07/05/2025
Table is constructed using Heartpine. This table measures 4.5' x 38". This table has two extensions that make the table 7.5' when the extensions are in place. Table has been constructed using mortise and tennon joints. Table contains no screws or nails in the construction. Table does not come apart. Table has a waterproof and heat resistant finish. Table has 4 chairs that contain no screws or nails. PLEASE note-these chairs have a patent so they cannot be copied or reproduced.
Wood is called Heartpine and has been placed on the extension list. Wood was placed on the endangered/extinct list in the 1920's. This tree only grew approximately 1" every 30 years and was an original source for turpentine. This tree played a huge role in the industrial revolution.
Wood came from an old hospital that was believed to have been erected in the early 1900's but others report that the structure was built in the early 1890's. This structure was used as a hospital until the 1950's. Oddly enough, this "hospital" never had a name or an address. I have found some reference to "A" hospital but research is still being conducted. It may have once been called the Phenix Community Hospital. The Hospital was located in what was then call Girard, Alabama. The town's name was changed on several occasions and was known as the original "sin City". A movie called "The Phenix City Story" was written and produced in the early 1960's. Hospital was turned into a boarding house for the homeless and caught on fire in August of 2015. Efforts to save it were unsuccessful and was deemed for demolition July 2015. Structure was reported to be haunted.
PHENIX CITY–A public television documentary tells about the transformation of an Alabama city so wicked that Gen. George S. Patton threatened to roll his tanks across the river from Ft. Benning and destroy it.
“Up From the Ashes: The Rebirth of Phenix City” shows how the National Guard crushed a crime syndicate here in 1954, radically changing the course of this historic river town.
Located in Russell County, Phenix City is on the Chattahoochee River, opposite Columbus, Ga. Most of the area’s jobs have always been in Georgia at the mills and at Ft. Benning. Since Phenix City lacked the revenue that jobs bring in, the city fathers took an unusual step.
“They voted to authorize gambling to come in, illegally, of course, and they collected revenue in the form of licenses of illegal gambling operations,” explains former governor John Patterson. “This was a conscious decision that the city fathers made.”
During WWII, many of the 100,000 soldiers who were stationed at Ft. Benning visited the clubs, gambling halls, and houses of prostitution in Phenix City. They often got into trouble with the owners of these establishments.
“They would completely take advantage of these soldiers,” says Margaret Anne Barnes, author of “The Tragedy and Triumph of Phenix City, Alabama.” “They would get them drunk or get them to gamble and take all of a man’s money, and if he objected about being ill-treated, then he was beat up and sometimes killed.”
But some of Phenix City’s citizens, led by local merchant Hugh Bentley, were ashamed of the city’s tarnished reputation and organized to bring an end to the crime. Bentley’s house was bombed, which made him only more determined to root out the criminals. When Bentley ally Albert Patterson ran for attorney general on an anti-crime platform, the syndicate tried fixing the election and buying votes. Patterson, a Phenix City attorney, won the election but was gunned down on the street before he could clean up the town.
Albert Patterson and Hugh Bentley led efforts to clean up the town. Bentley's house was bombed and Patterson was murdered.
“The end result of my father’s murder is that the people of Alabama had had enough,” says John Patterson, who followed in his father’s footsteps and became attorney general and governor. “They insisted something be done about it. So they sent the National Guard in, put it under martial law, and busted up the gambling joints, burned all the equipment, and prosecuted about six or seven hundred people, and, in the course of the next year, cleaned it up.”
Chief Deputy Sheriff Albert Fuller was convicted in the murder of Albert Patterson.
“This is the only place and the only time in the history of this nation that martial law has been declared other than for a riot or a natural catastrophe,” says Hilda Coulter, a Phenix City florist who worked with Bentley and Patterson.
Heartpine:
Thanks to Southern Longleaf pine, the United States was once the world leader in Naval supplies; tar, pitch and turpentine, until the mid 20th century. The bark was scraped with a *bark hack* to cause the tree to bleed oleoresin which was used to make turpentine. The injury to the tree caused it to produce denser growth and additional resin creating both harder and very beautiful wood. Over-logged and slow growing, the great Longleaf pine forests of the US have never returned . Longleaf pine has not been available commercially since 1924.
Heart Pine, also known as Southern Longleaf yellow pine, old growth pine or Heartpine served as a major factor in the building of much of colonial America. Colonists who set foot on this vast land found nearly 100,000 square miles of forests covering southwestern Virginia to central Florida, along the gulf coast as far west as Texas. These dense forests contained enormous trees that grew as tall as 175 feet and as wide as 125 inches. Most trees averaged 125 feet tall and 40 inches wide at maturity. The wood from these trees built a great number of structures throughout America and the world, many of which still stand today. Homes, plantations, mills, warehouses, factories and public buildings were constructed out of longleaf pine. In fact, the settlers of Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas built 75 percent of their houses and public buildings out of longleaf pine.
The astounding versatility of this wood was apparent, being incorporated into everyday items such as farm implements, furniture and cabinets, to construction, flooring and siding.; The exceptional structural quality of the longleaf pine was utilized in bridges, wharves, trestles, posts, joists and piles. The wood was used to build ships for first the English Navy, followed by the American Navy. Longleaf pine was also a major source for naval stores. The massive ship, the USS Constitution, also known as "Old Ironsides", was constructed using heart pine timber and white oak and its decks are of heart pine planks. This ship, built in 1794, is the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy.
Longleaf pine continued its historical impact with the ruling of King George II, who in the 1700's mandated that all straight pines exceeding 24 inches in diameter would be considered property of the crown. He then ordered his surveyors to brand the pines with his mark of a broad arrow. In response to this proclamation, the colonists tarred and feathered the surveyors. This act is considered by many to have been a precursor to the Boston Tea Party.
As the Industrial Revolution surged ahead, the development of machinery and locomotives geared toward logging, and equipment such as steam skidders and band saws quickened the pace and greatly increased the volume of logs that was processed. By the mid-1920's, most of the available virgin forest was logged.
Sadly today, only about 5 percent of the original virgin forest remains. Longleaf pine was not replanted to a great extent, due to the lengthy period of time, 150 to 400 years, to maturity. The only sources of old growth heart pine available for use today are reclaimed wood from old buildings, or recovered wood from river bottoms
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