Vowell & Sons Lumber

At Vowell and Sons, we are a family-owned and operated lumber and building material supplier, as well as a face brick distributor, proudly serving our area for more than 100 years. We take pride in the quality of the materials we carry and the high level of service we provide to our customers. We aim to be YOUR building material supplier and give you the service that you deserve and have been looking for.

Our history traces back to 1895 when the Vowell family started a lumber and sawmill business in the Campground community near Martin, Tennessee. Alfred Washington Vowell, along with his two sons, John A. Vowell and Ailian Hatler (Ail) Vowell, milled and sold lumber until moving to Martin. In 1922, John A. Vowell formed a partnership with his two sons, Morris Vowell and Graham Vowell, and they named it Vowell and Sons. They brought their lumber business into Martin, operating at more than one location, including the current site of Puckett Lumber Company on Cleveland Street.

Seeing the need to expand their business, they purchased the land and building at the present site of Vowell and Sons at the corner of Broadway and Rebecca Streets. John A. died six months before the new land was purchased in 1942. Five years later (1947), Mrs. Emma Vowell and her two sons formed Vowell and Sons, Inc., a corporation. Graham Vowell retired to Florida in 1954, and Morris bought their mother's portion of the business. Morris' two sons, Morris Vowell, Jr. and John Mac Vowell (fathers of current owners David, Steve, and Richard) bought Graham's portion. Morris Sr. and Jr. worked at the company, while John Mac was away serving in the military as a pilot in the air force.

During the 1950's, Vowell and Sons ventured into the ready mix concrete business, forming a corporation named Martin Ready-Mix. We poured concrete all over West Tennessee from then until 2002, when we quit that business in order to expand and modernize our lumberyard. In 1960, Vowell and Sons suffered the first of three major fires in an 11-year period. The three-story brick office building that was on the property when it was purchased burned to the ground. Two lumber sheds, four trucks, and three cement mixers were also destroyed in the fire. The destroyed office building was replaced by a modern one-story brick structure.

The Vowell family first strung Christmas lights up to the top of the two-way radio antenna atop this building, creating Martin's largest Christmas tree. The top of the radio antenna was adorned with a lighted star. Green bulbs were strung along the guide wires that anchored the antenna, starting at the top of the building and going up to the star, creating the 150-foot tall silhouette of a tree that could be seen for miles around. We still maintain that "tree" every Christmas to this day, and many folks stop us on the street during the holidays to thank our family for creating an icon that they (and their children) have grown up with. In 2012, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of our tree by converting the lighting to LED lighting, which has added an even brighter light to the holiday skies since.

In 1964, our company endured a second major fire. The fire again destroyed our new office building. Our local fire department was able to save the lumber sheds and other buildings on the property this time, but we had to build another office building. A third fire struck in 1971, but we were fortunate to have a new insurance policy that allowed us to rebuild with a modern facility that has been in use ever since.

Today, we are proud to continue serving our community with the same dedication and commitment to quality that our ancestors had. We carry a full line of lumber and building materials, and we pride ourselves on the quality of the materials that we carry, as well as the high level of service that we provide to our customers. We want to be YOUR building material supplier and give you the service that you deserve and have been looking for.