Three Brothers Found Their Fortune In Bristol

Within a few years after arriving in Bristol, Ezra Harmon Powers was able to build this fine brick home at 500 Pennsylvania Ave. in Bristol, Tenn. (erected about 1903). He moved to 110 Ash St. about 1915. Since that time, the house has had several owners. The porch was replaced, but not in the original style, about 1980. Powers later built and occupied a house at 1117 Columbia Road.

By By Bud Phillips Special to the Herald Courier
Published: August 16, 2009

» 0 Comments | Post a Comment

Those familiar with my writings know that I like to write what I call “Horatio Alger” stories concerning people who came to Bristol and made good. They were many.
I am fortunate to have been told many stories of them. A good portion of them left memorials to the success, usually in the form of a fine, commodious home or perhaps an outstanding monument in a local cemetery.
I have long said that one can judge the prosperity of the town by viewing its older homes and taking a stroll through its major cemeteries.
I have found this very true in Bristol.
Two of the many houses by which I judge the prosperity of Bristol are featured with this article.
Through many of her early years, Bristol beckoned as a new land of promise to those who wanted to succeed in business professions or simply as a good place to find employment (as late as 1953, it became my promised land and remains so to this day).
Three of those men who early came to Bristol were the Powers brothers from Miller Yard near Dungannon, Va. They were sons of Isaac and Darinda Jane Quillen Powers.
Hugh Winfield Powers, the older of the three, was the first to come to Bristol. He soon became associated with J.D. Mitchell and Co., a hardware firm founded in 1888. Soon, that firm became a giant in the field of hardware suppliers not only in Bristol but in the surrounding area.
Soon, Ezra Harmon Powers, younger brother of Hugh, came and joined the firm, working first as a traveling salesman.
Then came another brother, William B. Powers, who also became a traveling salesman. The firm became known as the Mitchell Powers Hardware Company by 1890.
Hugh married Lona Reeder and established a home at 524 6th St. By 1896, both Ezra and William, yet unmarried, were boarding with their brother at this address.
Ezra Powers first married Juanita Dickie, daughter of Dr. J.A. and Kate W. Dickie. This young couple built a fine house that still stands at 500 Pennsylvania Ave. around 1903.
About the same time, William had moved to 518 5th St.
Between 1905 and 1908, Hugh Powers erected his grand home at 423 Spruce St.
Ezra Powers married a second time to Nellie Reeder, a niece of his brother Hugh’s wife. He and Nellie moved into the carriage house at the back of his former home (110 Ash St.). About 1921-22, he erected a fine house at 1117 Columbia Road.
William B. Powers served a while as salesman for the company and then moved away for a few years. He then returned to Bristol and stayed a while but moved back to Dungannon, where he lived the rest of his life.
Both Hugh and Ezra served as president of the Mitchell Powers Hardware Co. Hugh also served for a few years as president of the Bank of Bristol.
The homes the Powers brothers built clearly show that the hopes of making good in the new town of Bristol were fully realized.
Both houses are well and beautifully designed and well built.
Though the Powers brothers have long been gone, their former houses have made pleasant and comfortable homes for other families that have followed them.
For the Powers brothers and many others, including this writer, Bristol truly became the promised land.