Dr. Marty Olliff's monthly series continues with a look at a thriving industry in the Wiregrass in the early 20th century.
Although the Wiregrass is known for commercial-scale peanut and cotton agriculture, those were late comers to the region’s economic life. Hunting and bottom-land gardening fed the original Native American inhabitants, and white settlers merely added droving of rangy cattle and hogs to the mix.
Eventually, naval stores and small-scale logging supplemented the new inhabitants’ incomes,…