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This image of a woman and her children is one of the most recognizable images when a person thinks about the Great Depression. It is a very powerful image because it is as if she is lost in her thought, or worry, completely
Davis, Jonathan. History Over Chatanooga. A Southerner Discovers the South.The McMillian Company. 1938
Jonathan Davis’s book “A Southerner Discovers the South” contains a chapter titled ‘History Over Chattanooga’ that follows the author and his friend Joe on
(May 23, 1914- Oct 18,1993)
Contributed by his great-grandson, Philip Williams Knott.
Philip Williams was the third of five children to John Philip Williams and Harriet Overton Williams on the Overton’s family farm, known as Traveler’s Rest, on Franklin Pike Street, in Nashville, TN. When the Depression hit in 1929 his family sold the farm. Fortunately, his family entered the coal brokerage industry prior to the economic downturn, allowing Philip to attend Vanderbilt University, graduating June 1935. He attempted Columbia law, but after a year he dropped out to become a sales associate at the Continental Can Company (CCC), moving to Memphis, TN. Then in September of 1936, he married Martha Jane Boyd and she gave birth to my grandmother, Phyllis Williams, a year later in November of 1937. Philip continued working for the CCC through the Great Depression before enlisting in the U.S. Army in July 1942, during World War II. He lived to be 79, dying on October 18, 1993.
Photo-credit to Mollie Knott (sister), taken from Phyllis Williams Mostellar’s personal family photo-collection.
I was only alive for six months before my great grandfather, Philip Williams, died at age 79. Born the third of five children in 1914 in Nashville, Tennessee, Philip inherited a keen mind for business from his father, John Philip, a physician before entering the coal brokerage industry with his brother-in-law. Continue reading “UN-canning the Importance of the Tin Can”
My grandmother, Phyllis Mostellar (or as we, grandkids, called her, Lizzie) knew him the best. Philip Williams, my great grandfather, was her father, and she was his only child. And maybe that was how I came to be a part of such a large family, for my grandmother enjoyed every minute of her busy household, Continue reading “The Ghosts of Our Forefathers”