| Sources |
- [S47] Sevier County, Tennessee and its Heritage, Sevier County Heritage Book Committee, (1994, Don Mills, Inc.), 73, 154, 227, 234, 351, 374.
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 4 Nov 2012.
Upland Chronicles: Temple family has made its mark on Sevier County
By CARROLL McMAHAN
Oak City was a thriving community back in the 1920s when John E. Temple purchased the old Chandler Water Mill on Boyd’s Creek and moved it to the south side of the Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern Railroad. Temple installed a drive on the water mill and ran it with a Fairbanks Morse gasoline engine.
The Temple family had a general store across the road from the mill, a chair factory, a lumber yard, a large corn crib, a pair of scales and a fertilizer shed in conjunction with a 600-acre farm owned by John’s father Andrew Jackson Temple. There was also a railroad depot with a long spur where coal was unloaded for their coal yard.
While John operated the flour mill, his brother Albert ran the chair factory. Together they ran the depot and their brothers Robert and Andrew were in charge of buying and hauling timber for the chair factory. During the Great Depression the enterprises closed.
At the same time the Stanley McMahan Milling Co. in downtown Sevierville had gone bankrupt. The banks that held the notes for Stanley McMahan Milling contacted John Temple to ask if he and his wife, Effie Benson Temple would operate it for them.
John Temple had enough money to purchase 60 percent of the mill, and the remaining shares were held by Sevier County Bank, Merchant’s Bank of Newport, Zula Brown, Rose McMahan Emert and Hulet Sharp. The other shareholders agreed to sell out to Temple when he could afford it.
On Oct. 31, 1934, John and Effie moved their family into the house at 209 Court Ave. beside the mill. At the time their oldest daughter, Frankie was 8, their son Jimmie was 6, daughter Patsy was 4, and the youngest daughter Mary Joyce was only 2.
John Temple and Effie Benson met while Effie was teaching school and boarding with John’s brother Charles in the Shiloh Community. Effie, who was born in Walden’s Creek, obtained a keen business sense working in her father’s general store.
They settled in Oak City and everything was going great for them until the Depression came along.
With two other mills in Sevierville and several more throughout the county, odds were against the Temples making a go of the business. A determined John Temple started up the mill and Effie kept the books. Temple insisted they distribute nothing but the highest quality products.
Effie’s kitchen was their laboratory. John would bring fresh flour from the mill and Effie would make biscuits. The following day he’d bring corn meal and she’d make cornbread.
Temple brought with him to Sevierville, Lee Thomas, who worked for him in Oak City. Thomas had worked for the Temple family all of his life. Beginning at the chair factory when he just a kid he later worked as a miller and remained a devoted employee throughout his life.
Due to the large amount of local competition, John Temple expanded his business by starting routes in Knoxville with the big wholesale house that sold his products to commissaries in the Kentucky coal fields. His brother-in-law Robert Howard and Jim Benson worked in Knoxville four days a week.
In the early years, the mill would stay open nine or 10 hours a day and sometimes all night. Many farmers would haul their corn and wheat in wagons to the mill to exchange it for flour and meal. Most farmers would store enough grain at the mill to last them for a year. They had a hitching rack where horses could be tethered.
The entire family worked in the mill. When the children came home from school, they came to the mill. Effie would write the names of stores in an order book and Jimmie would take it around town to stores operated by grocery men such as Pete Emert, Arlie McCown and Joe Hill along with J.I. Huskey, Fred Atchley and Carl Smith. He’d take the order book to the stores and the proprietor would fill in their order.
Jimmie started out walking and later rode his bicycle. When he began driving a car, he covered routes in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Jones Cove.
While Jimmie Temple was a student at the University of Tennessee he came home and worked every night and weekend. After leaving college, he began working full-time and became manager in 1952 when his father stepped down.
After World War ll, Temple began to diversify the business. Supermarkets such as Cas Walker’s and A&P began to expand, forcing many of the mom-and-pop stores out of business. So Temple began concentrating on the restaurants and hotels in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
A well-loved tradition began by the Temples in the 1940s continued into the 1950s and 1960s. The much anticipated annual Christmas season event was called the Purina Mike and Ike Program. Mike and Ike were pigs raised on Purina feed given away in a drawing to the recipients holding tickets representing sales and money paid on accounts.
Special recognition was given to the oldest woman, oldest man, all above 80 years in attendance and the person with the most children in attendance. Sometimes covered live on Sevierville radio station WSEV, lucky attendees won live turkeys, Mrs. Temple’s coconut cake as well as meal and flour.
The historic old mill was almost destroyed on Oct. 20, 1980, by one of the worst fires in the history of Sevierville. Courageous firefighters managed to protect the courthouse on the north side of the building and the Temple residence on the south side.
The Temples did not lose a single day of work on account of the fire. They operated in a brick portion of the mill which was saved until a new building was constructed. An 80-by-80 feet building was built on the site of the former building. Choosing not to rebuild the mill to grind wheat and corn, the Temple family operated the business until 2001.
John E. Temple died in 1975 at age 83 and Effie Benson Temple passed away in 1996. She was 96. Through dedication, hard work and good solid business practices they built a business that will remain an important and enduring symbol in the annals of Sevierville’s history.
— Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for topics, would like to submit a column or have comments, please contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or email to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or email to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 30 Aug 2015.
Upland Chronicles: Temple house reflects illustrious past
- [S73] Rawlings Funeral Home, Book 2, 18 Aug 1975.
Temple, John Ellis Jan 18, 1892 Tn Aug 18, 1975
Spouse: Benson, Effie
Father: Temple, Andrew Jackson
Mother: Cummings, Rachel
Sons: Jimmy, In-Law John B. Jr., Russell Hughes
Daughters: Frankie Cutshaw [H.A.], Patsy Waters [B. Jjr.], Mary Joyce Hughs [Russell], In-Law Marie Johnson Temple
Cemetery: Shiloh
Sisters: Mrs. John Kykes [Wilie], Mrs. Elizabeth Hickman Wiggins, Mrs. Robert Hoeard [Mary]
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 371.
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