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EARLY HISTORY OF THE FLY FAMILY AND

THE FLY MANUFACTURING BUILDING

OF SHELBYVILLE, TENNESSE

Joel Orval Fly, the son of Elijah and Sarah Christman Fly, was born in Williamson County, Tennesse on June 8, 1883, and died at Shelbyville, Tennessee, on October 2, 1960. He spent his early youth at Nolensville, and in 1908 he was married to Miss Carrie Funk who was born in Patterson, Ohio, on August 24, 1884. Carrie was the daughter of John Freeman and Margretta (Schope) Funk. Her family came to Tennessee in 1885. Carrie died in Shelbyville, Tennessee, on November 7, 1973.

Sometime after their marriage, Mr. Fly moved his new bride to Clarksville, Tennessee, where for several years he successfully operated an overall factory for J. S. Reeves & Co. of Nashville. While at Clarksville, two of their children were born, George Freeman Fly on November 20, 1909 and Dorothy Fly on September 29, 1913.

During the year 1914, Mr. Fly moved his family to Shelbyville, where Carrie's parents resided. By February of the following year, 1915, and through the efforts of the Shelbyville Commercial Club, an organization was established by local citizens of promote economic growth for the town, Mr. Fly established the Fly Manufacturing Company of Shelbyville with the help of his father-in-law and Mr. Oliver "O. D." Edwards (1890-1955) who had come from Clarksville to help set up the Kirkpatrick's Livery Stable, located next door to the produce house of Jean & Tune. The exact site today is on the northeast corner of Depot and Jefferson Street across the street from the First Baptist Church.

With the employment of eighteen to twenty people, the factory began its production of overalls, pants and work shirts on February 15, 1915. The SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE reported on the new enterprise on February 11, 1915:

NEW MANUFACTURING PLANT IS OPEN HERE

OVERALL FACTORY NEW ENTERPRISE FOR SHELBYVILLE

WILL BEGIN OPERATIONS MONDAY .

"On next Monday the Overall Factory will begin work. This is a new enterprise for our town, secured through efforts of the Shelbyville Commercial Club. It is owned by Mr. J. O. Fly, who for several years successfully operated an overall factory in Clarksville for J. S. Reeves & Co., of Nashville."

Mr. Fly understands every detail of the business and that he will make a success of the undertaking, we haven't the slightest doubt. The factory is located in the large warehouse on Commerce Street next to Jean & Tune Produce House. They will give employment to 18 or 20 people at the start, but it is confidently expected that this force will be largely increased, and that real soon. They will make pants, overalls and works shirts. It is hoped that before long Sylvan Mills will be making and dying the cloth and the Fly Manufacturing Company making it into useful wearing apparel and selling and shipping to "the four corners of the earth." It should be the slogan of our town . . . . . .

While this year of 1915 saw much progress and growth in the overall business, the year also witnessed the birth of a third child to Joel and Carrie Fly. This child was born in Shelbyville on December 15, 1915 and named for his father, Joel Orval Fly, Jr..

Mr. Fly's overall factory became very successful and prospered. With the increased business, the factory soon began to outgrow its working quarters. By April of 1916 the demand for more and larger working space was met through an agreement with Mr. Ray B. Jean. At that time Mr. Jean had bought the old pre-Civil War Shelbyville Saving Bank building just off the public square on Depot Street and was having the old landmark torn down. He already owned the adjoining lot and was in process of having a new building built on both lots. The SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE for April 27, 1916 reported:

NEW BUSINESS HOUSE:

. . . .The new building will have two stores on the first floor, while the second floor will be used by the Fly Manufacturing Co. for their overall plant. The upper rooms will be built with special reference to their needs and will be very convenient in every way. The present quarters of the overall factory are too small and their increasing business demands larger rooms.

Less than a month before the completion and occupancy of the new Jean building the misfortune of a fire would consume the overall factory in its old location adjacent to the Kirkpatrick Livery Stable. The SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE for the date August 3, 1916 reported on the devastating fire:

DESTROYED BY FIRE MONDAY MORNING

The fire alarm sounded early Monday morning just before dawn and a big blaze in the vicinity of the depot attracted a large number of people. The fire originated in the large livery barn occupied lately by Mr. Frank Condra as a hitch and feed barn. Mr. Condra had thirty or forty bales of hay and a small amount of corn in the barn and the fire must have caught in the hay or near to it as the huge building was ablaze from end to end when the fire department reached the place

The room adjoining occupied by Fly's Overall Factory speedily caught, as a partition wall only separated them.

Mr. Fly had a large amount of machinery and a considerable quantity of bales of overall goods and finished goods. He had $4,000 insurance.

Mr. S. P. Kirkpatrick had five thousand dollars insurance on the entire building.

The old part of the building, sixty or seventy feet front by 100 feet depth, was built before the war and long used as a warehouse. In more recent years it was run as a livery stable by the late Frank Condra, Sr. His son Frank Condra, who had lately occupied it, had a buggy and harness, 30 to 40 bales of hay and small lot of corn.

Considerable damage was done to the wires of the telephone company.

In second article in the same issue of the GAZETTE "Mr. Fly reported that he would continue to operate his overall factory and had ordered new machinery to be located in the new Jean building that was in the latter stages of completion. The exact site of the new Jean building is where the People's National Bank was later located, three buildings east of the southeast corner of the Shelbyville Public Square on the south side of Depot Street.

For almost twelve years the Fly Manufacturing Company in its second floor location on Depot Street produced several thousand pair of overalls and wearing apparel. But once again it outgrew its location. Plans for a bigger and better factory was in the making. About the same time, Mr. Fly set up a second company, the Eureka Pants Manufacturing Company, incorporated in Shelbyville on December 31, 1924.

His intentions were the plans been made than on November 12, 1925, through the Insurance and Real Estate agency of H. B. Cowan & Co., Mr. Fly purchased for five thousand dollars a lot on South Main Street from the estate of the late Mr. R. P. McGill. His in Lent ions were to have a large spacious factory constructed on this site. The SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE for November 19, 1925 reported on the purchase:"

A Big Real Estate Deal::

The insurance and Real Estate agents, H. B. Cowan & Co., have sold to Mr. J. O. Fly for Mr. W. J. McGill, the large old brick residence nearly opposite the Main Street Church of Christ. It is one of the old landmarks of the town and it was built before the War between the States. It has always been used as a residence. It fronts 100 feet on Main Street and runs back 150 feet. The building now on the lot will be torn down and in its place will be erected a modern factory building to house Fly's Overall Factory.

The institution has grown so fast that it is compelled to have larger quarters. The consideration was $5,00 cash.

By May 27 1926, The SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE indicated the old brick Shelbyville landmark had been torn down and "The work on the new Fly Overall Factory on South Main Street has commenced and it will be pushed to an early completion. It will be a goodly sized structure and modern in ever appointment. About $40,000 will be spent in its erection."

Col. John Morgan Raney (1878 - 1955) a local contractor received the contract to build the brick factory. There was very little progress on its construction until early in February of 1927. This was due in part because Col. Raney's construction firm had contracted to build other buildings in Shelbyville at the same time the Fly building was to be constructed. On February 10, 1927 the

SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE reported:

ANOTHER FACTORY TO BE BUILT:

The Fly Manufacturing Co., have been compelled by the larger increase in their business to have larger quarters. Sometime ago in preparing for this, they bought a lot on South Main Street. for their new factory site. Now they have awarded the contact to Col. Morgan Raney, and he has begun on the excavations. This work will be prosecuted as fast as possible under weather conditions. It is to be a large building 72 x 125 feet fronting on South Main Street. It will be two stories high with a basement under all. It will be one of the largest buildings in town and will cost a goodly sum. It will be equipped with every modern convenience. It will add very materially to the industrial activity of the town and we are glad to note this addition. We still have room for more. Let them come.

The following June 9, 1927 the SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE reported on this progress of the construction:

FLY FACTORY

The big factory of the Fly Manufacturing Company is rapidly rearing its walls under the skillful management of Col. Morgan Raney, the contractor. It will be one of the largest buildings in the county and it will be fitted up with every modern convenience. The number of employees will be largely increased when the factory is moved into its new building.

By early August, the new building was finished and Mr. Charlie Hummel placed; the cornerstone in the center, near the top of the building, identifying the construction date of 1927. During the third week of that month all the office furniture and factory equipment and machinery were moved from the building on Depot Street to the new structure on South Main Street. The BEDFORD COUNTY TIMES for August 12, 1927 reported on the move.

The Fly Manufacturing Company will move their office and machinery next week from the building on Depot Street heretofore occupied by them to the spacious new building on South Main Street just completed. The Eureka Pants Company will remove their stock and equipment, heretofore located in the rooms to the rear of Kuhn's store, to the one vacated by the Fly Manufacturing Company.

About the first of 1928, Mr. Fly added a shirt department to his enterprise. the SHELBYVILLE GAZETTE for December 1, 1927 reported on the new department.

SHIRT FACTORY FOR SHELBYVILLE

It becomes the Gazette's pleasing duty, as a veracious historian, to announce - that another large and valuable industry is to be added to the busy enterprises of our town.

About the first of the new year, Mr. J. O. Fly will start a large men's shirt factory. The machinery has been contracted for and it will begin to arrive in a few days. He will place the new factory on the second floor of his large factory building on South Main Street. At the start about 75 hands will be employed and this number will be increased as occasion demands. About $100,000 of capital will be employed. Under the able management of Col. Fly, we are expecting a fine success for his latest enterprise. He does not expect any subsidy from the town or county. He goes into the enterprise on his own initiative. He has made a success of his large overall factory and the Eureka pants factory, with the assistance of Mr. J. F. Smith, and there can be no reasonable doubt, but what he will make a success on this big shirt factory.

We wish him the greatest success in his newest venture.

One example of the early hiring practice at the Fly Manufacturing Company that exemplified hiring practice during that early time in our nations history involved the employment of a thirteen year old Shelbyville girl. Personnel files describing individual histories and dates of births for employees were nonexistence. When a person received employment, he or she simply went to work at their jobs. Mrs. Lois Claxton who resides in Shelbyville with her husband,, Mr. Marvin "Buck" Claxton, was this little thirteen year old girl. This was in the year 1929, just two year after the construction of the new Fly building. Put to work making pockets, Lois had steady employment for about two months when a co-worker informed others of her young age. When the supervisor, Mr. O. D. Edwards, learned that he had a child working in the factory, he called her aside and informed her of child labor laws and told her she could come back when she was sixteen. Some three years later, during late spring of 1933, and after she had turned sixteen the previous August, Lois regained he employment at Fly's. She worked for several years, quitting in 1940.

During the "Great Depression" of the 1930's, the Fly Manufacturing Company continued to operate, but at times, only at half its capacity. Mrs. Margaret Elam of Shelbyville, who was then Miss Margaret Mozell Miller, was only sixteen years old when she began to work at Fly's on April 3, 1933. Until she learned how to operate the company's electric sewing machines, she sewed old rags and loose cloth. Her starting pay was seventy-five cents for a full 40 hour week. When the company received large orders to be sewed, as Mrs. Elam states, the employees would work a full week. But when the orders were small, to avoid a lay off, Mr Fly would allow his employees to work half a day.

It was at Fly's that Mrs. Elam met her husband, Robert Elam, and married him in 1935. She retired from the factory in September of 1958 after 25 years of service. Her husband retired after 53 years of service to the company.

The closing of the McMinniville plant in 1938 increased the business of the company to the extent that it required the enlarging of the building. Under the skillful management of the contracting firm of Col. John Morgan Raney, a large brick extension to the rear of the existing structure was commenced, with existing building and would consist of two stories and basement measuring 65 x 72 feet. The materials for the construction were of brick, steel, and concrete. It was completed within sixty days of its start date. The BEDFORD COUNTY TIMES for March 18, 1938 carried this report on the addition to the Fly building:

ADDITION TO THE FLY BUILDING STARTED:

Excavation for the basement of an addition to the Fly Manufacturing Company building was started Tuesday morning by Morgan Raney, contractor.

The addition will be an extension from the rear of present building and the dimensions will be 65 x 72 feet two stories and basement, brick, steel and concrete construction. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy in sixty days.

The expansion was made necessary when the company sold its McMinniville plant recently, the present building not being large enough to care for the increasing business. The new space will be used for the manufacture of overalls and shirts.

by: Jerrry W. Cook

ANDREW JACKSON SLEPT ON THIS SITE IN 1826:

On this site before the Fly Building was built, there existed an old. two story brick house build by Brigadier - General Robert Cannon sometime during the early 1820's. Cannon was a brother to Clement Cannon who gave the 100 acres for the town of Shelbyville and to Newton Cannon Governor of Tennessee from 1835 to 1839.

General Jackson was invited by special invitation to come to Shelbyville for a 4th of July Celebration. He was unable to make that date but did come on July 8, 1926. Accounts record that he was a tall, slender man with reddish hair and very polite as he rode into Shelbyville on horseback that day. He stayed as a guest in the home of his old friend, Gen. Robert Cannon which was located on the site of the Fly Building. A banquet and ball were given in his honor at the Whitney Tavern on Holland Street. The ball was led by Mrs. Ruth P. Whitney, her daughter Harriet P. Scudder, and by Gen. Andrew Jackson himself.