Lyman Frugia, Page One

Hard work and dangerous. This "river-boy" Lyman Frugia. Poles the heavy logs into the incline that takes them up to the mill. It is not only hard work, but he is exposed to all kinds of weather and is dangerous too. Said he is 14 years old, has worked here several months, gets one dollar a day. Miller & Vidor Lumber Company. This is the only mill I found around Beaumont that employed boys - likely because they are located some distance from town. Location: Beaumont, Texas, November 1913, Lewis Hine.

The following is from Industrial relations: Final report and testimony, by United States Commission on Industrial Relations, Basil Maxwell Manly, 1916

"IX. Lumber mills.-November 6 to 10, 1913, in the lumber mills at Doucette and Nacogdoches-Frost-Johnson Lumber Co. (large mills), and Millard Lumber Co. I found no young boys. Then I went through the following mills in Beaumont and found no young boys: Kirby Lumber Co., Neches Lumber Co., Beaumont Shingle & Lumber Co., Georges Lumber Co. I talked with the superintendent of the Beaumont Shingle & Lumber Co., who said, ‘We used to use some young boys in the shingle mill, but a Government inspector came along and said that, while he wouldn't do anything this time, he would advise us to get those boys out of the mill just as fast as we could. It cost us a hundred dollars a day, I think. Boys don't pay around this work anyway.'"

"After finding all these good conditions I was greatly surprised to find three violations of the law in the Miller & Vidor Lumber Co., one of 12 years, and two of 14 years, all working more or less around dangerous machinery. This mill is located some distance from town, and that may account for the liberties they take with the law."

"At Orange I found one boy who said he was 13, and one boy who appeared to be 14, working in the Miller-Link Lumber Co., and a 14-year old boy at the Lutcher, Moore Lumber Co., and several who might be under 15."

"In other mills more remotely situated there are surely other violations of the law to be found. Fifteen years is too young for such boys to be working near and at dangerous machinery. Age should be raised."

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Charles Shelton Vidor acquired the Beaumont Sawmill Company in 1902, and soon established the Miller-Vidor Lumber Company. Its headquarters was in Galveston, and the company owned land, mills and lumber railroads in parts of East Texas. The towns of Vidor and Milvid are named for him. His son, King Vidor, became an award-winning film director, known for such movies as Stella Dallas, Duel in the Sun, and The Fountainhead.

According to the Vidor Chamber of Commerce website, the city is located about six miles east of Beaumont. The area had heavy lumbering activities with the construction of the Texarkana and Fort Smith Railroad in 1898. In 1913, a company tram road was built. It was known locally as the Peach Line, and it opened thousands of acres of virgin timber to loggers. Almost all Vidor residents worked for the company. In 1924 the Miller-Vidor Lumber Company moved to Lakeview because local timber stands were depleted, but a small settlement remained, and the Miller-Vidor subdivision was laid out in 1929. Rice, cotton, and cattle were developed into important local industries.

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As soon as I saw Lyman's photos, I thought of Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain. But the caption betrays the romantic image of the "river boy." This was serious business for 14-year-old Lyman, and I immediately wanted to know how things turned out for him. It didn't take me long, perhaps about an hour at the most. His unusual name was a big help.

He turned up in the 1930 census, as Lyman Fregia, married to Sadie, and working as a building contractor. They had two children, including son Lyman, Jr. Then I found him in the Social Security Death Index, as Lyman Frugia. He died in Beaumont in 1980. I went right to the Internet white pages and found a Lyman Frugia, Jr living in Vidor, Texas, so I called him. He was the son, and he was very surprised about the photos. They went out in the mail the next day.

Lyman Frugia was born in Beaumont on May 11, 1899, the youngest of three children born to Pierre Virgil Frugia and Lidia Cuniff, who married in 1891. Pierre had been married once before, to Mary Bowes, and they had seven children. By the time Lyman was born, Pierre was already 62 years old. He died in 1910. I could find no record of Lidia's death. Most of the information up to this point had come from a family history website.

In the 1900 census, Lyman's father was listed as a "river boy man." In the 1910 census, Lyman was living with relatives, though it is not clear how he was related. In 1920, he was living with his sister and her husband, and his occupation was listed as boiler maker in a shipyard. According to Lyman, Jr, his father married Sadie Ray Boudreaux on May 10, 1921. He was 22, and she was 13.