Since the age of 5, for almost 45 years, James C. Witherspoon, Jr. has been dedicated to the forestry industry.  Accompanying his father to logging sites instilled the love of logging into the young man.  Jimmy grew up logging and eventually took over his father's job, although his father stood by him until his death. 

 In the early 1980's, due to economic downturns and personal hardships, the operation was lost.  But, through hard work, perseverance, family and good friends, the operation began again and grew larger and stronger.

Today, after merging three of the companies Jimmy founded, there exists a diversified operation that provides a productive, cost effective and efficient method of utilizing forest products.  J C Witherspoon Jr. Inc. and A & K Mulch LLC together are one of the larger employers in Clarendon County with nearly 100 employees.  Located in Alcolu, South Carolina, A & K Mulch and the administrative offices are located at 3467 Highway 301 North.  The shop and farm operations are located at 2374 Alderman Camp Road.

J C Witherspoon Jr. Inc has many crews.  Some of these crews consists of timber cruisers, loggers, truck drivers, and mechanics.  The timber cruisers (Charles Wright and Ed Earley) procure the tracts of timber, which will be thinned or clear-cut.  The logging crews then harvest the trees and either chip them or send them off as logs. Casper Simon, Lewis Boatwright, and Jimmy Witherspoon together have approximately 90 years of logging experience.  A special cut-to-length crew cuts logs of specific diameters to specified lengths as requested by the sawmill.  The truckers haul the logs or chips to the specified mill; an average of 565 loads are hauled each week.  The mechanics work to keep the tractors, trailers, trucks, and woods equipment maintained and in good operating order. ( All of our equipment is modern, state-of-the-art.) The residue crew cleans the logging sites and ships their harvest off to be boiler fuel.  Nothing goes to waste.

All cypress harvested arrives at our A & K Mulch operation.  The trucks are weighed in and out by our weighmaster (Dudley "John" Witherspoon, IV) or one of his deputies.  The logs are unloaded onto the lot.  These cypress logs, and even more bought from other logging operations, are sorted into stacks of pulpwood or saw timber.  Cypress saw timber is cut into lumber and timbers by the sawmill crew.  The scragg mill crew produces our cypress, dog-eared fencing.  Lumber and timbers are presently sold rough green, rough dried, and lumber is now being produced in a finished product. Pulpwood is ground into mulch or chips.  Chips are also created as a byproduct of the sawmill operation.  We ship off scraps and sawdust to be used as boiler fuel. Nothing goes to waste.

We now have our own bagging facility.  The mulch operation grinds 100% cypress and blended mulch.  The mulch is sold as natural or dyed (black, brown or red) in bulk or palletized bags.  The cypress chips are sold natural in bulk.  These chips have met the requirements for head impact and wheelchair accessibility through ASTM certification.  This allows our chips to be used as playground safe material.

A small but efficient and dedicated staff of professionals rounds out the crews.  Our Office Manager, Martha Odom, keeps the administrative wheel rolling.  Martha handles all mill tickets and settlements, legal affairs, and any problems that arise.  Patti McElveen handles Accounts Receivables and Payables.  David Hewett is our Sales Manager for all A & K products.  Julie Lauboch handles all accounting for the company.  Rob Roseboom is Parts Manager as well as a Deputy Weighmaster.  Rob also handles A & K calls and billing. Carl Lavender is our trucking manager.

Jimmy Witherspoon’s knowledge and willingness to accept changes in the marketplace allow the operation to continue to grow.  Our newest project is installing a dry kiln so that we can offer a rough dried product.  We also have a sister sawmill, CTW Forest Products LLC in Windsor North Carolina, that produces cypress lumber and mulch.