January 2024
GRAY, Georgia – Like many family-owned logging companies, J.D. Gordon Logging, LLC bears the name of its founder, family patriarch John Dawson (J.D.) Gordon. Before becoming a logger, J.D. spent 17 years as a crane operator at the Armstrong mill in Macon (before Armstrong switched to making ceiling tiles). At age 42, he left that job to go into business for himself, starting J.D. Gordon Logging on January 6, 1976.
Inside This Issue
COVER: Gordons Keep It Going In Georgia
GRAY, Georgia – Like many family-owned logging companies, J.D. Gordon Logging, LLC bears the name of its founder, family patriarch John Dawson (J.D.) Gordon. Before becoming a logger, J.D. spent 17 years as a crane operator at the Armstrong mill in Macon (before Armstrong switched to making ceiling tiles). At age 42, he left that job to go into business for himself, starting J.D. Gordon Logging on January 6, 1976.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': What Year Is It?
Wait a minute. It’s 2024? When did that happen? Well, actually, at the time I’m writing this, it’s still 2023, a little before Christmas; college football season, which felt like it just started a Saturday or two ago, has been over now for two weeks, and bowl season is getting ready to start. By the time you read this, not only both CFP playoff games on New Year’s Day but also the college National Championship game will have been played. Speaking to you now from what by then will be the past, I am wondering. . .did Alabama and Texas get the chance for a rematch in the big game?
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
Auto Focus
MADISON, Georgia – This June, Georgia-Pacific’s Madison plywood plant started up two new Raute automated poly patch lines, part of an ongoing shift towards automation company-wide. Since 2016, G-P has invested well over $65 million in capital projects at Madison, much of it in automating formerly manual positions.
Article David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Road Building 101
“Nice wood, but how are you going to get it out?” Such a question asked daily if you happen to work in the southeastern Coastal Plain. A sudden change in elevation, even a foot or so, can cause a drastic change in the composition of your forest.
Excerpted from Bibles, Beavers, and Big Timbers, Bradley Antill, author
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Gordons Keep It Going In Georgia
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
GRAY, Georgia – Like many family-owned logging companies, J.D. Gordon Logging, LLC bears the name of its founder, family patriarch John Dawson (J.D.) Gordon. Before becoming a logger, J.D. spent 17 years as a crane operator at the Armstrong mill in Macon (before Armstrong switched to making ceiling tiles). At age 42, he left that job to go into business for himself, starting J.D. Gordon Logging on January 6, 1976. His wife, Jean, who was a nurse until she retired in 2001, says she supported the career change. “Whatever he wanted to do, I backed him,” she recounts. Their sons Mark and Ricky worked with him.
Gordon Logging became an LLC in 2014, and in 2023 just finished its 47th year, with three generations having now grown up in the family business J.D. built. “They enjoyed that kind of work, and they wanted to get involved because they loved their dad so much,” Jean says of her children.
Sadly, J.D. himself is no longer with us. On August 10, 2020, he became a victim of COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. He was 86 and had logged for 44 years. Before falling ill with the virus, J.D. was still working every day, driving one of the company trucks, a 2013 Mack with automatic transmission. He, Jean and their daughter Sheila all caught Covid at the same time; Sheila and Jean recovered, but J.D. had the worst case of it.
No doubt his family members felt and continue to feel the loss deeply, but when J.D. Gordon left this world three-plus years ago, he left behind a legacy that continues to endure. Now a widow, family matriarch Jean continues to own the business, and by all indications, she’s done a good job of keeping it going. “I did the best I could,” she says. “If I did a good job, it was only because the Lord gave me the strength and knowledge to do what I had to do.”
The Gordon clan, left to right: Sheila, Big Mark, Anderson, Mark, Jr. and Clay; the truck is the one driven by their late father and company founder, J.D.
Showing promise in the skidder, fourth-generation Anderson Gordon joined the family business after graduating high school last spring.
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