In 1909, Elizabeth Duncan and Miss Mary Nance Fair opened a private school for girls through the fifth grade and boys though the age of ten. The school was first located in the old Masonic Building. By September 1912 the school had relocated to Westmoreland Hall where classes there reached forty students. Other teachers who joined the faculty included Nonie Chandler and Myrtle McGuire. By 1918, the school had nearly eighty pupils enrolled. Athens residents purchased property from Mr. S. A. Davis and constructed a building for the school. The Athens Preparatory School opened its new building on East Bryan Street in September the following year. The school closed in 1922 when only forty students registered.
Dylan Tucker, University of North Alabama
Taylor, Betty Lindsay. "History of the Schools in Athens and Limestone County, Alabama."
Limestone County, Alabama; Athens, Alabama; Athens Presbyterian Church; Historic Churches
Athens First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1829. After meeting an interdenominational building, the church was built on Washington Street. The building was badly damaged during the Civil War and the Presbyterians met at the First Baptist Church while trying to organize and raise funds to replace the church. The current building - located on the square in Athens - was completed in 1895 and has added several wings,while maintaining the architectural integrity of the original building, in the last 100 years.
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Festivals; Athens, AL; Limestone County, AL
During the winter months in Downtown Athens, the Athens Sippin Cider Festival takes place. Participants are able to taste different ciders,enjoy music, special activities, and door prizes. Santa also makes an appearance for the children. Admission is free.
“Athens Sippin Festival.” Accessed July 16, 2015. http://www.northalabama.org/
Historic Districts; Athens, AL; Limestone County, AL
The Athens State College Historic District is located on 202 N. Beaty St., and the central campus area by Hobbs St. The area was listed to the National Register of Historic Places on February 14, 1985. The district includes Founders Hall, which was constructed in 1842.
National Register Information System. Accessed August 5, 2015.
During mid-October Athens holds its annual Athens Storytelling Festival at the Courthouse Square. People can also visit a mix of antique and gift shops, eat gourmet foods, and purchase clothing. Food vendors will be present for quick meals. Admission is free for this festival.
"Athens Storytelling Festival. http://www.athensstorytellingfestival.com/about/. Accessed July 29, 2015.
Limestone County, Alabama; Athens, Alabama; Libraries
The Athens-Limestone Public Library solved two problems very creatively with their 2014 move to the old Kroger building at 603 South Jefferson Street. The old library (located near Julia Newman School) was approximately 10,000 square feet and the new building has almost 40,000 square feet.
Auburn and Opelika at the End of the Civil War
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Auburn, AL; Opelika, AL; East Alabama Male College
The emancipation of slaves, a widespread labor shortage, and the collapse of the Confederate financial system all coalesced to bring the cities of Auburn and Opelika to ruin at the end of the Civil War. It would be ten years before a new home would be constructed in Auburn and the area’s educational system was completely wrecked. What was once a bustling and growing village would soon fall into stagnation. Though the East Alabama Male College reopened in 1866, it did so with fewer students and many unpaid professors.
Auburn University Sesquicentennial Series: Auburn in the Civil War Era by Ralph Draughon Jr. Book: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama by Walter L. Fleming Storey, Margaret M., Loyalty and Loss: Alabama's Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
Auburn University, AL; Lee County, AL; Transportation; Railroad; Alabama Register of Historic Place
The Auburn Train Depot was built in 1904, based on a Victorian railroad design by Auburn University architecture student Ralph Dudley. Two previous stations serving the Montgomery and West Point Railroad, located on the same site, had been destroyed by fire. The first such station was incinerated during Union General Lovell Rousseau's 1864 raid across Alabama. A lightning strike in 1904 sparked a fire that destroyed the second station. The depot served as the transportation hub of Auburn during the early twentieth century and continued service until 1970. The building was used as commercial office space before being abandoned in 2003. In order to preserve the depot, the Auburn City Council purchased it in 2013. The site was visited by Jefferson Davis during his inauguration tour in 1861. It was also the scene of an 1896 prank involving Georgia Tech's football team. Auburn students greased the tracks, leading to the train overshooting the station by five miles.
Image: http://www.auburnchamber.net/sites/default/files/resize/SP%20depot-500x313.jpg Text: Alabama Historical Commission. http://preserveala.org/pdfs/PIP/2010/PIP%204-page%202010.pdf Auburn Plainsman, June 12, 2014. http://www.theplainsman.com/view/full_story/25280725/article-City-plans-to-renovate-historic-train-depot
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn, AL; Auburn Female Institute; New South; Duncan, George W.; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College
Auburn’s first post-Civil War public school, possibly founded as early as 1870, was actually a women’s school. Auburn Female Institute was located on Tichenor Avenue. Under Principal George W. Duncan, Auburn Female Institute offered instruction in English, Latin, history, science, literature, art, and drawing. The institution eventually became co-educational, and boys could enroll at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College as freshmen after completing primary and intermediate courses at Auburn Female Institute. In 1899, Auburn Female Institute closed and its students subsequently enrolled at the new Auburn Public School. In 1931, the city demolished the building, which resided on the site of Auburn’s current City Hall building at 144 Tichenor Avenue, Auburn.
Image Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auburn_High_School_1870.jpg Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 50-51.
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn, AL; Auburn High School; Desegregation; Civil Rights Movement; Samford Middle School; Lee County High School; Parrish, J.A.; Green v. New Kent County, VA; J.F. Drake High School
In 1931, the institution that would come to be known as Auburn High School opened on Samford Avenue at the site of present-day Samford Middle School. From 1931 to 1959, the institution was known as Lee County High School. Until 1966, the entire public facility served Auburn’s white students from the first to the twelfth grades. The school’s first administrator was the much-beloved Professor J.A. Parrish. In 1959, Auburn City Council voted to break from the Lee County School System, and Lee County High School was thus renamed Auburn High School despite serving all the white public schoolchildren in Auburn for the next seven years. A new high school to serve ninth through twelfth graders was built at 405 South Dean Road for $1.25 million in 1966 as a “Freedom of Choice” school, meaning that any student could opt to attend Auburn High School regardless of race. The persistence of de facto segregation in “Freedom of Choice” institutions led to a legal challenge in the form of Green v. New Kent County, VA. In the 1968 Green ruling, the US Supreme Court declared that school boards must take “affirmative measures” to achieve integration and ordered New Kent to convert to a school system without “white” or “negro” schools, but merely “schools.” In the wake of the Green decision, Auburn High School’s black enrollment increased significantly in 1970 as the school absorbed all of the African-American students from J.F. Drake High School. The enrollment spike forced Auburn High School to temporarily scale back the scope of its operations to the tenth through the twelfth grades, as Samford Middle School temporarily took on the city’s ninth grade students. Upon the completion of the 500 Building Extension in 1973, AHS reabsorbed the ninth grade students. Auburn High added a new high-tech classroom extension and a media center in 1995, and a $14 million performing arts center in 2010.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_High_School_(Alabama) Text Sources: Auburn High School Band, http://www.auburnschools.org/ahs_band/ahs_history.html. Joseph M. Bagley, A Meaningful Reality: The Integration of the Opelika, Alabama City School System, 1965-1972 (MA Thesis, Auburn University, 2007), 36-37. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 71.
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn Junior High School; Auburn, AL; Samford Middle School; Desegregation; Civil Rights Era
From 1931 to 1966, Auburn’s white middle (and elementary) school students operated under the aegis of Auburn High School at 332 East Samford Avenue. During this period, the sub-institution was known as Auburn Grammar School. When Auburn High School opened in 1966, the school on East Samford was renamed Samford Middle School. In 1969, the city school board again renamed the middle school, this time as Auburn Junior High School, the institution’s current title. After the 1970 influx of black high school students to Auburn High School, the newly integrated Samford Middle School took on ninth grade students for three years, and then reverted to serving the fifth through the eighth grades.
Image Source: http://www.realestateinauburn.com/auburn-info/auburn-city-schools-3/ Text Sources: Auburn Junior High School, http://www.auburnschools.org/ajhs/Faculty.html. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 71.
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn Masonic Female College; Auburn, AL; Freemasons; Scott, Nathaniel; Antebellum Era; Auburn Bank; Masons; Yancey, William Lowndes; Stephens, Alexander; Hill, Benjamin Harvey; Toombs, Robert; Auburn University Archives and Special Collections; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Civil War; New South; William J. Samford Hall; Langdon, Charles; Langdon Hall; Historic American Buildings Survey; National Register of Historic Buildings; Secession
In the early 1850s, Colonel Nathaniel Scott petitioned Auburn’s local Masonic lodge (Auburn Lodge #76) to sponsor a female educational center in town. In 1853, Auburn Masonic Female College became the town’s first women’s educational institution. Colonel Scott served as president of the college’s board of directors. A spacious, two-story frame building located on the corner of North Gay Street and East Magnolia Avenue housed the female college. A plaque on a boulder a few yards west of Auburn Bank, 100 North Gay Street, Auburn, marks the original site of Auburn Masonic Female College. In its first year, the college enrolled 106 students, some of whom boarded. The Masons subsequently built a huge chapel adjacent to the school for the sum of $2,500. The chapel sat eight hundred people and was used by the female college for commencement ceremonies, plays, and concerts. In 1860, the chapel hosted a famous secession debate involving prominent fire-eaters William Lowndes Yancey, Alexander Stephens, Benjamin Harvey Hill, and Robert Toombs. A plaque commemorating the debate now resides in Auburn University’s Archives and Special Collections on the bottom floor of Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Auburn Masonic Female College closed during the Civil War, and in 1883 Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College purchased the building and moved it to its present location next to William J. Samford Hall. In 1892, the college remodeled the building and named it after trustee Charles Langdon. The college used Langdon Hall in many ways over the course of the next century, including classroom, theater, and student recreation center. Langdon Hall, which actually has no physical address, is located about a hundred feet north of William J. Samford Hall at 182 South College Street, Auburn University. The building is listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Register of Historic Places, and is the second oldest public building in Auburn.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdon_Hall Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 48-49.
Education; Lee County, AL; Antebellum Era; Harper, John; Auburn, AL; Methodist Church; Baptist Church; Yancey, Simeon; Flanagan; C.C.
Judge John Harper led a party of Methodists to the future site of Auburn, Alabama in late 1836. The next year, members the new community collaborated to erect a log Methodist church, located on the corner of modern-day East Magnolia Street and South Gay Street. The log church also functioned as a schoolhouse, where the town’s first teacher, Simeon Yancey, held class. Later in 1837, Baptists moved to the nascent community and built a stand-alone schoolhouse across the street from the log church. C.C. Flanagan became Auburn’s second schoolmaster. The Baptist log schoolhouse functioned as a primary school where Auburn’s youth learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. Flanagan became one of Lee County’s most highly regarded antebellum era educators, teaching primary and secondary school in the Auburn area for the following twenty years. Today Auburn United Methodist Church occupies the site of the original Methodist Church and School, and a historic marker notes the exact location of the original log structure.
Image Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/48984044 Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 47.
Local Government; Post Office; Auburn, AL; John Harper; National Register of Historic Places; Education; Lee County, AL; Civil War; Simeon Porter
The land on which this building is situated was owned by Judge John Harper, the founder of Auburn. In 1846, Harper deeded the land to Auburn Academy agent Simeon Porter for the purpose of building Auburn's first schools. The site served as the home of multiple educational facilities over the next 80 years including the Auburn Academy male division, East Alabama Male College Preparatory Department, the Auburn Female College, and the Auburn Grammar School. The Post Office was Auburn’s first public building and was destroyed by Federal cavalrymen during Rousseau’s Raid in July 1864. It was situated across College Avenue from where the University Chapel now stands. In 1931 the city donated the land to the federal government for the creation of a post office. Built in the 'starved classical' design, it was completed in 1933. It served as the city's post office until 1991. The city of Auburn purchased the property in 1992, renting it to the East Alabama Food Bank. After renovations it became Auburn City Hall in 2001. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as the 'Auburn Post Office.'
Image: Wikimedia, http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Post_office_Price_Utah.jpeg Text: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auburn_City_Hall Text:
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn Public School; Auburn, AL; Little, Charles; Gilded Age
In 1899, Auburn Mayor Charles Little and the town council appropriated bonds of $6,000 to build a large public schoolhouse. The 74x58 ½ foot building included a 40x70 foot auditorium on the top floor. Amenities included wood and coal pot-bellied stoves, a packed-dirt playground with no equipment or rides, and an outdoor privy strategically shielded by shrubbery. The absence of a cafeteria ensured that students brought their own lunches. The coeducational institute offered curriculum-based instruction for eleven grades and a high school diploma. After the city built a separate high school in 1914, Auburn Public School remained standing as the seven-grade grammar school until its 1931 demolition.
Image Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auburn_High_School_1899.jpg Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 51-52.
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn Public School; Auburn Rosenwald Public School; Auburn, AL; Ebenezer Baptist Church; African American Schools; Hutchinson, Rev. J.T.; Rosenwald, Julius; Moton, Dr. Robert; Washington, Booker T.; Tuskegee Institute; Lee County Training School
In March 1915, a group of concerned Auburn citizens held a fund-raising rally at Ebenezer Baptist Church aimed at financing a school for the town’s African-American children. In attendance were over three hundred African Americans and about a hundred whites. The campaign was led by the white Presbyterian minister, the Reverend J.T. Hutchinson. The city’s white and black population collectively raised $1,550 for the building fund. In 1916, Sears CEO and noted philanthropist Julius Rosenwald contributed $300 to the proposed school’s foundation, and construction of the facility commenced. The school building was completed in 1917, and consisted of five rooms that offered seven grades. Dr. Robert Moton, Booker T. Washington’s successor as principal of the Tuskegee Institute, delivered the keynote address at the building’s dedication ceremony and lauded Rosenwald’s contribution to African-American betterment. Auburn Public School became the town’s first African-American grammar and intermediate school. The school would serve as Auburn’s African-American school until 1929, when a second Rosenwald school, Lee County Training School, opened its doors. Lee County Training School offered a high school diploma as well as secondary education, and the students of Auburn Public School all enrolled in the new Rosenwald institution. Auburn Public School’s building occupied the corner of Bragg Avenue and Frazier Street, Auburn.
Text Sources: “Auburn School (C.T.S.),” Fisk University Rosenwald Fund Card Database, http://rosenwald.fisk.edu/index.php?module=search.details&set_v=aWQ9MzEx&school_county=Lee&school_state=AL&button=Search&o=0 Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 54-55.
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Davis, Jefferson; Montgomery, AL; Confederacy; Confederate Army; East Alabama Male College; Columbus, GA; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; New Orleans, LA; Richmond; United Daughters of the Confederacy; Auburn, AL; Wilson, General James Harrison
In February 1861, president-elect Jefferson Davis rode a train from his plantation in Mississippi to Atlanta and then to Montgomery, Alabama for his inauguration as president of the Confederacy. On February 16, at the Auburn train depot, president-elect Davis reviewed the Auburn Guards, a company of cadets from the East Alabama Male College who were reportedly the first of the Confederate Army to be reviewed by Davis. Because the Montgomery and West Point Railroad connected Auburn with the state capital at Montgomery and the vital industrial city of Columbus, GA, the Auburn train depot and tracks were later destroyed under Rousseau and Wilson's raids, in 1864 and 1865 respectively. It was replaced by a second station after the end of the war which was located to the west of the current (and final) depot. In 1893, the Auburn cadets formed an honor guard when former Confederate president Jefferson Davis's body was sent by train from New Orleans to Richmond. In commemoration of the former president's visit to Auburn, on March 30, 1914, the United Daughters of the Confederacy unveiled a marker near the depot that stands today.
Religion; Auburn, AL; Lee County, AL; Education
Judge John Harper and 33 other residents of Harris County, Georgia were the first settlers of Auburn in 1836. One year later they completed construction of a Methodist church, which served as the settlement's first church and school. Church leaders worked with the Methodist Conference to establish the East Alabama Male College in 1856, which later was turned over to the state and would become Auburn University. Initially constructed as a log cabin, the church has been remodeled on several occasions. In 1855 a white frame church replaced the log structure. This was remodeled in 1899, including the installation of a pipe organ which is still in use. A new sanctuary was completed in 1955 and between 1971 and 1975 an education wing and office complex were added. Finally, in 2000 a separate education center was completed. The church is located at 137 South Gay Street.
Images: Historical marker: Kenny Smith, kennysmith.org. http://www.kennysmith.org/markers/img/marker67.jpg Founder's Chapel: user xp2, waymarking.com, http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=9669e825-af6e-4fb2-95a3-631c50d6f99a Text: Auburn United Methodist Church, Church History, http://www.aumc.net/OurMission/ChurchHistory.aspx
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn, AL; Auburn University; East Alabama Male College; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Glenn, John Bowles; Old Main Hall; American Civil War; Confederate Army; Morrill Act; Dowdell, James Ferguson; Hatch Act; Broun, William Leroy; Smith-Lever Act; Agricultural Extension; Duncan, Luther N.
Established by charter in 1856 as East Alabama Male College, the academic institution that would come to be known as Auburn University was founded ten years before Lee County’s inception. Local residents, such as John Bowles Glenn, the pastor of Loachapoka Methodist Church and president of East Alabama Male College’s first Board of Trustees, comprised much of the institution’s early leadership. Erected in 1859, Auburn’s original facility was a four-story building in which six faculty members serviced a student body of 80. This building, known as Old Main Hall, served as a convalescent hospital for Confederate veterans during the Civil War. Most of the young men enrolled at the nascent institution enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861. Closed for the duration of the Civil War, East Alabama Male College reopened in 1866. In 1872, under the auspices of the Morrill Act, Auburn was named Alabama’s land-grant college and was renamed the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College. Also, during that year President James Ferguson Dowdell and the Board of Trustees voted to turn ownership of the college over to the State of Alabama. A state tax on fertilizer in 1883 and the 1887 Hatch Act provided President William Leroy Broun with funds to purchase land for institutional expansion and the foundation of a scientific research facility. In 1887, Main Hall burned down. The following year, private contractors rebuilt on the site of Main Hall, and Auburn’s administrative brass decided to name the new building Samford Hall, in honor of Governor William J. Samford, a resident of nearby Chambers County. Alabama Agriculture and Mechanical College’s first female student matriculated in 1892, and the institution’s first football team also took the field that year. The institution was renamed Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1899 via a proposal by President Broun. In 1908, Smith Hall and several other buildings on campus were equipped with electric lighting. The 1914 passage of the Smith-Lever Act made API the headquarters of the agricultural extension system in Alabama. Under the leadership of future API President Luther N. Duncan, the extension system became a seminal educational tool. Extension agents at Auburn were instructed in the techniques of better farming through the implementation of scientific research, and in turn disseminated that knowledge to rural Alabama farmers. From 1941 to 1945, the university grounds served as a training area for the Army and Navy. In 1960, the board of trustees renamed the institution Auburn University, a nod to the sobriquet that generations of students had already bequeathed to the school.
Image Source: http://mikebozack.com/images/ Text Sources: Alexander Nunn, Lee County and Her Forebears (Montgomery, AL: Herff Jones, 1983) 62-70. Auburn University, http://ocm.auburn.edu/presidential_installation/history_tradition.html.
A picture of where the seal sits outside Langdon Hall
Hisotoric Buildings; Historic Business; Commercial Row; Tuscumbia; Colbert County; Alabama; Women's Clothing Store
The building that now houses Audie Mescal Womens Clothing is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Colbert County, belonging to the original seven buildings that made Commercial Row in the 1830s. It was in this building that Helen Keller's father, Arthur H. Keller edited his newspaper, "The North Alabamian."
Jacob Grandstaff, University of North Alabama
Colbert County Tourism, December 4, 2015.
Cemeteries; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
To reach Austin Cemetery from Florence, Alabama, travel Highway 20 west, turn right onto County Road 5 and continue for 4 miles. The cemetery is located on the right side of the road. David Leon Montgomery states, "The Austin Cemetery originally was located in another location on land that the Indians had cleared. Due to it being in a low wet area, it was moved to it's present location. There are several markers in this cemetery that are very difficult to read due to deterioration of the surface. The cemetery appears to have been targeted by vandals in the past, as many stones are broken or missing. The cemetery is well maintained well otherwise. The Liberty Baptist Church, which sits about 2 miles south, started the cemetery, but as time passed, deceased members were buried in other cemeteries. Mr. Robert Austin, who is buried here, gave the land for the cemetery. A large amount of land along the Natchez Trace Parkway & Big Cypress Creek is still owned by members of the Austin family. This cemetery has approximately twenty-five graves marked only with stones. It is said that there are more that are not identifiable at all, even by way of depressions on the ground." The survey for the cemetery was completed on November 8th, 2003. David Leon Montgomery has checked the graves and foot stones for complete accuracy. A complete list of records can be viewed by using the source.
"Austin Cemetery." http://www.interment.net/data/us/al/lauderdale/austin/index.htm. Accessed August 24, 2015.
Religion, Christianity, Cullman County, Cullman, Saint Bernard Abbey, Brother Joseph Zoettel, National Register of Historic Places
In Cullman, the Ave Maria Grotto is a collection of miniature replicas of shrines and other buildings. The Grotto is located on the grounds of the Saint Bernard Abbey. The Grotto was created by Brother Jespeh Zoettel, a monk originally from Bavaria who immigrated to the United State after being recruited by an American priest. Zoettel began creating his masterpieces in 1918 from leftover construction materials. His crafts were inspired by the Bible and real life historical buildings and accounts. Over fourty years. Zoettel created 125 images including miniatures of St. Peter’s Basilica, Noah’s Ark, the Alamo, and even a representation of the City of Jerusalem. Zoettel created his last miniature when he was 80 years old, the Lourdes Basilica Church. Zoettel died on October 15, 1961. The site was named the Ave Maria Grotto in 1934, after Zoettel’s most unique creation, the Ave Maria Grotto, a wholly original creation. The Grotto is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Alabama.
Jackson County, Stevenson, Civil War, Reconstruction, Alabama Historical Commission Markers
During the Reconstruction Period following the Civil War, a freedmen’s community was established in this area called Averyville, named for the Pennsylvania minister and successful businessman Charles Avery, a longtime and faithful champion of Negro education. Wilmer Walton, a Quaker missionary, moved to Stevenson and Averyville as early as 1865, opening a school financed by the Quaker “Friends’ Association for Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen”. Soon, some seventy-five students, both adults and children, were enrolled in Walton’s school. Another teacher and Quaker missionary, Henrietta Starkweather, succeeded Wilmer Walton at Averyville. This noble and pioneering effort to educate freedmen was short-lived; Ku Klux Klan violence, threats, and intimidation drove the teachers away by the early 1870s, and the school closed. Averyville School’s most notable student was William Hooper Councill (1848-1909), a former slave brought to Alabama in 1857. He attended Averyville School as a freedman, becoming a teacher himself by the end of his third year here. He moved to Huntsville in 1869 and opened the Lincoln Normal School to train black teachers. In 1873, Dr. Councill founded Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, using funds appropriated by the Alabama Legislature to train black teachers. Dr. Councill rose to state and national prominence, becoming an influential leader alongside Booker T. Washington and others. His only formal education was here at the Freedman’s School at Averyville. Here the seeds of learning were planted which grew into Alabama A&M University, educating thousands of students to this day. (From the Alabama Historical Commission historical marker, currently in storage)
http://www.alabamahistory.net/jackson-historical-markers.html http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/ref/collection/voices/id/2207
Northeast Alabama Community College Archives and Special Collections
Banks Street-Old Decatur Historic District
Morgan County, Decatur, National Register, Bank Street-Old Decatur Historic District
The Bank Street-Old Decatur Historic District is a historic district located in Decatur, Alabama. The district is made up of the original commercial and residential area of Decatur along the Tennessee River. The district contains 340 structures dating primarily between the 1860s and 1940s. The Bank Street-Old Decatur Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Located in Auburn at South Dean and Old Mill Road. Coordinates: 32.6037457, -85.4646708
Lee County, Auburn, Baptist, Cemetery, African American
Baptist Hill cemetery is a part of Alabama’s first separate black community and is a critical part of Auburn’s black history. According to oral history, a white man gave most of the land in the 1870’s. Currently the cemetery is four acres and has over 500 marked graves and many unmarked. The oldest grave dates back to 1879. Many of the buried at the cemetery were born into slavery but later became teachers or people in business. The cemetery gets its name from the Ebenezer Baptist Church close by.
Limestone County, Cemetery, Barker Cemetery
Barker Cemetery is located near Pleasant Grove Church of Christ. The cemetery has 22 recorded graves that are marked with field stones. It is well maintained and located about 200 yards off the road.
"The USGenWeb Archives Project - Limestone County, Alabama: Cemeteries." The USGenWeb Archives Project - Limestone County, Alabama: Cemeteries. http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/limestone/cemetery.htm. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Cemeteries; Elgin, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
To reach Barnett Cemetery from Florence, travel US 72 towards Elgin. Then head north on AL 101 for five miles. Take County Road 82 and the cemetery will be on the left side. A full list of records can be viewed in the source.
"Barnet Cemetery." Accessed 9/17/2015. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/
Morgan County, Cemetery, Bartee Cemetery
Bartee Cemetery is located near the intersection of Highway 231 and Highway 36 in Morgan County. There are a total of 66 recorded graves in the cemetery. The oldest grave belongs to Nancy Rice who was born in 1831.
"The USGenWeb Archives Project - Morgan County, Alabama: Cemetery Transcriptions." The USGenWeb Archives Project - Morgan County, Alabama: Cemetery Transcriptions. http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/morgan/cemetery.htm. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Colbert County, Alabama; Cherokee, Alabama; Barton Hall; Cunningham Plantation; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
Barton Hall, or Cunningham Plantation, is a two-story, Greek-Revival-style, wood-frame house near Cherokee in Colbert County. Its construction was initiated during the 1840s by Armstead Barton, whose father, Dr. Hugh Barton, had left Virginia during the late 18th century and settled with his young family in East Tennessee. At the time of its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, in 1969, it was owned by Taylor Bodkin, a descendant of the Barton family. The home's most distinctive feature is its stairwell, which "ascends in a series of double flights and bridge-like landings to an observatory on the rooftop that offers views of the plantation." The staircase was documented, along with other interior and exterior features, by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) during the 1930s, and Barton Hall was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Barton Hall, Cherokee, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #73000337. Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-337, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/al0075.photos.001619p (accessed November 7, 2015). "Barton Hall (Alabama)," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barton_Hall_(Alabama) (accessed November 7, 2015).
Jack Peters; Plantations; Civil War; 9th Ohio Cavalry; Colonel James Jackson, Jr.; Captain Joseph N. Hetzler; Colonel Samuel Ives; Confederate Army of the Tennessee; 27th Alabama; 35th Alabama; Lauderdale County, AL
The battle at the Peters’ Plantation took place just before daylight on April 12, 1864. The 9th Ohio Cavalry known to the local in North Alabama as “The White Horse Company” had been foraging the local area from their base camp at the plantation of Jack Peters. The 27th and 35th Alabama regiments of the Confederate Army of the Tennessee were in nearby Lawrence County recruiting. There, they received news from family members in Lauderdale County of the Union cavalry unit. The two commanders of the regiments on hand decided to lead a raid on the Union camp. Colonel James Jackson Jr. of the 27th Alabama was a neighbor of Jack Peters, and Colonel Samuel Ives of the 35th Alabama was a native of Center Star. The commanders chose to lead the attack jointly and picked 150 of the best soldiers from the two regiments. The small Confederate force crossed the Tennessee at Seven Mile Island during the night of the 11th. The Confederate commanders achieved a tactical surprise in the early morning hours of the 12th. According to the 9th Ohio’s records, two privates were killed and thirty-five others were captured including the company’s commanding officer Captain Joseph N. Hetzler. The remainder of 147 members of the 9th Ohio escaped to Florence under the leadership of three lieutenants raising the alarm that “General Forrest” was attacking. In response to the late night attack the Union forces evacuated Florence. Meanwhile, Jackson and Ives returned to Franklin County with the prisoners in tow. The Confederate force also captured food and livestock which had been taken from the local population by the 9th Ohio. All those captured except for Captain Hetzler were sent to the prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. Twenty-one of the thirty-five died as a result of their imprisonment.
Michael Williams, University of North Alabama
McDonald, William Lindsey. 2003. Civil War tales of the Tennessee Valley. n.p.: Killen, Ala. : Heart of Dixie Pub. (1812 CR 111, Killen, Ala., 35645), [2003], 2003. UNA Library Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed April 30, 2015). Wallace, Harry E. n.d. "Lauderdale County, Alabama History." algw.org. Accessed April 14, 2015. http://www.algw.org/lauderdale/historyshoals4.htm.
Photo from following websites: http://www.algw.org/lauderdale/historyshoals4.htm
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Battle of Ococoposa; Native American History,
The battle of Ococoposa was fought between the United States and Native American tribes in the Shoals. The battle took place in June of 1787. Local Native American tribes had been conducting raids on settlements for a period of seven years. In response to this, Colonel James Robertson led an expedition of a hundred and thirty men from Nashville, Tennessee to Ococoposa. The actual battle took place at the mouth of Spring Creek, which was an area that local Native American tribes called home. The battle ended in a victory for Colonel Robertson. His men then took over and raided an unnamed village near Spring Creek.
Colbert County Heritage Book Committee (Colbert County, Ala.). 1999. The Heritage of Colbert County, Alabama. Clanton, AL: Heritage Pub. Consultants. 42
Opelika, AL; Lee County, AL; Industry; Grist Mill
This grist mill was originally built in 1834 by Sam Carter and Henry Byrd as a sawmill. In 1848 John "Jack" Floyd purchased the property and in 1852 Floyd's Mill Rd (now US 29) was established. During the Civil War, the mill provided supplies to the Confederate government. The milll was destroyed in a flood in 1874, but was rebuilt by John W. and W.H.H. Griffin. In 1907, the eponymous George W. Bean bought the mill. He owned the property until his death in 1952 after which the mill sat unoccupied. During the 1930s, a canning school was set up by the extension service and FDR visited the site in 1939 on his way from Opelika to Warm Springs. Today the mill has been reconstructed as a historical site located at 6247 US 29 N, Opelika, AL.
Image and Text: "The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama"
Recreation; Conservation; Hodges, AL; Franklin County, AL
The BCDA consists of four lakes and surrounding woodlands. The BCDA offers trophy fishing, boating, sand beaches, group pavilions, a 30-mile canoe float stream, and five campgrounds. Bear Creek Lakes are known as the cleanest recreational waters in Alabama.
“Bear Creek Development Authority.” Accessed July 14, 2015. http://www.northalabama.org/
Beaty-Mason Home (Athens State President's Home)
Limestone County, Athens, Homes, Beaty-Mason Home
In 1818 Robert Beaty and John Carroll purchased several acres of land surrounding a large spring. They divided the land into lots and donated someof the land for public buildings and a cemetery. Beaty built his home on a section of the land in 1826. The home became known the Beaty-Mason home when Glorvinia Beaty married John Richardson Mason and inherited the home. The home remained in the Mason family and eventually was owned by Miss Mary Mason. After her death, Edmond Peter Garrett inherited the house then sold it in 1961 to Athens College for use as a home for the presidents of the campus.
Education; Lee County, AL; Beauregard High School; Beauregard, AL; Beauregard, Pierre G.T.; Private Academies; Whatley School; Thompson School; Hopewell School; Hinson School; Parker's Crossroads School; Dorsey School; Sanford High School
In 1923, several rural one-room schools (including Whatley, Thompson, Hopewell, Hinson, Parker’s Crossroads, and Dorsey schools) in the vicinity of present-day Beauregard, AL consolidated to form the Whatley School. The school at Parker’s Crossroads was established in 1907 and occupied the current site of Providence Baptist Church on Lee County Road 166. In August 1928, the school was renamed in honor of CSA General P.G.T. Beauregard. The remodeled school still stands on Alabama Highway 51 approximately seven miles south of Opelika. After sixteen years of delaying with compliance to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Beauregard High School finally integrated with nearby Sanford High School. The former black high school now functions as Sanford Junior High School, Beauregard’s community middle school.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauregard_High_School Text Sources: Alexander Nunn, Lee County and Her Forebears (Montgomery, AL: Herff Jones, 1983), 110-111. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000) 37-38.
Cemeteries; Rogersville, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
To reach Bedingfield Cemetery from Rogersville, travel east on US 72 and turn left on County Road 70. Continue for three miles and turn right on County Road 556. Bedingfield Cemetery is half a mile on the left side of the road. A full list of records can be viewed within the source.
"Bedingfield Cemeter." http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder. Accessed September 9, 2015.
Bellamy Planning Mill Company/Acme Lumber Company
The Bellamy Planning Mills of the East Florence area of Sweetwater was incorporated on May 1st, 1901. The founders chose to situate Bellamy Planning Mills near Sweetwater Creek on present day Veterans Drive. The founders of the Bellamy Planning Mill were President, A.D. Bellamy (also the founder of Florence Wagon Works); Secretary, W.M. Richardson (who would own his own lumberyard in Florence eventually); and Attorney, John T. Ashcraft, who was one of several founders of the Ashcraft Cotton Mill. By 1903, the Bellamy Planning Mill was doing about seventy-five thousand dollars’ worth of business per year while using about three million feet of lumber per year and employing a force of thirty men. Bellamy’s mill did business across the South and Midwest selling building materials for framing, ceilings, porch columns, and balusters to name a few. They also sold Sherwin Williams Paints and Acme Cement Plaster in addition to the wood products. Eventually, Bellamy sold the planning mill to a partnership of Lewellen and Robbins. When A.M. Lewellen and Robbins bought the Bellamy Planning Mill, they renamed it Acme Lumber Company. Acme Lumber Company had an important, albeit tragic, role in Florence during the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak that occurred while Wilson Dam was under construction. Because of the influenza outbreak, Acme ran three full shifts a day to build enough coffins for the countless numbers of deceased workers since the lumberyard was located across the river from the camps of the workers building Wilson Dam. The majority of the deceased were immigrant Cuban workers buried in common graves, and most had no known immediate relatives or survivors. After the end of the Spanish influenza, not much information can be found on Acme Lumber Company on the fate of the lumber company itself.
Matthew C. Fesmire, University of North Alabama
Text Sources: "Florence As She Is." The Florence Times. 1903. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Sweetwater: The Story of East Florence." Florence, Ala.: Florence Historical Board, 1989. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Remembering Sweetwater: The Mansions, The Mills, The People." photos by L.D. Staggs, Jr. Killen, Bluewater Publications, 2002. Garrett, Jill Knight. "A History of Lauderdale County, Alabama." Columbia, Tenn., Privately Published, 1968. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Bellamy Planning Mill/Acme Lumber Company.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-32.
Plantations; Belle Mina; Limestone County, AL
Belle Mina Plantation is a Late Georgian-style home located in the community of Belle Mina, Alabama. The home was constructed in 1826 by Alabama's second governor, Thomas Bibb. Thomas Bibb purchased 2,500 acres of land in Northern Alabama and decided to construct a plantation in the center of it. During the Civil War, the home was occupied by Federal troops. The plantation house has a front portico with six wide Doric Columns. The slave quarters and kitchen are joined on the side of the one story wing. This is different from most plantations, because most slave quarters were separated from the main house in Alabama. At one time, a brick wall surrounded the plantation house, but it has been removed. The fireplace mantels and interior trim show handplowed moldings, constructed by slave labor.
"Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey." Governor Thomas Bibb House, County Road 71, Belle Mina, Limestone County, AL. Accessed May 26, 2015.
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Belmont; Belle Mont; Thomas Jefferson; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
A rare Southern example of architectural "Jeffersonian Classicism," the Belmont plantation house was completed in 1835 as a residence for Isaac Winston, a successful and wealthy planter who would, in his sixties, volunteer for service in the Confederate army. Together with the Brandon, Battersea, and Randolph-Semple manions of Winston's native Virginia, and other regional examples like Saunders Hall in Lawrence County, Belmont demonstrates the scope and extent of Thomas Jefferson's influence on early-to-mid-19th-century domestic architecture. During the 1930s, the Historic American Buildings Survey documented the Belmont complex in a series of photographs and measured drawings, and the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
National Register of Historic Places, Belmont, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82002003. Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-388, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0081 (accessed November 7, 2015).
Professional Wrestling Charlotte, North Carolina Jim Crockett
Article appeared in Charlotte Observer on December 17, 1941. Describes wrestling promoter Jim Crockett's foundation's support for Charlotte's Empty Stocking charity.
Walk of Honor Historic Markers; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
This marker is located on Cox Creek Parkway (Alabama Route 133), Florence, Alabama. The text on the marker reads: "Rev. Dr. Bennett W. Smith, as president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, expanded the organization internationally. Active in Civil Rights in America and South Africa, he counseled President Bill Clinton on racial equality. " Inducted in 2010 by the City of Florence at the Walk of Honor.
“Bennett Walker Smith”. Accessed 09/21/2015. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/
From page 124 In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma Bernard LaFayette Jr. Emory University Kathryn Lee Johnson University of Rhode Island "Other leaders at the front included Rev. Frederick Reese; Mrs. Boynton; Charles Mauldin, a student leader of the Selma movement; and Benny Tucker and James Austin, two of my first recruits in Selma." Tucker was one of MLK's local bodyguards during the Selma protests. Tucker was aligned with SNCC in Selma. He cooperated with SNCC organizers to plan Selma protests.
In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma Bernard LaFayette Jr. Kathryn Lee Johnson
Bernard LaFayette Jr. (Author, director of SNCC’s Alabama voter registration project)
Co-author of In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma
Emory University While he did not march in Selma, Bernard was an integral part of the movement and it has often been said that it the planning and execution would not have been possible him.
Auburn, AL; Lee County, AL; Religion; Judaism
Beth Shalom is the only organized Jewish congregation in East Alabama. Formed in 1989, the synagogue was dedicated in 1992. It is located at 134 Cary Drive, Auburn, AL.
Image and Text: Beth Shalom, http://webpages.charter.net/bethshalomnew/bs-cropped.jpg
To reach Bethel Baptist Cemetery from Rogersville, head north on AL 207 for 13 miles to AL 64. Bethel Baptist Church is on this road. Avon Hagood and Judy Mason first surveyed the cemetery in 1995. The rows in the cemetery are numbered from west to east. A full list of records can be viewed within the source.
"Bethel Baptist Cemetery." http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder. Accessed September 9, 2015.