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MANUFACTURING PERIOD
Circa 1969-1973
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MANUFACTURER
Hollis Tull Lumber Co. INC
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The Hollis Tull Lumber Company was
founded by Hollis Tull, 3 miles east of
Breese, Illinois, and incorporated in
1969. In 1928, Hollis Tull, and his
brother, Lee was trapping animals in
Tennessee. He came upon a man cutting
ash lumber for baseball bats. Lee
realized he knew where there was a
quantity of ash trees. He learned the
name of the company the man was selling
his bat blanks to, Hillerich & Bradsby
Co., of Louisville, Ky. Lee contacted
the company, makers of the Louisville
Slugger, and secured a contract to sell
them some baseball bat blanks.
Lee’s brother Henry, and the 18 year old Hollis, joined Lee in this new
venture, and both were also involved in
farming at the time. Lee and Henry left
the business to devote more time to
farming, leaving Hollis to run the
company by himself. The search for ash
lumber compelled Tull and his wife
to move from time to time to locations
that were rich with ash trees.
When he moved to Boulder, Illinois, around 1958 he rented the old Lakeside
Dance Hall ground three miles east of
Breese and started to cut trees, haul
them to his lumberyard and let them
dry. Tull Lumber had landed the
contract to clear off the first section
of timber that needed to be removed to
make Carlyle Lake, a 25,000-acre
reservoir located in Clinton County,
Illinois. It is now the largest
man-made lake in Illinois.
The family run company cut logs into usable lumber of all sizes and
shapes. Some lumber used for building,
some of the white oak wood was used to
make barrel bungs and barrel ends. Some
varieties of trees including ash
that wouldn't make good bat stock were
cut for use in the furniture business.
At one time the company employed 12
people, with
the main product produced
being baseball bat blanks.
In one year at Boulder, the company filled and shipped 24 railroad
carloads of baseball bat blanks. Each
railroad car would hold 12,000 blanks.
He also cut a considerable amount of
furniture stock which was sold to
furniture factories in northern
Illinois. This allowed Tull’s company
to make good use of wood that wasn’t
right for the bat business, thus
reducing waste. Hollis Tull had
produced literally millions of bat
blanks and sold them to H&B of
Louisville, Ky., for years.
Hollis Tull had always wanted to make bats himself, and not have someone
else make them. In 1969 the company was
incorporated, which included Hollis,
his wife Willie, his son Hollis Jr.,
and son-in-law Cecil Thacker. The
company quit selling bat blanks to H&B
and started stockpiling them for
themselves. There was an estimated
50,000 blanks stored at the lumberyard.
Tull purchased a small track of land
and a 24’x62’ concrete block
building was erected.
The company purchased three lathes. One lathe turned the blanks down from
square to a shape representing a bat,
the second lathe would sand the bats.
From time to time, some had to be
reworked, and that’s where the last
lathe was used. A trademark was
designed for the bats which
was burned into the wood. Their bats
were called The Diamond Special. The
trademark had a drawing of a baseball
diamond, with the firm’s name "Hollis
Tull LBR Co. Inc." at the top, and below the
diamond "Breese, Illinois."
In 1969 the company produce approximately 500 bats per day. At first, they
made bats for Little League, these bats
were 30 inches. They could adjust the
lathes to make larger bats for high
schools and adult leagues, but wanted
to concentrate on the smaller size.
They were made available wholesale for
$2 to $2.50. Retail price was a dollar
or more higher.
In 1974 the bat making equipment was sold to the Worth Bat Company of
Tullahoma, Tenn. They were the largest
manufacturer of baseballs. The lumber
company continued cutting lumber for
other uses. Sometime around 1975 Hollis
Jr. bought out Cecil’s interest. The
company eventually went out of business
and the remaining equipment was
purchased by Perry Forth Lumber.
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Hollis Tull LBR Co.
Inc. Diamond Special Baseball
Bats |
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Hollis Tull Turning Out a
Diamond Special Baseball Bat in
1969 |
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KEYMAN COLLECTIBLES
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