Henry E. Hardtner

Henry Ernest Hardtner (September 10, 1870 – August 7, 1935)

Early years Hardtner was born to E. J. Hardtner and the former Emma Schraeder, both of German ancestry, in Pineville, located across the Red River from the larger Alexandria, Louisiana. The elder Hardtner emigrated from Germany in 1865 and was a shoemaker by trade. E.J. Hardtner and J.M. Nugent built a small sawmill north of Alexandria after the Missouri Pacific Railroad built a line through the virgin pine forest between Alexandria and Monroe to the north. Henry Hardtner worked in his father's business and later studied bookkeeping at Soule Business College in New Orleans.

Hardtner began operating sawmills north of Alexandria, one of which was located south of Olla in La Salle Parish on the Iron Mountain Railroad. Hardtner renamed the location "Urania," meaning "heavenly," because of the beauty of the natural terrain there. In 1898, he reorganized as the Urania Lumber Company and purchased land for some $5 per acre to the north in Caldwell Parish. He built a logging railroad, the Natchez, Urania and Ruston, but it was never completed beyond . As the nominal president of a railroad, Hardtner enjoyed pass privileges on other lines, a helpful asset for the travels stemming from his business and conservation commitments/ managed the mill itself, while Henry devoted his time to purchasing land and studying the principles of timber growth and harvesting. Hardtner added more land in Winn Parish. He learned the advantage of producing a second crop of trees after the virgin timber was harvested. He told his lumbermen to avoid cutting smaller trees in order to allow them to grow to full size. He ordered that four seed trees per acre be left intact for natural reproduction. He developed a rudimentary fire protection system for his lands. He fenced young longleaf pines to protect them from wild hogs. His vision of reforestation was hence far in advance of the later embodiment of the standard practices of forestry. Hardtner said

I was born in the forests and have had close association with them since childhood. What I know of them cannot be learned in schools or colleges. To me, they are as human [beings], and I know the trees as I try to know men.

Coincidentally, Hardtner's ideas were gaining national acceptance, as U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt called a White House Conservation Conference of Governors in 1908. Governor Newton C. Blanchard of Louisiana attended though his term expired the day before the meeting began. Joining Blanchard at the conference were Hardtner and a business associate and friend, William Edenborn of Winn Parish, who owned a railroad linking Shreveport with New Orleans.

Hardtner insisted on the merits of natural reproduction and never resorted to seeding and planting his properties. He explained that his

actual forestry work commenced in 1908 ... I immediately made many trips to forestry regions and attended forestry conventions in order to acquire some knowledge of the subject. I found little on which to base a foundation for forestry and decided that there was no royal road to forestry and that I must blaze my own trail. He was a state senator from 1924 to 1928 and was earlier a delegate to the 1921 convention that rewrote the Louisiana Constitution, which included some basic provisions regarding forestry.

In the 1900 general election, he ran on the William McKinley/Theodore Roosevelt ticket as a Republican for the United States House of Representatives, as Louisiana supported the Democrat William Jennings Bryan. He subsequently joined the majority Democrats in order to hold parish and state office, then practically excluded to Republican candidates. Hardtner polled 628 votes (9.2 percent) to Ransdell's 6,172 (90.8 percent). Hardtner was the last Republican even to seek the Fifth District House seat until 1976, when Frank Spooner, an oil and natural gas landman from Monroe, unsuccessfully challenged the Democratic nominee, Jerry Huckaby. of Bienville Parish. In the Democratic primary, Huckaby had unseated veteran Representative Otto E. Passman of Monroe.

Family Hardtner was married to the former Juliet Doerr (January 29, 1885–November 15, 1936), a native of St. Louis, Missouri. They were the parents of three daughters.

Death and legacy Hardtner had opposed the administration of Governor Huey Long. In August 1935, Hardtner was killed in a train-car crash while headed from La Salle Parish to Baton Rouge to defend his company in a tax dispute with the state government. The tragedy of the fatal accident is ironic in that Hardtner was president of his own railroad freight line in La Salle Parish. Hardtner's legacy centers on the management of forests on a sustained-yield basis to create a marketable timber crop in perpetuity. His example was eventually followed thereafter in setting timber management policies throughout the state, region, and nation.

Quincy and Henry Hardtner are honored through the naming of the Episcopal Camp Hardtner and Conference Center near Pollock in Grant Parish. The camp began with and was doubled in size after World War II. The first summer camp was hosted there in 1948.

In 1973 and 1978, North Louisiana History published two articles on Hardtner.

The Henry Hardtner Award recognizes efforts that contribute to forest stewardship and sustainable forest management on non-industrial private lands. The award is presented by the Southern Group of State Foresters. In 1999, the first such award was presented to Rhett Johnson, the co-director of the Longleaf Alliance.

Other Hardtner award winners include: 2004 - George D. Kessler of Clemson University 2006 - Rick Hamilton of North Carolina State University 2006 - Dr. James Earl Kennamer, National Wild Turkey Federation 2012 - Dr. Jeff Stringer, University of Kentucky 2013 - Dr. Mark Megalos of North Carolina State University 2018 - Sam Cook, NC State University, College of Natural