The seeds of the relationship of Mack and Sam Watlington were there in the family struggle during the years of depression and struggle of the 1930's wherein the entire family shared what they earned for the benefit of the whole family.
Sam had worked at day labor in Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska on the farm and crop harvest. He had picked up on the carpenter trade on the farm and working with neighboring carpenters, expecially Everett and Liston Murchison. By 1939 he was employed by Piggly Wiggly Cabinet Shop where furnishings were built for modern food market stores.
Mack's work experience had been varied, and included auto mechanics, blacksmith, wood working, landscaping, and nursery and forestry experience as well as practical experience in carpentry.
In late August 1939, Mack had the opportunity earn some money cutting the right of way and service trail for the T.V.A. high tension wires between Jackson and Selmer, Tenn. But he had no cash reserve to work on and no pay was to come until the task was completed. Sam had $240 he had saved up looking toward marriage in October of that year.
Mack requested the loan and Sam obliged. Mack and his brothers and cousins came through with the project and repaid the funds in time for an Oct. 7 wedding. Sam said simply, ``that was the beginning of our partnership.'' There was an increased trust on the part of each.
Later opportunities opened up to work on military installations in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. Sam first got his union card (Lucille Land helped) and then helped Mack and Paul to get enrolled as carpenters or apprentice carpenters. The three of them worked on many projects together and Sam's wife Mary cooked for them as they shared common living quarters. From work near Hopkinsville, Kentucky to Kentucky Dam to Camp Tyson at Paris, Tenn., they labored and learned.
Then they moved on to Dothan, Alabama and airfield construction at half a dozen sites in northern and southern Flordia between 1940 and 1944. All three were drafted for military service in the war years.
Having returned from military service in 1946, Ulrich Mack Watlington and Samuel S. Watlington, Sr. soon picked up their framing square and carpenter tools and began a new era of their carpentry careers. Both had worked on many Defense Department jobs previous to their military duty in World War II. Sam had also supervised military construction projects in Korea while in service.
Building materials and tools were hard to find in the expanding construction industry required following the war years. Neither had any power tools with which to work at the time. Both had well used family cars which served as their mobility and tool sheds, and at first each worked separately for other contractors. In February and March 1947 they made two basic decisions--the first was to stay in Madison Co., Tennessee. Job offers had come from a former employer in Florida, Charles Jones, to return to work with him. The second decision was to form a legal partnership and secure a contractor's license. Mack had had many years experience guiding a work team and Sam had considerable experience in calculations for construction, record keeping and guiding a construction project. Golden, Mack's wife, had experience in accounting and bookkeeping, which Sam's wife also learned. Sam also had a few hundred dollars savings with which they started to operate on a cash basis. Sam reported that by careful calculations and frugal living they never had to borrow money for the first several years of their partnership. They used 30 day credit to buy materials but paid at the end of the month or job.
During the first months of their contractor experience they worked mostly on repair work-jobs that better established contractors preferred to avoid. The Patton Insurance Agency was able to send some work to them for fire and storm damage. The Jackson Lumber Co., owned and operated by Mrs. Florence Pacaud Patton, a long-time friend of the family, was able to finance some projects and recommend the Watlington Brothers as builders.
In repair work, the cleanup after the work was part of the job and much discarded, used or damaged building material was hauled by a truck to the Watlington farm for recycling. An open sided storage shed was constructed to store safely any remnants that could be used for another project. In a time when building materials were difficult to find these remnants expedited the work on many small jobs, thus saving time as well as money. Soon the family garage became a store house for nails, hinges and hardware items that offered the promise of future usefulness.
Aluminum screen doors and windows became popular and the brothers set up with S. M. Lawrence a workshop for building to order screen doors and window screens for customers. They also did some major reconstruction for the S. M. Lawrence Coal Co. and gained a favorable client for other jobs and a good recommendation in the Jackson business community. Joe C. Watlington, then a student at Lambuth College, worked part-time with them on various jobs, but especially in building the aluminum screen.
An old home had to be moved in Lexington, Tennessee, and with the advice and help of Sam's in-laws, C. D. and Douglas Rivers, Watlington Bros. successfully moved the building and set it on a new foundation. Mr. Rivers had worked on such projects in other years and had some tools as well as knowledge about such tasks.
In describing the way Mack and Sam had built up the trust to work together, Sam recalled how the family had counted on Mack's wages again and again to help the family through the depression years of the 1930's. When he left the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939 and was unemployed he heard of a temporary job clearing the high-tension transmission line from Selmer to Jackson, Tenn., for the Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A). Among Mack's papers we found the original contract for the work which paid only $275 for the completed task, to be completed in 30 days, August and September, 1939. Mack calculated the work and knew he could get it done, but needed to finance paying some workers until the work was completed. Sam had less than four hundred dollars he had saved for his marriage in October. But he loaned Mack the needed money and helped promote the project which was completed on time and put several relatives to work for a month. Sam and Mary's confidence grew and afterward they worked together on many projects before World War II separated them. On several of those projects Mary Rivers Watlington served as chief cook and bottle washer for Sam, Mack and Paul as they shared rental housing in Alabama and Florida while on construction projects. In the meantime, son Steve, Jr., joined the family and started early learning the trade. Mary was also often the chauffeur as one car served for mobility for the five of them.
While Mack and Sam were getting started at contracting, Paul H. Watlington was working at the Piggly Wiggly Furniture Factory in Jackson, Tenn., and had become a finish carpenter for installation of the finished store appliances they built there. Though given the opportunity to join them, he continued with Piggly Wiggly until the Watlington Brothers had progressed to the point they needed more job foremen, then Paul came on as a foreman but not as a partner. A few years later Herman L. Watlington joined the brothers also as a public relations man and estimator. Across the years his Army officer experience and ability to relate well to the U.S. Army personnel proved especially valuable in contracts with the Defense Department of the Milan Arsenal and at Fort Campbell, Ky.
From their partnership of March 1947 the Watlington Brothers advanced slowly but soundly in their ability to bid and complete repair work, homes and business properties. From the first, Mack was the principal operations superintendent and Sam handled the bidding and office work, though most of this was done before and after work hours. Golden Azbill Watlington served as treasurer and part-time bookkeeper and they used Golden and Mack's house for an office. Later on Sam added an office room to his house and the bookkeeping was moved there. From early times Lawson Crain, C.P.A., helped with annual reports and taxes and has followed the operation through the years.
By 1965, Lawson Crain advised strongly that the brothers be incorporated to better protect their families and care for their increasing need for bonding for large jobs. Their charter of Incorporation was received in 1965, and in 1968 a Lumber and Supply Division was added. In 1970, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Watlington Brothers was formed, S. & M. Builders, Inc. to handle certain types of constructions. In 1971 the Watlington Brothers Lumber and Supply Company was divided into a retail lumber yard and a separate construction rental equipment division.
At it's peak the company had an office staff of thirty and a field employment of two hundred and fifty workmen. After that time the construction business became more specialized and the company started depending more on sub-contractors and therefore did not employ directly so many persons. There were times in which the company had concurrent contracts for over twelve million dollars in progress, without failing to complete any one of them. One of its largest single projects was the ten million gallons-per-day North Water Treatment Plant for the Jackson Utility Division, Jackson, Tenn. This was a five million dollar project.
Watlington Brothers have not only forged a good reputation as a construction firm but has also contributed to the family in many special ways. Besides the employment of several brothers, and at times their wives, the Company offered summer employment opportunities for high school and college students each years. For some it was the beginning of a career, as in the case of Bill Wadley, General Superintendent, after the death of Mack Watlington. For many others the hot summer work taught new skills but also taught students that it was good to ``hit the books a little harder'' so that they might have an air-conditioned work place in the future. Each of Sam and Mary's sons were brought into Summer work tasks, as were many nephews, nieces and neighborhood teenagers and then some grandchildren have now been initiated into what real work is at the same time they earned money for school. They also encountered Sam's philosophy that only workers who earned money for the company had any future with the Company. It had to be work that offered a ``win-win-win'' position for the worker, for the company, and for the client. Even so there were times when as many as twenty-five relatives were at work in some part of the Company at some time during the year.
A word of thanks needs to be said here also that Sam and Mack personally have encouraged and contributed in various ways to the gathering of family history and genealogy. They helped keep our family reunions going each summer; they contributed a safe space for family records and they kept intact our family farm home. Purchasing the home farm for its center of operations, the old (1895-1905) Hammond home is still in place, though not occupied since 1982. Some of the farm land is still cultivated but much of it serves as storage and parking place for equipment and materials.