William Franklin "Frank" Browder

27 Aug 1991
Jackson, Madison, Tennessee, USA
The Jackson Sun; Tuesday; Page 12;
"Selmer – Services for William Franklin “Frank” Browder, 87, were today at Shackelford Funeral Home. Burial was in Bethesda Cemetery. Mr. Browder, a retired farmer and carpenter, died Sunday at McNairy County General Hospital. He was married to Esther Sanders Browder. They had eight [living] children, Maye Martin, Faye McCormick, Malcolm H. “Horace” Browder, Winfred O. Browder, Billy L. Browder, and John F. Browder, all of Selmer, Joann Newman of Jackson and Nancy Bettis of Hornsby."

Frank Browder, first son of Alfonza Browder and Mary Dora Baker, was born at or near Lawton. Frank caught whooping cough when he was seven years old, and barely survived it. This caused him to stutter for the rest of his life, because it damaged his nerves. As an adult, one had to understand that if you were going to talk with him, not to finish a sentence for him. If he was not allowed to complete his thought, he would simply quit talking with you altogether.
Frank Browder attended Purdy, Rock Springs and Bethesda schools in his youth, eventually graduating from the eighth grade at Bethesda School.
It happens that Frank and Esther met and fell in love while attending Bethesda School and Church and were married on June 1, 1924 in McNairy County, Tennessee. Frank had always attended Bethesda Presbyterian Church with his parents and siblings where he was baptized, becoming an official member on July 23, 1924. But, although her parents had been charter members of Bethesda Presbyterian Church, Esther had originally been baptized at Farmington Baptist Church near Corinth, Mississippi about 1919, and later became a member of Bethesda Presbyterian Church by letter, also on July 23, 1924.
Both Frank and Esther attended a big camp meeting in July of 1924 during which Frank asked her to join Bethesda because joining that church was very important to Frank; she agreeing to do so. By this time, both Frank and Esther already knew that they wanted to be together, and Frank soon also asked her to marry him. They used to tell me that, while they were courting they both always had to take more than one of their siblings along to ensure that they behaved. That’s how it was in those days. Couples were never allowed to see one another alone at all prior to marriage! Having met as young people, married, and remained together the rest of their lives, makes their relationship a true love story.
The family moved to the areas of Palmerdale, Clay, Birmingham and Oneonta, Alabama, beginning in 1925, along with the John L. Sanders family. While there, Frank and Esther Browder had their first three children. During that time these Browders, like the John L. Sanders family, lived as sharecroppers, and for a time worked on a dairy farm, owning no property of their own there. However, while the Sanders family remained in Alabama, the Browder family returned to McNairy County, Tennessee in December of 1928.
I was told several times how Frank came close to being drafted during WWII. The age limit for being drafted kept going up and up until it almost reached his age group. But just as this was about to happen, the war came to a conclusion. His age group would have been the very next group selected to be drafted had the war continued.
Frank loved to hunt, especially possum. He also smoked in his youth and well into adulthood. But then he caught pneumonia sometime in 1951. As he got over it, he tried to smoke again, but finding no pleasure in it, he ceased smoking there and then. Neither Frank nor Esther ever drank alcoholic beverages. Frank, much like his father, also loved to wear Fedoras, and usually liked to wear white ones. He would wear this hat along with his coveralls, driving their big black Lincoln. He also liked to wear Irish style soft-caps.
During the Great Depression the family often found it quite difficult to survive. In order to bring in more income, Frank began working as an automobile mechanic for the Ford dealership in Selmer, Tennessee, and he took part in the CCC, which gave him extra work, mainly planting trees. He used to tell me that the reason McNairy County was so full of pine trees was because the CCC planted them. The government would provide these pine seedlings for free for people to go out and plant. I have also been told that in 1935, for example, one could feed a family for a month on 50 cents. The Browder family would scrupulously save money and Esther would later use a little of the money saved for Christmas gifts for the children (about $17.00 total!), the rest having been used to buy food for the winter.
Times were so hard during the Depression that the family often would be in danger of running out of food and going hungry. And the children would often have to wear patched overalls to school, as well as clothes Esther made from flower and potato sacks, as she made most of their clothes by hand. Some of the other school children would often make fun of their clothes because they were home-made. During these trying years, this family was indeed desperately poor. In one desperate instance, it happens that their son, Winfred, found fifty cents while playing inside of an old car. In another instance, Frank and John had gone to town, Frank hoping to acquire a dollar owed him, so food could be purchased. While he was going about this, it happened that John found a dollar bill which had been rolled up tightly and which looked like a quarter on the ground. In both instances the family was able to survive because of a little money fortuitously found.
Both Frank and his brother, Herman, were great friends throughout their lives. In 1939, Frank and Herman together purchased over 500 acres of land and a house known as the Maxedon Place, which was located near Mosses Creek in McNairy County (in District 2). Next to the Maxedon place was the Adams property and next to that was the Dunaway property. They purchased this property from Pat Baker, whose wife, Ora, had inherited it from her father, the Rev. Joseph B. Maxedon, who was the son of W. H. D. Maxedon, who had owned the home. The Frank Browder family moved into the home during the winter, in January of 1940 while the roads and all surroundings were still covered with ice.
My father, John, told me that when the family moved into this home that there was a date of 1849 written in a fireplace brick. So, presumably, that is when the home had originally been built. However, he also believed that the house had burned down at least once and been rebuilt, because parts of the house were logs which had been covered over with wooden planks. So, the house was about 100 years old when they moved into it. He said that there were obvious additions to the original home also.
While the family resided at the Maxedon Place, during the 1940’s, Frank operated a sorghum mill which was also located on the property, and which also brought in extra income. Often he would trade so much sorghum molasses for so much of whatever the family needed. This mill was just across the road from the house and had been part of the property when the Maxedon Place was purchased. When Herman began having health problems, Frank bought him out of his part. However, because Frank couldn’t handle the payments, he eventually sold this property in 1948 (because the Depression made things so very difficult), but they did manage to get back all of the money they had put into it once the property was sold. Still, Frank had done lots of work fixing up the old house there, therefore improving it substantially. Years later, when I asked them about it, Esther made her displeasure obvious and made it clear that she had not wanted him to give up on this property (it was a rare moment of observable disagreement between the two). She thought that they could have made it and would not have lost the property. The old Maxedon home burned during the 1950s after the Frank Browder family had already moved elsewhere. But, they kept a photo of it, which is added here.
Throughout most of his lifetime, Frank worked as a carpenter, farmer and automobile mechanic. As farmers, the family mainly produced cotton and corn, as well as livestock. He also owned a mechanic shop for several years. It certainly could be said of him that, in later life, he was more carpenter than farmer, although he was quite good at both tasks. He actually only became an automobile mechanic due to the Great Depression. Prior to that he had mainly farmed. But he had to do more to feed his family once the Great Depression took effect, and after the family moved from the Maxedon Place.
My father also told me that Frank was a water dowser and when they moved to the Maxedon place there was no good water source. So he looked for a place to dig for it and, even though the person he hired to dig said there would be no water in the spot he located, it turned out to be a good well.
I have also been told that Frank used to go to town often to trade mules and, as it turned out, some for better and some for worse. In other words, he didn’t always get the best deal or the best mule in the bargain. But sometimes he did. I feel that he must have at least a few times encountered my great-grandfather, George Samuel Farrow, during these mule trades as this was a big business for George back in those days. No doubt, if he did, from what I know of George, it was George who got the better end of the deal!