Pell City Growing

Story and photos by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

Driving around Pell City these days is like being on a tour of a boom town. Rooftops are going up. Steel framework for major businesses is being erected. Construction in various phases is under way in many parts of the city.

And the benefits aren’t lost on people like Brian Muenger, city manager of Pell City.

“We are now seeing through a combination of factors economic properties becoming available that are desirable. They’re coming onto the market, and we’re seeing a lot of focus on investment on US 231 and properties adjacent to I-20.”

In just the northern tip of Pell City on US 231 and I-20 thoroughfares, Town & Country Ford, McSweeney Automotive and Northside Medical Home are looming large on the economic landscape.

The old hospital property fronting I-20 is getting more than a second look of late. “Interested parties are looking that we didn’t have before. Now they’re showing interest.”

Just across I-20, market movement is being seen in the Vaughn and Hazelwood Drive areas. “Property transactions are taking place. People are ready to develop those areas,” Muenger said.

What once would have been a devastating blow – Kmart closing a little further south on US 231 – has the potential to rebound better and stronger than before. A trio of retailers is coming in – Tractor Supply Co., Martin’s Family Clothing and Bargain Hunt. Tractor Supply will occupy the end and outdoor portion of the 90,000-square-foot Kmart space, and Martin’s will bring its regional reputation and department store to 40,000 square feet of it. “Three retailers will almost exceed employment and sales of Kmart. It is a great thing for the community, and it says a lot about our retail community,” Muenger noted.

He turned his attention to Bankhead Crossing, where a new theater, bowling alley and entertainment complex is expected to begin construction soon. The project was delayed due to design revisions, but it appears ready to deliver on its plans.

With a burgeoning Walmart shopping center and surrounding businesses, it is easy to see cause for excitement. I-20 Development President and CEO Bill Ellison, who developed those areas and is continuing to do so, predicted that “the Premiere Entertainment Center will trigger the next tier of retail development along Highway 231 and the I-20 Corridor. I think you will see the addition of more restaurants and retail box stores. It will help expand the tax revenue for the City of Pell City.”

Already, businesses in that area are two of the top three revenue generators for the city, Muenger said. With the rerouting of Hazelwood Drive just across US 231 for improved access to St. Vincent’s St. Clair and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, development in that area is opening up new growth. That project is in the design phase and readying to enter the acquisition phase.

Muenger points with particular pride to the city’s recent Standard and Poor rating of AA Stable. “That’s a top tier” for a city the size of Pell City, Muenger said, and it underscores a strong economy, budget, management, liquidity and weak debt.

“We expect existing business to continue to grow with new business coming into the market,” Muenger said, a prospect that bodes well for the future.

“St. Clair County is often one of the top five counties in Alabama in population growth and median household income. Pell City’s leaders have taken a very thoughtful approach to growth by focusing on job creation, quality of life and safety. When you create a safe community for young couples to start a family and career, it will then become the perfect environment for retailers. We are seeing this more as the Birmingham market continues to grow to the east,” he said.

“Specifically, Pell City has understood that infrastructure is the key to future development and they have always invested wisely in water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure. Many people have already forgotten that at one point the bridge over the interstate had only two lanes. Pell City was willing to invest in its future.

“We believe that, with continued strong leadership from the Mayor, Council Members, City Manager and the entire community, Pell City will continue to grow and prosper.”

LAH Realtor Dana Ellison couldn’t agree more. She and LAH commercial broker Austin Blair have listed what has long been thought of as prime development property on the southern end of the city.

What is known locally as the Cropwell intersection, where 19th Street, Alabama 34 and US 231 South intersect, sizable acreage is being marketed and is expected to fuel substantial growth in that area.

Ellison talked about the potential in terms of convenience for anyone living south of the Kmart development. “It pulls from several counties, like Talladega and Shelby, as well as the residential areas of Logan Martin Lake and southern St. Clair County.”

She noted that when grocery giant Publix decided to locate nearby in what is now the South Park development, “they looked at the demographics of that area.”

And decision-makers liked what they saw.

“We have some key pieces of commercially zoned property on the market at that intersection, providing an opportunity for users needing from one acre up to parcels large enough for an entire shopping center,” Blair said. “It’s a real opportunity for growth.”

Nearby Pell City’s Civic Center and Sports Complex and Lakeside Park draw substantial traffic. Lake residents like the convenience of shopping and doing business in the area, and Ellison sees the properties that are available now as prime spots for medical offices, hardware, convenience stores, restaurants and office space.

“We’re seeing new rooftops,” she said, and demand is resurging. Household income is increasing, and interest in the lake is on an upward trajectory.

All those signs point toward major growth on the southern end of the city, and coupled with the growth on the northern end, Pell City appears to be in just the right spot heading into the future.

“You can get to Pell City from downtown Birmingham in just over 30 minutes most any time of day. Pell City is easy to access via free flowing I-20 compared to other growing areas near Birmingham,” Blair said. “That should continue to promote positive growth.”

 

Northside Medical Home Opening

Expansion creating a special place in Pell City

Story and Photos by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

It is hard to imagine that from a small office on John Haynes Drive, a mere 3,000 square feet, that a sprawling medical home could rise a decade and a half later.

But on Pell City’s north end, the construction seems endless as Northside Medical Associates continues expansion after expansion.

Founded in 2001 by Dr. Rock Helms, Northside has evolved into 80,000 square feet of patient-centered facilities, the latest of which doubles its size and significantly enhances its scope. Northside Medical Home opened in October, fulfilling the next step in Helms’ vision of health care. Official grand opening and ribbon cutting are set for Oct. 24.

At the center of what he envisions is always the patient – comprehensive care, access to cutting-edge diagnostic technology, expanded specialties and an atmosphere where doctors talk to one another for better outcomes for its patients. And all of it is conveniently located close to the patient on a single campus.

“It has always been good to provide a place for patients where they can obtain a full range of medical services at one patient location. This is the next step toward that goal,” Helms said. “We encourage collaboration between primary and specialty care because it enables better quality care.”

The two-story, 50,000-square-foot Northside Medical Home, fronting Interstate 20 on one side and the existing facilities on the other, represents a sizable next step – diverse specialties all under one roof.

In the new wing will be Alacare Home Health and Hospice, VisionFirst Eye Center, Birmingham Heart Clinic, Alabama Oral & Facial Surgery, Southeast Gastro, Eastern Surgical Associates, an expanded Northside Apothecary, and Northside CARE Team with expanded Health & Wellness department. It even has a café coming in January.

Northside Medical Home’s expansion also will include bone density and body composition, infusion suite, and health and wellness classes in its new training center. According to Chief Operating Officer Laura Gossett, the tenants have already expressed interest in hosting events for the public to educate and promote specific health-related topics. “Our training center will be the ideal venue for these types of events.”

Doctors Helms, Michael Dupre and Hunter Russell, along with their nurse practitioners and clinical staff, will relocate to the new building. Doctors William McClanahan, Bob Whitmore and Steve Fortson, along with their nurse practitioners and clinical staff, will expand clinical services in buildings I and II. Also expected are new timeshare specialty physicians from Birmingham and surrounding areas joining the Northside campus Timeshare medical staff soon.

“We want this to be a medical home for patients,” Helms said. “It’s exciting. It’s a more convenient, relaxed setting” than driving to larger, crowded metropolitan areas.

And the end result is an unrivaled collaboration coming together to put the patient at the center of everything they do. Here’s what Northside Medical Home’s newest residents had to say about the new venture:

 

Birmingham Heart Clinic

With the expansion from a time-share rotation space to a full-time 9,000+ square-foot clinic, it will give Birmingham Heart Clinic the capability of offering full service cardiology to the Pell City area. BHC will have anywhere from one to three physicians seeing patients in its new office every day starting in October. 

In addition, the new office space will give BHC the ability to perform a wide range of diagnostic testing in-house, such as nuclear and exercise stress tests, cardiac and vascular ultrasounds, Holter and event monitoring.

“BHC responded to growth in the Pell City area more than eight years ago by opening a clinic, and initially, that volume of patients was served with clinic coverage roughly one day per week,” explained Dr. Jason B. Thompson. “The area has seen remarkable growth and has outstanding primary care with both fueling the development of the clinic space set to open. BHC Pell City will be able to accommodate three full-time providers and offer an array of diagnostic testing, allowing patients to keep their care locally.”

 

VisionFirst Eye Center

VisionFirst’s Dr. Sara Clark Cleghern is looking forward to quadrupling the amount of space her clinic now occupies. It will have its own waiting room, which features an area for children, complete with toys and an iPad bar.

“More” is the operative word at Pell City’s VisionFirst – more examination rooms, more equipment and the ability to do more procedures in-house. With services from primary eye care to surgeons represented, “it will allow us to do more,” she said. And there will be an expanded, comprehensive line of glasses.

Birmingham-based VisionFirst affiliated with Northside in January 2015, and Cleghern came on board in August 2015.

“We love how it integrates patient care. So many of our patients have doctors there. We can talk things over with their doctors.” If there is a problem with eye care that is associated with their primary care, often the answer is just down the hall. In other communities oftentimes that kind of ease in communication between doctors isn’t the case.

As an example, she pointed to a patient with an acute eye problem. The primary doctor referred the patient to Dr. Cleghern, the patient had an MRI in Northside’s Imaging Suite before seeing her, so they were able to have access to all they needed before the exam and diagnosis. No delays.

“It’s really incredible,” she said.

“There is a good community within the clinic, good relationships and the facilities are better,” she added. Outside the clinic, “we love the community of Pell City, it’s close-knit. I love getting to meet patients and see them year after year,” building better relationships and becoming more familiar with their history – medically and personally.

This new clinic will have full vision care with access to comprehensive services – from ocular disease to surgical care.

 

Alabama Oral Surgery

Dr. Chris Rothman of Alabama Oral & Facial Surgery called the move to Northside Medical Home “a natural fit.” He has been practicing in Pell City for 15 years, but was having trouble with infrastructure.

“We needed a new state-of-the-art building,” he said.

They found it at Northside in a 2,000-square-foot suite the practice will occupy. “We like the people. It’s good for us. There is a pharmacy on-site, and patients can have their surgery, go through the drive through to pick up their prescriptions and be on their way home.”

He talked of the strong relationships developed with Northside’s key people. “(Chief Operating Officer) Laura Gossett is fantastic to work with, and (CEO) Rock Helms is great, too.”

 

Eastern Surgical Associates

“Our relationship with Northside Medical is paramount in our quest to service patients in East Alabama,” said Robin Smith, practice manager of Eastern Surgical Associates, which is based in Trussville and expanded to Northside. “Our practice has continued to grow in East Alabama due to the patient, physician and staff relationships garnered while working in the Northside Medical Building.

“We have been able to provide much-needed surgical assistance to patients that otherwise would have had to travel extensively for care.”

 

Northside Apothecary

 Northside Apothecary will be moving to the end cap of the new building with expanded room from its location in Phase II. “We are very excited about moving into our new space,” said Pharmacy Director Bradley Pate. The pharmacy will continue its hours of 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. “Being back on the end cap, we are able to offer drive-through services to our patients once again. We are adding a second pick-up window, so you definitely won’t be wasting time waiting in line to pick up your prescriptions or other needs.”

Northside Apothecary will continue to be a full-service pharmacy with a full line of OTC, home-health and compression therapy products. “We will have more retail space and are going to introduce a gift section, which will include items from Willow Tree, Melissa and Doug, an array of gift and greeting cards, and many other boutique and seasonal offerings. We have a wide array of items coming in and changing often, so you are sure to find something for everyone on your list,” Pate said.

Additional space in the pharmacy allows it to expand its compounding services to provide unique and individualized medication options for patients. “We can compound just about anything, from our popular arthritis cream to veterinary medications. Northside Apothecary has always been innovative and continues to integrate technology to better provide for our patients.”

Northside Apothecary has its own mobile app (currently available for Android users and will soon be added to the Apple App Store) that will allow patients to request prescription refills and transfers, set up refill reminders, and connect on Facebook and Instagram. Patients also have the option to sign up for free, weekly e-newsletters, which incorporate health-related articles and medication information.

“Northside has become a destination for health care in St. Clair County, and Northside Apothecary wants to become the premiere pharmacy in the area,” Pate said. “Our relationship with the practitioners at Northside allow us to always provide exceptional care for our patients. We love our patients and will continue to be the pharmacy that fills all your needs.”

 

Alacare Home Health & Hospice

Alacare Home Health & Hospice has been part of the St. Clair County health care community for more than 35 years. “The decision to move into the new Northside Medical Home complex was guided by a question we at Alacare ask ourselves each day, ‘How can we deliver the best care possible for our patients?’” according to Alacare CEO Susan B. Brouillette.

“Alacare’s ability to work more closely with Northside Medical’s “Patient-Centered” care model allows us the opportunity to improve the continuity of care and communication with other healthcare providers.

“The new Northside Medical Home complex that Dr. Helms has developed will facilitate a working collaborative health-care environment enabling us to improve patient’s outcomes and reduce the likelihood of a patient having to return to the hospital unless absolutely necessary,” she said.

“Across the nation and especially in Alabama, our aging population and increasing healthcare costs will make a person’s own home an important place for health care whenever possible. By coordinating with the patient’s physician, hospital or outpatient clinic, Alacare Home Health & Hospice can provide the necessary care in the best possible place, the patient’s own home.”

 

Northside CARE Team

The newly created Northside CARE Team is a chronic-care management team of health care providers who treat patients at the clinic or at home if needed. It began with four patients in April and has already soared over the 200-mark.

Its aim is to reduce hospitalizations and enhance quality of life by focusing on the relationship between the primary-care provider and the patient, identifying barriers to their patients’ health and executing a plan to navigate around those challenges.

“We want them happy, healthy and out of the hospital,” said CARE Program Director Dianna McCain.

The CARE Team offers assistance with medications on a weekly basis at patients’ homes or daily calls to remind patients to take their medications.

Because of a growing shortage of primary-care physicians, Helms envisioned a program that could take the best care of patients, whether it is at Northside or in the patient’s home.

Its new space will allow the program to grow and better serve its patients.

 

Editor’s note: To learn more about Northside Medical Home, go to northsidemedicalhome.com.

Battle for St. Clair High School

1908 battle for location of county high school lands in Odenville

Story by Joe Whitten
Photos by Graham Hadley
Submitted Photos

When Braxton Bragg Comer was elected governor in 1906, among his goals was upgrading Alabama schools. In 1907, legislation passed to establish county high schools in counties where there was not already a state-supported high school — for white students. It would be 60 years before integration of schools in the county.

Most of St. Clair County was excited about a state-accredited high school being established in one of its towns. Location committees were appointed by the state to review the towns and their resources.

A review of local newspapers of the day shows that Pell City, Odenville and Springville wanted the school. Ashville was not interested, and their newspaper, The Southern Aegis, consistently at odds with Gov. Comer, commented in its Feb. 26, 1908, issue that it seemed Comer was “… making a vigorous campaign for his future aspirations” and that “… he is taking advantage of the high school appropriation at the public expense.” The writer concluded, “He may fool some people all the time, but not all the people every time.”

Odenville published a newspaper, The St. Clair County News, and its editor, J.L. Maddox, set to work composing florid prose in praise of his town. Pell City had no paper, but was in the process of establishing The Pell City Progress, but it would not come into production until March 1908. So, it was Odenville’s newspaper that announced in February that the Governor’s Location Committee would come to Odenville on Saturday, March 7.

Location, location, location

An Odenville editorial of March 5 boasted reasons why Odenville was the perfect location for a state high school. It had:

  • A central location.
  • A prosperous agricultural community.
  • Sixteen wells in the area.
  • Ideally suited with good public roads leading to all areas of the county.
  • On the Seaboard Airline railroad (making it convenient for boarding students).

Maddox’s final point was that “Pell City has every advantage for cotton mills, but nature never intended it to be an educational site for the St. Clair County High School” — an incautious observation that could not go unnoticed by Pell City.

The date arrived for the governor and his Location Committee’s visit, and the day dawned clear and bright. Folks began trickling into Odenville before seven o’clock. By 9:30 the crowd was reported to be “a multitude,” for a special train had picked up and delivered citizens from Ragland, Coal City and Pell City. The papers estimated the day’s crowd to be between 2,500 and 3,000.

The meeting with the governor and committee took place at the elementary school in Odenville. Watt Brown of Ragland made a talk expressing his faith in Odenville’s future. Brown’s Odenville Land and Development Company had laid out Odenville’s town limits in a circle with a 1-mile radius from the center of the bridge over Beaver Creek on today’s Third Avenue. As a businessman dealing in real estate, Brown would not have been investing in the town had he not believed he would get a good return on his money.

After a lunch with Dr. and Mrs. C.C. Brown, the governor and committee journeyed to Pell City to hear their presentation of Pell City as the better location for the new high school.

Governor Comer’s comments to Pell City were not recorded in print, but it is clear that Pell City was offended by Comer’s observations.

On April 23, under the headline, “What’s Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth?,” the Progress reported its assessment of the governor’s attitude.

Pell City had presented their town and the Coosa Valley area as the logical choice for St. Clair County High School. Their stated points were:

  • 30 percent of the county’s voters lived within 5 miles of Pell City.
  • 40 percent of the county’s cotton grew in Coosa Valley.
  • 30 percent of the cotton was ginned here.
  • 50 percent  of the county’s industrial wage was paid there.

They offered these facts to the governor and committee “… to fortify the figures of the county superintendent of education that over 30 percent of the county white school children lived within this same area.” Pell City saw these figures as logical reasons why Pell City was a better location than Odenville for St. Clair County High School.

The Progress observed that “Mr. Comer did not accept the argument” as presented. Rather, “He took it as proving that we were selfish in the Coosa Valley, that we had no concept of what this high school was to be, and that we were making political threats.”

The editor continued, “If it so happens that Mr. Comer himself believes in his accusations, we wish, taking advantage of the last word, to enlighten him.

“The Coosa Valley is not selfish, howsoever much individuals may say. The Coosa Valley does know what a High School is, and she knows it well enough to welcome every child who comes to it. … A High School is not a boarding school, [for] the large majority of its pupils will come from that territory within which the boys and girls may attend school and eat both breakfast and supper at home. … Pell City has more school children than Springville, Ashville and Odenville combined. … On the principle that Mahomet went to the mountain, Pell City claims the school and so here endeth the last word.”

And the winner is …

Having presented their best, Odenville and Pell City entered a busy waiting period as they anticipated the state’s decision. It was the county high school, and the state expected the entire county’s financial help with construction, therefore towns formed committees to collect pledges and funds.

In April, Progress reported that folks in Ashville and Springville claimed “inside information,” and were of the opinion Pell City had “no chance” of being selected. But rather than losing heart, Pell City published that they had “the best chance” based upon the facts submitted in connection with the state’s proposal for location.

 In hopes of winning, they continued collecting funds.

Then on Friday, May 1, 1908, the state announced Odenville as winner of St. Clair County High School. Whereupon, the town fathers set about to accomplish the awarded task —constructing a high school building.

Pell City Progress reported their loss in the May 7 issue, saying their loss showed “what comes from organized effort and what can be lost for lack of it.” They offered this opinion: “It is feared that our friends at Odenville have bitten off more than they can chew with comfort.” Then, perhaps still chaffing over Odenville’s “mill town” assessment, Tilton prophesied that the state would come to regret having “put a ten-thousand-dollar school building in a one-thousand-dollar town.”

With that parting zinger, Pell City turned her singular attention toward establishing their own high school and having it ready for occupation by September. The chairman of the Pell City school committee, McLane Tilton, announced in the Progress that “Coosa Valley may rest assured that a High School is going to be located at Pell City, and accomplished with or without the help of the state.” Tilton announced that “Donations to the [county] High School are hereby declared void.” Anyone wanting signed pledges returned should call at the Bank of St. Clair County (became Union State Bank in 1918), where he served as president, before May 15. After that date, notes would be destroyed. Tilton expressed faith that the town could raise “not less than four thousand dollars” to build a high school and that Pell City would “have the satisfaction of owning our own school, built and maintained by ourselves.”

In Odenville, Mr. and Mrs. John Newton, Mr. and Mrs. W.C. Hardin, and Watt Brown had donated land for the school. Now, the school committee set about collecting funds and redeeming pledges. This proved to be a slow process, for some outside Odenville were not forthcoming on pledges. However, one elderly woman, Nancy Turrentine, deeded 20 acres of her farm to the new high school. The Odenville paper noted that she offered to give 20 more if they were needed to raise the required amount.

On Saturday, July 18, 1908, Judge John W. Inzer laid the cornerston for St. Clair County High School. The St. Clair County News reported that “a crowd” from across the county was present for the event. Watt Brown was master of ceremonies. Gov. Comer and other state dignitaries made speeches. Judge Inzer, in laying the cornerstone, expressed his hope that wounded feelings would be laid aside and that every community would “stand united to advance the interest of our county.”

In the fall of 1908, the high school met in the Odenville Elementary School, for a new building would take months to construct. But despite setbacks and delays, in 1909, St. Clair County High School would occupy a two-story brick building.

The citizens of Pell City also coalesced to establish a high school. On May 7, 1908, the editor of the Progress reported that “the Town of Pell City has two thousand dollars which it contributed to the [County] High School fund and now goes back into the [Pell City] treasure.” Tilton suggested that the money should be used for the construction of the Pell City High School, which he speculated would cost about $3,000.

To spur on the town and surrounding area, he wrote, “The same arguments used to locate the County School here now demand of us that we show what we can do alone and unassisted.” The editor issued a trumpet call by saying, “Progress demands of the Council and School Board to hold a called meeting,” and concludes that city fathers could “… create a public sentiment that will result in the action desired without delay. … We must have this school by September 1st.”

The City Council and School Board accepted the call, met together, and in the June 4, Progress could report that “The Council and School Board each appropriated one thousand dollars” and that the “two thousand in all…will be at once utilized to build the high school addition to our present building.”

As the months progressed, meetings, suggestions and decisions were regularly reported in the newspaper. Just as in Odenville, there were setbacks and delays, but a Pell City High School was assured. An Aug. 13 article reports: “The new addition to the school is rapidly nearing completion and will be ready by the first day of the term. This addition will cost in the neighborhood of $3,500, including furnishings, and will give us a ten-thousand-dollar modern structure second to none in the State.”

The new addition would add four rooms and an auditorium “fitted out with orchestra chairs.” The auditorium would “hold about 400,” and the stage would have dressing rooms and be “electric lighted.”

Exciting days! For the completion of the brick addition with a metal roof would give “… Pell City and south St. Clair a primary and high school sufficient for our needs for several years to come.”

Thus, Pell City High School was born, and the Progress’ headline on Sept. 17 proclaimed: “OUR SCHOOL BEGINS,” noting, “The high school is open to all the children of the county, several having already entered from Seddon and Eden.”

A win-win situation

As years have waxed and waned since 1908, student numbers have increased in each school, validating the work of both towns over 100 years ago. In the 2016 school year, St. Clair County High School served 587 students, and Pell City High School, 1,105 students.

Most of the time, battles end with only one winner. In the battle for the location of St. Clair County High School, both Odenville and Pell City won. The loss of the county high school proved to be the impetus needed for Pell City to organize its own high school. Pell City High School and St. Clair County High School today cherish the past, yet each looks to the future and the challenges of their second century.

St. Clair Remembers

Epic tales from the men and women who went to war

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley
Contributed Photos

It may be cliché, but if the walls of the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home could talk, my, oh my, the stories they could tell.

But short of talking walls and such, Discover writers and photographers visited the veterans home just weeks before its fifth anniversary in Pell City to record those stories. The 254-veteran capacity home is full now, and stories abound from different wars, different perspectives and different walks of life. The common thread of this band of brothers and sisters is service to country first.

These are real veterans, and these are their stories.

 

World War II seaman

went to ‘save the country’

Leo “Cotton” Crawford was only 17 when he boarded the USS Storm King as a seaman in World War II. He was 19 when he came home.

While today’s teens might lean more toward cars, careers or college, Crawford enlisted – like his two brothers – to, as he put it, “keep the Japanese from whooping us and take care of our country.”

Before he reached the age of 20, he knew all he needed to know: “We went to save our country, and we did.”

Crawford served in the Philippines. His two brothers – Herbie and Harold – had joined the Navy as well. “All three of us came out alive,” Crawford said, a hint of pride showing in his wide grin.

He doesn’t talk much about the war. Soldiers and sailors of his time rarely do. “We were in war,” he said. “It was expected” that you would serve. “They will take you if you’re a young kid ready to go. They took me. I enjoyed my time.”

Col. Robert Howard’s Medal of Honor on display at the Veterans Home in Pell City.

When he returned home to Alabama, he was hired by the telephone company and stayed there until retirement as a cable repairman. “Ma Bell hired all of us,” he said of him and his brothers.

Now living at the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, he dons his USS Storm King cap most of the time, covering up the locks of grey he has rightly earned. It’s not quite clear how he got the nickname, Cotton.

It could have been the blondeness of his hair as a youngster or that he was partial to picking cotton at the farm of his “kinfolks” in Cullman, he said. They would see him coming and say, “ ‘Here comes ole Cotton,’ and it stuck with me.”

 

Teen joins Navy,

stays for career

It would be 25 years before Bill Waldon would leave the US Navy after bidding farewell to his native home near Carbon Hill. The son of a miner, he left the service as an officer. “I’ve been around the world twice,” he said.

He married at 17, and he remembers his brother-in-law coming home on leave from World War II. Inquisitive, he asked him what it was like to serve. The brother-in-law put it this way: “ ‘The Army is doing the fighting. The Navy is getting the pay. And the Marines are getting the credit.’ So, when I joined, I wanted to fight in the Navy. We were old country boys. We got the best deal we could.”

He worked in the communications section aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Valley Forge. “I was very fortunate. I didn’t hear a bullet.”

Later, as he rose through the ranks, he began to give the orders. “If they were shot at, I’d tell them what to do,” he mused. “If they’re shooting at the ship, stay pretty close together.”

He talked of his own good fortunes taking orders through the years. “I had good people telling me what to do.”

 

World War II vet

dodges bullets as messenger

“They called me a messenger,” said Dyer Honeycutt, who served in the US Army in World War II in France and Belgium. “I called myself a runner.”

It was his job to get messages from one camp to another. So, run he did. “Bullets sounded like a whip, a pop” as they raced past him.

“I was shot at a lot of times,” but he was never struck. “I’d get about the length of a football field, and they started shooting at me. I had a lot of good buddies get killed. I still believe the Lord above was taking care of me.”

He was the son of farmers in Attalla and joined the service after high school. His method of carrying messages without getting hurt? “I’d go one time to the left and two times to the right. Then I’m hitting the deck. They’re shooting at me.”

The dominant thought throughout was, “If the Lord wanted me to die, I would. If He didn’t, I wouldn’t.”

 

D-Day an ‘awesome’ experience

For James Majors, D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, could only be described as “awesome.”

From his vantage point on a troop carrier ship, “the sky was like a swarm of blackbirds. It was full of everything that could fly.”

His ship was on the first wave. Rockets were shot onto the beach. “The ocean behind me was full of ships. The sky was black with airplanes.” There was a church on top of the cliffs being used as a lookout by the enemy. “Our job was to knock it out, which we did.”

Ahead, he could see the cliffs up from the beach. Germans stood at the top shooting down at American soldiers as they climbed. “They were shot down, but our boys kept going. It was heartbreaking. They just kept going. I still have bad thoughts.”

After the initial invasion, it was Majors’ job to be a diver and clear the entanglements of  barbed wire and wood the enemy had left to block the beach. “We cleared pathways for the big ships to come in.”

Majors was a motor machinist mate, running the diesel engines – “everything mechanical on the ship except the refrigeration.” It was the farthest away from his Gadsden home he had ever been.

He jokes about his trip from England to Normandy, which could be measured in the space of 48 hours. “I aged a year,” he mused. “I was 19 when I left England, and I was 20 when I got to Normandy. His birthday was June 4, 1945. D-Day was June 6. “I don’t know how many Germans we took out, but we dug a lot of foxholes,” he said. “If there is anything that will break your heart, it is remembering what went on that day.”

At the same time, Majors says he has “a sense of pride I was able to be part of the crew. We carried the mission out with pride. I would go back again if it was under the same circumstances. I would not go back in the mess our boys are in now. In Normandy and Southern France, we knew who the enemy was. They don’t know who our friends are.”

He has talked to his younger counterparts at the veterans home. “The people they’re training are killing the trainers.”

But as for his own experience that fateful day in June 1945, “I was proud to have served in the greatest battle ever fought, and I was right out front. That was something.”

For more stories about our veterans, the Veterans Home and the community that supports them, read this month’s edition of Discover The Essence of St. Clair either in the digital edition or in print.

Riverside, Alabama

A diamond in the rough

Story by Paul South
Photos by Graham Hadley

 “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”
—Norman Maclean (cq), Author

A story about this small, but growing St. Clair County town has an obvious beginning: The Coosa River.

Across the millennia, civilizations have been drawn to water to quench thirsts and quell appetites, to clean bodies and purify souls, for transportation and for commerce and for joy and inspiration.

And many have settled on the river to begin new lives, or to spend their last days near the peace and beauty of the water.

Just like civilization, the river is always changing. Heraclitis, a Greek philosopher, had it right. “No man ever steps into the same river twice; for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”

As the Coosa has changed across the centuries, Riverside has changed. Like the rest of its incorporated neighbors, Riverside’s population has grown, drawing new residents from larger urban areas like Birmingham.

While the real estate boom has not hit Riverside like Margaret, Odenville and other municipalities, the Coosa and Logan Martin Lake draw visitors like a powerful magnet. As it has throughout history, the water brings the promise of more people – and greater prosperity.

Mayor Rusty Jessup believes the future is bright. Jessup is in his fourth term as mayor and serves as the chairman of the county mayors’ association and as a member of the Alabama League of Municipalities’ Executive Committee.

“What a diamond in the rough (Riverside) is right here at this river,” Jessup said.

 

Riverside’s roots

Modern-day Riverside had its beginnings as Readmon when it was founded in 1882, but was later incorporated as Riverside in 1886. For years, it was the county’s industrial hub, a hotbed for logging, sawmills, milling and egg production. Barge traffic was common on the Coosa, moving commerce up and down the river.

A ferry – known as the Coleman Ferry – also provided a key transportation link, helping people cross the river in the horse-and-buggy era. It remained in operation until the John Bankhead Bridge opened in 1937.

Bankhead, a U.S. senator, was the patriarch of one of Alabama’s great political dynasties. His son, William Bankhead, served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and his son, Walter Will Bankhead, also served in Congress. John Bankhead’s granddaughter, Tallulah, made her mark on stage and screen.

“At that time, (Riverside) was a pretty unique crossroads because it had one of the very few ways to cross the Coosa River right here, so there was a lot of activity,” Jessup said.

But Riverside’s history, inextricably tied to the Coosa, runs deeper than the 135 years of incorporation, or so goes archaeological speculation, Jessup said.

From 500 to 1100 A.D., the northern part of what is now Riverside was home to one of the largest native settlements, perhaps among the largest in the Southeast, Jessup said. Now the town and its environs are a popular hunting ground for Indian artifacts,

“There are citizens here in Riverside who have museum-quality Indian artifacts in their homes,” Jessup said. “Spearheads, arrowheads, tomahawk heads and pottery, it’s very interesting.”

Like most towns in St. Clair County, white settlers arrival in the area predates Alabama statehood in 1819. There is much historical speculation about the period before incorporation. And those wives’ tales, passed down through the generations, make for compelling stories.

Jessup recounted one Civil-War-era story about Riverside and a Union contingent of 40,000 cavalry known as Streight’s Raiders under the command of Brigadier Gen. Abel Streight. According to Jessup, the story goes that Streight was ordered to destroy every county courthouse as his troopers slashed through Alabama. He burned the St. Clair County Courthouse in Ashville.

“But a group of citizens – mostly elderly men, women and children – got all the records out of the courthouse and took them by wagon down through Riverside and hid them in the basement of the Blue Eye Baptist Church on Blue Eye Creek near Lincoln, Alabama,” Jessup said.

The records were important for county families, including Riverside residents.

“That’s one reason that a lot of people here in Riverside and here in St. Clair County got to keep their property (after the war) because they could still prove it was theirs.”

One of Riverside’s businesses that has had international impact for years was Riverside Sand Co. on the banks of the Coosa. The company mined a clay that made bricks that were of a special quality that could stand up to the intense heat of furnaces used to melt steel, a valuable commodity for the steel mills of Birmingham and Pittsburgh. The Hamilton and Mercer families ran the mining operation from the late 1890s until the late 1930s.

The town’s history was deeply influenced deep into the 20th century by river commerce, until Logan Martin Dam was completed in 1965 by Alabama Power Co., creating today’s Logan Martin Lake. According to the Almanac of Alabama, part of the original town of Riverside rests at the lake’s bottom.

“The dam changed everything,” Jessup said. “Once hydroelectric power came in, the barge traffic stopped and changed the economic outlook. The river still drives the economy for this area, but not like it did. Now it drives it in a different way.”

 The river, the dam and Logan Martin Lake have transformed the river and the Riverside area from a commercial hub to a vacation destination. Jessup believes great days are on the horizon for Riverside, as a retirement and second-home community and a center for ecotourism.

“The lake is a great draw,” said Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Authority. “Folks that want to live on the lake, that possibility is there, and it is affordable.”

Smith added, “It’s a beautiful community that’s great on partnering with other entities in the county, such as Pell City, with police and fire protection and with Pell City schools.”

 The interstate interchange where US 78 crosses Interstate 20 is one of the last undeveloped interchanges in the county.

“It’s very attractive for that reason,” Jessup said.

There is a challenge. Available land for commercial and residential development has been hindered by the floodplains that had to be set aside when the dam was built. The arrival of the dam meant that Riverside’s infrastructure – highways, railroads, post offices, etc., — had to be elevated because of higher water levels that came with the dam. The dirt to build up that infrastructure came from the Riverside area, leaving some parts too low for development.

However, the flood plain is important, because when rivers and lakes rise, it keeps flooding out of homes and businesses. The lake is used for hyrdorelectric generation and is a holding lake for others, so the water rises 5 feet in summer at its full pool and lowers 5 feet in winter. Heavy rains can cause it to top summer pool.

“We have a lot of that here,” Jessup said. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way it is. When it rises, the water has to go somewhere. It’s better that it goes into the flood plain than into our homes and businesses.”

The flood plain and a rail line also pose challenges to development in Riverside’s piece of the I-20 corridor. But town officials are optimistic about the future. New development will come. After all, with miles along the Coosa riverfront and the lakefront property, people will be drawn to the water as they have been for centuries.

“It’s not going to be long until the right people take interest and develop that,” Jessup said.

Infrastructure expansion is also critical, especially sewerage capacity.

“As that community continues to grow, investment in infrastructure is going to be needed,” Smith said. “And property owners interested in development in Riverside need to be empowered to bring in outside investment. But infrastructure growth is key.”

Even with those hurdles, Riverside is growing. In the 2010 Census, Riverside’s population stood at 2,208, up from 1,564 a decade earlier. It has now topped the 2,300-mark.

Planning will be critical long-term, Smith said.

“Because of their location, Riverside is somewhat compact. So, planning for the future and having a vision of what they want the community to look like is very important. I’m not sure heavy industry is a good fit. Something more ecotourism and building more river-based activities would be a component of their future success going forward,” Smith said.

Even with the challenges, the town is a good investment, in part because of the interstate interchange.

But also as the state population ages, Riverside is a popular destination. Unlike other county communities, young families aren’t making Riverside part of the northeastern migration, but Baby Boomers, nearing retirement and drawn to the small-town atmosphere and the peace of the waterways, are coming.

“We don’t see the suburban push,” Jessup said. “What we’re seeing is people retiring or near retirement moving out this way, because the commute to Birmingham or to the Honda plant (in Lincoln) is a snap,” Jessup said. “I made the commute to Birmingham for 25 years, and it was easy then. It’s even easier now.”

There are also the common denominators that are part of the equation of St. Clair County – good schools, low crime and friendly atmosphere. Riverside’s household median income is above the national average. A story in the Birmingham Business Journal lists Riverside as the 18th most affluent municipality among Birmingham’s suburbs.

But Riverside needs retail to boost its tax base and improve infrastructure. Development at the interchange could change the tax base overnight,

“A nice truck plaza like a Pilot or Love’s could put $15,000 to $20,000 a month in the city in terms of our revenue,” he said.

Riverside, like other St. Clair communities, does get an economic boost from the Talladega Superspeedway and Barber Motorsports Park, Jessup said.

“I don’t know if the people of the county realize how international we have become known because of these tracks. We’re right in the middle of these venues, so they stay here,” he said.

And with the Coosa as part of the Alabama Scenic River Trail system, Riverside could be prime to cash in on a piece of the booming ecotourism market.

“We’re primed for everything, Jessup said. “We just haven’t had the right entity come along,” Jessup said. He borrowed from a country hit from a few years back to describe the Riverside he calls home.

“Our vision is for Riverside to become a resort tourist destination, or have that feel about it,” he said. “The resources of this river are unlimited. It’s attractive, and it’s beautiful, and it’s clean, thank goodness. And it will stay clean, thank goodness. People are attracted to it. … This town is the river. And the river is us.”

And because of the river and its people, Riverside will grow into a special community.

“It’s just an old chunk of coal right now, but it’s going to be a diamond someday,” he said, “because everything is here; everything is in place.”

And while location is important. Remember, Riverside is 30 minutes from anywhere in Birmingham and less than two hours from the Atlanta’s Jackson-Hartsfield International Airport. But at its heart, Riverside is special because of its people – and the river.

“The people here are just beautiful,” Jessup said. “There is something about the river, something about drinking good groundwater, there’s something about the way the sun and the moon hit the river and creeks around here that make people easier to get along with and laid back. There’s not a lot of drama here. It’s really, really a good place to live.”

Faulkner Farms

From tomatoes to cattle, Cash brothers eyeing success

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Susan Wall

Among the numerous farms along St. Clair County Road 33 is one reminiscent of Wyoming’s countryside.

Its great expanse of grazing land is bordered by gently sloping, tree-lined hills. Artesian-fed Beaver Creek winds through the 471 acres, tumbling over a rock ford at one point.

“It’s a little piece of heaven,” said Andrew Smith, who gets to enjoy the view every day in his job as farm manager.

“It’s gorgeous,” said Joey Cash of Ashville.

From 1972 until recently, this property belonged to Dr. Jim Faulkner. It was called Faulkner Farms.

Not only was it known for its beauty, but also for the registered Simmental cattle from Europe that Faulkner raised right there in St. Clair’s Beaver Valley. The annual cattle sales at Faulkner Farms were popular events that drew people from as far away as Montana and Canada. They came to buy livestock, of course, but also to delight in the barbecue and fellowship those occasions offered.

Joey and his brother Brian purchased Faulkner Farms early in 2017.

The two had admired the farm from the time they were lads.

“I always recognized it more for the abundant wildlife,” Brian said. “There were always turkeys and deer out in the front hay field. I never dreamed we would actually own a piece of this beautiful place.”

When the Cashes purchased it, the farm already had a well-established infrastructure that included a tack room and office, four barns, a farmhouse, where Andrew and his family now live, and a two-story log cabin with an incredible view.

The Faulkner Farms property possessed something else of importance, namely its previous reputation as a purebred operation.

All of these made it the “perfect” place for the Cash brothers to establish their cattle enterprise.

“We pretty much want to carry on Dr. Faulkner’s legacy of being a well-known cattle business,” Joey said. He and Brian want to raise “the best Angus cattle in the business.”

They plan to construct a large barn and roping area for holding sales similar to the ones Dr. Faulkner hosted for many years, Brian said.

This cattle venture is an entrepreneurial detour for Joey and Brian. For many years, they have been farming tomatoes on 400 acres the family owns atop St. Clair’s Chandler Mountain. Their tomato business currently under the name Cash Cattle Co. – previously was called Burton Farm and has spanned 85-100 years. The Cash brothers represent the fourth generation of tomato farming in the family.

Burton Farm was the largest tomato farm in the state for a time, Brian said.

Joey added that, through the years, it also was an innovator in the business.

“The tomato business has been great to our family,” Brian said.

It allowed the brothers to be financially able to purchase Faulkner Farms and the prime Black Angus stock to put on it, Brian said.

They sold two tracts of their tomato-farming land and put the resources into the cattle farm, Joey said.

They acquired the last line of top-pedigree embryo-transplant heifers from Bobo Angus Farm in Huntsville, “one of the biggest and best purebred businesses in the country,” the brothers said.

“It would have taken us 10 years to breed up to the kind of animals we bought off the bat,” Joey said. “… We bought our way into the (cattle) business as big as we could, and tomato farming allowed us to do that.”

Currently, the herd has about 300 head. Two hundred are brood cows, while calves and bulls account for the other 100. One bull – at 2,600 pounds – thinks he is a pet.

For two years, the Cash brothers have been acquiring female cows and keeping them on leased property on Chandler Mountain. Ultimately, the Cashes plan to limit the brood population to 250 and the total herd size to about 500 to avoid overworking the land.

Joey noted theirs is a purebred seed-stock business. In other words, their cattle are for breeding purposes, not for consumption.

Added Brian, “With the genetics we have acquired, the females will pretty much sell themselves. Our emphasis has to be on selling quality, sound bulls to commercial operations. We are going to offer a lot of ‘value added’ options with the sale of our bulls.”

Among the options Brian listed are providing Angus Source perks for buyers seeking to market cattle sired by a Cash Cattle bull, guaranteeing bulls sold by Cash Cattle, and offering free delivery in certain instances.

“We want to be an asset to commercial cattlemen in the area” by providing stock and services that allow Cash Cattle customers to market their own animals at a higher price, Joey said.

The transition out of tomato farming into cattle farming has been exciting, but came about through “a lot of praying,” said the brothers.

“We are thankful for the help, support and prayers of our families and many others in this venture,” Brian said.

This family cattle business also involves the efforts of Joey’s wife, Tracy; and daughter Jacie, 12; as well as Brian’s wife, Paige; and sons Corbin, 9; and Cylas, 4. Already, the dads are teaching the younger generation of Cashes to round up, deworm, rope and vaccinate the cows, record pertinent information and search the fields for new calves.

“We want to instill … in our kids … work ethic and pride for the animals and the land that God has blessed us with,” Brian said. “I want to build a business that my children, one day if they so choose, will be able to carry on and be successful in.”