yesterday's tennessee

This Story Walked

from the collection of Brenda Fiddler

Wolf Creek Banner(Keep ‘Em Shooting!), Milan, Tennessee

Published on the second and fourth Friday of each month by and for the employees of the Wolf Creek Ordnance Plant and the Milan Ordnance Depot.  Lt. Colonel K. M. Haber, Ordnance, Commanding Officer; M. P. Woodward. General Manufacturing Manager, J. E. Pruden, Plant Manager.  Harry Williamson, Editor, Royce Moore, Photographer

This Story Walked

This fellow, Goy Snider, who assists Grady James in all this moving and changing that goes on around the Administration building, brought a carpenter to the Banner office to change a telephone shelf that was so high you couldn’t see the numbers without getting up every time you dialed.

“This deserves a write-up in the Banner,” Goy remarked, as he seated himself comfortably in the editor’s chair while the carpenter proceeded to lower the shelf.

And with a few questions aimed at the carpenter, not Goy, we found a story that did deserve a “write-up”.

As he pried the shelf loose from the wall, measured its height with that of the desk, and carefully tacked it back in place, we learned that this carpenter was M. D. Lanier of Newbern, Tennessee, and a veteran of World War I.  He entered the services in 1916 when we were having trouble with Mexico.  Overseas with Sixth Infantry and the rank of 1st Sergt., he plunged into the fight to stop the Kaiser.  He attended one of the Officer Training schools in France, and wound up with a commission of Lieutenant, being assigned to the 79th pision.  He saw action in Alsac-Lorraine and the Argonne region, and hung around with the army of occupation, after the Armistice on November 11, 1918, until June 1919, when he landed back in good old USA.  However, he wasn’t satisfied with the peace and quiet of the hometown, and re-enlisted for foreign services, and spent three years in the Hawaiian Islands.  Back in Newbern again, he settled down for life, marrying one of his neighbor girls.  He now lives at Newbern with one son.

“Ok, Mr. Williamson,” Goy Snider said as he and Lanier left.  “I still believe this deserves a write-up,” and we agree with him.

[The Goy Snider mentioned in the article is from Henderson County.  He returned to teaching  after working at the plant during the war years and served as principal of Pin Oak School for many years.]