The Oldest Cypress Shingles

The oldest shingles on the house are stamped on the back The Everglade Cypress Co. - Loughman, FLA."

Loughman in 1910 was an important industrial center, with a population of 721. The Everglade Cypress Company was the main industry. The company built homes for all the mill workers. The pond in the right foreground was used to float the logs after they were brought in by rail. Cables lifted the logs to the mill. The tram railroad crossing the picture diagonally extended far into the state to haul logs. The lumber company was converted to a citrus canning operation in the 1930s, but failed. The entire mill was dismantled and sold for junk. The houses were sold and most were moved to other locations.

In doing research on this shingle company I came across 

 Zora Neale Hurston, who was honored with a U.S Stamp issued 

in December 2002.

In her book “Mules and Men” written in 1935  she relates her experience in the Everglade Cypress Lumber Company, in Loughman, Florida.

She says:

“Cliffert Ulmer told me that I’d get a great deal more (stories of their lives) by going out with the swamp- gang. He said they lied a plenty while they worked. I spoke to the quarters boss and the swamp boss and both agreed that it was all right, so I strowed it all over the quarters that I was going out to the swamp with the boys next day. My own particular crowd, Clffert, James, Joe, Willard, Jim Allen and Eugene Oliver were to look out for me and see to it that I didn’t get snake-bit nor ‘gator-swallowed. The watchman, who sleeps out in the swamps and gets up steam in the skitter every morning before the men get to the cypress swamp, had been killed by a panther two weeks before, but they assured me that nothing like that could happen to me; not with the help I had.

Having watched some members of that swamp crew handle axes, I didn’t doubt for a moment that they could do all that they said. Not only do they chop rhythmically, but they do a beautiful double twirl above their heads with the ascending axe before it begins that accurate and birdlike descent. They can hurl their axes great distances and behead moccasins or sink the blade into an alligator’s skull. In fact, they seem to be able to do everything with their instrument that a blade can do. It is a magnificent sight to watch the marvelous co-ordination between the handsome black torsos and the whirling axes. So next morning we were to be off to the woods.

It wasn’t midnight dark and it wasn’t day yet. When I awoke the saw-mill camp was a dawn gray. You could see the big saw-mill but you couldn’t see the smoke from the chimney. You could see the congregation of shacks and the dim outlines of the scrub oaks among the houses, but you couldn’t see the grey quilts of Spanish Moss that hung from the trees.

Dick Willie was the only man abroad. It was his business to be the first one out. He was the shack-rouser. Men are not supposed to over-sleep and Dick Willie gets paid to see to it that they don’t. Listen to him singing as he goes down the line. “Wake up, bullies, and git on de rock. ‘Taint quite daylight but it’s four o’clock.’ Coming up the next line, he’s got another song. ‘Wake up Jacob, day’s a breakin’. Git yo’ hoe-cake a bakin’ and yo’ shirt tail shakin’.”

...about that time you see a light in every shack. Every kitchen is scorching up fat-back and hoe-cake. Nearly every skillet is full of corn-bread. But some like biscuit-bread better. Broke you hoe-cake half in two. Half on the plate, half in the dinner-bucket. Throw in your black-eyed peas and fat meat left from supper and your bucket is fixed. Pour meat grease in your plate with plenty of cane syrup. Mix it and sop it with your bread. A big bowl of coffee, a drink of water from the tin dipper in the pail. Grab your dinner-bucket and hit the grit. Don’t keep the straw-boss waiting...”

400 Year Old Cypress Tree

In addition the the above shingles, there were "new" shingles added. The sunroom was, at some point, a porch. When it was enclosed "new cypress shingles were brought in to match. The siding shingles are a mix of cypress 400 year old cypress tree and cedar. In the literature left behind from the previous owners was this note and photo.

The old cypress lumber used for this wood project came from a 32 inch diameter log found along the banks of the Econ river near Chuluota. The logs were found by a surveying crew while surveying the land for new homes. It was speculated that the land was logged sometime before 1940. For some reason the loggers dropped the large Cypress trees and left them behind Possibly the trees were too large to haul out of the woods or maybe because there was some pecky in the logs. Pecky cypress is now a prized wood and is very hard to find The logs lay on the ground for 60 years through rain, floods, and yes fires too. There was a very important reason why these valuable logs were left behind but only the logging crew knows for sure. 

I rescued these logs before they were taken to the landfill or even burned to ashes. The logs were cut on our sawmill and dried in our kiln to 6% moisture content. The rough cypress lumber was than converted into the project before you in my wood shop. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I enjoyed retrieving a cypress log that would have been lost forever. 

Bob Hughes -  Ole General Store Geneva Florida

Because of the history of these Cypress shingles, it is important to us to salvage and keep as many of the shingles as we can. All of these old-growth Cypress trees and forests are now extinct.

Doing mockups is the best way for us to visualize the finished product. I do it for a lot of larger projects. Right now, we're playing with colors for the exterior. Our first choice is the lighter stain with black trim. Staining the siding this color will be dependent on how the test staining goes. If we're not happy with what we get, then we will go with our second choice (which we still love) the black stain and white trim.

We are just in the beginning stages of this part. There is a ton of wood/shingle replacement that has to be done. Some of the beadboard fascia is dry rotted, and so is some of the window trim. We have a lot of missing, loose, and cracked shingles that will need to be replaced, and the correct i.e. matching cedar replacement shake shingles still need to be determined.

It's going to take a lot of time and work to get the house ready for paint and stain, so we have plenty of time to figure out the color choices.