Discover The Essence of St. Clair February 2017

Dale Owen on the Air • ASPCI • Argo, Alabama Praised Colors • Notorious Springfield Gang • Pell City Music Man

February & March 2017

WEDDING FARM

Cattle during the week; Wedding weekends

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Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Wedding Farm Running cattle during the week, holding weddings on weekends Pell City’s Music Man Page 8

Page 24

Traveling the Backroads Notorious Springfield Gang Page 16

Shall We Dance?

Dale Owen on the Radio Page 38

Argo, Alabama

Artist Marie Barber Page 30 A mission to rescue pets Page 55

Never Forgets its People Page 40 Crazy Horse Page 50 William’s Orchard Page 52

Business Review

Buffalo Wild Wings, New Theater and More Page 60 Business News in Brief Page 64

February & March 2017

www.discoverstclair.com

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吀漀琀愀氀氀礀 䘀刀䔀䔀 䌀栀攀挀欀椀渀最⸀ 洀礀栀猀挀甀⸀挀漀洀

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Carol Pappas

Writers AND Photographers

Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, design and web services for companies and nonprofits, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for chambers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publication of Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia company. An Auburn journalism graduate, Hadley also served as the news editor for The Rome News Tribune in Rome,Ga.

Elaine Hobson Miller

Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests.

Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University.

She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications.

She is a member of Alabama Media Professionals and NFPW (the National Federation of Press Women). Follow her weekly blog about life with a dozen four-legged critters, life in the country and life in general at www.countrylife-elaine.blogspot.com.

Mike Callahan

Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.

Wally graduated from Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education.

Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college.After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

Jerry C. Smith

Leigh Pritchett

For almost 30 years, Leigh Pritchett has been involved in the publishing industry. She was employed for 11 years by The Gadsden Times, ultimately becoming Lifestyle editor. Since 1994, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in online and print venues. She holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Montevallo.

Susan Wall Susan Wall moved to Logan Martin Lake from Birmingham, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Alongside the nursing career, she owned Dreamscapes Photography, a portrait and wedding studio. Winner of the 2010 August Moore award at the Bluff Park Art Show, with numerous publications in magazines and the Kodak Instructional Magazine, her passion now is digital painting and portraits.

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Graham Hadley

Paul South Paul South, a native of Fairfield, Ala., is an Auburn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, South had a remarkably versatile career as a reporter, columnist and editor.

Before transitioning to newspapers, South was the first full-time sports information director at Samford University in Birmingham

Jackie Romine Walburn Jackie Romine Walburn, a Birmingham native and freelance writer, is an Auburn University journalism graduate who has worked as a reporter, editor and corporate communications manager. She’s had recent writing published in the Birmingham Arts Journal and Alalitcom.

Jackie is currently seeking an agent and publisher for her first novel, Mojo Jones and the Black Cat Bone, a story set in the Alabama Black Belt and based on a kernel of a news story she covered as a reporter in Selma, Ala. She writes the blog jackierwalburnwrites.blogspot.com.

From the Editor

ASPCI to the Rescue!

Arguably, there is little worse for a writer than facing a deadline with a block about what to write about. But that’s where I sat just days ago, staring at a computer screen, wondering which story or theme in this issue to further illuminate.

Suddenly, as my dog, Millie, winced and nudged me a bit as her signal it was time to go outside to do a little ‘business,’ it was like one of those moments where you hit your forehead and say, “I could’ve had a V 8.” That, of course, was the oft quoted phrase made famous by a television commercial to illustrate the obvious choice that should have been obvious all along.

Millie has been a constant companion for 14 years – ever since the day I found her, and she found her forever home. She wasn’t hard to spot. She muscled her way past the other puppies en route to the front of the kennel at the Animal Shelter of Pell City. She pressed her cute little face as close as she could get, her big brown eyes beckoning me closer, and she has been in control of my house and heart ever since.

My story is not a unique one. ASPCI has been making scenes like mine happen for years. And they deserve a debt of thanks, not just because of what they do, but because they cared enough to get involved in the very beginning to make scenes like mine possible in the first place.

As a cub reporter for a weekly newspaper in St. Clair County fresh from college, I remember a time when we didn’t have an ASPCI. But a dedicated and persistent group, applying a little governmental arm twisting and raising a whole lot of funds managed to eventually build a shelter. Their mission was to find forever homes for as many cats and dogs, puppies and kittens as possible. It still is, although the method has evolved.

ASPCI now finds forever homes through an adopt a pet and foster parent system, no longer maintaining and operating a brick and mortar shelter. Its success is measured in the smiles at awaiting forever homes and the simple wag of a tail. But how

it got to this point didn’t begin a year ago when it moved into its new headquarters on US 231 South in Pell City. Its genesis came courtesy of a small group of people with hearts so big and hopes so high, you just knew they would succeed.

This small, but caring and dedicated group set the stage for what would become the answer to animal lovers’ hopes. There are plenty more who deserve credit over the years, but that early group stands out to me as the catalyst for what would follow.

Their perseverance is unmatched around these parts. They simply wouldn’t let their quest to be advocates for the most vulnerable fail. And it hasn’t.

We laud ASPCI’s efforts, and it is our honor to tell their story.

Find out about this group and more in this issue of Discover.

Come along in the pages that follow and discover it all with us.

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

February & March 2017 • Vol. 34 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Brandon Wynn • Director of Online Services Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Susan Wall • Photography Dale Halpin • Advertising Marka Chastain • Advertising

A product of Partners by Design www.partnersmultimedia.com 6204 Skippers Cove Pell City, AL 35128 205-335-0281

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Pell City’s Music Man

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. For Jamison Taylor, a lifelong love of music began when he was a 4-year-old and the drummer didn’t show up for Sunday services at his father’s Pentecostal church.

“Daddy put me behind the drums,” says Taylor, owner of Jamison Taylor School of Music in downtown Pell City. “That was the first time I played in front of people.”

Raised on the “loud and fast” gospel music of the Pentecostal churches his father pastored, Taylor moved from the drums to guitar and singing to build a career in music. That career took him to Nashville as songwriter and studio musician, on the road with country music stars and back home to his “dream job,” owning a familycentered school of music. Today, his music school has more than 100 students, ages 4 to 70.

Jamison Taylor School of Music opened in Pell City in 2011, welcomed its first students in January of 2012 and moved in May of 2016 into a downtown building Taylor bought and tailored to his music school. He soundproofed two rooms of the former law office on First Avenue North and dedicated another as office for his wife, Brandy, who handles administration duties. It even has a playroom area for toddler daughter Layla.

“Part of the dream was having my family here and part of the business, even the dog,” says Taylor. His family also includes daughter Jennifer, a freshman at Jefferson State Community College, and a baby boy expected in March, plus more than 20 sets of siblings who take music lessons at Taylor’s school.

“It’s individualized instruction, but a family atmosphere,” Taylor says. Two local families have four children enrolled, and a half dozen families have three siblings learning to love music at the school.

Taylor credits a family tradition of music — including his father, who sings Gospel harmonies, and an uncle, who played rock-n-roll guitar. He also cites early exposure to many instruments at church as sparking his talent and love for music.

“We lived in a parsonage, right by the church, and the musicians left the instruments in the church, ready to

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Pell City’s Music Man

Taylor with his students

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Renovated law office turned music school

play,” he says. His father never told him not to touch the instruments. Instead, his father, the Rev. Wayne Taylor, who is retired after many years of pastoring the Pell City Church of God (now the Harvest Center Church), showed him how to hold each instrument and not harm it, leaving him with freedom to play and learn.

By junior high, the preacher’s son was playing in rock bands, including a couple of gigs in bars as a seventh and eighth grader. In high school, he sang in the choir and routinely played guitar and sang solo in public. “I’d noticed that the girls liked it when you sang and played guitar,” Taylor laughs.

He plays by ear and is self-taught on the long list of instruments he plays. Even so, he is educated in all aspects of music and can read and write music proficiently.

After high school, Taylor began studying music performance at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., and embarked on more than a decade of work as a Nashvillebased professional musician. Even as a working musician, songwriter, studio musician and featured musician backing up and traveling with top recording artists, Taylor kept studying music. He studied the music business, too, through classes at Nashville’s Belmont University and through the musicians’ union.

Taylor spent five years touring with Gaither Homecoming tours, playing guitar and other stringed instruments with the legendary Southern gospel singer and songwriter and other gospel music stars. He also toured

About the instructors Other instructors at Jamison Taylor School of Music include former student Chapman Smith, guitar, bass and ukulele, who is now a part of the contemporary Christian band at Birmingham’s Church of the Highlands, and professional musician Susie Shortt, violin and piano. She specializes in the Suzuki method of violin instruction and professionally is known as “Susie the Wedding Fiddler.”

Also teaching at the music school are: • • • •

Pink Floyd: guitar and piano C.J. O’Neal: drums Hank Quesenberry: saxophone Ivy Spradley: student teacher, piano

Pell City’s Music Man

Prized guitar signed by George Jones

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with singer Jo Dee Messina, country music group Little Big Town and with the legendary George Jones. A guitar signed by George Jones, who died in April of 2013, adorns the wall in one of the instruction rooms at the music school building.

When Taylor played with the infamously over-imbibing Jones in the early 2000s, Jones had survived a serious car wreck in downtown Nashville, was not drinking and was on the straight and narrow for a period of time. Taylor recalls that during concerts, Jones needed the words to even his most famous songs written out and pasted on stage where he could see them because “he’d never sung these songs sober before.”

As a songwriter in Nashville, Taylor began his association with BMI, Broadcast Music, Inc., the nation’s largest music rights organization, and had songwriting contracts with Crazy Ray Music, Lifting Music EMI and Pamplin Music Publishing.

He also earned a master’s degree in music theory from Berklee College of Music in a program that combined class study with studio musician work experience.

Eventually, however, it was his love for Christian music ministry that drew Taylor back to Alabama and Pell City. It was an “easy decision” to come back home, he said. His parents and grandparents still live in St. Clair County, which is also home for wife Brandy. The two knew each other as teenagers and are happy to be back home together now. Back in Alabama and steadily working as a minister of music at area churches, Taylor knew his ministry and life’s work would include teaching music.

A post on Facebook in 2012 – seeking folks interested in taking music lessons from Taylor in Pell City – proved to be a beginning boost for his music school. “The next week, I had five students. At six months, 40 students, and a year later, 100 students.”

Today, Jamison Taylor School of Music has six music instructors in addition to him. He teaches guitar, voice, piano, drums, bass, mandolin plus music theory, songwriting and provides talent consultation for pageant participants. The school’s waiting list hovers at 34 folks awaiting a slot, mostly in voice, a demand that is “awesome and frustrating at the same time,” he says.

As the school’s website states, Jamison plays 17 instruments, including some he learned to play so he could teach them. He plays: drums, bass guitar, piano, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, banjo, dobro, pedal steel guitar, Hammond B3 organ, ukulele, violin, cello, double (upright) bass, hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer and accordion. He doesn’t actively play the accordion, he adds, but learned how to play one when a student’s father offered him $500 to teach the father how to play a Mexican accordion. “He said, ‘you learn, you teach, 500 dollars.’ So, after six months of lessons, the father knew how to play, too, and I gave him back his accordion.”

Tuition for weekly 30-minute lessons starts at $100 a month, and there are family discounts. Beginning students include 4-year-olds, who start out like Taylor did – playing drums. The 41-year-old Taylor says he has one rule, “that it’s got to be fun.

Part of our success is this is a no pressure music school.”

The school’s first summer “Experience Music Camp” held in 2016 is an example of the fun theory. Designed to be for complete beginners, the camp rotated students through lessons in guitar, drums, piano, violin and voice. “By the end of the week, they knew what they liked,” Taylor says, and more than half the students enrolled in lessons with their new favorite instrument.

Next up for the school is what Taylor is calling Backstage

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Pell City’s Music Man

Pass. Beginning in January of 2017, plans called for students to be grouped into five “real, working” bands and matched with a coach. “They will function as a band, prepare songs and go out and play,” says Taylor. The school’s students already perform for local events, including Pell City’s Block Party and at school recitals. But in Backstage Pass, they will set up the instruments and sound systems themselves, all the hauling and setting up that Taylor usually handles. “Hauling and setting up and chasing the check – figuring out who has the check to pay the band,” are a big part of being a musician, he says.

Taylor still performs, too, as minister of music at Pell City First United Methodist Church, and the occasional professional gig as a studio musician or with his blues band, J.T. and the Gypsy Cab Company. “But students have to come first,” Taylor says.

He still writes songs and has his own publishing label, called GyspyCabCoMusic/BMI, which is administered by Sony Music Publishing Nashville. He’s had more than 50 songs published and currently has more than 500 of his own songs in his publishing catalog.

He gets some contract songwriting work, but most of his songwriting is for the church or for himself. “I can take a given subject and write a song about it, but it’s not going to be as heartfelt.

“A music publisher once told me I write ‘bottom of the cross’ songs,” Taylor says. “As in, this is where I am, and this is where I want to be.”

Taylor says he’d like to start a songwriting group or workshop through the school. “Pell City needs a songwriting group. We’ve talked about it and about the idea of a songwriting workshop, with aspiring songwriters matched with a few professionals, and having a show at the conclusion.”

With music influences ranging from the Mississippi Mass Choir and Mahalia Jackson to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Allman Brothers, Taylor says

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Teaching proper fingering for guitar chords. he plays and writes a wide variety of music. And, he sees a strong connection between the electric worship music of the Pentecostal church and today’s contemporary Christian music that continues to grow in popularity.

Teaching music six days a week and performing and leading music on Sunday, Taylor feels strongly he has built and continues to build his dream job. Surrounded by friends and family while playing and teaching music, Taylor finds himself exactly where he wants to be doing exactly what he wants to do. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

St. Clair Reconstruction & The Notorious Springfield Gang

Mattie Lou Teague in 1918 at the age of 15

Early Ashville Court House

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Story and photos by Jerry C. Smith Submitted photos History teaches that war never really ends at the surrender table. The balance of power merely shifts to one side, with losers at the mercy of the victors.

The Romans inducted captured enemies into their own army rather than utterly destroy them. Vikings brought their own culture into many of the villages they’d pillaged, and often became part of the citizenry. Mongol hordes simply slaughtered everyone in sight and moved on to the next town.

Abraham Lincoln had taken a very moderate approach with the former Confederate States, allowing them to re-join the Union they had abandoned. In his own words to a general who asked how the Confederates were to be treated, he replied, “Let ’em up easy.”

Had Lincoln survived, the South’s re-integration might have gone a lot more smoothly, but his murder just five days after Appomattox dashed any hope for “no hard feelings.” The years that followed were known as Reconstruction, which actually began while the war was still in progress.

It was an era riddled with scoundrels, manipulators, thieves, mobsters and feral politicians who preyed upon both defeated Southerners, and each other, for control and profit. Many were collectively referred to as Scalawags and Carpetbaggers, the latter named for their custom of traveling light with luggage made of carpet material. St. Clair County, Alabama, was no exception.

According to Larry David Stephens in Mossbacks and Bushwhackers, “Ashville, the county seat, is a beautiful little town … graced by a dozen antebellum homes, a scenic courthouse square, and some of the friendliest people anywhere in the Deep South, the town cloaks a violent past.

“Once the site of massive bloodletting and pandemonium, Ashville was governed by armed mobs who ruled the streets during the war and in those days which immediately followed.”

Stephens tells that there were several areas of mixed allegiance within the county, among them Steele, which had both a pro-Union Methodist church known as Deerman’s Chapel as well as the pro-Confederate Steele Methodist Episcopal.

Vandiver, formerly in St. Clair, was a haven for pro-Union sympathizers. Moody’s Crossroads was also pro-Union, but most of these communities did their duty for the Confederacy anyway.

Many St. Clair families’ destinies would change forever during Reconstruction – among them, the Springfields of Ashville.

THE SPRINGFIELD GANG They were not wealthy people; in fact, they were money-poor, even for farmers. Stephens relates that the Springfield farm was only worth about $300, whereas many of their neighbors’ spreads assessed at more than $1,000.

Catherine Springfield was a widow who had brought her three sons from South Carolina to re-settle in St. Clair in 1860. They were Hiram, Henry and Thomas, ranging in age from 18 to 27.

All three enlisted in the Confederate army when the Civil War started. Hiram “Jack,” the youngest, soon became disgruntled with army life, and deserted.

Stephens writes, “Now the story gets fuzzy. According to oral tradition, the Home Guard came looking for him. Not finding the boy at home, the soldiers proceeded to torture his mother,

Catherine. She was supposedly jerked off the ground with a hanging rope several times, and left for dead after the Guard got nothing from her.”

This seems typical of infamies attributed to several socalled Home Guard units of that era, whose job was to round up deserters and draft dodgers, with carte blanche to indulge whatever evils they wished in performance of these duties.

Several movies have been based upon that scenario, most notably Cold Mountain, with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman.

Stephens continues, “...once Jack found out what had happened, he got word to his brothers and they, too, deserted.

From these three Springfield boys would evolve a gang of 20-30 outlaws bent on wreaking havoc in the community. ProConfederate families were especially targeted for abuse.

“One little girl, Lou Ella Harrison, remembered their depredations quite well...and told her children for years to come about ‘the hated Springfields.’ The ringleader supposedly wore a self-styled mask, made from an animal bladder, to cover his identity and at the same time strike fear into his victims.”

Lou Ella told of her family tying hog meat into the tops of trees and hiding their mule in a cave to keep the gang from stealing them as winter came on. Stephens also tells of a dry good store owner, Ross Philips, who tangled with the Springfields.

At the end of the war, Philips got into a fight with John Ramsey, a customer. Ramsey pulled a gun, but the store’s coowner, R.M. Williams, shot him dead. Williams was acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but still had to deal with the Springfields, who were friends of Ramsey.

From Philips’ diary, “A few days afterwards a crowd of Tories, Jack Springfield and others, came in our store and came near mobbing Capt. Williams and myself. Our friends in Ashville...concluded it would not be safe for us to remain in Ashville, for fear we would be burned out and waylaid and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

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killed...We boxed up our goods and shipped them to Meridian, thence to Tupelo, MS.” Stephens cites another citizen, Mrs. M.M. Fulghum, who said the Springfields were hell-bent on running the county all by themselves. “Conditions were terrible. Our boys didn’t have guns because they had all been taken away, and men came here and bullied and stole and burned, and did anything they pleased.”

The Murphree Valley Home Guard, under the leadership of a Baptist minister, Captain Joshua T. Smith, killed 13 of the Springfield gang in one battle.

But by the end of the war, the Federal occupation forces had put the gang in a leadership role, and the Home Guard was disarmed and placed under house arrest.

Stephens adds, “As if this was not bad enough, Jack Springfield was elected County Tax Collector by the only folks who could vote...diehard Republicans and Unionists. This reality must have driven folks crazy, given the gang’s reputation of pillaging during the war.

“Martial law was in place...with a regiment of soldiers in every town and village of Alabama by the summer of 1865. Supposedly established to ‘keep the peace’ and ‘help people get back on their feet,’ ...they were little more than bullies. While they looked the other way, the Springfields continued to bleed the

county dry. This was only the beginning of a cycle of oppression that was to plague St. Clair’s Confederate veterans for the next five years.”

When Captain Smith returned to Cropwell after the war’s end, he found that his extensive farm and business holdings had been plundered and wiped out, plus being in debt of $4,000 for taxes, thus placing him directly under the thumb of Springfield’s tax collectors.

Stephens’ narrative continues: “One day (Smith) rode by the courthouse in Ashville and heard a commotion inside. The Springfields and other Unionists were, under the protection of Federal guards, putting down the South and ridiculing all Southerners who had voted for secession. Smith decided he had had enough.

“He made his way to the podium and boldly denounced the entire group until they decided to call off the meeting. Remarkably, Smith was not harmed though he must have felt something like Daniel in the lion’s den.”

Smith re-organized some of his war comrades and started working toward the re-establishment of a Democratic Party in St. Clair. But the Springfields would not go down so easily.

Jack’s brother, Thomas, lived just over the line in Etowah County. Jack actually succeeded in getting a

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Traveling the

BACKROADS bill passed to move the county line to include Thomas’ home so he could run for the legislature. The bill read specifically, “Be it enacted by the General Assembly...that the boundary be changed...to include Thomas M. Springfield as a citizen of St. Clair.” Such was the bargaining power of Jack Springfield and his gang.

Thomas was elected as a representative, and Jack reelected as tax collector. In Stephens’ words, “For all practical purposes, the Springfields were now feudal lords and St. Clair was rapidly becoming their own private fief.”

It became clear to Capt. Smith that the Springfields were beyond civil action, and more forceful methods were in order.

A SIEGE Smith organized a raiding party of more than 200 men, all armed, and put them under the leadership of one of his best friends, Sheriff John C. Brown, who also had no love for the Springfields. At dawn on July 8, 1870, Brown’s men surrounded the Springfield home and ordered them to surrender peacefully.

Jack Springfield asked if they could first send out their women, which was a pretty good indication that a surrender was not going to happen. “The (three) females had barely made it to safety when the posse opened up with a barrage of rifle, shotgun and pistol fire that riddled the house with over one hundred rounds,” Stephens wrote.

“The fourteen inside answered with their own guns, but were no match for Brown’s posse who had torn up fences and erected barricades. Astonishingly, the siege lasted for twenty four hours and not a soul was even wounded!”

In written testimony to a Joint Select Committee in Huntsville on July 12, 1870, Captain Frank Gallagher, who commanded a detachment of Union infantry in Ashville, described the damage: “I examined his house and found on the side window of his bedroom, twelve distinct bullet holes; in the front window of same room, ten; in the side wall of the same room, thirty-five; in the front, fifty; all of which passed clear through the room and partitions, and cut many of his wife’s dresses which were hanging on the partition. The other portions of the house and out-houses were riddled with bullet holes, and shot to such an extent that I could not count them.”

Next day, the Springfields called for a truce. Brown told them the whole gang must leave the county at once. Jack agreed, mostly to keep the posse from lynching them, but had no intention of complying. Instead, he called in a favor of Capt.

Gallagher, who only had 40 men, so asked for reinforcements, but none arrived in time.

Brown’s men attacked their camp on July 30. Stephens quotes Gallagher’s urgent message to headquarters: “About 10 o’clock last night my camp was fired on by a mob (Smith and Brown’s men). The exact number could not be ascertained, on account of the thick woods and darkness. Civil law is dead in this county. The mob rules. The officers of the law are afraid to execute their duties, on account of the consequences...when the military are withdrawn.

“I receive threats every day of their intentions to clear me out. My men are on guard during the day to preserve order between the belligerents and to protect the officers of the law.

The town is crowded from morning till night with men from

20

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Capt. Joshua Smith

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the country; each man with a brace of revolvers around him and some with shotguns upon their shoulders.

“As a matter of prudence, I would respectfully suggest that the remainder of my company (2nd US Infantry) be ordered here...”

Jack Springfield counted on this happening, and decided to stay in Ashville, which proved to be a disastrous decision.

AN ASSASSINATION On Aug. 15, Jack and several family members were ambushed by Brown’s men from roadside cover as Springfield’s gang rode to Ashville. Jack was hit three times, resulting in the loss of an arm.

It became patently clear that Brown and Smith had meant what they said, but Jack got a last bit of vengeance before they cleared out.

On Aug. 20, some of his men hid under a house in Ashville, near the present Roses & Lace Bed & Breakfast on US 231. Their prey was Frank Harrison, a good friend of Smith’s who had also served in the 10th Alabama Infantry.

As Harrison rode into town to support a delegate to the first Democratic Party Convention, the Springfields opened fire. Harrison was fatally wounded by a bullet through his heart.

John Inzer, an Ashville pioneer and Sergeant Harrison’s superior in the 10th Alabama, took in the young widow and their two small daughters, and swore to hunt down and kill every last one of the Springfields, but after weeks of searching the surrounding countryside, no trace was found.

In his testimony, Gallagher summarized, “I have never, with experience of four years in this country, seen a more complete subordination of the civil authorities of a county to the mob element that I witnessed in St. Clair, and I would earnestly recommend troops in the vicinity of Ashville, if the preservation of peace and protection of loyal citizens devolves upon the General Government.”

In 1872, Union troops left St. Clair for good. And Smith and Inzer continued working against “the carpetbagger influence” for peace and order.

THE AFTERMATH With the departure of Federal troops, the South gradually evolved into a new post-Reconstruction way of life, albeit one still fraught with remnants of old problems along with a few new ones which are not a part of this narrative.

Of Captain Smith, a 1917 article in Southern Democrat says; “Reverend Joshua T. Smith, who was perhaps the oldest resident of Blount County, died at his home near Tait’s Gap,...as a result of a broken hip. Uncle Josh, as he was called, was at least 95 years old. He had been married twice.

“Mr. Smith was the father of twenty-one children, and his descendants at this time numbered more

22

Sgt. Frank Harrison’s grave, Boykin Truitt Cemetery, Eden than five hundred. (He) was one of the pioneer preachers of this county, and for a number of years was moderator for the United Primitive Baptist Association.”

And what of the notorious Springfields? Some say they’re reputed to have re-settled in Arkansas and continued their shady ways, but no hard evidence has been found to support that claim.

Their name is rarely heard anymore around St. Clair, save for a historical marker on US 411 at the assassination site. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Barn at Dry Creek Farms Cattle during the week, weddings on weekends Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Michael Callahan What started as letting a few friends “borrow” their barn to hold weddings has turned into a full-fledged event venue for the St. John Family in Pell City. Unlike other barns built specifically for events, this one is a cow barn that houses registered Hereford heifers and gets pressurewashed for special occasions.

“We went public in January of 2016,” says Locke St. John, one of two sons of farm owners Joy and Kent St. John. “As of the first of November, we’d had 12 weddings, and we had 250 people here to celebrate the (high school) graduation of my brother, Carter.”

Like the farm itself, The Barn at Dry Creek Farms is a family-run operation. Carter, 19, is a freshman at Jefferson State Community College, but has classes only two days a week. The remainder of his time is spent on the farm. Locke, 23, is there all day September through March, the months that he isn’t playing pro baseball for the Connecticut Tigers, a Detroit farm team. Mom and Dad, Joy and Kent St. John, do chores before and after work each day.

“Locke handles a lot of the marketing details and promotions from wherever he might be in the Minor Leagues,” Joy says. “I work all day but when there is an event at The Barn, I go after work and help clean in preparation for or after the event.”

The family lives up the road in a log cabin on 20 acres of land. They purchased another 50 or so acres four years ago to expand their cattle business, and it came with the red barn. They run 60-70 cows, selling the commercial (nonregistered) ones at the Ashville Stockyards, and show some of their animals, too. “We do two to five shows a year at the state and national level,” Locke says. “We’ve shown our cows in Colorado, South Dakota, Kentucky, Wisconsin

The Red Barn makes the perfect setting for receptions

Locke moves these show heifers out of the barn when preparing for an event.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

25

Barn at Dry Creek Farms

Locke, Carter and Joy St. John are a team in running Dry Creek Farms. and Texas.”

The St. Johns painted the front of the barn when they started hosting weddings, but left the back side in its rustic, weather-beaten state. They keep mini-lights strung up inside the barn, and small round bulbs at the back, where tables are often set up for a reception or a band might play while people dance on the concrete patio.

“We own 14 tables and 80 chairs, and we’re buying 20 more chairs,” Locke says. “People can rent more tables and chairs if they need them, and they can use the hay loft for over-flows, and some use the stalls, too.

One wedding party had a cloth down in each stall to designate various stations, such as a kids’ play area, a crawfish table and a drink stall.”

The Barn has a bathroom and dressing room.

Decorated with banners from the shows in which the St. John heifers have competed, the dressing room has bar stools with farm-themed backs, a leather sofa, wide-screen TV, small refrigerator and a deer head on the wall. “One couple brought their small camper for the bride to change in,” Locke adds. When not being used for a wedding, the changing room makes a great hangout for Locke, Carter and friends.

“I would absolutely recommend The Barn at Dry Creek Farms to anyone who wants their special day to be beautiful, easy, and affordable,” one reviewer posted on weddingwire.com, an internet site the St. Johns began using for advertising recently. “They basically

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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The center of the barn works well for a reception.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Chairs can be set up anywhere the wedding party wants them. give you the key and it’s yours to use. They will offer ideas if you have any questions about how other couples set up for their ceremonies and receptions. On top of that, the barn is located on simply gorgeous property. Overall, just a perfect venue for couples wanting a rustic barn wedding without breaking the bank.”

Martin houses made from gourds flank the barn, a six-stall shed to one side houses farm equipment, trucks and a travel trailer, a second shed protects a John Deere tractor and round hay bales, which the St. Johns bale themselves, and a small grain silo stands between the sheds. Fence panels lying to one side of the barn and the cattle chutes on the other side bear testimony to the fact that this is a real, working farm. The pond, the Dry Creek Farms sign hanging between two bent cedar trees, and the swing next to the barn make picturesque backdrops for wedding, graduation or birthday party photos.

Peak seasons for 2016 were spring and fall, but any season, people have the choice of getting married at the barn or in front of the lake under an arch that was left behind by a wedding party. Rates are different during the week than on weekends, and some wedding parties will rent the venue for two days and hold rehearsal dinner there, too.

While people use their own wedding photographer and planner and do their own decorating and cleaning up after the wedding, the St. Johns move the cows and hose down the floors before the wedding party descends. “During peak seasons, we won’t have the cows in the barn as much so there is less pressure washing to do,” Locke says.

The St. Johns have a web page for their farm, DryCreekFarmsCattle.com, and the event venue has its own Facebook page, The Barn at Dry Creek Farms.

“The Barn at Dry Creek Farms was amazing,” another weddingwire.com reviewer posted. “It was an actual red barn and the pond in front adds so much. It’s a lot of DIY, which makes it fun and the way you want it to be. Many options for ceremony and reception. Also Kent and Joy are great to work with!”

Another reviewer said her party built a dance floor in the middle of the barn and used the stalls as stations for food and drinks and a photo booth.

Although his primary role in the operation is the day-to day farming side of it, Carter helps out with weddings when needed. “The farming side is where my knowledge is at,” he says. “But when there’s something that needs to be done for The Barn venue, I’m there for it.”

His mom says the family works together to do all the chores each day. “That usually entails getting up early to get things done, like checking cows, putting out hay and feeding, before everyone starts their own schedule for the day,” she says.

Working on the farm and helping to run the event venue is a lot of work, Locke says, but he vows that he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t love it. “They have taught my brother and me responsibility and the business part of life,” he says. l

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Marie Barber 30

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Praised Colors From Sweden to Ragland, artist’s life takes many a turn Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Michael Callahan Marie Barber shooed chickens and a guinea to welcome a visitor one bitterly cold day.

Once inside her woodsy home with warm Gulf Coast decor, she smiled and said, “It does feel like Sweden out there.”

Living near Ragland and the Coosa River, this Swedish native quietly creates designs and artwork that are nationally known and have been featured in many books, magazines and retail outlets.

Her resume is extensive: she has been an illustrator for the magazines Paula Deen, Victoria, Tea Time and Southern Lady; a designer for Chapelle Ltd. of Ogden, Utah, and creator of cross-stitch designs that filled six or more books for Sterling Publishing Co. of New York. In addition, she illustrated leisure, etiquette and decor books.

During her 15 years as designer with Hoffman Media, she did “hundreds and hundreds of cross-stitch leaflets and cross-stitch designs for magazines,” and all cross-stitch chart conversions from the Disney movie, Pocahontas. Also through Hoffman Media, she fashioned fabric designs for the former Hancock Fabrics and worked on Hancock’s Paula Deen Collection.

A count even commissioned Mrs. Barber to replicate in his mansion some paintings of the Sistine Chapel.

Mrs. Barber spent three weeks on eight-foot scaffolds in Count Albert von Oldenburg’s living room to paint the scenes on a 37-foot tray ceiling. The palatial estate in Eastaboga in Talladega County was like a museum and a history book, Mrs. Barber said.

“When you went to his home, it was like you were in a fairy tale. You were not in Alabama,” she continued.

During those weeks, the count taught her etiquette in the presence of nobility and gave her keepsakes from all over the world.

That, Mrs. Barber said, “was probably the most memorable experience” she has had with her art.

Now working in the decorative art of needlepoint, Mrs. Barber produces “fun” designs and projects. She designs belts, pillows, eyeglass cases, phone cases, lampshade

31

Praised Colors

Marie Barber works on a piece of art.

covers, jewelry, purses and bags, rugs and tapestries, and has done custom orders for dining room chairs.

The formative years Marie Olsson spent her early years in Skåne (pronounced skone-neh) on the southern tip of Sweden. Skåne is about 20 minutes from the Baltic Sea. The region is flat and experiences snow four months a year.

“Sometimes, your eyelashes iced up,” she recalled.

Marie and her parents lived with grandparents in the countryside in a home without indoor plumbing.

When she was six years old, she and her parents moved to Tollarp to what she described as an elaborate home with an indoor sauna.

Each Christmas, she wanted art paper and markers. By second grade, she was an acclaimed artist, at least to her classmates who would ask her to draw Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse for them.

Her father passed when Marie was 10, and her mother, three years ago.

Although Marie has no siblings, she does have 40 first cousins living around the world. One of them — Anna Steed — lives in St. Clair County not very far at all from Marie.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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As a teenager, Marie applied to the American Scandinavian Student Exchange program to become an exchange student.

Interestingly, while in a music class in ninth grade in Sweden, she had sung the lyrics, “I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee.” But, Marie confessed, “I had no idea Alabama was a state.”

Nonetheless, that is exactly where she was placed as an exchange student. The girl from the southern tip of Sweden with a southern Swedish dialect found herself in the southern region of the United States.

Even though she was to be in Alabama only for Pell City High School’s 1983-1984 school year, Marie found she just could not stay away. One reason was Kinsman Barber, a Pell City native and Jacksonville State University student she met four months into her sojourn in the United States.

After completing the exchange program, Marie returned to Sweden, finished junior college and worked for a while in Stockholm. Then, at 19, she decided to attend art school either in Australia or the U.S. She chose the U.S., going first to California and then to Alabama by bus.

Marie traveled to Auburn University to stay with friend Wendy Bradshaw Weathers (who now lives in Ozark). Through an outreach ministry to foreign students, Marie heard about Jesus Christ, His love and the forgiveness He gives to all who will receive it.

“I utterly broke down and couldn’t believe anyone would love me in spite of all my unrighteousness,” said Marie. She asked Jesus Christ to save her.

A “long, winding road” brought her and Kinsman back into contact.

She enrolled in the Art Institute of Atlanta to study visual communication and, a week after earning her associate’s degree, she and Kinsman wed.

Marie, the artist, and Kinsman, the teacher and coach at Victory Christian School, have been married 27 years and have four children — Malin, 21; Peyton, 19; Daniel, 17, and Magdalena, 16.

They also have 18 chickens, three dogs, two cats, one guinea and an herb garden.

“I enjoy the simplicity of life,” said Mrs. Barber. To her, it is reminiscent of the childhood experiences she cherishes most. The years of living in the Swedish countryside as a child were simple and meager. But, “my best memories were in the country.”

In her Alabama country home nestled in the woods, she creates her art while listening to sermons by David Platt, president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and best-selling author.

“God has allowed me to work at home,” Mrs. Barber said.

A diverse talent Mrs. Barber’s art spans many genres.

“I used to do Christian art — cards and prints,” she said. “I did that for a little while.”

One of her pieces hangs in her church, which is Hardin Chapel in Ragland.

From the large floral acrylic on canvas that accents her dining room to the vibrant needlepoint pillow she had just finished, all her pieces show her penchant and flare for color.

“I’m all about pink leopard with some fur,” she said with a laugh. “... I like color. I’m not traditional.”

34

This is one of Marie Barber’s vibrant creations.

When she formed her own art design company, it was appropriately named Colors of Praise.

“Most designers use their name for their design,” she said.

She chose, however, to use the name Colors of Praise because its gives her opportunity to tell others who Jesus Christ is. She said all her accomplishments are small in comparison to what Jesus has done for her.

Getting to where she is now in her art was the result of another “winding road” in life that started with an economic recession.

In February 2009, downsizing at Hoffman Media claimed her position as illustrator and cross-stitch designer. Because of that, she sought a new direction for her art.

Mrs. Barber had seen Kaffe Fassett’s color schemes in his decorative arts designs and noticed that they resemble her own use of color. When her love of color was paired with her appreciation for the tapestries of Europe, Mrs. Barber found a new direction for her art – needlepoint designs.

That April, she sent her application to The National NeedleArts Association and was accepted to a trade show in Columbus, Ohio. Her first show was in June, during which she received $15,000 in orders.

Since then, she has shown her wares in trade shows in Los Angeles and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, Texas, and many other cities. The majority of her creations are marketed in Florida, California and the northeastern states. Locally, they can be found at Needleworks LLC in Birmingham.

Kinsman said his wife frequently gets ideas for needlepoint designs from sources like magazines and record covers.

And the designs are not “your grandmother’s needlepoint,” Mrs. Barber said.

“Her work truly is an original style,” said Judith Carter, owner of Needleworks LLC. “To me, she has captured the essence of a younger generation of needlepoint stitchers...She

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Praised Colors Marie Barber has been illustrator for several magazines, including Paula Deen’s.

This needlepoint belt shows Marie Barber’s use of color, texture and design.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Marie Barber and husband, Kinsman, have four children. On front row are daughters Maggie and Malin. On back row are sons Peyton and Daniel. has been an exciting addition to our industry.”

One of the needlepoint belts Mrs. Barber recently completed boasts a spectrum of colors, flosses, textures, patterns and accents. Retail is estimated between $160 and $200.

She develops 200-250 designs for each January’s needle arts trade show and another 100 for the summer show.

“I like to design a lot of new patterns every year,” she said. “... I want it to be more of what they would have fun with.”

Plus, she has monthly trunk shows. “I sell to a lot of stores in California,” she said.

Her venture into needlepoint designs followed a different path from the norm, she explained.

“I am an illustrator coming in as a designer (who had to learn needlepoint),” she said. “Most are needlepointers becoming designers.”

To be able to do what she does, she had to become accomplished in the various needlepoint stitches and learn the difference in flosses and other aspects of the art.

Actually, her needlepoint enterprise has grown into a family endeavor.

“The girls are very creative,” Mrs. Barber said. “There are times I ask them for advice. Malin could run my business. She has done trade shows without me.”

The family sometimes travels to shows with her and, together, they see sights and tour landmarks. “That has been a fun, fun part of it,” she said.

Mrs. Barber is in an almost constant state of creativity, whether painting a canvas, stitching a needlepoint project or using seashells washed ashore by Hurricane Wilma to turn an accent mirror into a conversation piece.

“Taking away paint from me would be devastating.” She said it would be like telling her husband — who happened to be playing guitar in the background — to give up his music. “... It’s my crazy world!” l

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37

Shall we dance?

Story by Paul South Submitted Photos

Dale Owen shares music around the world

As a journalism student at Troy State (now Troy University), Dale Owen landed a job at an AM radio station near campus.

“They had a show on Saturday morning that played crooner music,” Owen said. “The station manager just wanted someone to keep the seat warm while the program aired. But I found out it was an incredible genre of music.”

His time “keeping the seat warm” sparked something more.

“It really lit a fire in me,” Owen said. “I decided that if I ever had control over my own show, I’d play that kind of music.”

Almost 30 years later, Owen’s love for the music of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald and countless other contributors to the great American songbook still burns.

And each week from a home studio in Pell City, he shares that love with the world. Owen records The Crooners with Dale Owen for Alabama Public Radio.

The show airs from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday evenings on the APR, but thanks to technology, is available to be heard ‘round the globe. Commercial radio may have forgotten the music of our parents, grandparents and beyond, but for Owen and APR over the past 21 years, the music and memories linger like the taste of timeless fine wine.

Owen’s post college path didn’t start as a stroll down a musical memory lane. The Marietta, Ga., native began his professional life as a producer at CNN, first in Atlanta, then at the network’s Detroit Bureau.

But after six years, Michigan winters drove him back South. Owen went to work at the University of Alabama’s Center for Public Radio and Television in Tuscaloosa as operations director for the Alabama Public Radio network of stations, which reaches not only across Alabama, but into Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida. He also worked for National Public Radio as a local anchor for the network’s signature news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

In Tuscaloosa, he pitched the idea for The Crooners to then program director Roger Duvall. “I loved Sinatra and the crooners, of course, and fortunately, he went for it,” Owen recalled.

After 11 years at the Capstone, Owen would eventually relocate to Pell City, his wife’s hometown.

And from Pell City, Owen crafts what APR music director David Duff calls, Owen’s “labor of love.”

38

Dale Owen and the Crooners Show

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

An album cover of crooner Frank Sinatra, which holds special meaning for Owen. He credits the song, Strangers in the Night, playing on a date with making the evening extra special, which sparked his love for that music genre and led to the founding of his radio program.

“One of the missions of public radio is to serve underserved audiences,” Duff said. “Certainly, we do that with classical music, but we do that with specialty shows on the weekend like The Crooners. You’d be hard pressed to find that on most radio stations. We felt like it was a market we could serve and it’s proved to be very successful. It serves a niche that might not be served otherwise.”

Brittany Young, program director and content manager for APR, put it simply. “People love the show,” she said. “They just love the fact that he plays the classics. . .the music that lasts forever. You can play it today. You can play it 20 years from now, and it’s still amazing. It takes you back to a place where you first heard it. People love that.”

The Crooners has a devout following, Young said. “If you were to take it away from them, then there would be an uproar,” she said. “Those loyal listeners, they’ll let you know. . .They expect to hear it every Sunday from 6 to 8 and as long as it’s there, they’re good. But if you took it away, I’m sure we’d get a lot of backlash.”

The success of the program came quickly. What began as a one-hour broadcast was expanded to two hours after only a year. And listeners span the generations. Owen learned that quickly during a pledge drive for the listener-supported network while he was still broadcasting from Tuscaloosa.

“When I was still in Tuscaloosa in 2001, we would get calls from college kids, some in Auburn, some in Tuscaloosa and other parts of the state,” Owen said. “(They’d say) ‘I only have about $5 to contribute. I’m a college student on a fixed income, but I really love your show.’ The show has done well.”

What’s the attraction of the music that resonates even today, not just in the classic singers of yesteryear, but also in modern rock and pop stars, from Rod Stewart and Linda Ronstadt, to Annie Lennox of the Eurhythmics and Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats?

“It’s something different for every person that listens. But I think if you’re talking about standards and even torch songs, there’s a certain longing for love,” Owen said. “The songs that are written by the great composers – Rodgers and Hart, George and Ira Gershwin – they just found a way to reach down into that hole and just pull out the feelings and emotions so many people have about love and about loss.”

The recipe for timeless music combines a great voice, with great music and lyrics and a great arranger. Owen points to the classic Sinatra album, In the Wee Small Hours, arranged by Nelson Riddle, as an example.

“I think that music just created a bond with something that all people have to be loved and a feeling of loss,” Owen said.

“When you’ve got great writers and lyricists and great singers like Andy Williams and Sinatra and Tony Bennett that can present that, it just all melts together. It’s like a perfect storm.”

There’s a set formula for a timeless classic.

“Most of your standard music has two elements that are crucial to great music and that is, a great vocalist and a great lyricist/composer. Those are the two elements you’ve got to have to make the perfect song,” Owen said. “Crooner music exhibits that time and time again. It comes together for that perfect storm that people say, “Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel about it.”

Lots of people love Owen’s Sunday night perfect storm of great songs. Some reach out on social media. Others send in requests for Sunday night dinner parties. For Owen, those are precious encouragements.

“That’s huge for me. It’s a real affirmation that (the show) makes an impact on people’s lives,” Owen said.

On set at CNN Atlanta

On the job at NPR with Morning Edition He said he feels a strong connection to his listeners. For Owen, the fire for the music and for pleasing his listeners still burns. And audiences around the world can access the show any time. “I don’t know what people’s perceptions are of people on the radio,” he said. “But I hope they know I’m a real guy who loves this real music and wants them to have an experience when they listen. I want them to know they’re listening to a friend that has something very much in common with them.” l Editor’s Note: You can tune in to The Crooners with Dale Owen on Alabama Public Radio at 90.3 FM every Sunday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

39

Argo

ALABAMA

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Blossoming town grows but never forgets its people Story Paul South Photos by Michael Callahan Sometimes a dream – even a city – can begin with a story first told long ago and far away.

That’s how Argo started more than two centuries ago, before there was a St. Clair County, or for that matter, a State of Alabama.

Survivors of the battles against the Native peoples of the Creek tribe in the War of 1812, returned home to Virginia and the Carolinas from the then-Mississippi Territory, with tales of bountiful land, crystal waters and plentiful game, the recipe for successful settlement.

Today, 200 years later, the descendants of those original settlers, are part of a stillflourishing community that, like the rest of St. Clair County, is growing. New families, moving from the Birmingham metro area now mingle with the families that have been here for generations, sharing a common work ethic, deep faith and shared values, grounded in that original dream.

If it continues on its current pace, according to the St. Clair County Economic Development Council, Argo could become the county’s second-largest city on the Interstate 59 corridor.

It’s already the gateway to the burgeoning corridor, and with 106,000 people living within

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

41

Argo

Matthews Manor, an impressive wedding and event venue, opens its newest event facility just across the street. Matthews Manor draws events from all over to Argo.

42

a 10-mile radius of the city, Argo’s possibilities appear boundless.

Argo Mayor Betty Bradley is one of the many folks who returned to St. Clair County after living in Birmingham.

Neighbors helping neighbors, taking time for each other, was what drew her home. She was elected to the city council for one term, then last year, she was chosen as Argo’s mayor.

“I like the friendliness, neighbors talking to neighbors,” she said. “In the bigger cities, it’s a fast pace.” Here in Argo, “people take time for you.”

And she expects others will recognize the value and follow her lead. “I really look for people to start moving into St. Clair County in the next five years. I really look for more people to be migrating this way,” she said.

But before gazing into the future, it’s important to glimpse the past. Claude Earl Massey, a descendant of one of Argo’s first families, displays a treasured historical artifact of the city’s past in his home, an 1820 letter, signed by Alabama Gov. Wyatt Bibb, commissioning Samuel Massey as Justice of the Peace.

Samuel Massey, one of the county’s original settlers, first came to the area as part of Col. Reuben Nash’s regiment of the South Carolina Volunteer Militia. Samuel’s son, William Duke Massey, married Ruth Reed, the first white child born in Jefferson County.

No one seems to know for certain the basis for Argo’s name.

However, Claude Massey author of the book, Argo Through the Years, offers some fodder for speculation. On Nov.4, 1869, Sarah Elizabeth Hefner became the postmistress of the area’s second post office, which she named Argo. After numerous

Councilman Corky Massey with father, Gordon Massey, the town’s first mayor and founder of the company the family has owned for 50 years.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Welcome to Argo, Alabama One of the fastest growing cities in St. Clair County

Small town charm Big city amenities Neighbors helping neighbors Great quality of life Progressive leadership Find it all in Argo!

Mayor and Council, from left: Tony Alldredge, Ann Cowan, Mayor Betty Bradley, Ronnie Bowman, Ann Brown and Corky Massey.

Argo

interviews and exhaustive research, three theories exist.

Earl Massey wrote: “Whether she had been reading Greek mythology, (in which appears the name Argo), named the post office after a friend, as some have said, or possibly named it after some ancestor on her father’s side is not known.”

Heart of a city

Like small cities throughout St. Clair County, railroads played a major role in growth.

The name’s origin notwithstanding, one of the pillars of Argo’s early economy remains today. The heart of the city’s economy remains home-owned, often family-run businesses, although more and more regional and national chains – like Dollar General and Southern fast-food mainstay, Jack’s, are coming with growth.

“If you drive through (Argo), there are a number of wonderful small businesses,” said Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council. He pointed to Buckeye Grocery, which has served locals for nearly a half-century, Argo Hardware and The Crazy Horse restaurant, a white tablecloth eatery diners might expect to find in tony neighborhoods like Birmingham’s neighbor Mountain Brook or Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. There is the father and son-owned Old South Firearms, a dealer in antique firearms and muzzle loaders, and Matthews Manor is also a popular spot for weddings and other special occasions. William’s Orchard draws visitors from neighboring counties for its produce and homemade jams, jellies and fried pies.

“We have things that are unique that you don’t find in a big city,” Bradley said. “We like to be unique.”

What’s made a difference for Argo in commercial and residential growth is improved sewerage infrastructure, Smith said.

“One of the drawbacks that Argo had was they didn’t have commercial grade sewer capability,” Smith said. “Argo partnered with another public entity to get sewer, not only to the residential areas, but to potential commercial areas. Once that took place, Jack’s opened up, Subway opened up. The Argo leadership has really been focusing on trying to solve the things that were limiting (the city’s) growth.”

The city has also renewed its focus on improving the overall appearance of Argo, Smith said. What was once a mosaic on plywood of flyers alerting residents to missing pets or upcoming events is now an inviting welcome sign. Money was raised locally to build the new sign.

“There’s really a focus on bringing local business owners together and on improving the appearance of the community,” he said. “They’re working to try to bring in larger national brand names to fill in areas that the locally-owned businesses weren’t able to do.”

Argo, which finds its footprint planted in both Jefferson and St. Clair counties, with only a small

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Lee Weyrich at Old South Firearms, one of Argo’s newest draws

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part in Jefferson, has a strong sense of “community buy-in” because of the locally-owned businesses, Smith noted.

“If you need volunteers, you don’t need to go to an absentee owner or some outside group. The folks that work there own the place,” he added. “They own the businesses. They live there. Their kids are there. It’s a really fantastic community because of that. You talk about why it’s one of the fastestgrowing cities in the county over the past 10 years, and that’s why.”

Local real estate developer Lyman Lovejoy has witnessed the growth firsthand. He’s been in business in St. Clair County for more than 40 years. Proximity to Interstate 59 is a boost, he said.

“You can be on the interstate from anywhere in Argo in two to three minutes,” Lovejoy said. “That’s a big plus for them.

Several houses are going up in Argo today.”

In a business where location is vital, Argo is in a prime spot.

But the challenge is in finding available land, a priority for city leaders, Lovejoy said. However, two new subdivisions are developing. “They’re on the go for growth,” he pointed out.

“You can be in Birmingham in 15 minutes.”

The future vision for the city includes better roads, investment in public safety and continuing efforts to enhance the quality of life. Bradley will travel with other county mayors to try to push for federal help to boost the I-59 corridor.

Argo sits adjacent to Margaret another community blossoming in St. Clair County. Bradley would like to see steps taken to ease traffic congestion from I-59, U.S. 11 and Argo-Margaret Road.

“We’re unique because we have an interstate right here in Argo,” Bradley said.

A city in its infancy Food bank at Argo serves its community well

William’s Orchard 46

Gordon Massey became Argo’s first mayor when the city incorporated in the late 1980s. The Massey family arrived in what is now St. Clair County in 1815. And in 1987, Gordon Massey became the first mayor of the newly-incorporated city.

He helped spearhead the construction of Argo’s first city hall and fire department. His business, Massey Paving, has been operating for 50 years, and has split into three businesses run by three generations. They’ve also invested in commercial real estate along U.S. 11.

“It’s our home” he said. “It’s a special place for us. We’re proud to be in St. Clair County.”

Talk to enough people about Argo, and it becomes clear that the city’s people care for each other from the time someone arrives until the time they leave. It’s a cradle to the grave sort of city. Consider Mr. Earl Massey, who’s tended to the family cemetery on the Old Georgia Road since the 1940s.

That’s even the case for temporary visitors. Camp Munger, a Young Women’s Christian Association camp, left generations of campers with wonderful summer memories.

But in this city that began with soldiers’ stories two centuries ago, Mayor Bradley has a modern-day story that tells more about the goodness of Argo and its citizenry than any statistic or historic date ever could. It’s part of what Bradley calls “a spirit of fairness, trustworthiness, respect and teamwork” among all the stakeholders in the city.

It seems a widower was walking along an Argo road, picking

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Matthews Manor, an event destination point up aluminum cans. Bradley’s husband offered the man a lift home. The can collector was trying to generate enough money from the cans to pay for needed medicine.

The man lived in a small plywood home, a place of which he was proud.

“He thought he had a fine home. He didn’t think he was disadvantaged. He didn’t want to take anything from anybody,” Bradley recalled.

But the encounter with the man indirectly ended up impacting the lives of many hurting people in Argo, through the creation of a local food pantry.

Bradley serves as co-director of the pantry, after many years as director, both volunteer positions.

“He (the can collector) had a big impact on this community,” Bradley said. And to this day, the pantry has never failed to help its own.

“Every time we start to run low, a local church or a business steps up to help. To this day, we’ve never run out of food to help our clients.”

Bradley defined Argo simply: “Argo is a community of small-city charm, a safe, family oriented community that is a great place to live, work and play. It’s a place where community isn’t just a word, but a way of life.”

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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Argo

Folks who may know Argo only as a dot on the map, another sleepy little town in a state, region and nation stuffed with drowsy tiny towns, need to think again.

More than that, they need to wake up their taste buds. Thanks to Hunter Evans and his Crazy Horse restaurant, Argo is part of a national restaurant trend of upscale, white-tablecloth eateries popping up in small towns.

What was seemingly once reserved for the tony locales of Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood or Mountain Brook in the Birmingham suburbs is now part of life in Argo. Diners craving elegant eating are traveling from Birmingham, Gadsden, all over, helping make this city of 4,000 a dining destination.

At Crazy Horse, located in the building that once served as Argo’s City Hall, Evans seeks to find the middle ground between a nice country steakhouse that his Dad, Butch Evans, envisioned when he opened the restaurant in 2011, and an upscale eatery.

“When he opened it, it was a nice country steakhouse,” Evans said. “It was nicer than anything that had ever been out there.

When I came in two years later, we started trying to take it up a notch. I knew we had a good chef, and I knew he wanted to take it up. We started introducing new dishes. We always wanted to push the envelope, but you never know what’s going to take.”

A valuable lesson was learned.

“I have to be aware of my location,” Hunter Evans said. “I don’t think I have a lot of people coming in looking for a swanky downtown meal, but I think we have a good blend of that, along with people looking for a down home, comfortable, everybodyknows-everybody kind of atmosphere. We try to keep it casual and serve really good food. We take our food more seriously than anything else.”

That culinary seriousness has paid dividends, and offered a chance for Evans and Head Chef Andre Peagler to push the envelope. Some may wonder why ossobuco or lamb landed on the menu in Argo.

“I know it crossed my Dad’s mind a lot. I’d do some things and he’d say, ‘People aren’t going to go for that out here,’” Evans said.

There were some areas where he was right and some where he was wrong. It’s trying to find that middle ground, seeing what sticks.”

Evans said of his chef, “The more comfortable we’ve gotten with each other, the more I’ve let him run with things,” Evans said. “At the end of the day, my palate is what matters. My palate is going to determine what we put on the plate. The more comfortable we’ve gotten with each other, the more he comes out with things that match what I’m looking for.”

As an example, Evans offers the squash casserole. But this is not your grandma’s recipe.

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Story by Paul South Photos by Michael Callahan

“It’s not like any squash casserole you’ve ever tasted,” Evans said. “It’s a mom-and-pop thing, but it’s something you’re not going to get anywhere else.”

A popular dish features a filet served on a thin bed of the casserole. “We both have very good palates, so I think we can determine what people are going to like just by tasting it ourselves. We both like to eat,” Evans said.

The palates of Peagler and Evans apparently match their customers. The Crazy Horse is helping transform Argo into a destination, with dishes crafted from always-fresh ingredients.

“People laugh because of our freezer space, which is about as much as I have in my house. But the reason is that everything we use is fresh,” Evans said.

As expected at an eatery run by a family that cut its professional teeth in the meat business, the restaurant’s steaks get rave reviews, as does a popular Sunday brunch. The Crazy Horse’s “Gastro Pub” on Tuesdays and Wednesdays highlights the national craft beer craze. The restaurant also offers a classic Southern breakfast, soups and other delicious options at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“We don’t take shortcuts on quality. We serve a great product, and we have great chefs,” Evans said.

While The Crazy Horse likes to try new things, its soul is rooted in a half-century of tradition.

Named for the now gone, but iconic 1960s Birmingham nightspot where Hunter Evans’ parents – Butch and Karen -- had their first date, The Crazy Horse is part of a food service legacy.

Grandfather James T. “Tommy” Evans started Southeastern Meats in 1968, and Butch Evans owned Evans Meats.

The restaurant has its share of Argo tradition as well. The renovated Town Hall and Fire Station contains repurposed wrought iron that Hunter’s maternal grandfather, James Daniel had once donated to Jack Wood Stadium. The look of the restaurant is “an upscale boarding stable,” Hunter Evans said. “That was the plan. It was a play off Crazy Horse.”

The best slice of advice his father and grandfather gave him about the food business?

“You never learn anything on a good day,” Evans said. “Always make sure on those bad days you learn something.”

While The Crazy Horse may offer an upscale vibe, Evans doesn’t want to lose the comfortable down-home feel. It seems he’s found that middle ground right at home in Argo.

His message is simple: “Fine dining doesn’t have to be uptight,” Evans said. It’s like having a chef at your house.”

The Crazy Horse is open Tuesday through Sunday. Along with fine dining, it offers catering, private events and an in-house butcher shop.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Argo

William’s ORCHARD Labor of love makes town a sweet place to visit Story by Paul South Photos by Michael Callahan This is a family story, as American as homemade apple pie, as Southern as homemade vegetable soup and cornbread and as genuine as flowers, fruits and vegetables grown from God’s good earth.

This is the story of the Williams family of Argo and how over 60 years, a small country store at a rise in the road became a destination location for folks from across the country who crave a fried pie or a bowl of soup when snow threatens in January. In summer, their cravings are fulfilled with Chandler Mountain tomatoes and other vegetables, geraniums or a lush fern, maybe along with an ice cream sundae.

Tommy Williams even has 350 Muscadine grape vines that produce sweet, fat fruit.

Karmen Williams’ grandparents started Hilltop Market more than a half-century ago. Their son Tommy and his wife, the late Ruby Williams followed in their steps. Now Karmen (cq) Williams and her brothers, Greg and Jeff, help in the business. Karmen’s son, Mason, 15, also pitches in when needed.

The seed for the orchard part of the business came when Greg Williams planted 50 apple trees on family land as part of a Future Farmers of America project, an orchard that over time blossomed to 500 trees.

Brother Jeff’s love of horticulture led to the construction of a 50-foot-long greenhouse in 1992.

Tommy Williams’ ingenuity prompted growth and change over the years, Karmen Williams said.

“My dad has always amazed me with his ability to do anything he put his mind to do. From starting that first orchard to

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Fresh produce just one draw of this roadside icon

building greenhouses, now he has 350 Muscadine vines -- all things he had never done but decided he wanted to do.

I think his love for growing things came from his Dad because he always had huge gardens and farmed.”

Tommy Williams’ love for growing things has been felt around the country.

Folks drive to Argo for the family’s famous fried turnovers that have drawn hungry celebrities and everyday people, politicians and university presidents among them.

The orchard began in the early 1980s, with brother Greg’s FFA project. At one time, 3,000 apple trees were on the property, Winesaps, Granny Smith, Arkansas Black and other varieties. Now, many of the apples and cider come from Scott’s Orchard in Huntsville.

“We just started selling (apples) out of our yard,” Karmen Williams said. “My

dad had built a little portable wagon and we sold the apples off of it. It just grew from there.”

The family’s paternal grandparents started William’s Hilltop Grocery in the 1950s, a small convenience store/gas station, with living quarters in the back.

The family farmed, too.

“It just seemed to come natural,” Williams said of the business. “Dad would just knock out one wall here and there and would add to it.” The family built its first greenhouse in 1992, the year Ruby Williams passed away.

Now greenhouses 100 feet long dot the property.

As the business has grown, so has its offerings – homemade soup and cornbread in the winter, an ice cream stand, jams and jellies crafted by the Amish and homemade cider from providers in Tennessee. Williams wants

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

to offer the orchard’s loyal customers the very best.

“We started out small, and we tried to concentrate on topquality stuff,” Karmen Williams said. “We’ve tried to offer good customer service, being friendly and helpful always.”

What was once just a spot along US 11 is now a destination location for travelers and locals alike from as far away as the Carolinas and Virginia. It wasn’t always so.

“When we first started, it was not the place to be in Argo,” Williams said.

That’s changed. With a forecast of snow in early January, Karmen Williams and her crew were cooking up the famous homemade soup and pies that in Argo are staples when wicked winter weather offers a threat.

Karmen has spent her life in the business.

“You could be watching cartoons on a Saturday morning, but when grandma needed you to pick peas, you went,” she said with a laugh.

The growth in St. Clair County has boosted William’s Orchard’s business.

“It’s really helped,” she said. “Like I said before, when we started it wasn’t the place to be. It was something we enjoyed doing. But as people have moved here, it’s helped.”

Unlike similar business in other places that close their doors for the winter, Williams stays open year-round.

“That’s why we do the homemade soup and the greenhouses, so that people will always have something,” she said.

Karmen was on a path to get into health care. But life took a turn when Ruby Williams died in 1992.

“After taking care of her, I just really didn’t think I wanted to do (health care) anymore. That’s when I took over and started running things. I never knew I was going to be a pie maker.

Instead of me choosing, I think I got chosen.”

But for Karmen Williams and her family, the orchard is simply a labor of love. The people who come in – from the president of UAB to hungry Alabama fans craving fried pies en route to a Crimson Tide game – make the hard work and long hours worthwhile, she said. “Sometimes, folks come just to visit. I’m the greeter of the orchard.”

Williams hopes the business that has spanned three generations will continue in the years ahead with family serving up the turnovers and whole pies, soup and cornbread and sell vegetables in summer and mums in the fall. It is a tradition built within the Williams family she hopes will continue to blossom for seasons to come.

“I want it to be a place where people feel welcome and at home. I also hope that my boys and their cousins will keep it going,” she said. “I think my mom and grandparents would be proud of how we have grown over the years.” l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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ASPCI

A TRADITION OF COMING TO THE RESCUE

Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Susan Wall and Arline Lynch

Sandra Embry at Paws in the Park’s early years 54

On a brisk Saturday morning this fall, a group of foster parents gathered in a Pell City parking lot to say their goodbyes. In their care had been 25 puppies — loved, nurtured, protected – as if they were their own.

Just like a sleeping infant finds solace in the crook of a strong, comforting arm, these wideeyed puppies had found their haven, if only for a little while. On this November morning, they were about to find even more. Tears and smiles intermingled as farewells and a final hug marked the occasion. It was time, time to head to their permanent, “forever home.”

The same scene plays out each month as ASPCI, Animal Shelter of Pell City Inc. volunteers give up their precious cargo for what they know will become the life their four-footed friends deserve.

THE ROAD TO THIS POINT Happy endings weren’t always the case in St. Clair County for dogs and cats, puppies and kittens. Turn back the clock a couple of decades, and there was no animal shelter, no caring group to come to the rescue.

But a handful of persevering St. Clair Countians pushed, prodded, rolled up their sleeves and went to work to establish a safe place and a system to take care of them. It took different forms in the early years, but it finally emerged from their dreams and into a real animal shelter built in Pell City with the dollars they raised. And ASPCI was born.

The organization is still evolving. It no longer is affiliated with the shelter they built, manned and enhanced. They have moved exclusively to the original goal – finding as many forever homes as they can for the county’s animal population.

“The things we did inside that building that brought pleasure to our heart is what we’re doing now,” said Barbara Wallace, the organization’s president.

Operating from an administrative office on US 231 South in Pell City, they welcome volunteers on board, recruit foster parents, sell spay and neutering certificates and best of all, they help find forever homes through other shelters with the same caring goal.

“The thing I am proudest of is that the group that started the shelter has stayed together,” said Sandra Embry, a former president, memorial chairman and one of the early movers and shakers to get the job done. “There has never been any disagreement between any of us. This group stayed together for 15 years, and that’s pretty remarkable.”

There is no mistaking Embry’s passion. From the thousands of handwritten thank you notes to adopters and contributors she must have written over the years to the sound of her words as she speaks, her overriding love of animals is ever present. “They have no voice. We’re their voice. That’s what it comes down to.”

It’s difficult to tell her passion from that of Sylvia Martin. She and Karen Thibado helped found the fundraising gala, Fur Ball, now called Mardi Paws Fur Ball. It is the organization’s major fundraiser and has become one of the signature social events of the year. Her handiwork was seen in Doo Dah Day, which became Paws in the Park – an outdoor celebration of people’s precious

Pat Tucker at Paws in the Park

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Tammy Hart, left, oversees rescue run.

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ASPCI

IN THEIR WORDS If you’re looking for evidence of ASPCI’s evolutionary success story, find it in the words of the forever families all over the country who post photos and an update on the Pell City group’s Facebook page. Here’s their story in their own words: l We adopted our sweet Eddie from y’all in May 2013. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. I thought adopting a 2 year-old dog would be difficult, and at times, it has been, but never has it not been worth it. He has made us so happy, and I hope we’ve done the same for him…Puppies are precious, but the other dogs deserve a chance, too. l Our boy, Max, came home with us 2 years ago in September – you guys had named him Fella. He is the most loved (spoiled!) dog imaginable! l We adopted Marley in June 2010. He has found his “forever” home. My special needs son… and Marley are inseparable. We love him and wanted to share the picture we call “A boy & his forever dog.”

Thank you for all you do! l Brooklyn has finally made it to her forever home in NY with the… family. Thanks to everyone who made this happen. l I adopted Charlie (formerly Charles) and brought him home last Tuesday. He is absolutely PRECIOUS!!!! He is just an adorable, lovable little boy! He has stolen my heart and I am so thankful for him.

Thank you, ASPCI, for helping these sweet babies find their forever homes! May God bless each of you and your mission. l Lewis and Clark are having a great time at my house in Florida.

Thanks for taking such wonderful care of these boys! l Cookie (now Casey) is doing great and she wanted me to thank you for fostering her and getting her started in her new home. She has done a good job of acclimating with the resident cat (Tess). She gives the backyard squirrels a run for their money so we have resurrected the bell we ring to give the critters a warning. She had a check-up at our vet and passed with flying colors. All in all, she is doing great and has adapted fully to her new home. l Eight years ago, we adopted the best dog ever, Bodger (formerly Simon)! He has been a wonderful companion. He goes camping, caving, and on every road trip we can take him. Thank you, Pell City Animal Shelter for the best dog our family has ever had. l And if dogs could talk: Dear Pell City Animal Shelter. This is me Essie on my first morning in my forever home. You know me as Pumpkin. I was greeted with lots of hugs and kisses and my two new sisters came to play and say good morning. I think I’m gonna like it here. Thanks for taking such good care of me until I found my forever family.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Fosters say goodbye, ready pups for forever homes.

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Cutting the ribbon on ASPCI’s new era pets and an opportunity to raise awareness about those animals who were not so lucky.

When Martin saw a need, she set about to fill it. In the 1970s, the lakeside area in which she lived was a destination point for abandoning dogs because it wasn’t developed as much. “My limit was six (dogs). I kept six – all strays except two,” Martin said. “There wasn’t any program about spaying and neutering.

There wasn’t a leash law.”

Over the years, that all changed, and Martin and others were a part of that group that brought the improvements about. They pushed for education programs, spaying and neutering and enforced laws. “It was a community effort,” she said, noting that it took “years and years of people donating time and money. Everybody involved had a real love for animals.”

Others came on board, trading day jobs and management positions for a broom or mop or manning the phones. Jo Mitchell and husband Marty Kollmorgen were among them.

Mitchell’s husband was an executive, a division manager with AT&T, but it was not unusual to spot him cleaning kennels and doing what needed to be done. After Mitchell retired, she became more and more involved and has served as treasurer since 2006.

Wallace, a friend of Mitchell’s, got involved the same way.

After her retirement and a time of caretaking for her mother, who was ill, she joined the organization. Paws in the Park planning was under way at the time. “I needed something to do, and they needed help,” Wallace recalled. “It went from there. I

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ASPCI enjoy it.”

Every organization needs an historian. Arline Lynch, camera in hand, has been instrumental in preserving the history of people and events that marked the success of ASPCI over the years through her photographs. Her remembrances are especially helpful in ensuring that the long list of people who wrote this success story aren’t forgotten. “So many have helped through the years and continue to do so,” she said.

It is impossible to name them all. Their stories are not unusual. It is one of identifying needs and working to make sure they are fulfilled.

Arlene Johnson was involved at the beginning of the organization’s nonprofit status in 1995. “I was recruited by the first President, Herb Doynow. Herb and his wife, Billie, (both now deceased) were neighbors in the Seddon Point area where I lived at the time,” Johnson said. Herb and his wife had several cats who were taken care of at Dr. Galen Sims at Cropwell Small Animal Hospital. The Doynows learned of the need for a local shelter from Galen as there was no shelter anywhere in St. Clair County.”

At the time, local animals taken into custody by animal control officers were delivered to the Birmingham pound. Herb had a home-based business and his wife provided his office support, and they filed the first 501c3 papers with the help of Jan and Charles Trotter.

“Our first board consisted of Herb as president, Galen as vice president, Billie as treasurer, and me as secretary.

I served two three-year terms as president the first period between 2000 and 2003.” She also served as vice president, treasurer, secretary, newsletter chair and fundraising chair. “Pat Tucker was the president prior to me and was instrumental in gathering local support and improving the fundraising aspect of our mission. She remained active in ASPCI business and fundraising until moving back to Georgia to be near her mother about five years ago,” Johnson said.

In 2000, the shelter opened on a piece of property across from St. Clair County Airport. The organization that had started out as a rescue organization had to meet the immediate needs of the community as an intake facility for the county and cities in St. Clair County and adjacent communities who were legally required to operate or contract for a pound. So, through the commitment of the Pell City Council, St. Clair County Commission, and many local business supporters, including the Airport Authority, Alabama Power, Goodgame Company, many other local small businesses, all local veterinarians, several individuals and regional and national animal foundations, funds were secured to build, furnish and operate the facility.

“The most challenging aspect was the first 10 years of operation when the intake from animal control officers as well as the animals surrendered from their owners grew from about 300 animals a month to at a peak of over 800 a month,” Johnson said. “The shelter facility had to grow with more workers, volunteers and space to handle the incoming animal population. Most citizens don’t realize the volume of unwanted animals in their community, but many households with animals contribute to the problem by not spaying and neutering their pets.”

Gene Morris, a telephone company officer, well remembers those early years and the impact of the group. He joined the board shortly after 2000 and served as treasurer for many years. “Several executive level people were running the group for free as a good service to the community. It wasn’t long before the community saw very few stray animals.”

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MISSION CONTINUES Today ASPCI’s mission remains strong – “to rescue/adopt as many as possible, offer low-cost spay-neuter certificates, and to remain visible and have a voice in the community,” Johnson said. They take in animals from other shelters, get their shots, arrange for foster care and adoptions. Through rescue agreements with other shelters, the animals in their care now have forever homes throughout the country.

Their stories and updates appear on ASPCI’s Facebook page, usually accompanied by a photo and a big thank you to the organization for uniting the pet and the family.

They also take rescues to Pet Smart in Trussville as part of the adoption program. Facebook also is one of their tools for adoption, where they post photos, names and descriptions of adoptable pets.

They operate a Managed Admission Program locally, where they work with people who may not be able to keep a pet and assess if they can facilitate adoption. Or, someone may just need help with providing food, and ASPCI steps in to help.

They work with Lakeside Hospice in a program called Pet Peace of Mind, where hospice patients may not be able to take care of their pets any longer. ASPCI is there to ensure they find another loving home. And they own and operate a pet cemetery in Moody.

Organizations like ASPCI are only as strong as the people who are involved in it. Just as those who have come before to build a strong foundation and continue their support to this day, fosters are key to the group’s success. They keep adoptable animals two to four weeks in their homes to allow time to arrange for adoptions and rescue runs to other shelters en route to forever homes.

Tammy Hart serves as foster, rescue and adoption coordinator. A computer engineer by trade, she represents a new generation of ASPCI volunteers, getting involved just four years ago. “It is one of the most rewarding thigs I’ve done,”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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she said, noting that through fostering, she has helped save hundreds of animals.

People may be reluctant to foster, Hart said, because they say ‘they can’t give them up.’ She is quick to tell them, “When they go, you know they are going to a good home. If you don’t let them go, you can’t make room for others.”

They find comfort in those words and the compassion behind them. Fosters are a dedicated group that finds rewards in the work they do to unite pets with their forever homes, just like Embry and others who came long before them.

Embry shared a poem by Helen Inwood, whose words, she said, “spoke to my heart so deeply many, many years ago....and has been my mantra always.” It is the same mantra that ASPCI seems to bring to life in the work it does.

All involved would simply tell you it is a labor of love. To Pell City and St. Clair County, it has been an answered prayer.

PRAYER FOR THE HELPLESS

Let me be a voice for the speechless, Those who are small and weak; Let me speak for all helpless creatures Who have no power to speak.

I have lifted my heart to heaven On behalf of the least of theseThe frightened, the homeless, the hungry, I am now voicing their pleas.

If I can help any creature, Respond to a desperate call, I will know that my prayer has been answered By the God Who created them ALL. To learn more about ASPCI or to donate, go to aspci.org or follow on Facebook. Mardi Paws Fur Ball is March 3 at Celebrations, the group’s major fundraiser for the year, and support is encouraged. l

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Learn how you can help. Visit www.ChildrensAL.org/heart For Children’s Financial Assistance information contact 1.844.750.8950 or visit www.childrensal.org/financial-assistance

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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St. Clair Alabama

Business Review Louis

Architectural rendering of the exterior of the new Premiere Entertainment Cinema and Bowling alley currently under construction in Pell City 60 DISCOVER Essence St. Clair • August & September 2013 of St. ClairThe •The Business Review DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair • February March 2016 60• DISCOVER The Essence DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June &&July July 2016 DISCOVER DISCOVER Essence The Essence of of St.of Clair of St. • Clair Clair December June 2016 & & January 2015 2017 60 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April & May

Story by Graham Hadley Photos by Michael Callahan

Good things to come

Buffalo Wild Wings & Theater Just the Beginning When it comes to the local economy, growth builds growth.

That is exactly what is happening along the I-20 corridor in Pell City. What started with a simple gas station at the I-20 and US 231 interchange has grown into something of a retail and dining mecca, now boasting big box stores like Wal Mart and Home Depot, a full shopping center and a number of restaurants.

The most recent of which, Buffalo Wild Wings, opened its doors in November and has continued to see a steady stream of business ever since.

According to developer Bill Ellison, that is exactly the kind of restaurant Pell City residents have been asking for — something he, along with the city, the EDC, county and other agencies have been working years to make happen.

And aside from giving people living in Pell City and surrounding areas one more quality dining option, Ellison said it is important in another way.

“This is a very big deal,” he said. When restaurants like Buffalo Wild Wings locate in an area and succeed, it is a bellwether of the economic health of a region that other companies look at when considering places to locate.

When businesses like that come to an area, it puts it on the map for other businesses, like the movie theater and bowling alley under construction right around the corner from Buffalo Wild Wings.

“The fact that Buffalo Wild Wings was coming said something about the community, that there was enough business here to support that. It all works together,” Ellison said.

Following closely on the heels of Buffalo Wild Wings, Premiere Cinemas is in the process of building a massive entertainment complex consisting of a movie theater, bowling alley and arcade, entertainment space, café and concessions.

The multi-million-dollar project has been years in the making and is something that Ellison and others involved say the Pell City community had been hoping for over the past decade or more.

Buffalo Wild Wings in Pell City is open for business and already drawing crowds.

DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair • August & September 2013 Business Review •July DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • 61 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair • February March 2016 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June &&July 2016 61 DISCOVER DISCOVER The Essence The Essence of of St.of Clair of St. • Clair Clair December June 2016 & & January 2015 2017 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April & May 61

Business Review

Good Things in Pell City

The entertainment complex features a state-of-the-art bowling alley.

“This is going to be huge,” Ellison said. “I have seen the plans, and they far exceed anything we expected to be able to do for Pell City.”

It will not only stand as a major quality-of-life improvement for Pell City residents, “it is going to bring more people to Pell City; it is going to bring more people to spend their money in Pell City.

“It will keep people here. Kids won’t have to drive on Interstate 20 to go to movies or eat out. People can stay in Pell City on weekends to have fun.”

Premiere Cinemas is an excellent company to be working with, he added, and they are cutting no corners with this project.

“We are fortunate to have a company like this coming to Pell City. This theater is going to be as nice any anything around, any theater in Birmingham,” Ellison said.

And just like Buffalo Wild Wings, the theater and entertainment complex is expected to be another big indicator that Pell City is ripe for new business growth.

“I think there are at least 100,000 people out there who will come to the cinema and bowling lanes,” he said.

“Not every town gets a movie theater and bowling lanes.

Getting that in here means there is a large enough population to support it. People will drive long distances to come to something like this.”

Ellison was quick to point out that neither of these projects would have been a reality if it weren’t for the receptive

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Concessions and dining are also part of the project.

atmosphere of the economic environment in Pell City, from the cooperative efforts with local government to the passing of the seven-day liquor sales.

“This has been a three or four-year project. Everyone has worked hard … then it all came together. We all worked to bring it in. It is something the community has been asking for for years, and we all made it happen,” Ellison said. “Everybody is really excited, the whole community is. It’s fantastic.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

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News In Brief create a hub for automotive shopping in Pell City that should yield benefits, not only for McSweeney Holdings, but also for neighboring businesses,” Pruitt said.

“It will offer folks a chance to shop for a vehicle, have some lunch, do some shopping, and discover everything the Pell City community has to offer.”

County officials agree, seeing the growth in Pell City as something that is helping build a healthy and robust economy for St. Clair County as a whole.

“The St. Clair County Commission is excited to partner with our municipalities and to see another quality business coming into the county. We look forward to their success,” Manning said.

“It is always our goal for businesses to recognize St. Clair County as a growing, healthy environment where they can make an investment,” he added, “and this is one example of a business making their choice of location for that reason.”

ERA KING OPENS NEW OFFICE IN MOODY

Concept art of the new dealership

CAR DEALERSHIP MOVING TO PELL CITY

h construction already underway on the new dealership for Town and Country Ford, a second major car dealership is now on theWith construction already underway on the new dealership for ToWit horizon for Pell City.

McSweeney Holdings is in the process of purchasing the Bill Stanford dealership in Talladega and will be moving the operation to Pell City.

The new dealership will be a more than $9-million capital investment in the city and “the addition of many new local jobs is expected,” according to an announcement from the St. Clair Economic Development Council.

To be located next to the Interstate 20 and US 231 interchange on John Haynes Drive, the dealership will be carrying the Fiat Chrysler brand, which also includes Jeep, Dodge and Ram lines of vehicles, with the possibility of adding more vehicle makes on the horizon.

Like many of the projects driving Pell City’s economic boom, this was a cooperative effort.

According to the EDC announcement, the City of Pell City, St. Clair County and McSweeney Holdings passed a joint agreement for the rebate of half of the City’s and County’s non-educational sales tax for any revenues received over $5 million in annual automotive sales.

“It has been a pleasure working with Mayor (Bill) Pruitt and Chairman (Paul) Manning from the very beginning. Their passion for this community was undeniable and they have made our plans for a new facility in Pell City incredibly easy for us,” said Michael McSweeney of McSweeney Holdings. “The whole community should be very proud of the elected officials they have in office.”

In addition to new restaurants, stores and a large entertainment complex coming to Pell City, the addition of another major car dealer will continue to help drive the local economy.

“The City of Pell City is pleased to welcome another new business to the I-20 Corridor in Pell City. This automotive dealership will help

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All the new businesses opening their doors along the two interstates that crisscross St. Clair County —Publix supermarkets, Buffalo Wild Wings, new movie theaters, a bowling alley and much more — are being driven at least in part by population growth.

More and more, people are finding the convenience of living in St. Clair County combined with a wide range of housing options — from affordable starter homes to plush lakeside mansions and mountain getaways — to be an irresistible draw.

In response to that demand, ERA King has opened a new office in Moody to better serve the St. Clair county real estate market. It already has an office in Pell City.

“We felt the area is at a tipping point; it is going to become a real sellers’ market,” said Katrina Hennings, managing broker for the new office. “It already had a lot of garden homes and family homes — and those people are starting to look for new homes now. So, it is a turnaround market.”

The office, located in the same building with Hill, Hill and Gossett and Metro Bank, opened its doors Nov. 1, with the official grand opening Nov. 8, 2016.

That gave the new office, which already has 10 agents working out of it, a couple of months to work the kinks out and get everything up and running in time for the new year.

“We were trying to get the word out, but business was already good.

We were having listings and sales, but starting this year off, we are looking for 2017 to be a big year,” Hennings said. “We are expecting to see more growth in St. Clair in 2017.”

St. Clair is the ideal location for ERA King to expand — it has lakes, mountains, two interstates and cities focusing on high qualityof-life projects like new libraries, civic centers, splash pads, parks and more.

“Things like movie theaters, restaurants and stores like Publix make it more attractive to new residents. That was a big issue when we were deciding where to locate,” she said.

And it’s a self-sustaining system. More residents make the area attractive to new businesses, especially food, entertainment and retail.

When they open, more people want to come to St. Clair.

“Everything just feeds off each other when you have growth like this: business, building, everyone — it’s a boost to the economy for everyone.”

Hennings is expecting to see most of their current sales in existing homes, but there are developments in St. Clair with new homes or room for new home construction that also are options for homebuyers.

“There are a number of subdivisions that are not built out, so we have room for selling new construction, but we have so many starter homes and family homes where the owners are looking for something new and bigger. Existing homes will probably be our main selling point for now because it’s what’s out there.”

Follow ERA King online @ eraking.com

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

Stories by Graham Hadley & Carol Pappas Photos by Michael Callahan, Wallace Bromberg & Submitted

EASTERN SURGICAL ASSOCIATES, P.C.

Construction continues at Northside.

NORTHSIDE OPENS IN THREE NEW MARKETS

Northside Medical Associates is embarking on a new venture to deliver quality primary care to three new markets in the region.

On Feb. 1, Pell City-based Northside opened clinics in Trussville, Springville and Ashville.

Northside founding partner and CEO Dr. Rock Helms called the move a means of creating a system that “best benefits the patient and delivers cost efficient care.”

On the heels of beginning an expansion at Northside’s Pell City campus that will double the size of its first two phases by this summer, the burgeoning medical home is expanding its primary care services into other areas of the region. Northside already operates a clinic in Moody and is partnering with Main Street Medical in downtown Pell City to provide medical services at that location in addition to its main campus.

The opening of the newest clinics will not only provide needed primary care services with full time physicians and nurse practitioners in Trussville, Springville and Ashville, it represents a new kind of patient-centered collaboration among medical providers to create a medical home closer to previously underserved areas.

Dr. Scott Boykin and Dr. Andrew Smith along with Nurse Practitioner Celeste Richardson will provide services at the Trussville location. The intent is to establish the practice in Trussville at 3536 Vann Road. Plans further call for the Trussville clinic to move to Deerfoot Parkway in 2018 with its own 30,000 square foot medical home. It will offer imaging, primary care, after hours services and be the anchor tenant in a large commercial development.

Dr. George Harris will be the physician at Springville full time and at Ashville one day a week. Nurse practitioners will provide services as well in both locations, and another full time doctor is being recruited for Ashville. The Springville clinic is located at 480 Walker Drive. The Ashville location is at 35717 US Highway 231.

Meanwhile, construction is progressing on Phase III at Northside’s Pell City campus. This two-story, 50,000 square foot facility is expected to open this summer. Northside is moving toward “providing as many services as possible in one spot for our patients,” Helms said, not only making it more convenient, but giving patients a comprehensive system of care close to home.

The specialty phase is already completely leased and will offer full time services in gastroenterology, cardiology, vision, oral surgery and general surgery. It also will offer other services on a part-time basis.

In keeping with its aim of providing a patient-centered medical home, Northside continues to make improvements in its patient friendly approach, such as its medical record portal system, online appointments, message staff check-in, which gives patients the ability to be messaged when it is time to see the medial provider without sitting in the waiting room.

While Northside is expanding at a rapid pace, Helms said the

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Business Review intention is to retain its physician-owned practice and its philosophy of recruiting hometown doctors who want to buy into it.

That philosophy keeps the patient at the center of services. That is the motivation behind going into new areas. “We are interested in going into rural communities because many times, they have the most vulnerable patients. If you do the right thing for the patient, everything else falls into place,” Helms said. “We take care of the community, and we take care of the patient.”

Wade Reich at his now famous smoker

Kat Turner with her signature Eggs Benedict

MADE IN ALABAMA: LOCAL CHEFS MAKE NATIONAL HEADLINES

Two Pell City eateries are making national headlines with signature dishes locals may take for granted. But make no mistake, their creations are attracting attention well beyond the bounds of Pell City.

USA Today traveled the state looking for tasty subject matter, and they found it at Butts to Go and at The Kitchen. The trek led them to the story, Made in Alabama: Flavors found only in the Heart of Dixie.

They are mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Iron Chef winner Chris Hastings of Birmingham’s Hot and Hot Fish Club and Beard Award winner Frank Stitt, who is largely credited with putting Birmingham on the map as a national ‘foodie’ capital.

Of course, the USA Today piece included a smattering of other local hotspots around the state with unique dishes in unlikely places, just like Pell City’s claims to fame, and the recognition has been causing quite a stir around the area.

For Butts to Go, its uniqueness came from its quarters and its offerings. It is located in the parking lot of a Texaco gas station, and is tied together with the slogan, “Gas up and pig out.” The story underscores what most locals already know to be true: “Butts to Go often has a waiting line resulting in a traffic jam.”

Just check out US 231 on a holiday where customers line up to get into the convenience store and pick up their orders of fresh from the grill Boston Butts, smoked hams and turkeys, Baby Back Ribs and a host of sides, guaranteed to make headlines at your own dinner table.

Al.com, Alabama’s largest news website, echoed the USA Today mentions with its own story, noting, “…we ran into a traffic jam in the tiny town of Pell City, just outside Birmingham, which on closer inspection proved to be a waiting line for a Texaco Station.”

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News In Brief But rather than a sale on gasoline, the attraction they discovered was a series of barbecue grills set up in the parking lot, where grill master Wade Reich and his crew turn out smoked butts, ribs, hams, turkeys, wings and a signature Drunken Chicken – a chicken smoked upright on a beer can.

The USA Today piece’s writer, Patricia Nickell, is syndicated in more than 200 newspapers, Reich said, so it is no surprise that he has received correspondence about the story from around the country and overseas.

He has heard from New York, Chicago and Arkansas. A representative of The Guardian newspaper from London, England, stopped in to have a look and a taste. And a reporter from Toronto, Canada, visited on his way to the NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway. Reich, who used to live in a London suburb where most of the residents subscribed to The Guardian, joked that if the paper follows through on an article, he’ll autograph it and send it to his former neighbors.

He noted that the Greater Pell City Chamber of Commerce president and executive director brought the USA Today writer in as part of her tour of the state looking for unique restaurants and dishes.

“We fed them barbecue, wings, baby back ribs and sent them home with a Drunken Chicken,” Reich said.

He takes the notoriety all in stride, though. “It’s good publicity for the state of Alabama.”

Just across town is The Kitchen, a restaurant in Pell City that could double for the set of the hit television series, Cheers, “where everybody knows your name.” But what they may not know is Kat Turner serves up an Eggs Benedict dish that is a hit in its own right and could rival much finer establishments.

They know it now. “We’ve seen a whole lot of new faces showing up. When they come in the door, they ask, ‘Do you still have Eggs Benedict?’ ” She goes on to say that The Kitchen not only is the only restaurant in St. Clair County serving Eggs Benedict, she serves it every day of the week.

A USA Today caption with a photo of The Kitchen’s unusual staple for breakfast in a small city said, “The Kitchen, a diner in Pell City, Ala., serves this Eggs Benedict dish. A sign on the door warns patrons against being ‘grouchy, irritable or just plain mean,’ unless they want an additional $10 added to their check.”

No worries there. The Eggs Benedict isn’t the only attraction of this Logan Martin Lake mainstay. It’s the friendly, inviting atmosphere.

“It’s as much about the atmosphere as it is the quality and diversity of the food,” Turner said.

“It’s a place where everybody knows everybody,” said customer Penny Lindsey, who moved to the area from Ohio four years ago.

Just like most of The Kitchen’s customers, she’s a regular. “You don’t worry about the service or the food, you know it’s going to be good.

In five or six minutes, your food is on the table, and it’s great.”

“It’s not about me,” said Turner. “It’s about the dynamic of everything. At somebody’s house, if you’re truly comfortable, you end up in the kitchen (hence, the origin of the restaurant’s name). That’s where the atmosphere is. We try to create that atmosphere where they can be comfortable, be themselves.”

It’s not unusual to see a regular at The Kitchen up serving coffee to the rest of the tables if the staff gets too busy. And in this kitchen, earning the designation of a regular doesn’t take long.

If you don’t know anyone going in, you know everyone by the time you leave.

“Kat’s the owner, but we’re all a part of it,” Lindsey said. “They want to come back, and they do. They become regulars.”

Just like her. l Read the story here: www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/food-and-wine/2016/08/14/ alabama-homegrown-food-beverages/88613484

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2017

508 MARTIN STREET SOUTH PELL CITY, AL 35128

(205) 884-2300

Front, left to right: Bill Gossett, Lawrence Fields, Brenda Fields and Blair Fields 2nd Row, left to right: Tina Stallings, Mary Ellis, Karen Bain, Nan Morris, Carey Monistere and Michelle Shoemaker 3rd Row, left to right: Carl Howard, Scott Fields, Gary Smith, Joel Jones, Adam Bain and Tony Gossett

OUR TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS STRIVE TO PROVIDE EXCELLENT SERVICE TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS. WE BRING A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE IN REAL ESTATE!

www.loganmartinlaketeam.com

Your Real Estate Needs - Our Specialty Karen Bain 205-473-4613 karenbainfgre@gmail.com Adam Bain 205-369-2704 adambainfgre@gmail.com

Same REAL ESTATE location that has served the public for over 40 years!

HILL, HILL & GOSSETT, P.C. ATTORNEYS AT LAW

205.640.2000 205.338.2295

Proudly serving St. Clair County for more than 25 years

Providing a broad range of legal services to individual, business and local governmental clients including:

· Governmental Affairs · Estate Planning · Personal Injury and Administration · Domestic Relations · Civil Litigation · Real Estate · Corporate · Criminal Defense James E. Hill Matthew E. Gossett Candace B. Crenshaw Joel P. Watson Brandi C. Williams Judge James E. Hill, Jr. of Counsel

www.HHGlawg roup.com 2603 Moody Parkway, Suite 200 . Moody Alabama 35004 . Tel. (205) 640-2000 . Fax (205) 640-2010 No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the qualtiy of legal services performed by other lawyers.