Doug Daugherty
Grandfathers are more distant than intimate…at least mine were. That is not, by a long shot, to say that they were/are unimportant. Frequently they lay the foundation for the future.
Such was my father’s father, Major Harry Miller Daugherty. When I was a young boy living in Brainerd in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pops, the affectionate sobriquet attached to the graying, suit and vest, mustachioed, cigar-caressing man, owned a place on Chickamauga Lake.
To this wonderland, we would frequently escape for a Saturday’s adventure. There we swam, played horseshoes, fished, killed snakes, boated and, Oh heaven, learned to water ski.
I did not think of it at the time, but what foresight my grandfather possessed.
Pops was born in Memphis with three siblings in late 1895. His mother died when he was an infant. They were not materially privileged. My impression is that he was a practical man indued with a great deal of foresight. These characteristics would serve him and his family well.
The eight-acre homestead on Lake Chickamauga sloped down a hill to the water’s edge on a peninsula-like plat with its own slew/inlet. Pops somehow both loved and saw the potential of the property. He was also a shrewd and thrifty guy. His first efforts were to build a cabin that still stands at the cul-de-sac of Wisteria Lane in Hixson. Ever resourceful, he purchased two World War II surplus wooden prefab signal shacks, joined them, and surrounded it with porches and patios, all set in a grove of majestic birch trees.
I would spend days at this cabin as I grew up. Some of my best memories are set there.
Pops was a Major in the Army in about 1915. He led a troop in the Mexican Border crisis under General Pershing, chasing Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution. Later he would move to Chattanooga, have two sons, and start an oil distribution company, General Oils. During World War II he was called on to handle the draft in the Chattanooga area. The business grew, my oldest brothers Stephen and Malone both worked there.
What is interesting to me about Pops were the qualities I only now recognize. Foresight, thrift, resourcefulness, studiousness, quiet generousness, and detail orientation are among them. Somehow, he knew to buy land on the Tennessee River on Pineville Road and on Lake Chickamauga when it was just a promise. That is rare. His thrift was legendary. If he saw a solitary screw on the ground, he took it home and sorted it in bottles in his workshop. He was amazingly resourceful. Not only did he construct the cabin from surplus shacks, but he also pushed five large steel pontoons with his Chris Craft Cabin Cruiser up the Mississippi River that would be welded together for a floating boat slip. Studious. He would spend hours in his office in a home he later built on the same property, analyzing investments, and researching family genealogy. His unsung generosity meant much to us as we matriculated. He paid our way for the best private schools in Chattanooga. He was so meticulous with detail that he would make notes and marks on things to tell him exactly what was what and who was who.
Fascinating guy.
So much of the life I have enjoyed is because of this silent man’s quiet virtues.
Did he know what he was doing for future generations? I never thought as a young man to ask him.
But as I think of his faithfulness to these inner qualities/virtues, I reflect on how important they are for me now, as I find myself a grandfather. My prayer is that I find in my own way a similar enduring legacy. Thank you, Pops, Semper Anticus, Major Harry Miller Daugherty, Sr. (Passed 1981).
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Doug Daugherty can be reached at dedsr1952@gmail.com.