Grabow Riot - The Graybow Riot

The Graybow Riot

Motivated by a need for better working conditions and pay versing a continuation of the Status quo from the mill owners, the forces of labor and ownership collided at the little sawmill town of Grabow, Louisiana at around 6:00 p.m. on July 7, 1912. This might have signaled the beginning of the end of the 1911-1912 timber war fought in the piney woods of west Louisiana and east Texas.

There is nothing to indicate that either side of this war intended for the Grabow Riot to happen. Neither from the Brotherhood of Timber Workers side or that of the Southern Lumber Operators Association. But there is much evidence foreshadowing a violent confrontation between these two to occur somewhere within Beauregard Parish during this period. It was the stated intent of the union to strike against the mills located in DeRidder, Louisiana and surrounding area. It was also the stated intent of the mill owners and operators to only shut down the mills in the DeRidder area and lockout and blacklist the workers. The Long-Bell Lumber Company's subsidiary Hudson River Lumber Company in DeRidder, was not part of the Southern Lumber Operators Association and not only honored the Brotherhood, but paid cash to employee's.

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 only 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, Louisiana. The small group of approximately 200 were making 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 a violent confrontation at Grabow resulting in 4 deaths and 50 wounded in a short shoot-out of around 15 minutes and an estimated 300 shots. The timber workers and their associates, one of them being a notorious gunman by the name of "Leather Britches" Smith were engaged in this exchange of gunfire. 58 of the timber worker's group were subsequently put on trial for various charges ranging from inciting a riot to murder. The trial ended in Lake Charles, Louisiana on November 2, 1912. Most of the men were acquitted and set free. None of them was charged with murder or for inciting a riot. "Leather Britches" Smith would meet his end soon after in a hail of gunfire from 4 deputies on September 25, 1912. There is a historical marker of the site of the riot on what is now DeRidder, Louisiana Airport property.