A number of people from around the state and nation are gathering today in Scott County to celebrate growing up in the town of Forester. Though nothing remains of the vibrant town or the sawmill that made it possible, a deep fondness for Forester still burns brightly in the hearts of the people who grew up there--which is reason enough to get together and have a reunion.
Forester was created by the Caddo River Lumber Co., one of the largest and best managed timber companies in the Ouachita Mountains. Established in 1906 by Kansas City investors, the company was led by Thomas W. Rosborough, an aggressive and dynamic businessman with experience operating sawmills and a planing mill in Arkansas and Louisiana.
Rosborough seemed to have had a natural knack for timbering, as the Glenwood Herald noted: "T.W. Rosborough, who was reared at Texarkana, grew up with trees and mills in his system. It is no surprise then that he has made such a tremendous success of this mill industry." By marriage he was related to the Bemis family, owners of the Ozan Lumber Co.
Rosborough built his first mill in 1907 at a new town he named for himself, Rosboro in northern Pike County near the city of Glenwood. He had originally intended to build his plant at Amity in Clark County, but local white residents opposed Rosborough's plan to bring in black workers. Unlike most businessmen of his day, Rosborough was remarkably enlightened on racial matters--and he would later have to change the location of Forester due to his insistence on hiring an integrated work force.
Unlike his major competitor, Dierks Lumber and Coal Co., Caddo River Lumber Co. did not manage its timberlands for sustainability, which meant that Rosborough was constantly on the search for new tracks of virgin yellow pine timber. In 1918 his company purchased 30,000 acres of prime timberlands in Montgomery County, followed by additional acquisitions in Yell and Scott counties.
Rosborough built a huge sawmill and company town at Mauldin in Montgomery County, a few miles from the county seat of Mount Ida. Soon he was yearning to begin harvesting timber around the headwaters of the Fourche La Fave River in Scott County.
The county seat of Waldron lost interest in having the new sawmill when they discovered that Rosborough would hire workers, and the mill was ultimately built in an isolated area about 20 miles southeast of Waldron. Due to continuing racist trouble-making, Rosborough constructed a wooden wall around the black "quarters" and hired armed guards.
The town, though spelled Forester, was named for Charles Forrester, a Waldron businessman and promoter. The first logs were cut in July 1931 and sent to the new mill.
Rosborough, despite the advent of the Depression, spared no effort in building Forester. The town was composed of several sections with names such as Green Town and Angel Town. The 350 black residents lived in the Quarters, which had its own school, church, and recreation area, but the company store, post office, and theater were open to all.
Forester was a classic company town. The employer provided everything from housing (usually modest, but certainly as good as that generally found in the area) to a hotel, plus schools, two churches, a theater, post office, drugstore, ballpark and stadium, and a community hall which also served as a home for the Masonic order.
Residents received free medical care provided by a company doctor. Unlike their neighbors for miles around, Forester residents had access to running water, and a company-owned power plant provided electricity to everyone.
Despite the passage of more than 60 years since Forester was closed in 1952, former residents still recall vividly and fondly how they grew up in an orderly and secure town. Fayetteville resident Kenneth L. Smith, author of the outstanding book Sawmill (UA Press), addressed this attitude: "The legacy of Forester seems to be a spirit, a frame of mind among the people who had lived there. Everyone looks back on Forester with good feelings."
In recent years the Forester Historical Society has worked with Scott County officials to build a park at the site of the sawmill pond replete with a pavilion and a paved walking trail. To see interesting photos of Forester, visit the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture (www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net) on the Internet. Sawmill has been reprinted and is again available from the UA Press.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 10/05/2014