Crown Zellerbach Corporation in 1974. Bibliography of credits: |