RANDOLPH (RAN) BATSON, 85, timber landowner, died this morning in the Methodist Hospital in Hattiesburg, MS.
The life of Mr. Batson, owner of some of the largest tracts of timber and land in South Mississippi, reads like a chapter from a Horatio Alger book. He started out in life very poor, working on farms and around sawmills for 50 cents and $1 per day.
In 1883 he and his brother, L.B. Batson, had saved $100 each. They pooled their funds, invested in a stock of merchandise and built a small store at Hillsdale just as crews began building the roadbed for the Southern railway. His customers were the railroad workers. As the Batsons prospered in a modest way, their earnings went back into the business and into the purchase of lands on which stood some of the finest virgin long-leaf pine in the world.
In 1893 the brothers dissolved the partnership and L.B. moved to Millard. Randolph Batson remained in Hillsdale to pyramid his original wages of 50 cents a day into a South Mississippi empire of lands and timber.
He later helped form the Batson-Hatten Lumber Company that cut and sold billions of feet of fine pine timber. At the time of his death he was president of the Batson Reforestation Corporation and the Pine Forests Corporation. With the cutting away of the virgin pine, Mr. Batson turned his attention to reforestation projects. At his death he was owner of approximately 14,000 acres on which he had been growing timber for years and which is stocked with deer and other wild game. In addition to this game and forest preserve, he owned other land throughout South Mississippi.
Poplarville, Miss., Oct. 23 - Randolph Batson rites set today. Funeral services will be conducted at the family residence at Hillsdale, five miles northeast of here, Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Dr. Judson Chastain, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Poplarville, and the Rev. James T. Horton, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, will officiate. Burial will be in the Poplarville Cemetery.
[From the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), dated October 24, 1948.]
Information submitted by Jennifer Myers (#48271200).
The life of Mr. Batson, owner of some of the largest tracts of timber and land in South Mississippi, reads like a chapter from a Horatio Alger book. He started out in life very poor, working on farms and around sawmills for 50 cents and $1 per day.
In 1883 he and his brother, L.B. Batson, had saved $100 each. They pooled their funds, invested in a stock of merchandise and built a small store at Hillsdale just as crews began building the roadbed for the Southern railway. His customers were the railroad workers. As the Batsons prospered in a modest way, their earnings went back into the business and into the purchase of lands on which stood some of the finest virgin long-leaf pine in the world.
In 1893 the brothers dissolved the partnership and L.B. moved to Millard. Randolph Batson remained in Hillsdale to pyramid his original wages of 50 cents a day into a South Mississippi empire of lands and timber.
He later helped form the Batson-Hatten Lumber Company that cut and sold billions of feet of fine pine timber. At the time of his death he was president of the Batson Reforestation Corporation and the Pine Forests Corporation. With the cutting away of the virgin pine, Mr. Batson turned his attention to reforestation projects. At his death he was owner of approximately 14,000 acres on which he had been growing timber for years and which is stocked with deer and other wild game. In addition to this game and forest preserve, he owned other land throughout South Mississippi.
Poplarville, Miss., Oct. 23 - Randolph Batson rites set today. Funeral services will be conducted at the family residence at Hillsdale, five miles northeast of here, Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Dr. Judson Chastain, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Poplarville, and the Rev. James T. Horton, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, will officiate. Burial will be in the Poplarville Cemetery.
[From the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), dated October 24, 1948.]
Information submitted by Jennifer Myers (#48271200).
RANDOLPH (RAN) BATSON, 85, timber landowner, died this morning in the Methodist Hospital in Hattiesburg, MS.
The life of Mr. Batson, owner of some of the largest tracts of timber and land in South Mississippi, reads like a chapter from a Horatio Alger book. He started out in life very poor, working on farms and around sawmills for 50 cents and $1 per day.
In 1883 he and his brother, L.B. Batson, had saved $100 each. They pooled their funds, invested in a stock of merchandise and built a small store at Hillsdale just as crews began building the roadbed for the Southern railway. His customers were the railroad workers. As the Batsons prospered in a modest way, their earnings went back into the business and into the purchase of lands on which stood some of the finest virgin long-leaf pine in the world.
In 1893 the brothers dissolved the partnership and L.B. moved to Millard. Randolph Batson remained in Hillsdale to pyramid his original wages of 50 cents a day into a South Mississippi empire of lands and timber.
He later helped form the Batson-Hatten Lumber Company that cut and sold billions of feet of fine pine timber. At the time of his death he was president of the Batson Reforestation Corporation and the Pine Forests Corporation. With the cutting away of the virgin pine, Mr. Batson turned his attention to reforestation projects. At his death he was owner of approximately 14,000 acres on which he had been growing timber for years and which is stocked with deer and other wild game. In addition to this game and forest preserve, he owned other land throughout South Mississippi.
Poplarville, Miss., Oct. 23 - Randolph Batson rites set today. Funeral services will be conducted at the family residence at Hillsdale, five miles northeast of here, Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Dr. Judson Chastain, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Poplarville, and the Rev. James T. Horton, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, will officiate. Burial will be in the Poplarville Cemetery.
[From the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), dated October 24, 1948.]
Information submitted by Jennifer Myers (#48271200).
The life of Mr. Batson, owner of some of the largest tracts of timber and land in South Mississippi, reads like a chapter from a Horatio Alger book. He started out in life very poor, working on farms and around sawmills for 50 cents and $1 per day.
In 1883 he and his brother, L.B. Batson, had saved $100 each. They pooled their funds, invested in a stock of merchandise and built a small store at Hillsdale just as crews began building the roadbed for the Southern railway. His customers were the railroad workers. As the Batsons prospered in a modest way, their earnings went back into the business and into the purchase of lands on which stood some of the finest virgin long-leaf pine in the world.
In 1893 the brothers dissolved the partnership and L.B. moved to Millard. Randolph Batson remained in Hillsdale to pyramid his original wages of 50 cents a day into a South Mississippi empire of lands and timber.
He later helped form the Batson-Hatten Lumber Company that cut and sold billions of feet of fine pine timber. At the time of his death he was president of the Batson Reforestation Corporation and the Pine Forests Corporation. With the cutting away of the virgin pine, Mr. Batson turned his attention to reforestation projects. At his death he was owner of approximately 14,000 acres on which he had been growing timber for years and which is stocked with deer and other wild game. In addition to this game and forest preserve, he owned other land throughout South Mississippi.
Poplarville, Miss., Oct. 23 - Randolph Batson rites set today. Funeral services will be conducted at the family residence at Hillsdale, five miles northeast of here, Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Dr. Judson Chastain, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Poplarville, and the Rev. James T. Horton, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Columbia, will officiate. Burial will be in the Poplarville Cemetery.
[From the Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), dated October 24, 1948.]
Information submitted by Jennifer Myers (#48271200).
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