June 2, 2022Chevy Chase, Maryland Here’s the thing that has puzzled me ever since I started research on Emmett Wilson’s life story: What was the main reason Frank Mayes (and The Pensacola Journal) endorsed Emmett for U.S. Congress? Frank was no dummy; he was a prescient newsman who kept close […]
February 10, 1903 Dr. F.C. Wilson’s Home Chipley, Florida I’m in Chipley for a few days visiting my father, stepmother, and Grandfather Maxwell. He now lives with my father; Grandfather Maxwell is frail these days. Although Grandfather has been living with my uncle Evelyn Maxwell in Pensacola, Grandfather prefers to […]
December 22, 1900Dr. Francis C. Wilson’s Office, Downtown Chipley Continued from here. === I climbed the stairs and paused at the top; my heart was pounding. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten; rubbed the center of my chest. Touched the liquor flask hidden in my coat pocket. After […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, 1:30 pm, 6th Street Chipley Barbara Russell is buckling her seat belt in my van, as I start the engine, and turn up the air conditioning as high as it will go. The heat is rising off the hood of my car in shimmering waves. Even […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, NoonChipley After Whit dropped me off at the Washington County Historical Society, I notice that I have about a half hour before I was to meet the current owners of the Dr. F.C. Wilson home. I took Judge Wells’ advice to do a self-walking tour around […]
Friday, May 24, 2014, about 11 a.m.Chipley As the officer said, the old train depot in downtown Chipley wasn’t hard to find. Fifteen minutes later, I’m sitting my car, in front of a seafoam-green building that definitely looked like a train station from the early 19th century. I note that […]
As I write Emmett’s story, I always wonder how long he would have lived had he not drank himself to death. Several of the men in his family, particularly his twin brother Julian, were long lived. Emmett was 35 when he died of uremia on May 29, 1918. The website, […]
One hundred years ago today, almost exactly a year to his death, Emmett wrote his will. I have a copy of Emmett’s original will; the document was typewritten by Emmett himself, on old Banking and Currency Committee stationery that he had saved from his tenure as a U.S. Congressman. Emmett […]
I’m pleased to report that not only have I located Emmett’s doctors (both in Pensacola and Washington, D.C.), but I’ve also located his pharmacist. Pretty damn good History Detective work, huh? I’ll have more on the doctors in another post, but I thought I’d introduce you to the pharmacist first, […]
Emmett’s brother, Percy Brockenbrough Wilson, was born in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, on October 25, 1871. Percy was the fourth son of Dr. Francis C. and Elizabeth Maxwell Wilson, only about 18 months after the Wilsons moved from Pensacola to Holly Springs. As discussed elsewhere in the blog, […]
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