Newton County Turpentiners
By Jonnie Miller
Based on interviews from Rocking Texas Cradle by Ralph Ramos
I remember as a child hearing about the barrel house in Newton County. I always wondered why it was called the barrel house. There was a fight or a knifing there every Saturday night and the sheriff had to keep a close watch on the place. After some research through the interviews done by Ralph Ramos, I found out the origin of the barrel house and its patrons. It originated with turpentiners.
Turpentiners in Newton County were a tough breed. Says Chester Norris, "If they didn't have gambling and a barrel house to get drunk in, they'd move on to where they did have 'em. They kill each other, one or two every Saturday night." Says Mr. Norris, "We have to patrol the quarters on Saturday nights, breaking up fights and we have to stand guard at night to keep other turpentine camps from stealing them."
Usually made up of one or two white men and the rest two or three hundred blacks, these camps operated from Florida through East Texas and often moved as supplies were depleted.
The process involved a still just about like a whiskey still, only bigger. Each still could handle about 15 barrels to a charge. There would be a brick furnace under the copper cooker. Its copper coils would run through a tank of water and the distilled turpentine and resin would come out of the coils.
Water mixed with the pine tree sap to distill it and when it ran out of the still, water went to the bottom and turpentine stayed on top. It was then separated. After all the turpentine was out it was strained of all trash and put through four finer strainers. The last two were equipped with cotton batting. What came out was dipped out into barrels where it hardened. There were also barrel makers in the camp who "beat out music" putting hoops on the staves. It took 10 minutes to make a barrel and cracks were sealed with clay until the resin set.
Turpentiners didn't loaf on the job. Anyone who did got chased off with a pole or an ax handle. The turpentiner also didn't usually get sick from anything except drinking too much. Mr. Norris said his father breathed in enough turpentine fumes to "kill all the flu and pneumonia bugs in the world." He'd bend down and put his ear to the still pipe and could tell if it needed more water or more wood on the fire. All he did was breath fumes. "He couldn't catch a cold; all there was was turpentine fumes all around him."
--Jonnie Miller