Enoch Tanner Wickham (E.T.), 1882–1970, was a self-taught folk artist who built life-size concrete statues along a rural road in

Palmyra, Tennessee Palmyra is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Tennessee. It is located along State Route 149, southwest of Clarksville. The town had its own post office until around 2010 when the post office was closed and mail service began to ...

. Wickham began his creations in 1950 at the age of 67 after retiring from being a tobacco farmer and raising nine children. The first statue Wickham built was of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

crushing a snake under her feet. More statues followed of Tecumseh the Indian Chief, and of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

hero

Alvin York Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964), also known as Sergeant York, was one of the most decorated United States Army soldiers of World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine ...

. In 1961 Wickham built an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

. One of his largest statues was a memorial to honor his son Ernest Wickham and other local soldiers of

Montgomery County, Tennessee Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 220,069. The county seat (and only incorporated municipality) is Clarksville. The county was created in 1796. Montgomery Count ...

who died in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Wickham continued building statues until his death in 1970. By that time, he had built over forty statues using only simple materials of chicken wire, rebar and concrete. In 2001 the Customs House Museum in

Clarksville, Tennessee Clarksville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States. It is the fifth-largest city in the state behind Nashville, Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. The city had a population of 166,722 as of the 202 ...

had a yearlong exhibition of his work. Today some of the statues still stand along Buck Smith Road in Palmyra in spite of much aging and vandalism. The statues of

and the sleeping dog have been restored and are displayed in the Trahern Art building at Austin Peay State University in

. Another statue of a kneeling soldier is located outside Soldier's Chapel in nearby

Fort Campbell, Kentucky Fort Campbell is a United States Army installation located astride the Kentucky–Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee (post address is located in Kentucky). Fort Campbell is home to the 101st Airborne Divi ...

External links

Customs House Museum Wickham Exhibit

Wickham Stone Park
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wickham, Enoch Tanner 1880s births 1970 deaths Outsider artists 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Sculptors from Tennessee People from Montgomery County, Tennessee

See also

External links