The Middle of the Forest

[The narrator of this biography was my paternal grandfather, Goerge M. Levingston, or "Captain George," as he was usually called.  His grandfather was a shipbuilder in Northern Ireland, who built a schooner and sailed it to Florida in 1832.  My grandfather takes up the story in 1850, when the family first arrived in Texas.]

My father was a shipbuilder in Florida.  He built a two-masted schooner there, moved his furnishings aboard it and sailed it to Texas, landing at Galveston. From there, he sailed up the Sabine River to Orange. At that time Orange was known as Greens Bluff. He then built another ship on a shell bank on the Sabine River. Shortly after this the Civil War broke out. While using his schooner to run the Union Block Aid, the ship was sunk in a battle with the Union Navy. He then joined the Confederate army and fought in the battle of Sabine Pass. After the war was over, He started another shipyard and built paddle wheel boats that operated on the Sabine River between Orange and Logansport hauling cotton and farm produce.

I was born in Orange in 1874. We had a farm with lots of cattle on it. When I was ten years old I took over the farm. I had one brother, Samuel W. Lcvingston, and we worked the farm together. We went to school when we could, but the school was small and only went to the fifth grade. We had four books, a reader, Blueback speller, geography, arithmetic, and slate.

When I was 18 years old I went to work with my father in the shipyard. At that tine the old ship carpenters would build a wooden model, usually at a scale of 1/2" equal one foot, for the boat they wanted to build. This model was built from 1/2" thick boards, fastened together with wooden pegs, and shaped to suit the ideas of the builder. The model was for one half the boat. After the model was shaped up to suit the model maker, it was lined off for the frame spacing desired. The hull form was then laid down full size on the mold loft floor using calipers and scale. Offsets were taken at the intersection of the frames and water lines. The water lines were formed by the joints between the 1/2" boards in the model, the lines were then paired up on the loft floor. During my early days in boat building we always made a model first and then after the lines were faired on the loft floor, offsets were taken from the floor to make the drawings. Now the Architect makes the drawings first, and gives the offsets to the builder.

About I896, Joe Weaver, Sr, and I started a partnership, building barges for the Galveston Navigation District at Orange, Lake Charles, and Beaumont. In 1898 we built a set of shipways where the Weaver Shipyard is now. In 1901, oil was struck in Beaumont at Spindletop. Weaver and I built two large wooden barges for the Higman Oil Co. Each had a row of tanks, 8 ft, x 20 ft. x 9 ft. doed, caulked and made oil tight. They were about 36' beam and 175' long, and were built for Ocean Services. In 1912 I sold my interest in the yard to Ed L. Weaver.

I then operated the shipyard for Weaver and Son until 19l4. In 1914 I went to Morgan City, Louisiana to build six wooden cargo ships for the Union Bridge and Construction Co, for the U. S. Government. Before these ships were completed I was drafted, through the Houston Draft Office as a district hull inspector for this district, which included Morgan City, Orange, Beaumont, Houston, and Rockport.  I served in this capacity until the war was over in 1918.

In the later part of 1919, I started another yard in Orange at the end of Moss Street on part of the old Miller-Link sawmill site. At this yard I built several barges and three tugboats for the Higman Towing Co. The first boat built at this yard was the tug "Lutcher Brown". Among other vessels built at this yard were the tug boats and barges for the Sabine River Ferry at Orange and the Neches River Ferry between Orange and Port Arthur. 

     In 1930 I bought five acres of ground, included in the present site of the Levingston Shipbuilding Company. From 1930-1931, eight wooden barges were built on the new site, four for W. T. Burton & Co., two for Clooney Construction Co., and two for Higman Towing Co. During this period, the machinery and buildings from the old yard on Moss Street were moved to the new location. The old mold loft and carpenter shop is still in use, although it has been added to since that time. Among the wooden vessels built at the new yard were the "Henry Grey", "Billie Lawton", Keith McKerrow", "Evelyn Shaddock", "W.I. Burton", all wooden tugs for W. T. Burton & Co.

In 1933 the yard was incorporated under the name "Levingston Shipbuilding Co." with G. M. Lcvingston, E. W. Brown, Jr., Geo. Sells and W. P. Trellue as stockholders.  Shortly thereafter, J. G. McMullen joined the corporation, and a machine shop and welding equipment installed.  I remained a stockholder and was active in the yard until 1945 when I sold my stock in the yard and retired.

G. M. Levingston January, 1954