Colbert County Alabama; Cherokee Alabama; Cemetery; African American Cemetery; African American History
When the Zion First Missionary Church was sold to the African American congregation, the land next to the building found use as a cemetery for the African American congregation. As such, the cemetery is strictly filled with only African American congregants. The cemetery is located next to the Zion Missionary Baptist church in Cherokee, Alabama off of Lee Hwy.
Arthur Graves interview by Sam Keiser. November 11 2015
Colbert County, Alabama; Cherokee, Alabama; Zion Missionary Church; African American History; African American Church
Zion Church used to be an white Baptist church prior to the Civil War. During the war, the church was used as a hospital by Union troops. After the Civil War, the white parishioners no longer wanted to use the church as it had become defiled. Because of this the church was then sold to an African American congregation that used to meet across the railroad tracks. The original building is still intact though there have been several additions since it was first built. The color of the bricks can be used as indicators to identify the additions. The darker colored bricks indicate the additions to the church. The church can be found off Lee Hwy in Cherokee, Alabama.
Arthur Graves interview by Sam Keiser. November 11, 2015
Senior at Hudson High School The Selma Campaign 1963-1965 Wally G. Vaughn
Zebulon Pike Morrison was born in Lexington, Virginia in 1818. He and his wife Bridget had nine children. He was the sixteenth Mayor of Florence, and served in that capacity from 1880-1890. Morrison was also an alderman for the city of Florence for thirty years. In addition, Morrison was an undertaker, and owned a distillery in Florence. He is probably most well-known for his building efforts. Wesleyan Hall, the Florence Synodical College, the Elks Building, and Patton Grammar School in Florence were all built by him. Morrison passed away in 1895 and is buried in Florence Cemetery. Morrison Avenue in Florence is named for him.
Kayla Scott, University of North Alabama
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. Bluewater Publications, 2003, p. 34, 89, 91, 274. Image Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 213.
The WWI Memorial Amphitheater on the University of North Alabama's campus is a common gathering place of students. In 1919, Mrs. Susan J, Price, a professor in the department of geography, recognized the need for a formal stage and a memorial to the six students of State Normal School that did not return home from WWI. Her original design consisted of a half enclosed dome supported by six pillars to represent the six students. Although the finished amphitheater did not follow Mrs. Price's original plan, the structure still stood as a memorial to those six students lost in WWI. The amphitheater was completed in 1934.
Claire Eagle, University of North Alabama
Text: Doris Kelso, "A History of the UNA Memorial Amphitheater," Journal of Muscle Shoals History VI, (1978); 135-38. Images: University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections
Wright and Rice Foundry; Civil War; Colonel Florence M. Cornyn; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
The Wright and Rice Foundry was located where the Mars Hill Church of Christ is located on Cox Creek. The foundry was built in 1835 by Williams Johnson but was sold to James Wright and William Rice. The foundry produced steam engines, mill saws, cotton gins, farming implements, and industrial machinery. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the foundry was converted for the manufacture of shells and munitions for weapons, ranging from large cannons to musket balls. This made the foundry a primary target for the Union force commanded by Colonel Florence M. Cornyn. The force of 1,380 men left Corinth, Mississippi, on May 26, 1863, on a mission to destroy the industrial capacity of Lauderdale County. Cornyn’s forces destroyed the foundry, along with many other industrial sites in the County, and then withdrew back to Mississippi.
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). McDonald, William Lindsey. 2003. "Alabama Trails Business & Manfacturies." genealogytrails.com. Accessed April 10, 2015. http://genealogytrails.com/ala/lauderdale/businesspast.html. 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 website: https://flplarchive.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/picture5.jpg
Wrestling Game Will Find Revival Here This Evening
Professional Wrestling Knoxville, Tennessee Bijou Theater
Wrestling Demands Swift Shifting Scenery
Professional Wrestling Jim Crockett Ray Villmer Charlotte Armory Auditorium Charlotte, North Carolina
Advertisement appeared in Charlotte News (North Carolina) on September 24, 1947. "Jim Crockett your sports promoter since 1933."
WQLT Transmitter Site: Elvis the Generator
Sam Phillips; Colbert County; Big River Broadcasting
The generator for WQLT Radio station, which is owned by Big River Broadcasting - founded by Sam Phillips and now under the management of his sons and grandchildren -- is, whimsically perhaps, painted gold and named Elvis for Elvis Presley, who Sam Phillips is credited with discovering.
Wood Avenue Church of Christ is one of the oldest Churches of Christ in Lauderdale County. The Church of Christ denomination emerged out of the American Restoration Movement, a movement to reestablish America’s Christianity on the teachings of the New Testament and lasted from 1801 to 1906. Restoration followers were known as Stoneites and Campbellites, named after the two prominent leaders of the movement, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. Congregations set up by followers of Campbell called themselves Disciples of Christ, while those established by Stoneites were called Churches of Christ. The beliefs of the Restoration Movement made their way into the Shoals during the 1820s and 1830s through efforts of Restoration ministers, who ultimately shaped the religious culture in the region. The first two Restoration ministers to enter the Shoals were Ephraim D. Moore and James Evans Matthews. However, the Restoration Movement in the Shoals did not take place without opposition. Baptists and Presbyterians entered the Shoals during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and did not approve of the activists’ efforts. For example, in 1830 the Muscle Shoals Baptist Association printed a resolution that defined the Restoration Movement as a “divine operation of the Holy Spirit either disavowed or so obscurely avowed, as to amount to disavowal. We see experimental religion ridiculed and reprobated.” In addition to the vocal opposition from various denominations, in his article “History of the Church of Christ in Northwest Alabama, 1866-1880,” Shoals region historian Wayne Kilpatrick argued that the Civil War ultimately hindered the Restoration Movement in the Shoals region. Kilpatrick claimed that many churches in the Shoals, including Restoration congregations, experienced a drop in membership during the war, which Kilpatrick defined as the “silent years” of the Restoration Movement. Nevertheless, following the end of the war, Churches of Christ started to organize. One of the earliest Churches of Christ in Lauderdale County, Popular Street Church of Christ, organized in 1886 and T. B. Larimore (the founder of Mars Hill Bible School) was a congregant. For the first four years, the congregation met in personal homes until a building was built in 1890 on Popular Street in Florence. The church was at this location eighty years, until on March 1, 1970, when the church relocated to the current location on Wood Avenue. After the relocation, the congregation decided to change the name of the church from Popular Street Church of Christ to Wood Avenue Church of Christ. The Gothic designed brick structure that acts as the current church today was designed and built by local master mason, the Putman brothers.
Jesse Brock, University of North Alabama
Text: Wayne Kilpatrick, “History of the Church of Christ in Northwest Alabama, 1823-1861,” Journal of Muscle Shoals History Vol. XI (Tennessee Valley Historical Society, 1986): 36. Wayne Kilpatrick, “ History of the Church of Christ in Lauderdale County, 1866-1880,” The Journal of Muscle Shoals History Vol. XI (Tennessee Valley Historical Society, 1986): 67-85.
Colbert County, Alabama; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; WLAY-Radio; Muscle Shoals Sound
WLAY-AM (1450 -AM) was one of the first broadcast radio stations in the Shoals. Licensed in 1933 (as WNRA), the station stopped broadcasting in 2014. The station's original broadcast was a variety format featuring gospel, country, and "race music" by African American artists. Sam Phillips worked as a disc jockey at WLAY in the 1950s. As the "Muscle Shoals Sound" developed in the 1960s, WLAY debuted many of the local recordings, many of which are now known worldwide. Paul Kelly built the studio which is now housed at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. The Alabama Historical Society named the station a Historic Landmark in 2007. The station was located on Second Street in Muscle Shoals during its heyday.
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Photographs courtesy of Kevin Self. The photograph of the sign is from the 1950s. The photographs of the buildings are from the 1990s. The reproduction of the logo is circa 1970, courtesy of Kevin Self.
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn University; Wittel Dormitory; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Colonial Revival Style; Wittel, Samuel S.; Auburn, AL
Located at 205 South Gay Street, Wittel Dormitory represents an example of the colonial revival architectural style. Built in the early 1900s as the private residence of Samuel S. Wittel, the building first served as a boarding facility for professional women employed in Auburn and the private residence of the Wittel family. After the post-World War II enrollment spike at Alabama Polytechnic Institute, the university purchased the building to serve as a dormitory for the steadily increasing female portion of the student body.
Image Source: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/hist/3970/ Text Source: The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 25.
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Winston Cemetery; Andrew Jackson; Robert Lindsay; Cemeteries
Winston Cemetery, at the corner of SW 14th Avenue and SW 7th Street in Sheffield, sits on land purchased from the United States government by Andrew Jackson, who subsequently gifted it to Col. Anthony Winston. The property was later incorporated into the plantation of William H. Winston, who is among those buried here. Revolutionary War commander Capt. Anthony Wilson, father of Col. Winston and cousin of Patrick Henry and Dolly Madison, was one of the cemetery's earliest burials. Robert Burns Lindsay, the Scottish-born, Reconstruction-era governor of Alabama, is perhaps the most notable burial.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
Carolyn Murray Greer, "One of Our Best, Most Respected Citizens," Remembering the Shoals, https://rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/one-of-our-best-most-respected-citizens (accessed December 6, 2015).
Possible identification. Worked as a nurse.
Wilson's Headquarters and Camp - Gravelly Springs, Alabama Marker
Historic Markers; Waterloo, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
This historic marker is located at the intersection of County Route 14 and County Route 2, Waterloo, Alabama. The text on the marker reads: "At this site from mid-January to mid-March 1865, Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, U.S. Army, assembled the largest cavalry force ever massed in the western hemisphere. Five divisions totaling 22,000 camped from Gravelly Springs westward to Waterloo. Wilson made headquarters a mile east of the springs at Wildwood plantation, the boyhood home of Alabama senator and governor, George Houston. After intensive training Wilson's Cavalry crossed the Tennessee to invade South Alabama and Georgia, a campaign which included burning the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and the capture of Pres. Jefferson Davis at Irwinville, Georgia, in May 1865, after Lee's surrender."
Dylan Tucker, University of North Alabama
“Wilson's Headquarters and Camp - Gravelly Springs, Alabama Marker”. Accessed 11/11/2015. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/
Wilson's 1865 Raid stages at Gravely Springs.
Union General James H. Wilson, Civil War, Raid
Gravely Springs near Oakland in Lauderdale County was the site of Union General James H. Wilson’s headquarters and camp in the winter of 1865. The final Union raid into Alabama was staged in this camp in the early spring of 1865. In January of 1865, General Wilson began assembling his 22,000 man cavalry. Advanced forces began preparatory raids at the end of February. On March 22, 1865, General Wilson’s main forces set out on the largest cavalry raid of the Civil War. The raid destroyed the remaining productive industrial capacity of Alabama at Birmingham and Selma. The raid also burned the University of Alabama and captured Montgomery.
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). Hubbs, G. Ward. 2008. "Civil War in Alabama." Encyclopedia of Alabama. January 10. Accessed April 15, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1429.
Photo from following websites: http://www.sonstoglory.com/newsletters/pictures/GravellySpringsHistoricMarker.jpg Photo from following websites: http://cartweb.geography.ua.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=Special%20Topics&item=Civil%20War/CivilWarWilson.sid&wid=500&hei=400&props=item(Name,Description),cat(Name,Description)&style=simple/view-dhtml.xsl Photo from following websites: https://battleoffranklin.wordpress.com/category/james-h-wilson/
National Register of Historic Places ; Wilson Park; Architecture; Florence, AL
The National Register nomination covers three houses facing Wilson Park, the only remaining houses from what was once a prominent Florence neighborhood. The houses were built between 1890 and 1918 and represent typical upper middle class residential architecture of the time. The original plans for Florence, as surveyed and plotted by Ferdinand Sannoner, set aside a city block as a “public walk”. This allotment was adjacent to the lot designated for a school and which was subsequently developed as the Florence Synodical Female College, the “public walk” became the City Park complete with gas lighting, cedar plantings, and a bandstand. Building lots around the park became highly desirable for residential development. During the city’s economic boom from the 1880s through the 1920s, fashionable upper-middle class homes were built around the remaining three sides (north, east, and west) of the park. Over time the college was demolished and the post office and larger park footprint expanded on to the site of the Florence Synodical Female College. Commercial structures took the place of the late 19th early 20th century residential structures to the east and west leaving only three houses on the north side as a reminder of the earlier neighborhood. The house at 209 Tuscaloosa Street was constructed around 1890 and in 1894 became the home of local pharmacist, Charles Morton Southall. The Southall Drug building on Court Street is also on the National Register. The two and a half story asymmetrical frame house has Queen Anne and Shingle style features including a hipped roof, projecting front gable with Tudor revival detailing, a second story clad in wood shingles, and a one story wrap around porch supported by paired round columns on brick piers. The two story brick Georgian Revival house at 217 Tuscaloosa Street was built for James Josephus Douglass about 1910. Douglass was a prominent local businessman and farmer. The house passed to his son Hiram Kennedy Douglass, an Episcopal minister and genealogist, who left the house and the adjacent Wright – Douglas House to the city of Florence in conjunction with the Kennedy-Douglass Trust for public use as an Arts Center. The Wright-Douglas House (223 Tuscaloosa Street) was purchased by Hiram Kennedy Douglass in 1939. The one and half story frame Victorian house is currently part of the Florence Arts Center. The National Register nomination for the Wilson Park houses was written in 1978 and lacks much information that would be required of a current nomination. It is advised that this nomination be updated.
Missy Brown, University of North Alabama
Floyd, Warner W. and Sally Moore. “Wilson Park Houses – National Register of Historic Preservation Nomination,” Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 1979.
Lauderdale County; Florence, Alabama; Florence History; Recreation; Ferdinand Sannonner; Woodrow Wilson
Wilson Park was designated as a public walk by Ferdinand Sannoner in his original plan for Florence in 1818. It is a one square block with an area of 2.5 acres. On February 20, 1924, the Board of City Commissioners officially changed its name from City Park to Woodrow Wilson Park in honor of the former U.S. President following his death. The park underwent two renovations, one in 1930 paid for by Mrs. Mary Emily Savage Price and the other one occurring on August 15, 1973. It was in the 1973 redevelopment that a plaza was constructed with a fountain being donated by the Douglass family and benches incorporated throughout the park. The updates to the park were completed in 1974.
Andrew Lopez, University of North Alabama
United States. Wilson Park Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage Nomination Form. Alabama Historical Commission. University of North Alabama Archives. Image: University of North Alabama Archives, Postcard Collection, PC22
Statues/Monuments; Lauderdale County, AL
The Wilson Dam Replica is located on the corner of Mobile and Seminary Streets in front of Legends Steakhouse in downtown Florence, Alabama. The replica dam is engraved with each name of the quad cities: Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Florence, and the year each city became incorporated.
Colbert, County; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Florence, Alabama; Fishing; Wilson Dam
Wilson Dam Lake was created from the damming of the Tennessee River by the construction of the Wilson Dam. The lake's normal elevation is 505 feet. The average depth is 97 feet. The distance of the backwater upstream is 17 miles and the area of the surface is 14,500 acres. Much of the flooded land was once farmland used in the Shoals. On the southern edge of the lake there is a leak of water and overflow water flows out into the Tennessee River. There are many myths surrounding the area around the dam and lake, most involving the native catfish. The lake is popular for fishing and the size of the fish are often exagerated in reports. Blue catfish often range from 50-80 pounds, but can be as large as 100 pounds. The lake was flooded by the TVA, the ones in control of Wilson Dam and the Tennessee River. By building a dam in the area the TVA was able to power the surrounding cities. Another benefit to building the dam and creating the lake was by powering the nitrate plants in Muscle Shoals. These plants provided much needed fertilizer for eroded farmland.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
Sherer, Dennis. "Myths, Legends Surround Historic Wilson Dam." TimesDaily. June 19, 2010. Accessed November 30, 2015. http://www.timesdaily.com/archives/myths-legends-surround-historic-wilson-dam/article_90620d82-e607-5aef-a483-b42a0fe94a40.html. 'Destination Shoals'. 2011. Florence. Florence City. UNA Special Archives.
Wilson Dam; Tennessee River; TVA; National Defense Act of 1916; Henry Ford; Franklin Roosevelt; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL; Colbert County, AL
Wilson Dam is a gravity dam spanning the Tennessee River between Lauderdale and Colbert counties in the quad cities area. The dam was originally constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1918 and 1924. The project was envisioned as a part of the National Defense Act of 1916 during the run up to World War I to provide power for two nitrate plants intended to produce explosives for the war effort. The massive federal program cost $130 million dollars, however the first electrical generation from the plant was not until 1925 long after the end of the war. Although the properties attracted the attention of notable industrialist Henry Ford, who offered $5 million for them and promised to make the shoals the “Detroit of the South,” they languished in governmental limbo until the New Deal programs of Franklin Roosevelt. Impressed by the potential of the properties, Roosevelt’s team made the dam’s operational model the theme for the TVA’s economic invigoration of the entire Tennessee River region. The model was to incorporate a threefold purpose for each dam; flood control, navigational locks, and hydroelectric power generation. The dam has underwent few significant change in structure since its completion. An expansion of the locking system was completed in 1959 making it the largest single-chamber system in the world at that time. There has also been an additional nine spillways have been added. However, the neoclassical style incorporating elements of ancient Greece and Rome has remained a distinguishing feature for Wilson Dam as the only dam in the TVA system with that architectural style.
Ezzell, Patricia Bernard. 2012. Wilson Dam and Reservoir. June 14. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3268. History, Alabama. Dept. of Archives and. 2007. Lienhard, John H. 2014. No. 2261: Muscle Shoals. January 23. http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2261.htm. TVA. n.d. Wilson Resivor. http://www.tva.gov/sites/wilson.htm.
Photo from following websites: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-3314 Photo from following websites: http://www.tva.gov/sites/wilson.htm.
University of North Alabama; Willingham Hall; Historic Buildings; Preservation; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
The site of Willingham Hall, which is located on the University of North Alabama’s campus in Florence, Alabama, and Willingham Hall (One Harrison Plaza) itself have many stories to tell. Willingham Hall is located on the site of what was once private property with a private home, and later, the site of Locust Dell Academy for Girls. The land on which the building is located was first developed in the early 1800s (pre dating Alabama’s statehood, 1819) by an anonymous Florentine. The house was purchased in 1830s by Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Marcelius Hentz, an educated couple who moved to Florence from the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area where he had been a Professor of Modern Languages at the University. Mrs. (Caroline Lee) Hentz was a writer. The couple opened the Locust Dell Academy for Girls, which was named for the locust trees on the property, in 1834. The Academy was closed “with the coming of the War for Southern Independence.” The Hentzs sold the house which was used as a private home by various owners until 1871. Major Henry Wood, for whom Wood Avenue is named and one of the first mayors of Florence, purchased the house in 1871. He owned the house for several years prior to the purchase of the home by the University of North Alabama (which was, at the time, the first state supported teachers college and first co-educational college south of the Ohio River). Shortly after the University acquired the house, (around the 1900s), it burned to the ground. Willingham Hall, which was located on Morrison Avenue, was built in 1939, with renovations in 1977, and 2007/08. The building was originally used as a dormitory for men and named for Dr. Henry J. Willingham, who was President of the University from 1913 through 1958, when the dorm housed women. The building, which houses the offices of the English, History and Political Science and Criminal Departments, is a three story, masonry, and steel structure.The building contains 20,464 square feet, 10,827 net assignable. Willingham Hall was constructed with funds and labor provided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Work Projects Administration. At the time of construction the building was described as “a three-storied, fireproof building, ‘modern in every way’.” Willingham Hall is architecturally important to UNA’s campus because it is one of the oldest buildings on campus. The University – under a Green Campus Initiative – updated the building in 2007/2008. Willingham Hall is historically important to UNA’s campus because it was built on the site of one of the fine girls’ academies; it is architecturally important to the campus because it is one of the oldest buildings on campus and was built by the WPA; and it remains academically important because the English, History, Political Science, and Criminal Justice Departments are housed there.
Historic Marker, Willingham Hall, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
Photograph, circa 1981, is courtesy of the Archives at the Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
SNCC. Address listed as Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton Freedom Center. Selma, Alabama, native. Hudson High School, Class of 1965
Willie Carlyle (location among marchers unknown)
"ABC Wednesday is celebrating the letter H this week, and Willie Carlyle is a Selma native who moved up north at the age of 19, but his HEART was HERE, and he came HOME to retire. I was taking pictures of renovations at the Old Depot Museum recently, and he appeared to be a tourist looking at Civil Rights displays when he mentioned that he was there! He was there crossing the bridge on 'Bloody Sunday' and there on Highway 80 in the Selma-to-Montgomery March. 'I was just 16 and a student at R.B. Hudson High School,' he said, and was not hurt during the melee, 'but I was chased by horses back across the bridge.' While his mother was treated for a long-term illness in an out-of-town facility, he lived with his aunt and her 10 children and spent some of his free time working as a delivery boy at Post Office Drugs. The owner helped him learn to drive and get his driver's license 'so I could deliver medicines by car instead of by bike.' He worked at a few other Selma businesses before moving to Michigan and getting a job with General Motors. There, he worked on an assembly line, became a team leader, troubleshooter and later an inspector. The plant closed just two years before he was due to retire, so he returned to Alabama and finished his automotive career in Tuscaloosa. He bought a house in Selma and later became a school bus driver. Now, he's really retired, he said, 'and when I look back over my life, I realize that I have come a long way!'" - Janet
To reach the William’s Chapel Cemetery, from Waterloo, Alabama, travel east on County Rd. # 14 for about ½ mile. Turn left (north) onto County Road. 1. Go about 7 miles and the cemetery is on the left behind the church. Williams Chapel Cemetery is well maintained and contains 199 records. Source contains a list of graves located in the cemetery.
Montgomery, David L. "Williams Chapel Cemetery 2005." Rootsweb. January 4, 2005. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/cem-williamschpl-2005.htm. Accessed April 12, 2015.
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; William Winston House; Deschler High School; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
Tuscumbia merchant Clark T. Barton began building what would become the William Winston House around 1835. Several years later, in 1840, planter Winston purchased the still-unfinished house and oversaw its completion. The house remained in the Winston family until 1948, when the estate of Mary Jackson Winston sold the building and surrounding property to the City of Tuscumbia. Today, the building is part of the Deschler High School campus. The two-story Winston House is one of the few surviving antebellum brick homes in the Shoals area. A repeating bullseye pattern adorns the stone lintels of its exterior, while the interior of the home is renowned for its fine woodwork. The William Winston House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
National Register of Historic Places, William Winston House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82002005. Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-316, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0102 (accessed November 12, 2015).
Marries Zenobia Robertson SNCC The Selma Campaign 1963-1965 Wally G. Vaughn
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Yancey, William Lowndes; Chambers County, AL; Secession; Pebble Hill
Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Yancey was a fiery orator and politician who ardently defended slavery and secession. Representing Chambers County during the Alabama secession convention, he voted for the state to leave the Union and during the war spearheaded a failed diplomatic attempt to coerce Europe into recognizing Confederate independence. The Yancey family spent many summers with the Scott family at Pebble Hill.
Encyclopedia of Alabama: William Lowndes Yancey
William Lindsey McDonald, Florence Historian
Florence, Alabama’s first official City Historian was William Lindsey McDonald, a man who did much to research, preserve, and promote local history. Born in 1927, Mr. McDonald served in the U.S. Army for thirty-eight years before retiring with the rank of Army Reserve Colonel. McDonald was both a World War II and Korean War veteran. His army reserve career included sixteen years as a staff member at the Pentagon. McDonald served thirty-eight years with the Tennessee Valley National Fertilizer Development Center. In addition, McDonald spent thirty-eight years as a Methodist preacher in Colbert and Lauderdale Counties. Mr. McDonald graduated from Florence State Teacher’s College in 1952. He was also a graduate of the Military Police School, the Army’s Command and General Staff College, the Army Finance School, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. His education also included seminary training. McDonald served as Chairman of the Florence Historical Board from 1968 to 1989. He was designated the City Historian in 1989. He had a historical column in the Times Daily for many years, and was a frequent contributor to the Tennessee Valley Historical Quarterly journal. During his lifetime, McDonald wrote over fourteen books on Muscle Shoals area history. McDonald passed away in 2009.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), ii. Image Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 214.
Escambia County, Brewton, Music, Alabama Music Hall of Fame
William Lee Golden Golden was raised in a farming family in Brewton, Alabama. At age seven he began singing and performing regularly on his grandfather’s weekly radio show, along with his sister. From this experience, Golden grew to love harmony, and by the time he was a teenager, he had an appreciation for Country, Gospel, Doo-Wop, and Pop Quartets. In 1965, Golden joined with the Oak Ridge Boys, a gospel group that went on to win 10 Dove awards and 5 Grammys. In 1975, the group switched to country and was awarded Country Music Association Vocal and Instrumental Group of the Year and Best Country Crossover Group of the year. Golden sang baritone for the Oak Ridge Boys for 22 years, releasing hits such as “Trying to Love Two Women,” “Ozark Mountain Jubilee,” and “Thank God for Kids.” In 1986 he released a solo album, “American Vagabond,” and in 1987, he left the group. He toured solo and with his sons Rusty and Chris as The Goldens. In 1996, Golden rejoined the Oak Ridge Boys. In 1997, Golden was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and received its Life Work Award for Performing Achievement. In 2011, the Oak Ridge Boys were inducted into The Grand Ole Opry and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Click the link to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdFghZmdwXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=474Q4oRJPUI
Joy Caitlin Monroe, University of North Alabama
“William Lee Golden Biography.” (2016) https://www.williamleegolden.com/william-lee-golden-biography “William Lee Golden.” Alabama Music Hall of Fame. (2016) http://alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1997/william-l-golden/
Calhoun County, Anniston, Music, Alabama Music Hall of Fame
William L. Dawson (September 26, 1899-May 4, 1990) William Levi Dawson was an African American composer, performer, and music educator from Anniston, Alabama. Dawson graduated from the Tuskegee Institute with highest honors in 1921. He earned a bachelor of music degree from Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City, Missouri in 1925. He studied under Felix Borowski at the Chicago Musical College and studied under Adolph Weidig at the American Conservatory, where he earned a master’s degree in music in 1927. Dawson served as first trombonist with the Chicago Civic Orchestra from 1926 to 1930. He won a Chicago Daily News contest for band directors in 1929. Shortly after, he was awarded the Wanamaker Contest prize for the song “Jump Back Honey, Jump Back” and the orchestral composition “Scherzo.” In 1931, Dawson became director of the School of Music at the Tuskegee Institute. As director, he conducted the 100-voice a cappella choir during its engagement at the opening of the Radio City Music Hall in New York; the choir also performed at Carnegie Hall, the White House and Constitution Hall and completed a series of national and international radio broadcasts. In 1934, the choir made a tour of international and interracial good will to the British Isles, Europe, and the Soviet Union. Years later, the United States State Department sent Dawson to Spain to conduct various choral groups. In 1956, he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the Tuskegee Institute. Perhaps his greatest achievement was as composer of the Negro Folk Symphony which combined melody and rhythm from Negro spirituals with his own original material. The Negro Folk Symphony was presented by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in 1934. In 1952, Dawson visited seven West African countries, after which he revised the symphony to include rhythm inspired by African influences. He recorded Negro Folk Symphony for Decca Records in 1961. Dawson was a guest conductor for the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra in 1966, Wayne State University Glee Club in 1970, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1975. Dawson was inducted into the Alabama Arts Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and received the Alabama Arts Award in 1980. He received honorary doctorates from Lincoln University in 1978 and Ithaca College in 1982. In 1983, Dawson received the Alumni Merit Award from Tuskegee Institute, at age 90.
“William Levi Dawson.” Alabama Music Hall of Fame. (2016) <http://alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1989/william-levi-dawson/>
National Register of Historic Places "Tidewater Cottages in the Tennessee Valley" Thematic nomination Architecture
National Register of Historic Places property - William Kroger House - south side of Smithsonia – Rhodesville Road about 4 miles northeast of Smithsonia The actual construction date of the William Kroger House is unknown but stylistic details place construction around 1830. The property is significant as an example of an early housing style in northern Alabama and for its association with early settlement patterns in the same area. The story and a half brick gable end house was built for William and Martha Kroger, both native of Virginia, with simple lines in a style that became known as a “tidewater cottage”. Martha’s family’s migration is known and entails time in Tennessee before the settlement in Alabama. This was a common settlement pattern during the early 19th century and often included Alabama as only a temporary residence before moving on to Mississippi or Texas in search of better land. The section of Lauderdale County where William and Martha Kroger settled is known as the “Colbert Reserve” or “the Bend” west of Florence in a fertile area north of the Tennessee River. The property also contains a historic board and batten outbuilding and a small overgrown plantation cemetery southwest of the house. Tidewater cottages in the Tennessee Valley of this configuration also followed migratory patterns to earlier settlement areas in Virginia and Maryland. Robert Gamble in Historic Architecture of Alabama states that the 19th century versions of the style, like those in the Tennessee Valley of North Alabama, tend to have smaller chimneys and a shallower roof pitch than the colonial examples in Virginia and Maryland. Tidewater cottages are identified by their simplicity and their height to length ratio (double cube) with the house being twice as long as it is high. The Kroger House is a brick double pile form with the depth ratio mimicking that of the front elevation. Another example of the Tidewater cottage form in Lauderdale County can be found in the Peter F. Armistead house on Waterloo Road 3 miles west of Florence. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of a “Tidewater Cottages in the Tennessee Valley” thematic nomination. More information about the house can be found on the website of the Alabama Historical Commission or the National Register data base of the National Park Service.
National Register nomination (#86001542)
Auburn, AL; Lee County, AL; Civil War; East Alabama Male College; Samford, William James; Confederate Army; Baker's Creek, Mississippi; Slaton, William F.; Johnson's Island; Lake Erie; Old Main Hall; Samford Hall
When the East Alabama Male College opened its doors in 1859, William James Samford was one of the first eighty students to enroll. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Samford enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army where he was soon promoted to Lieutenant. Serving primarily in the western theater of operations, he campaigned in Tennessee and Kentucky before he was captured at Baker's Creek, Mississippi in 1863. He then spent eighteen months in prison at the prisoner-of-war camp on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie where he met his former professor William F. Slaton. After the war, he returned to Auburn for a year to farm and study law under his father, after which he served in both houses of the Alabama legislature and eventually in Congress where he appropriated money for the reconstruction of Old Main Hall which had burned to the ground in 1887. He became the 31st Governor of Alabama in 1900. The newly reconstructed building was named Samford Hall in his honor in 1929.
Encyclopedia of Alabama: William J Samford
Education; Lee County, AL; William J. Samford Hall; Auburn University; Old Main Hall; Carnegie, Andrew; Samford, William J.; Auburn, AL
Erected in 1888 on the foundation of Old Main Hall (which burned down in 1887), William J. Samford Hall is one of Auburn University’s most easily recognizable buildings. Bruce and Morgan Architectural Firm fashioned the four-story Italianate-style structure after Old Main Hall, with one distinguishing characteristic – a majestic clock tower that rose many feet above the building’s roof. Old Main Hall’s cornerstone is still visible at the base of the northeast corner of Samford Hall. During the late nineteenth century, Samford Hall housed Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College’s administration, classrooms, and library. In 1909, Samford Hall’s library, which operated out of three cramped rooms on the second floor, moved to the new Carnegie-endowed facility across campus. In 1929, the Board of Trustees officially named the building Samford Hall in honor of William J. Samford, Alabama’s thirty-first governor. Auburn University renovated the building in 1971 and replaced the original clock in 1995. Today the building functions solely as the headquarters of Auburn University’s administration. The building is located at 182 South College Street, Auburn University.
Image Source: http://family.auburn.edu/profiles/blogs/the-best-free-services-auburn-students-should-be-taking-advantage Text Sources: Auburn University Libraries, http://www.lib.auburn.edu/arch/buildings/samford_hall1.htm The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 74.
National Register of Historic Places; Lustron House; Architecture; Florence, AL
The William Bowen House at 1145 Wildwood Park Road was built in 1949 and nominated to the National Register for its significance to architecture. The one story two bedroom Lustron House is a metal prefabricated house clad in enameled steel in two foot by two foot panels. The side gable roof is also covered in enameled steel panels designed to look like tile. The interior wall and ceiling also covered in the enameled panels are original as are the built in bookshelves, vanity, and closets. At the time of the National Register nomination in 2000 most of the interior was unchanged. The Lustron Corporation manufactured prefabricated steel and enameled paneled homes to meet the housing demands created by returning soldiers from World War II. The Columbus, Ohio based company operated between 1946 and 1950 and built 2,495 houses in a retooled Curtis-Wright airplane parts factory. The closed system factory constructed all 3,000 components of the house from steel and packaged the parts directly on specialized truck beds designed to hold and deliver one Lustron House. Lustron Houses, like the automobile they so closely resembled, were sold by local franchised dealers. The company had no problem recruiting dealers and provided the nationwide network with a training and education center. Building crews were offered training at the Lustron Service School in Columbus. Dealers did suffer from territory disrupts, funding sources, local building code inconsistencies, and slow order delivery. In 1950 with accolades and praise from homeowners and the architectural and building community, financial problems and slow production rates forced the Lustron Corporation to close. In Alabama Lustron Houses are closely associated with the local North Alabama South Tennessee dealer, the Southern Sash Company. The Southern Sash Company’s parent company Union Aluminum of Sheffield produced the aluminum frame windows for the Lustron Corporation. Company records as of December 31, 1949 displayed shipments for 15 houses in Alabama. The 2000 multi-property nomination for Lustron Houses in Alabama lists 9 surviving houses – 5 of which are in the Muscle Shoals area; 2 in Sheffield and 3 in Florence. All the houses in Florence are the most common plan, the two bedroom deluxe Westchester plan. This property was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 for its significance in terms of architecture and engineering. The same year Nomiit was also listed as part of a multiple property nomination “Lustron Houses in Alabama”. Information for this Omeka entry was found in the individual and multi-property nomination.
Ford, Gene A., Susan Enzweiler and Trina Binkley. “Bowen, William House – Lustron House”. National Register of Historic Places. Montgomery: Alabama Historic Commission, 2000. Ford, Gene A., Trina Binkley. “Lustron Houses in Alabama.” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination. Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 2000.
William Basil Wood was born on October 31, 1820. Wood was a LaGrange College graduate, and practiced law in Florence before the Civil War. Wood served as a colonel of the 16th Alabama Infantry Regiment and was recommended for promotion to brigadier general, but worked as President of the Military Court when he was assigned to General James Longstreet’s Corps. Besides being a lawyer, Wood served as circuit court judge and a Methodist minister after the war. Wood was instrumental in the movement of La Grange College from Leighton to Florence in 1855. Wood was also one of the first historians of Lauderdale County. William Basil Wood passed away on April 3, 1891. He is buried in the Florence Cemetery along with his wife, Sarah. Wood Avenue in Florence is named in his honor.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 45-46. Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 228. Image Courtesy of Collier Library Archives
William Barnard Log Cabin (Kinnebrew-Middlebrooks-Newell House)
Lee County, AL; Native American History; Creek Indians; Log Cabins; Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
In the early 1830s, William Barnard, a mixed-race Creek Indian, built a log cabin on 640 acres of land in what is now western Lee County. Barnard was an influential leader of the Creeks in western Georgia and served under U.S. militia general John Floyd in the First Creek War. Though he fought on the side of the United States in that conflict, Barnard was forced off of his Georgia property by the terms of subsequent treaties. The land upon which the cabin was built was granted to Barnard for his service in the First Creek War, for which he was also was granted the rank of major. Just before his death in 1833, Barnard recorded the first deed at the new Chambers County Courthouse, stipulating the division of his home, property and slaves between his twelve children upon his death. Barnard's son John, the executor of the deed, was likely defrauded of his inheritance by the court, and moved to the Indian Territory with the rest of the family. The property then passed through a succession of white owners and fell into disrepair. The cabin was donated by its last owner, Newell Floyd, to the Lee County Historical Society, of which Floyd is a member. The cabin was moved from its original site to Pioneer Park in Loachapoka, and is currently undergoing restoration. The home was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1996. Located near the original site is a cemetery containing the remains of the Kinnebrew family and the site of Fort Henderson, a militia fort built to protect against Creek attacks.
Text: Jeannette Frandsen and Newell Floyd, "Barnard-Newell Log Cabin," Trails in History: Official Newsletter of the Lee County Historical Society, Vol. 46, No. 2, April, 2013, 4-6. http://www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/trails/TrailsV46n2april13.pdf
Recreation; National Forest; Moulton, AL; Lawrence County, AL
William B. Bankhead National Forest is located in Lawrence and Winston Counties. The forest offers 180,000 acres of land for people to hike, horseback ride, and kayak. Visitor information can be obtained at the Warrior Mountain Trading Co. in Moulton.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/alabama “William B. Bankhead National Park.” Accessed July 14, 2015. http://msnha.una.edu/plan-a-visit
Architectural drawings; Watercolors; Houses; Dwellings; Doors & doorways; Windows; Shutters; Porches; Columns; Balconies; Hand railings; Woodwork; Roofs; Chimneys; Moldings; Men; Trees; Landscapes (Representations)
This image is a watercolor painting of the William A. Dawson House, also known as the Dawson-Wilson House, in Spring Hill, Alabama done by Martin Lide, Jr. sometime between 1917 and 1942. The house was built in 1834. The painting shows the front exterior of the house with its doors, windows, shutters, columned porch, steps, columned balcony, hand railing, sloped roof, and two chimneys surrounded by trees and landscaping. There is a man in period dress on the steps. The house is placed within framing art showing its architectural features including the molding under the roof and the second floor balcony, side and top views of the columns, a rear view of the house, floor plans, and the wooden railing from the porch and balcony. In the lower right corner, there is an Alabama Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture stamp with a handwritten inscription "1st Mention/HC." The painting is in good condition, missing only a small piece of the lower right corner, and is encapsulated.
Lide, Martin James (rendering); Dawson, William A. (house)
Auburn University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives Dept. Architecture, School of -- Architectural Renderings Student Projects
This image is the property of the Auburn University Libraries and is intended for non-commercial use. Users of the image are asked to acknowledge the Auburn University Libraries. For information about obtaining high-resolution copies of this and other images in this collection, please contact the Auburn University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Department at archive@auburn.edu or (334) 844-1732.
Library of Congress (Historic American Buildings Survey): http://www.loc.gov/item/al0418/
Spring Hill -- Mobile County -- Alabama ; 76 South McGregor Avenue, Spring Hill, Mobile County, AL (just off Old Shell Road, 9 miles from Mobile)
Will Demonstrate Famous Scissor Lock Here
Statues/Monuments; Florence, AL; Native American History
This wall is known by two names: Tom Hendrix's Wall and the Wichahpi Commemorative Wall. Tom Hendrix started this wall in the 1980's after learning of his great-great grandmother's journey during the Trail of Tears. Te-lah-nay was forced to walk to Oklahoma. She never felt safe at her new home and ran away spending 5 years making her way back to the Singing River. The more than a mile long wall is made up of stones from more than 120 countries. Most of the stones come from Lauderdale County. Each stone represents one of her steps on her journey, The shape, height, and width of the wall all change to represent the trials she faced. The Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall is the largest monument to a Native American woman.
Visit Florence, "Tom's Wall,"http://www.visitflorenceal.com/things_to_do/toms-wall/ (Accessed April 28, 2015)