Person:Thomas Phelan (2)

Notes from the database of Margaret Black, RootsWeb, World Connect: Hensley completed the 4th grade at Glen School in Nashville, TN. Although he only completed the 4th grade and attended the 5th grade, he went on to become a very well educated man through his reading and conversations and associations with educated people. In his early adult years he worked on his parents' and older brother's farms. He worked at a sawmill cutting cross ties for the railroad and as a butcher selling meat from a Hukster's wagon in Nashville.

Soon after his marriage he and Tula Belle moved to St. Augustine, FL where he worked on his sister's and brother-in law's dairy farm in Elkkton, FL.

In the late 1920's he and his nephew, Herbert E. Wolfe, started hauling and spreading aggregate for roadbuilders. They soon formed the H. E. Wolfe Construction Company of St. Augustine. He served as its Vice President. Ath this time he became known as "Bud" Phelan rather than Hensley. This company went on to become one of the leading highway contractors in the Southeastern United States. They built a large portion of the highway connecting Tampa and Miami. which is known as the Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). They also built part of Biscayne Blvd. in Miami, the first Paved road into Okeechobee, FL, the first concrete paved road in Mississippi, the first four lane highway in Georgia (the Marietta Highway), U.S. 41 in Monteagle, TN (now the southbound lane of I-24), the road around Lookout Mtn in Chatanooga, TN as well as numberous other roads in FL, GA, AL, SC, MS, and TN. During W.W.II, they built many military and air bases throughout the Southeast. I n the late 1940's, he, along with J.T. Rogers and H.E. Wolfe, founded the Rogers Mfg. Co, in Nashville, which manufactured the PHELAN trailer he had designed. He served as the company's President. They also built the ROGERS dump body. This company was sold in the 1970's but still manufactures these two items.

In 1956, Wolfe Construction Co. also began bidding jobs in the name of San Marco Contracting Company. San Marco was formed in the late 1930's as an equipment holding company with T.H. Phelan as President. San Marco built a large portion fo the Florida Turnpike extension, I-$, I-10, I-75, and I-95.

1. ↑ Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index: Death Master File, database. (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service).

   THOMAS PHELAN
   22 May 1893
   May 1977
   37087 (Lebanon, Wilson, TN)