Z 1961.000 Williams (Frank Tatum) and Family Papers

Frank Tatum Williams was a lawyer from Jackson, Mississippi. He was born on August 15, 1904, at Silver Creek, Mississippi, where his father, J. P. Williams, was a Baptist minister. Frank Tatum Williams attended Mississippi College, earning bachelors and masters degrees there. He taught at Clark College in Newton, Mississippi. Williams later received a masters degree in mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a law degree from Georgetown University. He married Neilye Leadell Cargill on August 11, 1935, and they settled in Mendenhall, Mississippi. Williams opened a law practice and joined the Mendenhall Masonic Lodge. In 1935 and 1936, he was a member of the Mississippi Senate from Simpson County. In 1936, he and his wife had their first son, Frank Canon. Williams was a charter member of the Simpson County Country Club. In 1942, the family moved to Jackson. Williams soon joined the law firm of Satterfield, Ewing, and Hedgepeth as a partner. In 1945, the Williamses had a second son, Milton Cargill. Their elder son, Frank C., became a professor at Emory University, Atlanta, and later at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. When Williams retired in 1976, the law firm had reorganized and was then called Shell, Buford, Bufkin, Callicut, and Perry. Frank Tatum Williams died on February 21, 1977, in Jackson. He was a member of the Mississippi Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Williams was also a member of the Parkway Baptist Church.

Frank Tatum Williamss mother, Mary Frankie Tatum, was born on November 5, 1870, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Her mother was Mary Frances Tynes, and her father was John Franklin Tatum, who farmed between Byram and Terry, Mississippi. Mary Frankie Tatum attended Blue Mountain College, Blue Mountain, Mississippi, in 1885, but she graduated from the Central Female Institute (later Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi) in 1889. The family moved to Clinton during this time. Mary Frankie Tatum traveled to the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago, and while there, received news from her father that her brother, Paul, had been seriously wounded in an accidental shooting. Evidently, Paul survived the accident; the 1900 census records show Paul living at home. Unexpectedly, John Franklin Tatum died a few days after his sons accident. His wife, Mary Frances Tatum, then managed a boarding house for Mississippi College students. On May 10, 1899, his daughter Mary Frankie married James Pendleton Williams, a widower. Mary Frances Tynes Tatum died in Jackson on March 10, 1922.

James Pendleton Williams also attended Mississippi College, graduating in 1887. He was born on May 3, 1858, in Kemper County, Mississippi. After graduating from college, Williams attended the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, but he had to leave because of poor health. Despite this setback, he became an ordained Baptist minister and pastored several churches in Mississippi: at Silver Creek for sixteen years, and at Providence, Brooksville, Bethel, Collins, and finally Mendenhall, where he retired. While he was in Mendenhall, he was elected president of the Baptist State Convention of Mississippi. J. P. Williams was awarded an honorary doctorate from Mississippi College, where he was also a member of the board of trustees. He died in Mendenhall on September 16, 1933.

After her husbands death in 1933, Mary Frankie Williams continued to live in Mendenhall for many years and was an active member of the Mendenhall Baptist Church. She eventually moved to Jackson to live with her son, Frank Tatum Williams, and his family. For many years, she was noted as the oldest surviving student of Blue Mountain College. Mary Frankie Tatum Williams died on November 10, 1970, in Jackson; she is buried in Mendenhall.

This collection includes letters and papers of Frank Tatum Williams and his mother, Mary Frankie Tatum Williams. Two letters, one being a later copy of the first, are from John Franklin Tatum to his daughter, Mary Frankie Tatum, informing her of a serious injury to a family member. Three pages of medical notes document deaths and symptoms associated with a yellow fever outbreak in Clinton, Mississippi, in October and November of 1897. Mary Frankie Tatum survived the epidemic. There is an undated Y.W.C.A. pamphlet from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition inscribed "Mrs. Daisy McLaurin Stevens" and a calling card from Mississippi Governor Anselm J. McLaurin. The collection also contains two copies of a circa 1939 political campaign broadside of Frank Tatum Williams as state representative for Simpson County. His bid for the office was unsuccessful. Most helpful to genealogists, due to scant county histories, is a five-page family history and genealogy of Mary Frankie Tatum Williams, compiled after her death in 1970.

1. Letters. 1893.
2. Notes. 1897.
3. Pamphlet. n.d.
4. Calling Card. n.d.
5. Broadsides. ca. 1939.
6. Family History and Genealogy. n.d.