ALABAMA
HISTOR ICA L ASSOCIATION
VOLUME 32 • ISSUE 1 • SPRING 2017
ANNUAL MEETING Auburn, Alabama April 20-22, 2017
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 President’s Message
Officers
4-8 Auburn Welcomes Members of AHA
9 -11 Reception and Tours 12-13 Schedule of Events 14-15 Map and Accommodations
16 Pre-meeting Options
17 Keynote Speakers
Editors
The Alabama Review R. Volney Riser, University of West Alabama AHA Newsletter Mark Wilson, Auburn University
18 Marker Refurbishment Program
PRESIDENT Jeff Jakeman, Auburn University VICE PRESIDENT David Alsobrook, Mobile SECRETARY Mark Wilson, Auburn University MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Maiben Beard, Auburn University TREASURER Valerie Burnes, University of West Alabama
Board of Directors
18 Alabama Association of Historians
18-23 2016 Historical Markers
Jim Baggett, Birmingham Public Library Mike Bunn, Historic Blakely State Park Ann Chambless, Jackson County Heritage Association James Cox, Grove Hill Jane Shelton Dale, Camden Jim Day, University of Montevallo Ralph Draughon, Jr., Alabama Historical Commission Staci Glover, Gardendale Dan Haulman, Air Force Historical Research Agency Laura Hill, Encyclopedia of Alabama Pamela King, University of Alabama at Birmingham Scotty Kirkland, Alabama Department of Archives and History Jay Lamar, Alabama Bicentennial Commission Elvin Lang, Black Heritage Council Susanna Leberman, Huntsville-Madison County Public Library Herbert J. Lewis, Birmingham Debra Love, Fairfield William Melton, Evergreen Rebecca Minder, Alabama Heritage Brandon Owens, Alabama State University Dan Puckett, Troy University Doug Purcell, Eufaula Christine Sears, University of Alabama in Huntsville Gayle Thomas, Abbeville Parliamentarian/Counsel Chriss Doss, Birmingham The AHA Newsletter is designed and printed by Davis Direct, Montgomery, Alabama.
Cover Image: Samford Hall, courtesy Auburn University Photographic Services 2
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Founded in 1947, the Alabama Historical Association is the oldest statewide historical society in Alabama. The AHA provides opportunities for meaningful engagement with the past through publications, meetings, historical markers, and other programs. The AHA is a volunteer-led and membership-supported organization. Our members are from every walk of life but share a common interest in Alabama history and a belief in its value for society today. Visit www.alabamahistory.net for more information.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Our friends in Decatur treated us to a successful pilgrimage last October. They rolled out the red carpet for us, and we saw a community that values its history as a precious resource that can stimulate and energize sustainable economic development. If you couldn’t attend the pilgrimage, I urge you Dr. Jeff Jakeman to take the time to visit Decatur and experience the town. Many thanks to all of our friends in Decatur. This spring we move from our state’s northern border to its eastern border for our annual meeting in Auburn. We last met in Auburn in 1995 and the town has seen substantial changes in the intervening years. The façade of the iconic Toomer’s Drugs remains unchanged with its blue letters, but the corner has been redesigned following the poisoning of the ancient oaks in 2010. The downtown area along College Street has retained much of its identity despite substantial development in the surrounding areas of the town and campus. This annual meeting we will enjoy the company of our colleagues in the Alabama Association of Historians, who will hold their annual meeting concurrently with us. For more on the work of AAH, see the article on page 18. We are delighted to have our colleagues in AAH join us for the meeting. Our local arrangements committee has coordinated several pre-meeting activities for those who plan to arrive early on Thursday. If you haven’t visited the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, which opened its doors in 2003, plan to arrive in time to take a guided tour at 1:30. After the museum tour, head north on College Street, stop at the thirteen-acre Donald E. Davis Arboretum, and enjoy a tranquil natural setting filled with native plants and habitats of Alabama. Then make your way to Pebble Hill, home of the Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, for an Auburn and Lee County book fair, 4:00-5:00. And then join Carol and me for a reception at our home, 6:00-8:00.
On Friday morning we will gather at the Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center for our opening session and papers. Wayne Flynt will be the featured speaker at the opening session and will offer remarks on the development of Auburn over the years. As is our practice, we do not have a theme for the meeting, but the coincidence of our meeting with the centennial of America’s entry into World War I prompted a number of excellent proposals relating to the Great War. The local arrangements committee has scheduled a full menu of tours Friday afternoon. In addition to several fine examples of antebellum homes, former AHA president Ken Noe will offer walking tours that describe the places and events related to Auburn’s role in the Civil War. And thanks to the cooperation of the Auburn University architect, a few lucky members (first come, first served—see the registration form for details) will have the opportunity to climb to the top of the Samford Hall clock tower. It’s not an easy climb, and it’s not for everyone, but if you want a unique and rare Auburn experience, register early for the meeting and compete for a spot. The keynote speaker for our Friday banquet is a leading authority on World War I, Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr. For more on the work of Dr. Morrow, see the article on p. 17. He is a distinguished scholar and we are fortunate to have him as our keynote speaker. Our activities on Saturday will begin with a general session at the Conference Center. Then we will hear another round of great papers, including more on World War I, the war that cost more American lives than Korea and Vietnam combined. Following our traditional meeting protocol, we will finish the meeting with a closing luncheon. I am looking forward to seeing all of you here in Auburn, April 20-22. We have planned what promises to be a memorable meeting in “Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain.” Come join in the fun, renew old friendships, and be enlightened.
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A group of Alabama Polytechnic Institute students waiting at the Auburn Depot in the early 1940s. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
AUBURN WELCOMES MEMBERS OF AHA FOR THE 70TH ANNUAL MEETING
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ocated approximately twenty miles from Alabama’s eastern border, Auburn sits amidst rolling hills and a spider web of creeks that flow into the Tallapoosa River. The Creek Indians controlled this area from the 17th century until 1832, when representatives of the Creek Nation relinquished control of east Alabama to the United States. Under the terms of the Treaty of Cusseta, each Creek head of household received a 320-acre tract of land. Land speculators quickly rushed into the area, using fraud and intimidation to oust the Creeks and open the land to white settlement. Between 1834 and 1836, Sun-dil-la and Lot-ti-yoholo, the Creeks who had title to the land that would later become Auburn, transferred their tracts to land speculators. In the late summer of 1836, following the Second Creek War, President Andrew Jackson ordered the removal of all Creek Indians from east Alabama. That same year, Judge John J. Harper and Methodist preacher Morgan Turrentine led a group of white settlers and enslaved African Americans from west Georgia to east Alabama. Harper soon hired Simeon Perry to lay out a town at the intersection of two roads that led
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from Tuskegee and Tallassee to towns in west Georgia. According to local lore, Harper’s future daughter-inlaw, Lizzie Taylor, chose the name for the town from the first line in Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, The Deserted Village: “Sweet Auburn, the loveliest village of the plain.” A December 1836 advertisement for the sale of town lots touted “The beauty of its location and healthfulness of situation, the fine appearance of the country around and productiveness of the soil.” Within two years of its founding, Auburn was home to about twenty families, and the town had a Methodist church, a school, and a hotel. Auburn’s free and enslaved populations continued to grow over the next twenty years. The Presbyterians, Baptists, and Episcopalians all established congregations in the town before 1860. In Auburn, townspeople and farmers from the surrounding area could have their horses shod, their wagons repaired, or their teeth pulled. They could purchase medicines, food, and cloth from stores along what is now College Street. Slaves in Auburn worked in these businesses, as well as in the households of the town’s white families, at colleges and academies, and in
skilled trades such as carpentry, blacksmithing, shoemaking, and dressmaking. When Harper chose the site for Auburn, he was probably aware that it lay near the proposed route for the Montgomery and West Point Railroad. During an era when many planned railroads never came to fruition, Harper gambled that this railroad would in fact be constructed. That gamble paid off in 1851, when the Montgomery and West Point Railroad was completed with a stop at the northern edge of Auburn. The railroad helped spur economic growth in Auburn, partly by making it easier for students to travel to the town to attend one of its academies or colleges. Establishing an academy was a priority for Auburn’s Methodist founders, who saw educational institutions as key to the town’s success. Boys and girls who attended Auburn’s academies in the late 1830s and 1840s studied Latin and Greek, philosophy, rhetoric, and mathematics. In 1853, the local Masonic Lodge founded Auburn’s first college: the Auburn Masonic Female College. A college for young men followed in 1859, when the Methodists opened East Alabama Male College. The “Old Main” building, built of three million bricks, boasted four stories and was deemed by one Montgomery newspaper editor as “one of the finest edifices in the state.” Auburn’s colleges and academies helped attract new residents, contributed to the development of commerce, and established the town’s reputation as a settled, refined, and learned place. Advertisements for the schools noted the town’s “purity of morals, uncontaminated by the baneful influence of the use of ardent spirits,” which were banned within the town limits. (Liquor continued to be banned within five miles of the college until the mid-1880s.) Less than a year after East Alabama Male College granted its first degrees, the Civil War began. The college soon closed as many of its students went off to fight for the Confederacy. Hospitals to treat sick and wounded Confederate soldiers were set up in the town’s college buildings. Although Auburn did not witness any major battles, Union troops entered the town on two occasions. In July 1864, General Lovell Rousseau’s troops destroyed the rail lines and depot as part of an effort to cut supply lines between Montgomery and Atlanta. On April 15, 1865, six days after the Confederate Army surrendered at Appomattox, a detachment of General James H. Wilson’s soldiers passed through the town. The war took a toll on Auburn’s educational institutions, and most did not re-open after the war ended. With the defeat of the Confederacy and the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, Auburn’s enslaved residents gained their freedom. In the decades following emancipation, African Americans in Auburn built their own houses and businesses, and founded community organizations and churches that helped sustain them through the discrimination and oppression that they endured on a daily basis during the Jim Crow era. They purchased land on the periphery of Auburn, and African-American
Bertha Mae Grout and Mary Robbins Sampey were students at Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1900. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Libraries. neighborhoods developed north of the railroad tracks, to the south of town, and along Highway 14 to the west. Another black neighborhood was located east of town, around Ebenezer Baptist Church and Baptist Hill Cemetery. Organized by slaves in the early 1860s, the congregation of Ebenezer Baptist Church constructed a church on Thach Avenue before 1870. As the black community in Auburn grew, so, too, did the number of churches. By 1910, African Americans in Auburn had established another Baptist church, an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, and a Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) church. Black fraternal organizations such as the Knights of Pythias and the Order of the Eastern Star provided insurance and mutual support.
Langdon Hall in 1883. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Libraries SPRING 2017
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The “main building,” later named Samford Hall, can be seen taking shape in the background as Hargis Hall stands proudly in the foreground during 1888. Samford’s iconic clocktower had not yet begun to form. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
Following the Civil War, East Alabama Male College re-opened but struggled to attract students. In 1872, the college’s trustees transferred the property to the state for use as a public land grant university for whites. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (renamed Auburn University nearly a century later) opened on the site that same year. Designation as a land grant institution required the college to offer courses of study in agriculture, engineering, and military tactics, but students could also study science, literature, architecture, or surveying. The student body was all-male until 1892, when the first women were admitted. Despite receiving little financial support from the state legislature, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama gradually expanded its facilities, programs, and curriculum in the 1880s and 1890s. In 1883, the chapel of the Auburn Masonic Female College was moved to the campus; it was significantly remodeled in 1892 and named Langdon Hall. Following a massive fire that claimed “Old Main” in June 1887, a three-and-a-halfstory, brick building with a clock tower and a bell tower
Inside Toomer’s Drugstore in 1907. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services. 6
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was constructed in 1888 to serve as the main classroom building. Named Samford Hall in 1929, it quickly became the college’s most iconic building. The Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station was established at the college in 1883 to conduct scientific research on agriculture. Starting in the early 1900s, the Alabama Agricultural Extension Service (now the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service) at Auburn worked to educate farmers and disseminate the results of agricultural research. Until the 1960s, the extension service at Auburn served only white families, while Tuskegee University and the African-American land grant college near Huntsville (now Alabama A&M) provided agricultural outreach to African Americans. In 1893, Dr. Charles Cary arrived in Auburn as the first professor of veterinary science, and went on to establish the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 1907. The university also added courses in pharmacy, and expanded the curriculum in engineering, the sciences, and the arts. In recognition of its broader academic focus, the college changed its name to Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1899. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Auburn was a small town centered around the college. The population remained below 1,500 until 1920. A small commercial district of about thirty businesses occupied the block to the north of the college and wrapped around the corner of Magnolia Avenue. Closer to the railroad tracks were two hotels, a cotton gin, and a grist mill. Whites owned most of the stores and shops downtown, including Toomer’s Drugstore, established by Sheldon Toomer in 1895,
and the town’s first bookstore, which Robert Wilton Burton opened in 1878. African Americans owned a few businesses downtown, including Will Grant’s restaurant and a barber shop run by Pomp Foster. Black-owned businesses to the north of town and along Highway 14 served local African Americans, who could expect limited or no service from stores and restaurants downtown. Although Auburn prospered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its growth paled in comparison to that of neighboring Opelika, situated just a few miles to the northeast. Located at the intersection of two railroads, Opelika became the commercial and industrial hub of the surrounding area. By 1920, it had nearly 5,000 residents, as well as a textile factory and a cottonseed oil mill.
Chewacla State Park. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
During the Great Depression, Auburn benefited from several public works projects that were part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1935, the federal government purchased a large tract of land to the south of Auburn, and set up a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work camp to build a park on the property. Intended to reduce unemployment and poverty during the Great Depression, the CCC put thousands of young men to work doing conservation work. At the site south of Auburn, CCC workers cleared trails, constructed roads and bridges, and built a dam to form a lake. The land was transferred to the State of Alabama in 1939 and became Chewacla State Park. A second CCC camp in Auburn completed soil conservation and erosion control projects. Another New Deal program, the Works Progress Administration, funded several construction projects on the campus of API, including the women’s dorms, the football stadium, and the field house (now Petrie Hall). In March 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke on the grounds of API, highlighting the importance of improving the South’s industrial and agricultural productivity. The end of World War II brought an influx of new students to API, thanks to the GI Bill, which provided college tuition to returning veterans. Within two years of the war’s end, API’s enrollment was more than double what it had been before the war, and the numbers continued to climb in the ensuing
Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Auburn. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Libraries. decades. Curriculum expansion included a stronger liberal arts program, especially in English and history, and Auburn became more than an agriculture and engineering school for the first time in its history. Educating the growing number of students required new faculty members, additional administrative and support staff, and new buildings. Led by president Ralph B. Draughon, the university added graduate programs and expanded the curriculum in a variety of disciplines, prompting another name change in 1960, this time from API to Auburn University. The growth of the university in the postwar period boosted the town’s population and economy. Between 1940 and 1970, the city’s population rose from fewer than 5,000 residents to more than 22,000, and its land area nearly doubled. As a result of the Civil Rights Movement, post-war Auburn also witnessed the end of legally mandated racial segregation. On January 4, 1964, Harold Franklin became the first African American student at Auburn University. Although many university officials and students at Auburn opposed racial integration, Franklin enrolled peacefully. However, the number of African
Harold Franklin walking on campus. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services SPRING 2017
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George Petrie’s history class in 1914. In addition to introducing tennis to Auburn in 1888 and football in 1892, George Petrie founded the History Department in 1891. He trained history teachers and scholars and served on the faculty and administration from 1887 to 1942. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Libraries. American students at Auburn rose slowly; in 1985, they constituted only 2% of the student body. The City of Auburn’s public schools were fully integrated in 1970. Some black students of the era recalled the full integration of Auburn High School as a bittersweet experience. Integration represented an important step towards equality, but it came at the cost of Drake High School, which had educated African American students since 1958 and was an important social and cultural institution in the black community. After the Civil Rights Movement secured voting rights for all citizens regardless of race, blacks in Auburn sought representation in the city government. In 1972, Mary Earnestine Brooks became the first African American to serve on the Auburn City Council. Today, Auburn is probably best known as the home of Auburn University, and tens of thousands of people visit the city on home football game weekends. College football in Auburn got its start in 1891, when history professor George Petrie organized the college’s first team. In 1895, the university hired John Heisman as its first full-time football coach. Heisman led the team to a string of winning seasons, and is widely recognized as one of the most influential people in the development of the sport. He is the namesake of college football’s Heisman Trophy, and Auburn is currently the only college where Heisman coached that later had players who earned the coveted trophy. In 1948 Auburn and the University of Alabama resumed their football rivalry after a 41-year hiatus. Three years later, Ralph “Shug” Jordan became head coach and reinvigorated the football program at his alma mater. The gradual expansion of Auburn University’s football stadium from 7,290 seats in 1939 to over 85,000 seats today, mirrors the growing importance of college football in the social life of the university and the town. Yet there is much more to Auburn than football games and traditions such as rolling the oaks at Toomer’s Corner. Residents and visitors can enjoy mountain biking at Chewacla State Park, a nature playground at the Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center, several golf courses, theater performances, and art exhibits 8
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at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art. Continuing in its long tradition of valuing education, Auburn’s public school system is consistently ranked as one of the best in the state. Whether they proudly shout “War Eagle!” or something else, members of the Alabama Historical Association are invited to explore the rich history of the city and the university, and to experience why Auburn is the fastest growing city in Alabama. ________ Dr. Evelyn D. Causey is an independent historian living in Auburn. Portions of this essay were previously published as part of the Auburn entry in the online Encyclopedia of Alabama (www.encyclopediaofalabama.org).
Bo Jackson “over the top” in the 1982 Iron Bowl. Photo Courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
RECEPTION AND TOURS Thursday Night Reception
Carol and Jeff are pleased to welcome the membership to a reception at their home, 210 Cary Drive. Built in 1946, it was one of the first houses constructed in the Cary Woods subdivision. It was built for Col. B. Conn Anderson, who had served with Auburn’s ROTC unit in the 1920s. He was the father of one of Auburn’s most beloved English professors, the late Dr. Sara Hudson. The house was designed by Edwin B. Lancaster, a graduate of Auburn’s architecture program. Additions to the house include a carport and den in the 1980s and a master bath in 2012. The Jakemans have resided in the house since 2005 and are its sixth owners. The reception will be held from 6 – 8 p.m.
Civil War Walking Tour
Auburn University Civil War historian and AHA past president Ken Noe and doctoral student Joshua Shiver will lead attendees on a walking tour that follows the traditional Memorial Day circuit that hundreds of Auburn students and residents once walked in commemoration of those who gave their lives in the American Civil War. The Lathe was built in Selma, Alabama, during the early part of the Civil War for the manufacture of military supplies for the Confederate Army. After the war, the lathe was used by the Birmingham Rolling Mills, which later became part of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. In 1936 that company presented this historic lathe to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. Courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
Cater Hall
Erected in 1915 to serve as the president’s home, this stately, two-story, neo-classical building was designed by Joseph Hudnut and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Four Auburn presidents, Thach, Dowell, Knapp, and Duncan, consecutively lived in the elegant mansion until 1938 when the new president’s home was built on the corner of Samford and College. Today Cater Hall houses the Honors College. SPRING 2017
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RECEPTION AND TOURS Continued Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church
The Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church was the first African American church built in the Auburn area after the end of the Civil War in 1865. Over the next few years, the church members built the church out of hand-hewn logs, transported from miles away by mules. The church was completed around 1870 and served the Ebenezer congregation until 1969. The building was restored in 1970 by the Auburn Heritage Association and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It currently houses the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
Halliday Cary Pick House
The two-story raised cottage was constructed between 1848 and 1851, and the house includes a free-standing, hand-made mahogany spiral staircase. In 1854, Dickinson Halliday, a planter from Georgia, purchased the house. During the Civil War, Halliday’s son-in-law, Dr. Arthur Foreman, used the home as a hospital. Dr. Charles Allen Cary, the founder of Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and its first dean, purchased the home in 1897. It not only housed the Cary family, but also veterinary students who resided in the attic dormitory. The property was gifted to Auburn’s College of Human Sciences in 2011 to establish the Cary Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies. t
Lane House
When this antebellum cottage was constructed in 1853, it was located along College Street between Thach Avenue and Roosevelt Drive. It was home to E.T. Glenn, who leased it in 1873 when he was treasurer of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, and Confederate Army General James H. Lane, who purchased the house in 1884. The house was gifted to the Woman’s Club for use as its clubhouse and moved to its current location in 1962. t
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Noble Hall Noble Hall was built in 1854 by the Frazer family as the main residence of a 2,000 acre cotton plantation. The front and rear both feature full-width cantilevered balconies and monumental Doric columns. The home remained in the hands of the Frazer family until cotton prices collapsed in 1922. In 1932, Noble Hall was purchased by J.V. Brown, who restored the home and grounds to their original condition. In 1941, Brown sold the house and surrounding lands to Alabama Polytechnic Institute president Luther Noble Duncan. His daughter inherited the home in 1951, and named it Noble Hall, after her father. Noble Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, making it the first structure in Lee County to be listed.
Pebble Hill
Pebble Hill, the ScottYarbrough House, is an 1847 antebellum cottage and the home of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. Nathaniel J. and Mary K. Scott built Pebble Hill after purchasing about 100 acres of land in Auburn in 1846. The Yarbrough family owned Pebble Hill from 1912-1982. Not long after the Auburn Heritage Association acquired the property from the Yarbroughs, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. A new building was added to the north side in 2015.
Samford Hall Bell Tower Tour
The tower is not designed for public access, but the university architect is willing to allow two groups of fifteen visitors each for tours at 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm. Participants must be willing and able to climb ten flights of stairs and be able to tolerate narrow and confined conditions. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest on your meeting registration form. We will fill the spaces in the order in which the registration forms are received. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services.
Sunny Slope Built circa 1857, Sunny Slope was the childhood home of Governor William James Samford. Sunny Slope was originally a 2,500 acre plantation and served as a Confederate encampment and training ground during the Civil War. The 14th and 18th Regiments of Alabama Volunteers were formed at the home. Sunny Slope is on the National Register of Historic Places; a renovation was completed in 2015. It currently houses the offices of the Osher Lifelong Institute at Auburn University. SPRING 2017
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION IN A THURSDAY, APRIL 20
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 Continued
1:30 p.m. Guided tour of the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art. Also consider a self-guided tour of the Davis Arboretum! 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Historians of Auburn and Lee County Book Fair Pebble Hill
Session B • “Rousseau’s Raid on Auburn, Alabama, in July 1864” Ralph Draughon, Jr., Alabama Historical Commission
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Reception Home of Jeff and Carol Jakeman
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 8:00 a.m. Registration, Coffee, Book Sales Hotel at Auburn University 9:00 a.m. General Session Hotel at Auburn University
10:45 a.m. Concurrent Sessions
Session A • “The 4th Becomes the 167th: The Alabama National Guard Prepares for the Great War” Ruth Truss, University of Montevallo
• “‘Food Will Win the War’: War Gardens and War Kitchens among the Colored Citizens of Montgomery, Alabama during World War I” Derryn Moten, Alabama State University • “A Girl the Wildcats Left Behind: The Correspondence from AEF Soldiers to Irene Pierce of Tallassee” Marty Olliff, Troy University, Dothan
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• “Roby Burleson’s Diary: A Young Planter’s Life in 1866 Morgan County, Alabama” John Allison, Morgan County Archives • “An Ace Comes to Birmingham” Herbert L. Frandsen, Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base Session C • “Snap, Sizzle, and Sass: The ‘Bama State Collegians Keep the Doors Open at Alabama State Teachers College in the Swing Era (1929-1950)” Carol Ann Dennis, Alabama State University
• “An Island of Integration in a Sea of Segregation: Maxwell Air Force Base and Civil Rights from the Late 1940s to the 1960s” Robert B. Kane, Air University, Maxwell Airforce Base • “Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education (1961) and the ASU Student Sit-in” David A. Harmon, Alabama State University Noon Lunch Hotel at Auburn University 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. Friday Afternoon Tours
6:00 p.m. Cash Bar Hotel at Auburn University 7:00 p.m. Annual Awards Banquet
ON IN AUBURN, APRIL 20-22, 2017 SATURDAY, APRIL 22
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 Continued
8:00 a.m. Registration, Coffee, Book Sales Hotel at Auburn University
Session B • “Bernardo de Galvez and the Spanish Conquest of British West Florida during the American Revolution” Daniel L. Haulman, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base
9:00 a.m. General Session Hotel at Auburn University 10:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions
Session A • “The Federal Road Aid Act of 1916 and the Unintended Consequences of War” Kari Frederickson, University of Alabama • “Muscle Shoals, Mobile, and the Impact of World War I on Alabama’s Industrial Life” Matthew L. Downs, University of Mobile • “Floating a Rock: The Concrete Ship S.S. Selma” W. Jayson Hill, Auburn University Libraries
• “Augusta Jane Evans: An Overview of Her Life and Career and Thematic Summary of the Novel Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice” Kelhi D. DePace, Cornerstone Classical Christian Academy, Montgomery, Alabama • “Convincement and Confrontation: The American Friends Service Committee, Busing, and Civil Rights in Mobile, Alabama, 1968-1971” Scotty E. Kirkland, Alabama Department of Archives and History Session C • “Dovie Moss and the Coal Mines at Nyota” Frances Osborn Robb, Independent Scholar, Huntsville, Alabama • “Anne Beddow: Pioneer Nurse Anesthetist, World War I Soldier, Religious and Professional Leader” Anne Gibbons, Birmingham, Alabama • “Are Mose and Minerva Less Distinctive than Lakisha and Jamal? The Use and Abuse of Distinctively Black Names in Slavery and Freedom” Charles W. Johnson, Auburn University 11:45 a.m. Annual Luncheon Presidential Address by Dr. Robert J. Jakeman Hotel at Auburn University
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MAP AND ACCOMMODATIONS
Magnolia Ave
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The Hotel at Auburn University
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Pebble Hill
241 South College Street • (800) 228-2876
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Jordan-Hare Stadium
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Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities
101 S. Debardeleben St
Pre-meeting event and Friday tours
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Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts
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Jeff & Carol Jakeman’s Home
901 South College Street Pre-meeting tour
210 Cary Drive
Thursday evening reception
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SD on ahu e
Mell St
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Call the hotel by March 27 and mention the AHA to receive the group rate of $124 per night, or use group code 170406HIST to book online at www.auhcc.com.
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Points of Interest
Scan this QR code for access to the Google Map:
1a
W Norwood Ave N College St
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Old Rotation
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Mitcham Ave
Magnolia Ave
Thatch Ave
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7 Roosevelt Dr
S College St
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Debardeleben St
Gay St
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Downtown Auburn Lem Morris Drive
(Directly behind the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.)
Friday Tours
Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church 450 E Thach Ave
(Within walking distance of Pebble Hill.)
E Glenn Ave
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Tours on-your-own
Toomer’s Corner
Drake Ave
2
181 Garden Drive
1b
y Dr
Bragg Ave
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
a
1
b 1c f
2
Cary Pick House
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Lane House
360 N College St
Woman’s Club of Auburn
712 Sanders St
(Tours open at 3:30pm due to school traffic on Sanders St.)
4
Samford Hall
5
Sunny Slope
6
Cater Hall
7
Ralph Brown Draughon Library
182 S College St
1031 S College St 450 E Thach Ave
(No parking. Please walk from hotel.)
231 Mell St, Auburn (Directly across the street from the hotel.)
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Noble Hall
9
Civil War Tour
1433 Shelton Mill Rd
10 minute drive from downtown
Toomer’s Oaks (meeting point)
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PRE-MEETING OPTIONS Thursday Pre-Meeting Options
The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is located at 901 South College Street and is the only accredited university art museum in Alabama. The museum consists of six changing galleries, an Englishinspired formal area and woodland landscape, outdoor sculpture and landscaped walking paths. The museum’s permanent collection focuses mainly on 19th American and European art and boasts a large collection of prints by naturalist John James Audubon. A docent-led tour will begin in the lobby at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
The Davis Arboretum, located at 181 Garden Drive, is a beautiful location to experience native plants and habitats of Alabama, especially the more than 1,000 specimens of Rhododendron. Three self-guided species tours include the oaks, large trees, and small trees and shrubs. Visitors interested in sustainability will want to participate in an eleven-stop tour on managing storm water the way nature does. Tour brochures are available at the Davis Arboretum pavilion. Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services
Historians of Auburn and Lee County Book Fair
Historians will be on hand to sell and sign books on Auburn and Lee County history from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill, located at 101 S. Debardeleben Street. “The World’s Largest Bottle” opened in 1924 at the intersection of N. College and U.S 280 and received numerous visitors and celebrities before bur.ning in 1935. The immediate area around that intersection is still referred to by locals as “The Bottle.” Photo courtesy of Auburn University Photographic Services 16
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
DR. WAYNE FLYNT to Discuss Auburn History on Friday AHA Past President Dr. Wayne Flynt will discuss “Sweet Auburn: Loveliest Village of the Plain” at the general session on Friday, April 21. Flynt is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Auburn University, having taught there and his alma mater Samford University for over forty years. Of his thirteen books two deal with Florida politics, three with evangelical religion, three with poverty, and three are broad surveys of Alabama history, including his two most acclaimed, Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites and Alabama in the Twentieth Century. His memoir entitled, Keeping the Faith, was published in 2011, and his newest book, Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee, will be published in the U.S. and U.K. on May 2.
DR. JOHN MORROW to Keynote Annual Awards Banquet Dr. John H. Morrow, Jr., Franklin Professor of History at the University of Georgia, will deliver the annual awards banquet keynote address. Morrow is an international authority on World War I, having published extensively on German air power in the Great War. His most recent book, published with Jeffery T. Sammons, is titled Harlem’s Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality. The 369th Infantry Regiment included Mobile native James Reese Europe, who served as an officer and bandleader and is credited with introducing jazz to France. Dr. Morrow has taught history at West Point and served as Charles A. Lindbergh Visiting Professor at the National Air and Space Museum.
SPRING 2017
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2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS Marker Refurbishment Program
BULLOCK COUNTY
Thanks to a grant from the Alabama Tourism Department, and in partnership with the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, the Association has launched a pilot program which will assume 100 percent of the costs for refurbishing approximately 45 AHA-sponsored markers. Recipients are selected based on criteria which include the marker’s state of deterioration and how the refurbished marker fits into the community’s overall plan for commemorating the Alabama Bicentennial. Applications are being accepted for this program. Download the one-page application, and view the grant guidelines, at http://www.alabamahistory.net/ historical-markers.html.
Poe’s Memory Chapel Funeral Home
2016 Historical Markers
Alabama Association of Historians to Meet Alongside AHA We are pleased to announce that the Alabama Association of Historians will hold their annual meeting concurrently with the AHA. Although the similarity of our names sometimes confuses folks, the AAH and the AHA are distinct organizations with distinct—but complementary—purposes. The AAH promotes the work of all historians and teachers of history in the state, from K-12 to college level, regardless of their area of specialization. At this joint meeting the AAH invites AHA members to attend their sessions scheduled for Friday afternoon, and we are reciprocating by inviting AAH members to join us at all of our activities. If you see folks wearing an AAH nametag, please introduce yourself and welcome them! 18
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Center of civil rights activity in Union Springs and Bullock County from the 1950s into the 1970s, Poe’s Memory Chapel Funeral Home was owned and operated by James V. Poe, Sr. and his wife, Louise Taylor Poe. Mr. Poe, in 1956, became the first African American to own a business on Main Street in Union Springs, operating a service station and distributing amusement machines in addition to providing funerary services for the black community. He served, too, as a principal of the Union Springs Junior High School, and as a city councilman. Poe’s Memory Chapel Funeral Home was the hub of the civil rights movement in the area, offering a meeting place, lodging, and sustenance for activists, including those who led the only voting rights march in the county in 1965. [2016: Prairie Street, Union Springs]
COOSA COUNTY Named for the river on its western border, Coosa County was created by the Alabama Legislature on December 18, 1832, from land ceded by the Creek Nation in the Treaty of Cusseta. The name is taken from the Native American word “kusha,” believed to mean “canebrake.” The Creeks lived in great numbers in the region in the generations before Alabama achieved statehood. The first commissioners selected a site along the south bank of Hatchemadega Creek to serve as the county seat and named it Lexington. In 1835, the seat moved to its present location at Rockford.
Old Rock Jail Coosa County commissioners authorized the construction of a new jail in August 1839. It was built with local stone and completed in 1842 at a cost of $2,745. Improvements were ordered in 1857, including new ironwork. In operation for over nine decades, the jail closed in 1938. The Coosa County Historical Preservation Authority opened a museum in the facility in 1973. The building remains largely unchanged from its original construction. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest stone jail in Alabama. Placed in honor of the Reverend James Thomas Fielding Family. [2016: Highway 22 West, Rockford]
SPRING 2017
2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS COVINGTON COUNTY
DEKALB COUNTY
PowerSouth Energy Cooperative
McCurdy House
In June 1941, representatives from 11 electric distribution cooperatives met in Montgomery to form the Alabama Electric Cooperative (AEC) to operate generating plants and sell electricity. AEC organized slowly owing to the outbreak of World War II. In 1944, the cooperative secured a $2.5 million loan from the federal Rural Electrification Administration. The loan allowed AEC to purchase three hydroelectric plants along the Conecuh and Pea rivers, diesel plants in Brundidge, Troy, and Frisco City, and 230 miles of power lines. AEC’s first office was on South Cotton Street; it moved to the present location in 1957. The company was renamed PowerSouth Energy Cooperative in 2008 to reflect its regional growth. By its 75th anniversary, the cooperative included more than 2,000 megawatts of generation and 2,272 miles of transmission lines, and provided service to nearly 1 million people in Alabama and northwest Florida. The cooperative had 20 distribution members – 16 electric cooperatives and 4 municipal electric systems, and utilized a diverse power generating mix that included water, natural gas, and coal. With the leadership of its member systems and more than 600 employees, PowerSouth has played a leading role in reshaping and modernizing the region with reliable and affordable electricity.
Built in 1931 by the McCurdy family, the home’s interior was lined completely with cedar wood and the floor made of hand selected quarter-sawed oak. Beveled glass was in the windows and doors. Home to a delicatessen in the 1980s, plans were being made to renovate the structure as a landmark museum for the city of Rainsville when it was destroyed by fire in 1990. Edward Elijah McCurdy (1880-1954) moved to Rainsville in 1912 to operate a general store and became a landowner of vast acreage. His wife, Susie Lofton (1877-1975), bore seven children and taught school in DeKalb and Jackson Counties for over five decades. Elected as a Republican to the DeKalb County Commission in 1926, Edward McCurdy was instrumental in promoting growth atop Sand Mountain by working to route the intersection of Alabama highways 75 and 35 in Rainsville; Alabama Highway 75 in the town was subsequently named McCurdy Avenue.
HOUSTON COUNTY
[2016: Three Notch Street, Andalusia]
Kinsey Baptist Church
CULLMAN COUNTY Holly Pond United Methodist Church Holly Pond United Methodist Church was organized in 1886 as Holly Pond Methodist Episcopal Church South. In its early years, church services were held in the homes of members. In 1892, W. J. Dodson gave the land for a permanent structure, located near the present-day intersection of Hwy. 278 and Hwy. 91. The first church was a simple unpainted, one-room building. A curtain divided the room for Sunday School classes. W. M. Neal, T. A. Snuggs, and T. J. Kirk served as the church’s first trustees. In 1941, construction of Hwy. 278 required the church to erect another structure south of the original building; Sunday School rooms and a fellowship hall were added in 1968. The present sanctuary is located on Hwy. 91 one mile south of Hwy. 278 and sits on land donated in 1999 by retired missionaries Robert and Rosa Woods Caufield. First services were held in June 2006. Sponsored by the Holly Pond Historical Society and dedicated on the occasion of the church’s 130th anniversary.
[2016: Intersection of U.S. Highways 75 & 35, Rainsville]
Organized in 1891 as Enon Baptist Church, the church was also formerly known as First Baptist Church of Kinsey and Kinsey Baptist Church of Christ. The present name was adopted in 1907. Organizational services were overseen by Rev. Ephraim Knowles. Fourteen charter members drew up and signed a church covenant; they were led in singing “Amazing Grace” before extending to each other the hand of fellowship. The Rev. D. E. Burdeshaw served as the first pastor. Early meetings were held on the second Saturday and Sunday of each month. In 1911, the church reported 68 active members. In 1956, a brick building replaced the first wooden structure; the original church bell is displayed on the property. A new sanctuary was constructed in 1978. Dedicated October 16, 2016, on the occasion of the church’s 125th anniversary. [2016: 6745 Walden Drive, Dothan]
[2016: 37851 US Highway 91, Holly Pond] SPRING 2017
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2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS JEFFERSON COUNTY
LOWNDES COUNTY
Graymont Elementary School
Mount Gillard Baptist Church
On September 4, 1963, Graymont Elementary School was the first public school in Birmingham to be racially integrated. Two brothers, nine and eleven years old, accompanied by their father, James Armstrong, along with Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and attorney Oscar Adams, Jr., became the first African Americans to register in an all-white city school. The 1963 desegregation of Graymont Elementary, as well as of West End High and Ramsey High in the same year, came in response to a court suit challenging Birmingham’s segregated education system. The case had been initiated by James Armstrong in 1960, but it was not until three years later that the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court compelled the school board to admit black students. [2016: 300 8th Avenue West, Birmingham]
LEE COUNTY Municipal “Monkey” Park Opelika’s Board of Parks and Recreation hired W. J. “Bill” Calhoun as its first director in 1951. His top priority was to develop a wooded area behind Northside School. Two adjacent parcels of land were donated by I. J. Scott, Sr. and Winston Smith T, Sr. to form Municipal Park, which opened in 1955. A miniature train called the Rocky Brook Rocket was the park’s first attraction. The locomotive was a 1:16 replica of the diesel trains of the era. Local civic groups helped finance the train, named for the creek that flowed through the park. Rides were fifteen cents. On March 31, 1956, Monkey Village opened at the park. It housed eight spider monkeys in a habitat that included concrete block quarters, trees, flying rings, and a trapeze. The monkeys provided entertainment to park visitors for almost 25 years. They were relocated to the Montgomery Zoo in July 1980. The creation of Municipal “Monkey” Park was a turning point for Opelika’s recreational program. Sponsored by the Opelika Historic Preservation Society [2016: Park Road, Opelika]
The roots of this house of worship date to 1868 when 26 African American members of Mount Gilead Church left to form their own congregation. The present building was constructed in 1901, with several enlargements and renovations throughout the twentieth century. Located along the route of the historic Selma-toMontgomery March, Mount Gillard is known as the “Mother Church” of the Lowndes County civil rights movement. Its members were committed to equality and suffrage; theirs was the first church in the county to host civil rights demonstrations and mass meetings. The Lowndes County Christian Movement for Human Rights held its inaugural gathering in the church on March 28, 1965. The meeting occurred three days after the nearby murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo. The group’s political arm, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, recruited a slate of African American candidates for public office in the election of 1966. The Lowndes County Anti-Poverty Action Committee was also organized here. Mount Gillard congregants were active in each organization. The church was listed on the Alabama Register of Historic Places in 2003. [2016: 8376 U.S. Highway 80, West, Tyler]
MOBILE COUNTY Mobile’s First Mardi Gras Parade On Shrove Tuesday, February 25, 1868, the Order of Myths gathered at this intersection shortly after 8 p.m. and began its first parade. The procession traveled west on Government, north on Warren, east on Dauphin, north on Joachim, west on State, south on Claiborne, east on St. Louis, and south on St. Joseph to St. Michael and Temperance Hall, where the OOM ball was held. The parade included four open wagons, each depicting a scene from Lalla Rookh, the Thomas Moore romance set in Persia: Lalla Rookh and her maids; the veiled prophet Mokanna and his followers; Hafed and a band of fire worshippers; and the caliph, Al Hassan, and his suite. On horseback, between each wagon, rode groups of OOM members dressed as Persian warriors. [2016: Corner of Royal and Government, Downtown Mobile]
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2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS MONTGOMERY COUNTY
MORGAN COUNTY
Old Elam Baptist Church
WAYMAN CHAPEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Organized on June 19, 1819, by Rev. James McLemore, Electious Thompson, Arnold Edwards, and E. Jeter, Old Elam is one of Montgomery’s earliest Baptist churches. It began with fourteen members and was one of the four original churches that comprised the Alabama Baptist Association. Although most of its early members were white, several enslaved persons also worshiped here. Caesar Blackwell (1769-1845), a renowned African American preacher and a slave who was owned by the Association, gave some of his earliest sermons at Old Elam. In 1865, the white congregation departed, giving the church and deed for the surrounding land to its black members. A tornado destroyed the church in 1947. A new facility was constructed on the same site three years later. In 1977, following an extensive remodeling, the church began offering regular weekly services. A new sanctuary was built in 1997. The church cemetery dates to 1820 and is listed on the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register. Many ministers and missionaries have been sent from Old Elam, “the beacon on the hill,” to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. [2016: 2526 W.L. Dickinson Drive, Montgomery]
MORGAN COUNTY First United Methodist Church “Growing in Christ, Sharing God’s Love” The historic First United Methodist Church is the oldest continually meeting congregation in Decatur and the only downtown church still worshiping in its nineteenth century sanctuary. Circuit riders served local Methodists from 1827 until the 1840’s. In 1834 this congregation of approximately 67 white and black members built the Methodist Episcopal Church, the first house of worship in Decatur, at the corner of Railroad Street and Church Street. In 1854 black members began meeting separately, forming what later became historic King’s Memorial United Methodist Church. The Methodist Episcopal congregation worshiped in the 1834 building until the War Between the States when Confederates used it as a hospital. Union troops later camped in and around the building. Near war’s end, Federal forces dismantled the church building along with all but four Decatur structures. The Methodist Church, known then as The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, relocated and built a frame structure on the present site in 1868.
Members of the African Methodist Episcopal congregation began meeting as a society in Old Town Decatur soon after the Civil War. Several pastors were appointed to serve the Decatur Mission, including Rev. W. H. Mixon and Rev. T. W. Coffee. Since 1905, members have met on this site. The church is named in honor of Bishop Alexander W. Wayman, seventh Bishop of the AME Church. New sanctuaries were constructed in 1926 and 1938. The church was remodeled in 1943, 1960, and 2010. Since its founding, Wayman Chapel has served the community by enriching religious, educational, civic, and social life through mercy and justice ministries. “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 [2016: 412 Church Street, NW, Decatur]
SUMTER COUNTY York Presbyterian Church The York Presbyterian Church was founded on November 29, 1879, as a church within the Tuscaloosa Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. In 1889, after first meeting in the local Baptist and Methodist churches, its members completed the first York Presbyterian Church building. That structure was destroyed by fire on August 7, 1930. On Sunday morning, March 1, 1936, the first service in the new building was held. The church was accepted as a church within the Warrior Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of America on February 13, 1973. The church functioned as an independent Presbyterian church from May 23, 1976, until May 2, 1994, when it affiliated with the Tennessee-Alabama Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church for a brief period. The York Presbyterian Church functioned as an independent Presbyterian church until June 21, 2015, when the congregation held its final service. [2016: 305 Broad St, York]
SPRING 2017
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2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS TALLAPOOSA COUNTY
TALLAPOOSA COUNTY
Town of New Site
Woods Presbyterian Church
In 1849, residents of Goldville began leaving the gold mining in northern Tallapoosa County for richer fields in California. A new location was found to the south. Stores, sawmills, and cotton gins were built. By 1857, “New Site” was listed as a U.S. Post Office. An 1885 map located New Site between Bethlehem and Harmony cemeteries. The 1950’s brought the Community Improvement Club that would lead to the Town’s incorporation. The Town of New Site was incorporated on August 23, 1965, to establish a public water system. The 1980’s brought Horseshoe Bend Trade Days, which raised money for the volunteer fire and ambulance service. A new Town Hall was built in 1989 and an outdoor Pavilion in 2003. A Senior Citizen Center house Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Senior Citizen activities. In 2008, the Town completed a recreational park for youth sports.
In 1898, nine area residents organized a Presbyterian church with Rev. B.F. Bellinger as organizational pastor. Worship services were held every fourth Sunday in the old Concord School or, weather permitting, under a bush arbor on the site. A cemetery and church building followed in 1905, with timber and foundation-pillar stones for construction all donated. Sunday School rooms were added to the church in 1930, along with 2 rock columns defining the main entrance into the cemetery. The Church was named for Dr. A.J. Wood, who had served the congregation as pastor since its beginning. A portrait of the leading founder of Woods Presbyterian Church, Mary Sims Turner, graces the fellowship hall. ‘Now faith is the substance of all things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ HEBREWS 11:1
[2016: Highway 22 East, New Site]
TALLAPOOSA COUNTY Pine Grove Baptist Church - 1909 Twenty-one charter members met here on November 26, 1909, and established Piney Grove Church. The Rev. A.S. Brannon served as the first pastor; his salary was $125 per year. Services were held on the second and fourth Saturday and Sunday of each month. On March 28, 1920, the original building was destroyed by a deadly tornado. Services were held in a large tent for a year while a new building was constructed. By 1948, church growth prompted its members to establish a building fund, which received donations from throughout the county. The church also sponsored cotton crops to raise money. Congregants and community members tended the fields and the proceeds went into the building fund. Men of the congregation assisted in the new construction. They brought in rocks for the foundation and sawed lumber for the building. Completed in the early 1950s, the church still stands as a witness to this hardworking farming community in Tallapoosa County. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” Philippians 4:1 [2016: 281 Pine Grove Loop, Dadeville] 22
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[2016: Church Road, Jackson’s Gap]
TALLAPOOSA COUNTY Carnation Milk Plant - 1943-1961 In 1941, the Carnation Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, purchased land in Dadeville to build a powdered milk plant on this site. Difficulties securing the proper milk evaporating equipment delayed the opening of the facility until November 1943. Area businesses contributed more than $400 to purchase war bonds that were given as prizes to the plant’s first patrons. Farmers from eight surrounding Piedmont counties brought their milk to the Dadeville plant. As the first dairy market in the area, it thrived and provided much needed financial assistance to farmers. The company also offered college scholarships to the children of its factory workers. Near the end of World War II, as the demand for evaporated milk for American troops slowed, the Carnation Company began manufacturing cheese at the Dadeville plant; a shipping car full of cheese left the facility every twenty-five days. The Dadeville Carnation Milk Plant was sold in 1961 and closed soon thereafter. [2016: Corner of East Lafayette and Rive Avenue, Dadeville]
TALLAPOOSA COUNTY Dennis Hotel - Circa 1836 – Circa 1960 Called the United States Hotel until the 1890s, the Dennis Hotel was owned by a Dadeville family by that name for well over a century. It began as a stage stop, and gained fame as the living quarters for mid-19th-century humorist Johnson Jones Hooper, who compiled the stories here that became the bestselling The Adventures of Simon Suggs. The hotel was an L-shaped wooden structure, with an upper balcony featuring four columns extending along the front sheltering a first-floor porch. In the early 1960s, the hotel was replaced by a post office. [2016: Corner of Green and Broadnax Streets, Dadeville]
2016 HISTORICAL MARKERS TALLAPOOSA COUNTY Historic Dadeville Strategically located at the juncture of 19th-century roads from Georgia and Tennessee, Dadeville was first charted in 1837. The next year, it was designated the seat of justice for Tallapoosa County, one of a number of counties created in 1832 out of the Creek Indian cession of that year. The town was named for Major Francis Longhorne Dade, killed in the Seminole War. Its main thoroughfare bears the name of John H. Broadnax, who first surveyed the town in April 1836. Dadeville was the site for the United States/Dennis Hotel, which hosted famed 19th-century humorist Johnson Jones Hooper while he compiled the stories included in The Adventures of Simon Suggs. The city was home to Graefenberg Medical Institute (1852-1861), first medical school in Alabama, and the location of Tallapoosa County’s first high school, which opened in 1910.
2016 Historical Markers
[2016: Corner of Coosada and Broadnax Streets, Dadeville]
TUSCALOOSA COUNTY Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church Organized ca. 1870 near the banks of the Black Warrior River, “The Grove” was the first Baptist church begun by African Americans in Tuscaloosa’s Big Bend community. Former slaves comprised the original congregation. Early services were held in the homes of members and in brush arbors. The congregation grew quickly and eventually divided into two bodies: Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church and Beautiful Zion African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. For a time, the two churches visited each other for worship services on alternate Sundays; Beautiful Zion led services on the first and third Sunday and the Grove led them on the second and fourth Sunday. Rev. Henry Jones served as the first pastor of the Grove. Now entirely separate, both churches hold full weekly worship services and remain active in the spiritual life of the Big Bend community. Land along the well-traversed Sanders Ferry Road was deeded to the Grove on July 13, 1870. The current red-brick structure, the church’s third edifice, was completed in 1989. [2016: 6801 Sanders Ferry Road, Tuscaloosa]
TUSCALOOSA COUNTY Zeta Beta Tau Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) was first organized in New York at Columbia University as a youth Zionist Society, officially become a Greek letter fraternal organization in 1903. Psi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau was the first Jewish fraternity on the University of Alabama campus. The original Psi chapter was colonized in Tuscaloosa with 15 men. As ZBT thrived, two additional Jewish fraternal organizations, Kappa Nu and Phi Epsilon Pi, also formed chapters on campus. Ultimately both merged into ZBT at the national and local levels. No longer an exclusive Jewish fraternity, ZBT has been open since 1954 to “All Men of Good Character” who understand and appreciate its mission and founding purpose. Erected on the occasion of Zeta Beta Tau’s Centennial at the University of Alabama Campus, March 2016 [2016: Jefferson Street, Tuscaloosa] SPRING 2017
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ALABAMA HISTOR IC A L
ASSOCIATION
c/o Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities Pebble Hill Auburn, AL 36849 www.alabamahistory.net
SAVE THE DATE! The AHA Fall Pilgrimage will be Saturday, October 28, 2017 in Abbeville!
Presorted Std. U.S. Postage PAID Montgomery, AL Permit No. 456