Philo gave up farming and became a mason. He soon learned how to lay a straight wall. He heard that the Bibb Manufacturing Company (cotton mills) was opening a plant in Porterdale, Georgia. The Company had placed an ad for a brick mason in the paper. Bibb would be building many houses to house their employees. So Philo heads towards Porterdale, and took a room in a boarding house in Covington, a nearby town.

Philo went to apply for the brick mason job. The first question was if he could build a fireplace for a four-room house, where each of the four rooms would have a fireplace, yet use only one flue? He was not concerned about laying the brick, he badly wanted the job and said that he could do it. Philo stayed up all night drawing up plans how he would build the fireplace and flue. He took the plans in the next day. He got the job. He became an overall maintenance man for Bibb. He built several structures in Porterdale, including wading pools for the youngsters.  One of the wading pools was located on the playground at the elementary school.

The family moved from Porterdale, Georgia to Cedartown, Georgia. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was building a plant in Cedartown, and needed some "spinners". Goodyear did not really have a job for Philo at this time, but Philo had three daughters that were good spinners (learned at the Porterdale Mills). So they found a job for Philo if he would move to Cedartown and bring his daughters. Good spinners were what made a lot of money for the Company. Wilson recalls the trip to Cedartown, a distance of a little over 100 miles. The roads were gravel and dirt, mostly dirt. There were big ruts and it had rained, the roads were in a mess. Frequently they had to back the car up the hills, rather than go forward.

Wilson Ollis