Chapters 10 through 12 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 10: Timber

After the Civil War, Georgia was invaded by lumber companies and turpentine producers. Lumber was in demand for building and by the railroads to fuel their wood-burning locomotives. By the 1880s, the Georgia pine forest was in big trouble. Some foresaw the growing problem—an editorial called the greedy lumber companies "timber butchers." The New York Times warned that the inhabitants of the region would do well to protect their land.

Naturalist Herbert L. Stoddard noted that the pine lands of southeast Georgia were a sea of burnt stumps as far as the eye could see. Between 1890 and 1900, the population of Georgia increased by 75 percent. It was during this period that Frank's side of the family migrated to Appling County. Janisse's great-grandfather, nicknamed Pun, was a county surveyor who sliced up the land again and again...