Grabow Riot

On July 7, 1912, a violent confrontation known as the Grabow Riot occurred between the timber industry, primarily the Galloway Lumber Company, and the striking Brotherhood of Timber Workers near Merryville, LA. The riot left 4 men dead, including Asbury Decatur "Kate" Hall, and an estimated 50 men wounded. It was the defining event in the attempt to organize locals and unionize sawmill workers in the State of Louisiana. The events of that day impeded the progress of the organized labor movement in the South by as much as fifty years.

The Grabow Riot

Motivated by Socialism and Capitalism, the forces of labor and ownership collided at the little sawmill town of Grabow, LA around 6:00 p.m. on July 7, 1912, signalling the beginning of the end of the 1911-1912 timber war fought in the piney woods of west Louisiana and east Texas. The outcome of the riot and subsequent legal battles marked the defeat of the timberland labor movement and set back the cause of labor in the south for half a century.

There is nothing to indicate that either side in the war, the Brotherhood of Timber Workers or the Southern Lumber Operators Association, intended the Grabow Riot to happen. There is much evidence to foreshadow a violent confrontation between these two would occur somewhere within Beauregard Parish during this time period. It was the stated intent of the union to strike against the mills located in the DeRidder and surrounding area. It was also the stated intent of the mill owners and operators to shut down the mills in the DeRidder area and lockout and blacklist the workers. It should also be noted that the rise and fall of the socialist political party in Louisiana and east Texas occurred in parallel with these events. DeRidder, hotbed of labor unrest, elected a Socialist mayor in 1912 and Eugene Debs of the National Socialist Party carried Beauregard Parish in the 1912 presidential election.

The Grabow Riot was fought by a small wandering group of timber workers (not all Brotherhood members) and the owners, close friends, and employees of the Galloway family-owned mill at Grabow. The Galloway Mill was not affiliated with the sawmill operator's association and employed some 60-80 workers of whom some 8-10 were present and involved at the mill at the time of the riot. The riot happened on a Sunday evening with the mill closed. The union group was a remnant of a larger group of workers who had been demonstrating at the large corporate mills located in Bon Ami and Carson, LA. The small group of approximately 200 were wending their way home from Bon Ami, some 6 miles east of Grabow, when they decided to stray from the road back to DeRidder and demonstrate at Grabow. This off the cuff decision led to the violent confrontation at Grabow that resulted in 4 dead and approximately 50 wounded in a short shoot-out of some 15 minutes and an estimated 300 shots.

Louisiana and Texas Timber War

The Louisiana and Texas Timber War of 1911-1912 had it's origins in the labor uprisings opposing the powerful Long-Bell Lumber Company headquartered in Kansas City and operating mills along the route of the Kansas City Southern Railroad in western Louisiana. These uprisings centered in the Lake Charles, LA area in 1906-1907 and helped create the forces that fought the war of 1911-1912.

Three key events determined the shape of the war and its outcome:

* First, the Brotherhood of Timber Workers met in Alexandria in May 1912. At this assembly they voted to affiliate with the powerful and militant International Workers of the World (IWW), striking fear into the hearts of the Southern Timber Association representing the mill owners. The Brotherhood of Timber Workers declared intention to fight the battle in DeRidder and its 30-mile surrounding area. DeRidder was considered the center of labor unrest and was the last area to return to work in the 1906-1907 strikes. DeRidder was seen by the owners as the center of militant union activity. Both sides defined the area of conflict to be northern Beauregard Parish (at the time still a part of Imperial Calcasieu Parish).

* Second, the battle at Grabow and the ensuing court trial was the defining event in the struggle to unionize, bringing the conflict to a legal head with high national visibility.

* Third was the strike and following lockout at the American Lumber Company mill at Merryville, LA, about 20 miles west of DeRidder on November 11, 1912. This event was deliberately done by the owners led by the association president, John Henry Kirby of Kirby Lumber Company of east Texas. The timber workers union had been infiltrated by agents of the Burns Detective Agency who were on the payroll of the owners association. As a result of this, John Henry Kirby knew that the union was in desperate financial trouble because of the long, drawn out court proceedings resulting from the Grabow Riot. Although the local union had affiliated with the IWW, the IWW would not come to the financial aid of the local, choosing to focus its efforts and priorities on the Northwest Pacific Coast timber war.

To cause a financially crippling strike on the union, the Association blacklisted all the union members associated with the Grabow Riot. This gave the American Lumber Company at Merryville cause to fire 18 workers, all of whom had testified for the defense at the Grabow Riot trial. The union then had no choice but to go out on strike. This strike resulted in the end of the union financially and organizationally when in November 1912 the striker's headquarters and soup kitchen in Merryville was attacked and destroyed by agents and friends of the owners. The strikers and union leaders were routed and they retreated to DeRidder. The strike was broken and the mill reopened in May 1913 with nonunion labor. These three events, occurring within 6 months after the Grabow Riot, marked the end of the 1911-1912 Louisiana-Texas Timber War. The union continued to exist as a shell until 1914. The mills were never organized by the labor unions and this set the stage for further anti-unionism in the oil fields of Louisiana and east Texas.

By the end of 1921, the great piney woods of Louisiana and Texas were completely cut and so ended a short 30 year time of boom and bust for west Louisiana and east Texas. No effort was made by the timber companies to conserve or restore the piney woods that many thought could never be logged out. The bust left many sawmill towns deserted and such proved to be the case with Grabow. Had it not been the site of violence, it would likely have vanished into the backwater history of west Louisiana as did other mill towns like Carson, Bon Ami, Neame, Ludington, and Hall.

All that remains of Grabow are some bricks, a well, a mill pond, and an Historical Marker put there in 2003 by the descendants of the Galloway family and the Brotherhood of Timber Workers.

Personal Account

Below is an excerpt from the newspaper article "A Year of Death", appearing in the Beaumont Sunday Enterprise-Journal, Section C, September 15, 1974, detailing the recollections of Seab Rogers about "The Grabow Riot" of July 7, 1912. Seab was 79 years old at the time of the article.

The International Workers of the World (sic) (IWW) was (sic) organizing sawmill workers and every non-union mill was (a) target. A.L. Emerson was the organizer making the sawmill rounds and speaking on this particular Sunday.

Rogers picks up the story as an eyewitness: "We had been to Merryville, Singer, Newlin, and Carson and were headed for Bon Ami. Before we could get there someone came up and warned that Bon Ami was filled with gunmen and that we'd certainly be killed if we went there.

"There was 15 wagonloads of us. Most ot the men were armed. We headed for Grabow instead. I was driving the lead wagon, a brand new one pulled by a span of mules. Emerson was in my wagon.

"Somewhere along the way Emerson traded hats and coats with Decatur Hall. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when we pulled up before the Grabow office and the shooting started right off.

"Three men were killed in my wagon. "Kate" Hall went down first, I guess they figured he was Emerson, what with him having Emerson's hat and coat on. Then a fellow named Martin was shot and another whose name I don't recall right off went down with him."

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