By JACK M. WILLIS
Journal Correspondent

There's not much left in Selma, Louisiana today compared to the activity going on there in the early 1900's, and very few people alive who have memory of life in that once thriving Grant Parish community.

One of those whose life ties to the historic sawmill town is Wilmer Armstrong, at age 86 an aging but alert resident of Woodshaven Nursing Home at Pollock, on Highway 165 northeast of Alexandria, not too far from the old "home town" where he spent his childhood as the son of a man who gave his life in service to the mills.

Selma came into being in the timber and sawmill boom of the early 20th century. The Grant Land and Lumber Company sawmill was a forerunner of the many big mills constructed across the South. In its heyday it was one of the flagship sawmills in Central Louisiana.

Historical accounts vary as to when the initial construction of the mill that was to be located at Selma was begun, but generally agree it was about 1903. According to a March 5, 1904 edition of American Lumberman, a group of St. Louis-based lumbermen invested in buying an eleven-mile long railroad and ten thousand acres of "one of the finest areas of yellow pine timber ever owned by one corporate company."

Also in 1903 William Buchanan's Louisiana and Arkansas was marching southward from Texarkana. At Paxton, they would stop long enough to merge with an 11-mile stretch of the Grant Lumber Company's railroad already in place, and now they were no longed isolated, but had access to outside markets. William Buchanan began negotiations to absorb the newly formed Company, and this he did in two moves. He created the Grant Timber and Manufacturing Company to look after the timber, and Grant Land and Lumber Company to operate the mill.

About this time around 1904, Buchanan' s L&A had reached Trout, La. and groundbreaking was held on a new mill to be constructed there. Buchanan took over the Grant operations at Selma in March of 1905.

At the height of operations the sawmill complex encompassed over six hundred acres lying on either side of Jay Gould's Iron Mountain and Southern railroad. Estimates of the number of employees vary, but it is generally agreed that between three to four thousand persons were employed at one time.

The mill complex was very elaborate, boasting two huge yellow pine mills, one hardwood mill, a lath mill, several planer mills, and a box factory.

There were two millponds that covered over eighty acres. To support the mills' lumber production, the company created elaborate stacking and drying yards, steam heated kilns, and sidetracks for shipping next to the main railroad line. Some of the private businesses operated in conjunction with the mill's operations were Selma Motor Co., the Princess Theater, two two-story hotels and the new Drug Store, a two-story affair with a Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star hall located on the second floor.

The Grant Lumber Company was not the first mill to operate in the area. There was an earlier mill, probably manufacturing hardwood, located in the western edge of Little River swamp called old Boston.

Somewhere around 1890, a gentleman from Midcounty, Mississippi by the name of Stephen Armstrong somehow heard about the mill's operation and walked all the way to what would eventually become the Selma area to get a job at that mill. Steve worked at Old Boston until somewhere around 1903, and then for no known reason, the mill's owners shut the entire operation down. They took horse and mule teams with wagons, tore the whole mill down and moved it lock, stock, and barrel as the saying goes, to East Texas, where they founded a mill site and town they called New Boston that exists till this day.

The United States was just recovering from a major depression, second only to the later Great Depression of the l930's. Steve Armstrong would marry and father seven children, a girl, and six boys all born at Selma, La. The youngest, Wilmer Armstrong born on September 6, 1915, is a resident at Woodshaven Nursing Home located just south of Pollock, La.

We found him in the lounge in his wheelchair, and adjourned to his spacious room he now calls home.

Wilmer is remarkably alert and humorous, began to recall his childhood days growing up in the Selma area.

When Wilmer was only seven years old, the family had a life-altering tragedy befall them. It was 1922, and Steve Armstrong's vocation was now that of a carpenter, and he worked at the Grant Land & Lumber Co. mill as a millwright also. The lumber-drying foreman had been having trouble with one of the doors on a kiln and late one afternoon he asked Steve to repair the door where it would open and shut properly. The next day was Sunday, but Steve worked every chance he got to help support his large family. This particular day he was working alone on the massive steel door, and somehow took the wrong hinge pin out first of one of the hinges supporting the huge door. As a result, the door was loosed to fall on Steve Armstrong, crushing and killing him instantly. In an unusual charity move for a sawmill operation, the company compensated Mrs. Armstrong with a $50 a month pension until the children were grown. Wilmer states that they didn't have it as tough as some sawmill families obtaining something to eat. They had cattle, hogs, and chickens, and raised a garden, and with the little company pension, were almost self-sustaining. But the oldest son had enlisted in the U.S. Navy and there was no one old enough to go to work in the family at first, and Wilmer states it was rough for the family to adjust to his Father's sudden death.

Wilmer attended Selma school for several years but as soon as he could he went to work erecting oil field derricks, a vocation he would pursue for over 40 years. He put in a brief stint at Camp Livingston prior to being drafted in WWII. After the War he worked for Dub Holmes, an independent contractor from Georgetown, and Justiss-Mears Oil Company of Jena, La. They didn't just build rigs, but laid "board run" also into drilling locations. Besides working in Louisiana they also worked in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. He stated the coldest he ever got in his life was in West Texas. He was in a crew that drove out to tear down seven or eight derricks in a salvage operation. A "blue norther" hit about the middle of the first day, and freezing rain began sticking to the derrick. He told the foreman about the middle of the afternoon that as soon as they made a day he was headed back to Selma and he did!

Wilmer recalled the first four or five rigs he literally helped build were of wood construction. Primary tools were a crosscut saw, a hatchet and a bunch of 60d nails. Then in the late 30's and early 40's the oil patch transitioned from wood to steel derricks because of their better stability and longevity.

Wilmer related that if the four concrete corners were already poured in place they could erect an 88' or 94' derrick in one day employing six men in the process. If they had to "form up" and pour the corners, they got a half a day's pay for each corner. If the crew erected the taller 122' or 144' derricks, used for deep test drilling, they got five days pay for the erection, even if they did it quicker than five days. The only time they had a partially completed derrick fall was one time when they had up about three flights, or about 40 feet up, and the concrete supports were still "green" or improperly set up, and one gave way.

One day in his mid 60's he was up about forty feet high and he thought to himself, enough is enough, and told his foreman W.C. Hollaway that this was his last day. He was true to his word. He later worked for the Grant Parish school system as a custodian at Georgetown High School for about 16 years.

Wilmer has outlived two wives. About two years ago his legs started failing him, so he made a quality decision to enter the Nursing Home, a decision he's never regretted. He loves it at Woodshaven and it's become home, and it's not to far down the road from Selma.

Wilmer pointed with pride at a picture on his dresser of a one of his grandsons. He said with pride, "I gave him my 16 gauge Winchester Model 12 shotgun last year. I picked and sold peas at 50 cents a bushel unti1 I had enough to buy that gun. It cost $6.00 and was all I had. If I'd had two more dollars, I coulda bought a 12 gauge shotgun. I think he killed an eight-point buck with it this year", he said proudly.

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