Tag: books

Mr. Phil Williams, McLemoresville, and a Special Guest from Rutherford County

https://www.facebook.com/61550545093433/videos/1047885526908086

On Wednesday, May 21, 2025 Mr. Phil Williams was the speaker at the monthly meeting of the historical society. However, before Mr. Williams spoke, the group was introduced to a Mr. James Allen Gooch from the Rutherford County Historical Society. Mr. Gooch knew Mr. Williams through the Williams Furniture Store in McKenzie, Tennessee that Phil Williams owned and managed for 46 years before his retirement. James and Carol Gooch specialize in cemetery preservation and offered their knowledge to the group.

Phil Williams gave his talk on the history of McLemoresville, Tennessee, as well as on his father, Billy O. Williams, who was a Poet Laureate of Carroll County and an Associate Poet Laureate of the State of Tennessee.

Pictured above is Billy O. Williams. Billy Williams also served in the Air Force during WWII. During this presentation, Phil Williams read a poem that his father had written to the group.

Above is a picture of the Old Main Campus Building of Bethel College. Bethel College began as Bethel Seminary and was founded by West Tennessee Synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1842. The picture above was taken at approximately 1900 – 1905. The college was moved to McKenzie, TN in 1872.

This was a picture of the Main Campus Building that was town down in 1912.

Carrolton was established as a town on land that was owned by R.E.C. Dougherty, who was a surveyor and entry taker in 1819.  The town later became McLemoresville.

The town of McLemoresville was named for Colonel John Christmas Mclemore, who owned much of the land in McLemoresville in 1820.  The first county court was also in McLemoresville.  It was called the court of pleas and quarter sessions and was organized in March of 1822.

Perhaps the most famous resident of McLemoresville, TN is Dixie Carter, who was born in McLemoresville, Tn in 1939. Her father owned and operated a dry goods store in McLemoresville. Dixie Carter is also buried in McLemoresville.

There is a link at the top of the page to the video on the presentation by Phil Williams of the history of McLemoresville, Tn.

H.I.S. Company and Sam Siegel

https://www.facebook.com/stories/122124455978018169/UzpfSVNDOjk1NzgwMzY2NjQzNDM1MA==/?view_single=1

On April 16,2025, Mrs. Linda Allen was the Storyteller for the Huntingdon TN Historical Society. Mrs. Allen spoke about the H.I.S. Company, which was located in Bruceton, Tennessee and also Sam Siegel, who was the Senior Vice President of H.I.S. Mrs. Linda Allen grew up in the town of Bruceton and many of her relatives worked for the H.I.S. company.

Mrs. Allen’s father is pictured with other workers in the picture above. This picture was taken approximately 1960 during a Christmas party.

Henry Siegel came to America from Lublin, Poland in the early 1900s. He began the company as Honesdale Manufacturing in 1923. The company headquarters were located in New York City. Honesdale Manufacturing specialized in men and boys clothing. There was one factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania and also a plant located in Germany.

In 1935 due to the persecution experienced in Europe, Sam Siegel, Henry’s brother, came to America. (The Siegel family did lose family members during WWII.) In 1936, Sam Siegel was sent to Dickson, Tennessee to the H.I.S. factory that was located there. The Dickson plant had been started in 1932. Sam then was sent to Bruceton, Tennessee where a new factory was being built. In 1939, trainees from Bruceton were being sent weekly to Dickson, Tennessee to be trained. The trainees boarded a train on Sunday evening to go to Dickson. They would spend the week in Dickson, and then on Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., the trainees would return to Bruceton via train. Bruceton was a railroad town and therefore had daily access to a train.

Prior to the factory being completed in 1940 in Bruceton, sewing machine workers worked in an old church building located in Bruceton on Highway 70. That old church building still stands today and can be seen as you pass through the town of Bruceton. Fifty people worked in that old church building.

In 1940, wages were 40 cents an hour. During WWII, as many as 1,000 employees worked at the factory. H.I.S. made military clothing, as well as other clothing. In 1949, Henry Siegel died unexpectedly and his son, Jesse, took over the company.

In 1961, the fifty millionth shirt was completed in Dickson, Tennessee. That shirt is pictured above

H.I.S. began making women’s clothing in 1964. By the mid 1980’s, H.I.S. was the third largest maker of women’s clothing. In the 1970’s, imported clothing into the United States began to hurt the H.I.S. business. Then NAFTA was implemented in 1994 and many companies began to move to Mexico. This greatly hurt manufacturing in the United States. It is estimated that between 4.5 million jobs and 8.9 million jobs were lost in the United States due to NAFTA. The Bruceton H.I.S. plant closed in 2000. Where once the H.I.S. Outlet stood, now there is a Dollar Tree/Family Dollar store.

Pictured above is an article regarding Sam Siegel. Besides many other ventures, Sam Siegel also helped out the Volunteer Fire Department in Bruceton.

Sam Siegel was born in 1909 in Poland. He came to America in 1935, was sent to the Scranton, Pennsylvania plan, and then in 1936 was sent to the plant in Dickson, Tennessee. Following plans to build a plant in Bruceton, TN, Sam and his family moved to Bruceton. The plant was completed in Bruceton in 1940. Prior to that, sewing machine workers worked in an old church building located on Highway 70.

Sam Siegel became mayor of Bruceton in 1958 and was mayor of Bruceton until 1974. He died in May of 1975.

By people who lived and worked with him, Sam Siegel was known as a charitable person. He gave jobs to teenagers and others who needed jobs. Linda Allen stated that Sam Siegel and H.I.S. had been very good to her family. There are many others who felt the same way.

The Huntingdon TN Historical Society would like to thank Mrs. Linda Allen for her presentation. There is a video of Mrs. Allen’s presentation on the Huntingdon TN Historical Society facebook page. The URL is at the top of this article.

The Huntingdon TN Historical Society meets every third Wednesday of the month at 9:00 a.m. in the conference room of City Hall in Huntingdon, Tennessee.