Bob Barton Award

Garrison business man Bob Barton has historical ties to his family owned crosstie company dating back to the year 1885 and the founding of the town of Garrison, Texas. The year 1885 was also the year that the Houston East and West Texas Railroad came to town as a result of a land sale negotiated by the town's founder, Captain Jim Garrison. Captain Jim subsequently became the first area railroad crosstie contractor.
Since 1885 the crosstie contract has passed from the Captain Jim Garrison Estate to the R. T. Patterson Estate to the Belton Latimer and N. H. Jarrett Estate and finally in 1957 to its present owner/managers, the K. L. Barton family, known today as the Barton Tie Company.
As young men in the year 1948, twelve-year- old Bob and his brother Kenneth, now deceased, began working in the woods with their father K. L. Barton loading ties purchased primarily from local land owners. The ties were loaded first on the shoulders of hired laborers. They were later loaded by a wench truck crudely fashioned by Bob's Uncle N. H. Jarrett from a 1946 Chevrolet log truck. The Barton family still owns the old truck which reminds them of the timber industry struggles of days gone by.
Bob and Kenneth as part of a five-man crew were paid five cents per each loaded tie. At the end of the day, the crew's wages were split five ways among its members, and the pay was the same, whether the tie was loaded by shoulder or by the wench truck. A present-day crew using a forklift to load would draw a significantly higher wage based on the fact that in 1948 ties sold for $3 each and today sell upwards of $20.00 each depending on the size of the tie.
Today Barton Tie Co. buys ties from 25 to 40 different East Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas sawmills. These sawmills in turn purchase from numerous logging companies that each employ five to fifteen man crews to harvest the logs,
During World War II, the railroads monopolized the transportation industry requiring possibly more ties during the 1940's and '50's than they do today. Yet, even competing with today's trucking industry, U. S. railroads used 21,000,000 wooden ties not counting the use of composite ties made from plastics, concrete, steal, and laminates. Union Pacific alone, the largest class one railroad west of the Mississippi, has 33,000 miles of track and approximately 3,000 ties are required for each mile.
Since the founding of the town of Garrison and the 1885 initial contract with the HE&WT, Barton Tie Company has sold ties and contracted with Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Berlington Northern, Kansas City Southern and Union Pacific Railroads as well as with several creosote treating plants.
In 1968 Bob's father K. L. Barton built a pallet mill designed to use the excess or side lumber from the sawmills. The pallet mill is still in operation today recycling lumber and using all logs too small to qualify for ties. Pallets used for storage and transportation are a vital part of the timber and tie industry.
Timber is only one component of an integrated East Texas process including both the poultry and the cattle industry. Because individual farmers use and are dependent on each others' land, trees, wood chips, sawdust, fertilizer, and hay, all three industries are interrelated and thrive as a result. The process is based on economics, but that same process promotes goodwill and lifelong relationships among farmers and generations of families.
Barton Tie Company and the Barton family as well their friends and neighbors are a vital part of that integrated process. According to Bob Barton, his is not just a job. It is an integrated life-style that he lives and loves every single day.