Jonnie Miller's Newton County: A Glimpse From the Past
Uncle Tom
John Lawrence Trotti aka “Uncle Tom” (1822-1894) migrated from Florida to Mississippi to Arkansas and then having a restless spirit, to Newton County, Texas in 1844. On the way he planted crops and moved on west. When he moved into Texas and then Newton County, he had nine large farm wagons and three family carriages with household goods, farm implements, provisions, twenty-three slaves and family. In Newton County he established the Trotti Plantation. He was the son of James F. and Harriet Harley Trotti. James F. and Harriet were one of the first couples to obtain a divorce in Newton County. John Lawrence married Rebecca Ann Booker in 1847and later Elizabeth Frazier. J. L. Trotti was a citizen of Newton County.
When he was six, Tom’s father, made him a mill boy, taking the corn to the grist mill to be ground into meal. The mill was five miles away so his father made the first trip with him to show him the way. There were many forks in the road so at each fork he stopped and put a pile of pine knots on the right road as a marker.
When Tom was twenty, he enlisted in the Indian War under Capt. Joe Brailsford of Burkeville. After the company was discharged in 1871, he became known as a logging man. He was associated with logging for fifty years.
For his first venture into the logging business he had two oxen and a two-wheel cart. The oxen only worked half a day. They were turned out to graze on grass for the other half day-the best and cheapest way to feed them. Tom put bells on them so he could find them when he needed them. He had a very cunning oxen named Bell. That old oxen would eat his fill then lie down in tall grass in order not ring his bell. Tom finally tied him to a young steer that couldn’t stay still too long. He didn’t have so much trouble finding Bell after that.
After gathering a good supply of logs, he floated them down the Sabine River to Orange where he was paid $5.50 per thousand feet for them. Riding the loose logs took a special skill. He would get on a loose log, shove it out from the bank, and fish from it. One time he was so busy fishing he drifted into current and was too far from shore to swim back. He drifted twenty miles downriver before he ran into a ferryman who rescued him.
When Cow Creek Tram Company was organized Tom was made superintendent of the logging Department and when Capt. E. D. Downs and Ed Ellington organized the Newton County Tram Company, he joined them. Several years later they sold out to Kirby Lumber Company.
Jonnie Miller is a retired teacher and principal. She lives in Bleakwood, TX which is south of Newton in Newton County. She enjoys volunteering at the history center, the county library, and her church. She is also the secretary of the Newton County Garden Club and has been for 3 years. Her husband is retired from Dupont in Beaumont, TX. She has a son who is a partner in Grant Thornton Consulting in Philadelphia, and has two grandchildren, a boy and girl.
