Great Southern Lumber Company

The Great Southern Lumber Company was chartered in Pennsylvania in 1902. The Goodyear family, owners of the company, purchased land and erected a sawmill for the cutting of pine timber in Washington Parish, Louisiana, at the future site of the town of Bogalusa. The lumber company expanded into other enterprises including the establishment of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad (1905), the Bogalusa Paper Company, the Bogalusa Turpentine Company, Bogalusa Tung Oil, Inc., and the Bogalusa Stores. The company also became involved in reforestation in Louisiana, and it established the Bogue Chitto Farm, which demonstrated stock farm operation on clear-cut land. William H. Sullivan was vice-president and general manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company, 1905-1929, president of the Bogalusa Paper Company, and mayor of Bogalusa, 1914-1929.