July 2024
KOSCIUSKO, Mississippi – Olive trees take several years to reach maturity and bear fruit, but are a long-lasting species that live for hundreds of years. That makes it a fitting surname for the family behind Olive Brothers Timber Co., based in Kosciusko, Miss. Brothers Arrell, 46, and Thomas Olive, 43, are building on their father’s logging legacy by pruning branches and watering soil to keep the company alive, thriving and growing for generations to come.
Inside This Issue
COVER: Mississippi's Olive Family Branches Out
KOSCIUSKO, Mississippi – Olive trees take several years to reach maturity and bear fruit, but are a long-lasting species that live for hundreds of years. That makes it a fitting surname for the family behind Olive Brothers Timber Co., based in Kosciusko, Miss. Brothers Arrell, 46, and Thomas Olive, 43, are building on their father’s logging legacy by pruning branches and watering soil to keep the company alive, thriving and growing for generations to come.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Contributing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': Outside the Pine Box
When I got an email from Doug Stone early this summer, I figured he had no relation to ’90s country music hit maker Doug Stone, the smooth ballad crooner behind a slew of early ’90s country radio staples like “Better Off in a Pine Box” and “Jukebox with a Country Song.” No, this Doug Stone is a registered forester in Mississippi and Alabama, and the owner of Tombigbee Forestry Management, a single member LLC since 2017. Stone invited me to a demonstration he organized in June on a private timber tract near Starkville, Miss.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
Good Example
HESTERVILLE, Miss. – Willie Olive, 49, is the oldest of five brothers involved in central Mississippi’s logging industry. He helped pave the way for his younger siblings by listening to their father’s words and leading by example.
After graduating from Hinds Community College in Raymond with an associate’s degree in welding and business management in 1995, Willie started working for his father’s thinning crew with his brothers. In 2003, he founded Olive Brothers Timber Co. together with them.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Contributing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Follow the River
I am a professional woodsman. I make my living outdoors. I have degrees and certificates that credit me with professional status. I have 20-20 vision. I am not color blind. I have a compass. All of these thoughts, as they related to my competence, raced through my mind one morning as I debated whether I was lost, or simply misplaced.
Excerpted from Trees, Traps, and Truth, Bradley Antill, author
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Live, Love, Log
That’s the motto for the many branches of the Olive family tree.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Contributing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
KOSCIUSKO, Mississippi – Olive trees take several years to reach maturity and bear fruit, but are a long-lasting species that live for hundreds of years. That makes it a fitting surname for the family behind Olive Brothers Timber Co., based in Kosciusko, Miss. Brothers Arrell, 46, and Thomas Olive, 43, are building on their father’s logging legacy by pruning branches and watering soil to keep the company alive, thriving and growing for generations to come.
Their father, Levi Olive, 75, started his logging outfit in 1985 to provide for his family and teach his five sons the trade so they could work for themselves one day and take care of their own families. Those sons in turn started Olive Brothers Timber Co. in 2003. Now 21 years into their brother-led operation, partners Arrell and Thomas have deep roots in central Mississippi and take pride in standing on the firm foundation of a multigenerational family business.
“Dad was getting older and we were having kids, starting families and needed more money,”Arrell says of the transition.“So he took us to the bank and helped us purchase our first pieces of equipment. We’ve put a lot of years in and still got a lot of years to go.”
Thomas echoes his brother’s sentiments: “We keep God first, family second and business third. Live, love and log, that’s what we believe.”
It’s a tradition they’re already passing down to the next generation, according to Thomas. Arrell has four girls, Thomas four boys. His oldest, Thomas Olive Jr., graduated high school more than a year ago; he has been the backbone for his dad and uncle since. They describe him as a smooth skidder operator who is with them (either on the job or in church) seven days a week.
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