The Golden Age of the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce

While processing the Harvey Proctor Collection, I came across this awesome picture (left) of past presidents of the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce that includes the years 1940 to 1974 . What is special about the picture is that it lists all their names. These were the movers and shakers who led and served Jackson during twenty-four important years. Bankers, businessmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, city officials, and administrators are smiling for the camera. They are in the prime of their lives. Yet all of them can remember the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

This generation of leaders was put to the test during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. They sustained Jackson and Madison County during these wars and oversaw their return to a peacetime economy not once, not twice, but three times.

This moving picture shown above is an example of the photographic treasures contained in the Harvey Proctor Collection that was recently donated to the Tennessee Room in their original envelopes (right) The Harvey and Proctor families were involved in developing the media presence in Jackson. Building on the legacy of Clarence E. Pigford, the longtime publisher of The Jackson Sun, they organized and managed Jackson’s first radio station, WTJS (West Tennessee Jackson Sun) that was located on top of the highest hill in Jackson that sits behind the First Presbyterian and First Baptist churches’ campuses. They recorded just every business and religious program, leaving an invaluable legacy of tapes that have been digitized and are available to the public. They developed Jackson Madison County General Hospital and the adjacent residential areas that were part of the estate of Clarence E. and Sally Pigford. In the 1980s, they brought the first television station and later the first internet service to Jackson. They, along with the Chamber of Commerce Presidents photographed in the picture, were the modernizers and the developers of Jackson and Madison County.

NOTE: This entry was originally published on 01/18/2025

Dr. Alice-Catherine Carls is one of our treasured volunteers here in the Tennessee Room. Before volunteering in the Tennessee Room, Catherine earned her Ph.D in the History of International Relations from the University of Paris I - Sorbonne. As Professor Emerita of History at the University of Tennessee - Martin, Catherine helps preserve and write the history of West Tennessee, you can even find a few of her published works here in the Tennessee Room library!  Some of the Special Collections Catherine as worked with include Liberty Garden, Robert D. Conger Jaycees, and she is currently processing the Harvey Proctor Collection.