By Emily Banks Wooten
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Kathy Black Lott, a member of the Polk County Historical Commission, the Greater Onalaska Heritage Society and the Onalaska City Council presented a program on the rich history of the City of Onalaska during a “Lunch with the Chamber,” hosted by the Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.
“A lot of people just think of us as a lake town and that’s fine but that hasn’t always been the case. The Carlisle Company came in in 1900 and bought several thousand acres of land and built the largest sawmill in the state,” Lott said. “At one time, there were thousands and thousands of people here working in the sawmill, so they had to build houses for them and there was a three-story hotel and a hospital with an operating room.
“Houses were built in 1904, and the sawmill employees could rent a house for $5 a month which was about 1.67% of their monthly wages. The houses had electricity, hot running water and their own private outhouse.
“Mr. Carlisle wanted his people to be healthy and he knew that close to the Trinity River there would be mosquitoes. He had screens put on all the windows and doors to get the breeze but keep the mosquitoes out. Mr. Carlisle was very good to his workers,” she said.
Lott explained that many of the people were not familiar with the concept of screens and did not think the breeze would go through them. She even shared one story, passed down over the years, of someone who cut two holes in the screen on the door. When asked why, the person said it was so the dog could go out. When asked why the second hole, the person said, ‘so he can get back in.’
“We still have 15 of the old houses standing and two churches, one of which was built in 1911 and is still used today – the Methodist church. The sawmill shut down in the 1920s, taking their water, electricity and income, so there was a mass exodus, although a few stayed and toughed it out. The Greater Onalaska Heritage Society bought one of the old houses and the sawmill house is a living museum,” Lott said.
Asked why the sawmill left, she said they’d cut all the virgin timber.
“When it left, all that good rich river bottom land was left and became a place to grow cotton,” she said.
Lott then talked about the society’s “Pioneer Days,” in its sixth year and slated for Oct. 17-19. She said the elementary students come and get to make quilts and make butter and see cows get milked. She said there are Native American hoop dancers and the Lake Livingston State Park Ranger and everyone wears pioneer clothes.
“It just turns back into 1904 and it’s such a good educational experience,” Lott said.
For those interested, she said the Greater Onalaska Heritage Society has a website (gohstx.org) and a Facebook page.
Mayor James Arnett thanked everyone for attending as he introduced the council members and city employees in attendance. He also reviewed some of the upcoming activities in the City of Onalaska, including National Night Out on Oct. 1, the annual Christmas parade on Dec. 6 and Christmas in our Town on Dec. 7.
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