14 Life History --- 1963 Garrett the Lumberjack

I worked a summer cutting cord wood with Henry Blankenship our closest neighbor who lived about a quarter mile down the dirt road from us in Licking, Missouri.  I think it was the summer between my junior and senior years.  I don’t remember how much he paid me, but he was a poor man who didn’t have much, and I don’t remember any other jobs being available.

I had to get up early when it was still dark and walk to his house where his wife, Martha,  made biscuits and gravy for our breakfast - pretty good stuff!  We rode in his old pickup to various cutting sites.  He would cut down the right sized trees with his chain saw, trim the branches off, then cut the trunks to the correct length (he had a length rod of some sort attached to his chain saw).  I then used a sledge hammer and splitting iron to split the logs in half, then into quarter sections.  I also helped him load the split logs into the truck.  Then we would drive to the charcoal making place and unload the wood. He sold the wood to a kiln for making charcoal.



I got to know my Missouri trees rather well - red oak, white oak, hickory, and others and I learned to hate splitting hickory logs. They’re tough! I was glad that we didn’t cut much hickory because it was mighty tough to split.

Apparently, I was not as big and strong as some of his previous assistants because one day he said that I would have to split more wood if I was to continue working with him.  I knew I was doing as well as I could and couldn’t do much better. I felt that I could not fulfill his expectations, so I slept in the next morning and did not go, assuming that my employment was over.   He came and got me, so I guess he decided that even though I couldn’t split wood as fast as his previous assistants, apparently I was satisfactory (or maybe the best he could get!)

(Pictures were taken in 1994 when I returned for my 30 year high school reunion. The Blankenships had been gone for many years and their home was abandoned.)

Pictures taken in 2004 when I again returned to Licking