Green Swamp's Town of Cumpressco
Information By Nell M. Woodcock
This is a glance back to a place called Cumpressco that once existed in the 1920-40’s east of Dade City beyond River Road. At the end of River Road there was a dirt road, an iron bridge that spanned the Withlacoochee River, more dirt road then Cumpressco. And the swamps of east Pasco and Sumter Counties.
This was a point of entry for Cummer Sons Cypress Company into Florida’s vast multi-county Green Swamp and its stands of virgin cypress trees. These particular stands on the winding Withlacoochee River were known as the “Cumpressco Group.”
The logging operation at Cumpressco was a vital component of their sawmill located in the town of Lacoochee north of Dade City. Cummer built a railroad from the mill to the logging camp located just inside Sumter County. A narrow dirt road that paralleled the tracks was for company purposes only. The main public access to Cumpressco was from Dade City’s River Road.
It was a hustling, bustling community then. Men with pile drivers and a crew of workers, built railroad tracks into the swamps to reach individual strands of cypress. Other men, sometimes in waist deep water, fell these trees with cross saws and axes. Skidder operators and their crew moved them to the railroad tracks while others loaded the logs on rail cars. Once a certain number of cars were filled, Cummer’s railroad engineers moved the train to the mill in Lacoochee.
This is a glance back to a place called Cumpressco that once existed in the 1920-40’s east of Dade City beyond River Road. At the end of River Road there was a dirt road, an iron bridge that spanned the Withlacoochee River, more dirt road then Cumpressco. And the swamps of east Pasco and Sumter Counties.
This was a point of entry for Cummer Sons Cypress Company into Florida’s vast multi-county Green Swamp and its stands of virgin cypress trees. These particular stands on the winding Withlacoochee River were known as the “Cumpressco Group.”
The logging operation at Cumpressco was a vital component of their sawmill located in the town of Lacoochee north of Dade City. Cummer built a railroad from the mill to the logging camp located just inside Sumter County. A narrow dirt road that paralleled the tracks was for company purposes only. The main public access to Cumpressco was from Dade City’s River Road.
It was a hustling, bustling community then. Men with pile drivers and a crew of workers, built railroad tracks into the swamps to reach individual strands of cypress. Other men, sometimes in waist deep water, fell these trees with cross saws and axes. Skidder operators and their crew moved them to the railroad tracks while others loaded the logs on rail cars. Once a certain number of cars were filled, Cummer’s railroad engineers moved the train to the mill in Lacoochee.
Ronald Stanley, who spends his time between Wesley Chapel and the mountains of North Carolina, remembers Cumpressco. On a summer vacation from school one year, his father Jesse Stanley, a key Cummer employee, put him to work on a logging train. Here’s Ronald’s story:
The logging train left the mill at daylight and followed the main line into Cumpressco. Every quarter mile a spur was run to the river...the first spur at the Iron Bridge; second spur at Stanley Hole; the third spur (can’t remember the name) and then several smaller minor spurs throughout the property. Along each spur the cypress was cut, skidded out of the swamp and loaded onto flatcars, which were later picked up by the engine and hauled to the mill.
My job on the logging crew that summer was to take the logging hook from the skidder, wade through the swamp and hook it onto the fallen log, all while being alert for alligators and snakes. We were plagued by mosquitoes big enough to stand flatfooted and “embrace” a wild turkey! The logging train returned to the mill at “dark-thirty.” For all this summer fun, I was paid $.45/hr.
The logging train left the mill at daylight and followed the main line into Cumpressco. Every quarter mile a spur was run to the river...the first spur at the Iron Bridge; second spur at Stanley Hole; the third spur (can’t remember the name) and then several smaller minor spurs throughout the property. Along each spur the cypress was cut, skidded out of the swamp and loaded onto flatcars, which were later picked up by the engine and hauled to the mill.
My job on the logging crew that summer was to take the logging hook from the skidder, wade through the swamp and hook it onto the fallen log, all while being alert for alligators and snakes. We were plagued by mosquitoes big enough to stand flatfooted and “embrace” a wild turkey! The logging train returned to the mill at “dark-thirty.” For all this summer fun, I was paid $.45/hr.
William Reeves Hyatt, Sr. (1895- 1967) was superintendent at Cumpressco then, Stanley recalled. Prior to that, Mr. Hyatt and his family had lived in Lacoochee where he was assigned to oversee the Black community. (See the Lacoochee Hyatts Story listed under Previous Stores.)
In that story a daughter, Aldora Hyatt, states the move to Cumpressco in the mind of a 15-year-old, seemed to be about a millions miles away down a dirt road into a swamp...
Like those in Lacoochee, Cumpressco had rows of segregated houses for Black and white employees. They had a commissary, doctor and doctor’s office, a Baptist Church and a school for Black students. White children were bused to Dade City schools. Cummer supplied electricity to the church and commissary, but residents used oil lamps in their homes, or relied on generators.
There are many men and women today in their 80’s and 90s who remember Cumpressco, including the writer, who is 86.
Wilbur North, 96, of Jacksonville, recalled the rough, dangerous work required of laborers in the swamps. And horrible machinery related accidents when some men lost limbs miles away from immediate medical attention. And no medical insurance.
His parents, Mack Dennie and Mary Leila Williams North, moved to Lacoochee in 1926, from White Springs, Florida. They had five boys. Mack, Tom, Hayes, L.C., Wilbur and Mark. And one girl, Keron North Tomlinson. The family moved to Cumpressco when Wilbur was a teenager. He attended school at St. Leo.
In that story a daughter, Aldora Hyatt, states the move to Cumpressco in the mind of a 15-year-old, seemed to be about a millions miles away down a dirt road into a swamp...
Like those in Lacoochee, Cumpressco had rows of segregated houses for Black and white employees. They had a commissary, doctor and doctor’s office, a Baptist Church and a school for Black students. White children were bused to Dade City schools. Cummer supplied electricity to the church and commissary, but residents used oil lamps in their homes, or relied on generators.
There are many men and women today in their 80’s and 90s who remember Cumpressco, including the writer, who is 86.
Wilbur North, 96, of Jacksonville, recalled the rough, dangerous work required of laborers in the swamps. And horrible machinery related accidents when some men lost limbs miles away from immediate medical attention. And no medical insurance.
His parents, Mack Dennie and Mary Leila Williams North, moved to Lacoochee in 1926, from White Springs, Florida. They had five boys. Mack, Tom, Hayes, L.C., Wilbur and Mark. And one girl, Keron North Tomlinson. The family moved to Cumpressco when Wilbur was a teenager. He attended school at St. Leo.
Buddy Weeks, 80, of Winter Park, spent his childhood in Lacoochee where his father worked. He recalled staying with relatives in Cumpressco as a young boy. When shown a picture of the row houses, Buddy said,
This is exactly how I remember the “quarters” at Cumpressco. One time a cousin lived in the second house on the right. Their names were Woodrow and Eva Worley. Eva worked as a bookkeeper in the office there in Cumpressco.In one of the other houses, lived a great aunt and her husband, Mamie and Buck Burnett. I have spent a lot of time out there. Good memories.
Another couple he recalled was Craft and Bertie Bryant.
Some of those houses were moved to Lacoochee after Cumpressco closed down. The last time he visited the site there still remained an old ‘work car’, a modified box car, used to transport workers, by rail, out to the work sites.
The living quarters did not have electricity, so some of the people had Aladdin kerosene lamps. These lamps gave off the brightest light I had ever seen. They did have indoor plumbing, as I recall.One time, I remember going with Woodrow Worley and Hayes North from Cumpressco out into the swamp on a railroad motor car so they could repair a broken down Caterpillar (tracked vehicle).
He described the multi-county Green Swamp area now controlled by the Southwest Florida Water Management District as a “recharge area” for the Floridian aquifer and the headwaters of the Withlacoochee, Hillsborough and Kissimmee rivers known as the “Pasco High.”
Iva Bryant, 92, of Dade City, recalls an automobile jammed full of kids with furniture and other belongings piled onto a railroad car when her family move from Levy County to Cumpressco.
This is exactly how I remember the “quarters” at Cumpressco. One time a cousin lived in the second house on the right. Their names were Woodrow and Eva Worley. Eva worked as a bookkeeper in the office there in Cumpressco.In one of the other houses, lived a great aunt and her husband, Mamie and Buck Burnett. I have spent a lot of time out there. Good memories.
Another couple he recalled was Craft and Bertie Bryant.
Some of those houses were moved to Lacoochee after Cumpressco closed down. The last time he visited the site there still remained an old ‘work car’, a modified box car, used to transport workers, by rail, out to the work sites.
The living quarters did not have electricity, so some of the people had Aladdin kerosene lamps. These lamps gave off the brightest light I had ever seen. They did have indoor plumbing, as I recall.One time, I remember going with Woodrow Worley and Hayes North from Cumpressco out into the swamp on a railroad motor car so they could repair a broken down Caterpillar (tracked vehicle).
He described the multi-county Green Swamp area now controlled by the Southwest Florida Water Management District as a “recharge area” for the Floridian aquifer and the headwaters of the Withlacoochee, Hillsborough and Kissimmee rivers known as the “Pasco High.”
Iva Bryant, 92, of Dade City, recalls an automobile jammed full of kids with furniture and other belongings piled onto a railroad car when her family move from Levy County to Cumpressco.