Article by Ralph R. Norman, Sr. (1975)

In 1907 a young man thirty-four years old, six feet nine inches tall, weighing two hundred twenty-five pounds, all muscle, came to Fort Deposit. He was named Moscow Reynard Norman, nicknamed “Pete.” He and James R. (Jim) Callen opened a shop about where town hall now stands. On the Southeast corner of Rogers and Pollard Street stood a block of two two-story brick mercantile buildings and next door the Callen & Norman shop was just East. Further East was the Armory, the National Guard building. Behind the brick mercantile buildings and the Callen & Norman shop building was a vacant lot, about where the jail is now.

On this vacant lot Pete Norman set up a small sawmill. A 15 HP IHC one cylinder gasoline engine was the power unit. This sawmill had a capacity to two to three thousand feet of lumber per day when logs were available. The shop and sawmill were the first business interests of Pete Norman in Fort Deposit.

Pete Norman was born and grew up in Beat 5, Butler County, about eight or nine miles Southeast from Fort Deposit. His father, John James Norman, came down from the Carolinas and settled here and married Mary Elizabeth Sheppard. There were six children born to them, four boys and two girls. Pete (Moscow R. Norman) was the youngest and John was the oldest child.

John James Norman was a millwright and installed waterwheels and gristmills. Waterpower was the main source of power for grinding corn meal and grits. He installed a water mill at his place in Beat 5. There is even now some evidence where the millrace and waterwheel were situated. John and Pete got lots of experience in shop work doing things on the family farm and doing work for the neighbor farmers of the community. Most of the homes were notched log houses. The logs were fitted close but still there were some open spaces between the logs. These were daubed with clay mud to seal out the cold wind. There was plenty of fresh air still. Usually the fireplaces and chimneys were built from home-baked brick or rock daubed with lime mud mortar.

In the early years the railroad was a must. The roads were usually narrow and a dirt surface. It took regular scraping to keep them fairly smooth. Almost all the hauling was done by the railroad. What farm produce moved from the farm to town was by wagon, one, two or four mule rigs. It was a problem to move on the dirt roads because when it rained the surface became muddy. It if rained much the mud became knee deep, even in the streets. Mules and oxen did logging in the woods. Then hauled to the mill by mule or ox wagon. They used a big Gramm Bernstein truck equipped with solid rubber tires to do some logging, in dry weather.

In 1911, M.R. Norman bought a ten-acre lot of land at the Southeast corner of Rogers and Cassady Streets (ten acres across from the Church of Christ) and first built a blacksmith shop. He also built a sawmill on this site. With the sawmill he cut the lumber and built a gristmill, a gin house and a seed storage house. In 1913 he installed the gins, two centennial plan front 70-saw units and a screw-type press to bale out the cotton. In quick succession he built a garage, a dry kiln, installed a small planer and built a small lumber storage shed. The store building was built and Mrs. Hugh Black (Ada Burdeaux) rented the building and operated a grocery store. Along about 1917 he also built a feed mill and ground up velvet beans into cow feed. The First World War was in progress and everything was in demand.

When the war was over things slowed down. In 1917 M. R. Norman expanded the sawmill and set up a mill at Hope Hull and cut out a good volume of lumber there. He sold this unit and in 1920 put another mill on a 40-acre tract of timber next to Lincoln Cemetery in Montgomery. He and J. Levy Davis operated this mill. They sold a lot of the framing lumber used in building the Kilby Prison. This operation was ended in 1921.

In the year 1922 Ralph Norman was employed by M. R. Norman as full-time bookkeeper and whatever turned up to do. Ralph was a nephew of M. R. Norman and the son of John Norman, Pete’s oldest brother.

John Norman with his family moved to Fort Deposit in 1915 and was employed by M. R. Norman in his blacksmith shop. Ralph at twelve years of age was working after school and on Saturdays and vacation time with M. R. Norman as water boy and anything that came to hand. At sixteen he was sawyer at the Davis & Norman sawmill in Montgomery summertime 1921. On February 1, 1926, Norman Trading and Milling Company was opened on the corner of Rogers and Pollard Streets. The Montgomery highway, which was re-routed over the overhead bridge and down through town in front of Fort Deposit Motor Company, caused M.R. Norman to relocate. He refurbished the old Southern Cotton Oil gin building and opened a general country store. He installed a new, three-stand Continental gin system. The old Southern Cotton Oil gin outfit was moved to Luverne in 1925 and he operated it there in 1925 and 1926. This plant was sold to Luverne Oil Mill in 1927.

M. R. Norman bought and sold cattle from 1922 through 1925. He rented pasture where some of the cattle were grass finished. Trucks were being bought by many operators, 1˝ ton light type, and cattle trading dwindled because people began sending them via truck to Union Stock Yards in Montgomery. Farming was the principle activity in the community, cotton, corn and a few cattle and hogs and barnyard chickens. The average family was almost self-sustaining. Some farm butchers would kill and sell beef from their wagon with it shaded by green boughs from gum trees.

Norman Trading and Milling Company began business in the main section of their building, what is now the hardware section. There was a four-pump filling station in front of the store with a big shed covering. The cotton warehouse was built and the first cotton stored in it from the crop of 1926. Business was good. Most of the farming was done by walking and hand tools with mules pulling them. In front of the cotton warehouse Norman Trading and Milling Company had a horse and mule sales pen. Roads were slowly being improved. The Montgomery road was graveled and finally paved when it was re-routed from the overhead bridge to five points.

Trucks and automobiles were beginning to be sold by local dealers. Heretofore you generally went to Montgomery to buy a new car or truck. Trucks and cars started the change in manner of operating. Roads, although better maintained, were still dirt or sand clay surfaced. Blacktop roads began to be used here and there in the early 1930’s. Fort Deposit got the streets blacktopped through a WPA program.

Norman Trading and Milling Company did some advancing business. Farmers, white and black, made their arrangements about February and usually paid the notes from the crops as marketed in October and November. This was a good system until farmers began buying automobiles on a monthly pay plan. Norman’s continued in the advancing business until 1938 when the system was changed to cash or in some instances EOM (end of month) credit plan.

In 1929 Norman’s bought a large quantity of cotton and held it for a higher price in the spring of 1930. It proved to be a bad choice, for the cotton they bought and paid up to 30˘ per pound went down to three-quarters of a cent. This operation dried up their cash resources. They could not pay their bills. They had lots of notes on land, cattle and various farm equipment. They could not afford to foreclose the notes. To do so would mean they must pay the taxes, feed the cattle and house the various and sundry farm equipment. And if times did improve, they would have to trade with the very people they took all the goods from. So they just rode with them.

And as for the debts they owed? Of all the firms only one, Belknap Hardware & Manufacturing Co., had a credit man who cared enough to try to help them. Mr. Dara E. Cross, Vice President and Treasurer, came to their store and spent a whole night scheduling their finances so they could manage to stay in business. He went further and influenced the other creditors to give them time to pay out. Two of their creditors, Rice Stix Dry Goods Co. of St. Louis and Steiner Lobman Dry Goods Co., said they saw no hope for them. So they paid them immediately and decided never to buy anything from them again. Both firms are out of business, maybe not because they quit buying from them.

Realizing they were in a long, drawn-out workout, M. R. Norman told Ralph to “stay with me until we got this mess cleared up and I will give you a clear one-fourth interest in the business.” It took until 1934 to get the business back in good shape financially. True to his promise, M. R. Norman gave Ralph Norman a clear title to 25% of the business and they operated as unequal partners. M.R. was then 61 years old and Ralph was 30 years old. Ralph was glad to devote all his energies.

When they moved downtown in 1926, they closed out their sawmill and other lumber business. Norman’s set up a country sawmill in 1928 and when the depression came this mill was closed. About 100,000 feet of lumber stacked on the woodyard either rotted or was closed out for about labor cost.

In 1928 they became fire insurance agents for American Eagle Fire Insurance Company, one of the Continental Group. Years later Continental placed their largest unit with them and withdrew the American Eagle. This agency has served their community for 47 years to date.

In 1928 they had a fearfully high fire insurance rate: $51.25 per $1,000. So they decided they must install automatic sprinklers. The rate came down to $5.00 per $1,000. To use the sprinklers they had to erect a 60,000-gallon steel tank. The tank cost $3,975 erected plus the foundation footings, which they had to install at a cost of $600 to $700. Grand total cost about $6,500 to $7,000 for the fire protection system.

In 1930 they decided the electric power was too expensive to gin cotton. They bought a diesel engine. The salesman explained it would gin a bale of cotton for 8˘ or 9˘ fuel cost per bale. What he forgot to mention was how much it would cost to maintain. No one nearer than New Orleans, the factory branch, knew how to work on it. Ralph became a jackleg diesel mechanic. This engine is sitting right where they originally installed it, 20 tons of high-grade scrap iron waiting for someone to operate it. What a mistake to make when the depression was getting harder all the time.

After Ralph became a partner in 1934 and with the economics getting somewhat less difficult they operated profitably on a very pleasant basis until the Second World War began to brew. In 1938 they bought a 620-acre farm at Atmore. Mr. Murchison was the manager of the farm. Mr. Louis Barrett was the assistant manager. Mr. Barrett was the younger and probably did much of the legwork of managing the farm. They grew cotton, corn and fed a few head of cattle at Atmore farm. Farm produce prices were low and production was average. So the farm was slow to becoming profitable.

In 1939 the war got going in Europe. Business was somewhat in the doldrums but people were busy and they were able to make a little progress. In 1941, on December 7, Japan sneaked the Pearl Harbor attack and almost destroyed the U.S. Navy. That was the beginning of U.S. direct entry into the war. They did business as usual, adjusting to the conditions caused by the conflict.

In 1943 Price Lumber Company offered them its planing mill and some other properties which they bought for $13,700. They bought lumber from the local sawmills, stacked it on the yard to dry and then after air-drying planed it and shipped it. Demand for the lumber was so keen they could not give it time to dry thoroughly. Price controls were in effect. They could only pay $0 for green lumber delivered to them at the yard. For #2 grade pine lumber after planing and loading into freight car they could charge only $32. So they worked out a system of shipping the lumber to their customer and letting the customer grade it when received and pay them for the grades received. This enabled them to get $38 to $40 for the finished product and it would net them about $2 per thousand board feet. It was hectic to operate under such strict control so in 1944 they offered the mill to Curtis Springer. He bought it and within sixty days sold it to W. T. Smith Lumber Company. Norman’s cleared about $40,000 on the deal.

In 1942, Ralph proposed to M. R. Norman to trade him his 25% interest in the Atmore farm for another 25% interest in Norman Trading and Milling Company at Fort Deposit. The trade was made with Ralph paying about $5,000 in additional cash. This made them equal partners in the Fort Deposit business.

In 1945 the war was running down and their families were getting grown. The partners, M. R. Norman at 72 years of age and wanting to take more time for personal relaxation, and Ralph at 41 years of age and wanting to drive harder, thought it an ideal time to dissolve the partnership. So they made a buy or sell dicker and Ralph bought the interest of M. R. Norman for $50,000 cash.

For the next 10 years Ralph operated as sole owner. This period was good for stable operation and the business prospered. After becoming sole owner the grocery department was relocated and became Super Food store with excellent discount prices. In 1947 they cleared the West wing where the gristmill and gin had been located. Selling the gin machinery for scrap and refinishing the area for dry goods department.

Back in 1935 they had bought the Farmers Gin & Warehouse Co. for $4,750 and they operated both gin plants until 1937 when they discontinued the gin plant next to the store. At that time they also took the #1 warehouse for heavy hardware storage using the cotton warehouse at the Farmers Gin site for all cotton storage. The main store building was remodeled for a hardware store department. Therefore, they now had a department store: Groceries – Hardware – Dry Goods, and that is the way it is today in 1975.

In 1952 the entire store was air-conditioned. Some of the traveling men said it was the first air conditioned operation in their territory.

Ralph, Jr., joined the firm in 1950. Alex Norman was away in the Air Corps after finishing Auburn in 1952. In 1956 Alex was getting out of the service; David was 20 years old; Siddie Mae and John and Peter were getting grown. So they decided to form a family partnership and operated as a family partnership until 1968.

In 1966 Ralph, Sr., had a heart attack. It proved to be a minor angina flare-up, but he realized he was ready to lighten up in the business. So on January 1, 1968, Norman Trading and Milling Company, Inc., began operating as a corporation. Ralph Norman, Jr., President; Alex Norman, Vice President & Secretary. They, plus David, Siddie Mae, John and Peter, were the Directors of the corporation. Ralph Norman, Sr., retained no interest in the corporation.