My grandfather preferred to be called Tanner or E. T. All of us grandchildren called him grandpa. I learned a great deal from him-- he taught me how to make statues, tend a garden, hunt, and survey land.
I present this page to the public so people can see how his statues looked when they were in mint condition. His statues still stand, but after 30 years of neglect most are now in poor condition.
From left to right: Annie Wickham (E. T. Wickham's wife), E. T. Wickham, Minnie Wickham and Charley Wickham . Photo made in Clarksville, Tn. (1905).
From left to right: Annie Wickham (E. T. Wickham's wife), E. T. Wickham, Minnie Wickham and Charley Wickham . Photo made in Clarksville, Tn. (1905).
When my grandfather retired from farming he was in his seventies, he had raised 9 children and tons of tobacco. He left his log house in a hollow close to Palmyra, Tennessee and built a small cabin on Buck Smith road in the Palmyra area in the early 1950's. He was poor in income but rich in ideas and land (he owned hundreds of acres).
E. T. Wickham by his cabin he built in 1952. The logs, which he hewed himself when he was 15, were taken from a stable. Notice the goose made of concrete with wings cut from tin. He always kept hunting dogs and was an avid hunter. Also note his tool box. He was a resourceful carpenter who used no electric tools, but could build most anything he dreamed of. His original chimney was made of small logs mortared with mud; later he replaced it with a concrete block chimney. You can see pine trees in the background. He planted thousands of pines on his property. Photo taken in late 50's or early 60's.
During the 1950s and throughout the sixties, he built life-size statues of animals, relatives, religious figures, prominent Tennesseans and other famous Americans. He was a self-taught artist who made them out of concrete using pipes and wire as reinforcement. He used stove pipes as molds for making the pillars to the monuments. He always inscribed captions at the base of his monuments. Most of the statues were placed in a row in clear view of people passing by on Buck Smith road.
Countless people saw these statues and were awed by them. Most of us relatives, accustomed to seeing his works, thought his making statues was an interesting and unusual hobby, but nothing terribly earthshaking. My grandfather enjoyed talking with his visitors. He would always halt what he was doing to talk at length with those who stopped by. There were dedication ceremonies for most of his statues. Many people, including General Westmoreland and Estes Kefaufer, attended one or more of these dedications.
From left to right: Sergeant York (now kept in the art building at Austin Peay State University), A world war II soldier (inspired by the death of E. T. Wickham's son, Ernest), Andrew Jackson atop a horse, and E. T. Wickham riding a bull headed out to the wild west. (mid 1960s photo)
E. T. by his statue of Andrew Jackson. He made the horse's hind legs unusually powerful and used a steel pipe to support the weight of this massive statue. (mid 1960s)
A statue of Dr. John Wickham, E. T.'s brother, on horseback. (mid 1960s)
Building statues was hard, grueling work, especially for a man in his eighties, but my grandfather single-handedly built each of these statues. Each of the larger ones took about 6 weeks to complete. The statue of Andrew Jackson was the most difficult one to build. Occasionally he got a little help from his grandchildren.
E. T. working on a statue of Judge W. D. Hudson. Other statues from left to right: Estes Kefauver, Patrick Henry, and John F. Kennedy. Real people from left to right: my father, me, and my grandfather. (mid 1960s)
My brother Rick by a longhorn bull. My grandfather put wiring in this statue and inserted red light bulbs into its eye sockets. At night the bull had a fierce look with its glowing red eyes. Photo was taken in the early sixties; red eyes were added digitally.
The Schibig brothers, Rick, Joe, Arlen, and grandfather Wickham are sitting on the perimeter of what my grandfather claimed was the largest sundial in the world. (early 60s)
E. T. sitting on an ox with his son, L. D., in the foreground. My mother asked L. D. to sit on the other bull, but he respectfully declined. (late 1960s)
E. T. Wickham and his children. From left to right: E. T. (deceased), L. D. (deceased), Harvey (deceased), Betty, Sister Justina, Iris (my mother), Mary, Rita. In the background are a covered wagon and a series of statues he made in the mid to late 60s. Photo taken in late 60s.
A photographic portrait of Tanner Wickham made in the mid to late sixties by artist Ned Crouch who is now director of the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee. My mother said she was at Austin Peay State University in the 1960s and saw this picture. She asked Ned Crouch if she could purchase it, but when he learned that she was Tanner Wickham's daughter he said he would give it to her. She showed it to grandpa and he really liked it, so my mother let him keep it for a long time. I remember it hanging on the wall of the middle room of his house.
A concrete angel looks over the tombs of E. T. Wickham, his son, Ernest and his wife, Annie. My grandfather made the angel and the three tombstones. Photo made in the 1970s.
After my grandfather's death, no one was around to guard his statues. In time they were ravaged by the weather and vandals, mostly by the latter. Due to the efforts of Ned Crouch, a few of his statues were moved to the art building at Austin Peay State University where they are on display, but most are still standing in a degraded condition where grandpa first placed them.
On his statue of himself riding a bull, he wrote "remember me boys when I'm gone". Most people are soon forgotten after they leave this world, but my grandfather was special. His fourty concrete statues represent two decades of laborious but enjoyable artwork. He could have made money off his statues and he could have sold some of his land and had a bigger more comfortable home, but he was content to live in the house he built and to produce statues to express his creativity and to commemorate the people who he deemed important. Now, with this webpage, I pay tribute to E. T. Wickham. He was one of a kind, he did it his way, and he made his mark on the world. Long live E. T. Wickham!
To view 1960s Clarksville newspaper articles on E. T. Wickham, click: Wickham Articles
To view his statues in their more recent condition go to: http://www.interestingideas.com/roadside/wickham/wick2.htm
Authored by Joe Schibig-- email address: joe.schibig@vscc.cc.tn.us
