St. Clair County throughout its history had a thriving medical community with doctors practicing medicine in all parts of the region. Many of the names are familiar to this day, stemming from their descendants perhaps or a particular road or place in the county that bears their name.
They were pioneers in the county’s history, and a sampling of the details of their lives gives a glimpse into who tended to the medical needs of St. Clair’s early settlers.
DR. WILLIAM A. BEASON
Dr. Beason was born in 1867 to Rufus and Carrie Ann (Staton) Beason in St. Clair County and was the eldest sibling of Flora (Beason) Montgomery, George D. Beason, Charles W. Beason, Martin V. Beason, and Sidney L. Beason. He was also the great grandson of St. Clair County pioneer Curtis Grubb Beason and the great-great grandson of American Revolutionary patriot Capt. Edward Beason.
On Oct. 30, 1901, with Rev. Noah A. Hood officiating, Dr. Beason married Ms. Lillie Eugenia Phillips at her family home, known today as the Phillips-Cunningham House.
The bride was the daughter of James Madison and Elizabeth (Yarbrough) Phillips and the granddaughter of Littleton Yarbrough. The couple lived for many years in the Byers-Prickett House with Mrs. Beason being noted as a gracious, Southern hostess.
“Dr. Beason was loved and respected by all who knew him intimately and was a man of strong convictions and always outspoken for things he believed to be right.” He was known to never drive over 35 miles an hour. When asked why he didn’t drive faster, he would always reply, “At 35 miles per hour, a car is still cheaper to run than a horse.”
Of his beloved wife it was said, “No man ever had a nobler and more helpful companion. She knew his work and helped him in its performance in many ways.”
Mrs. Lillie Beason “was widely known over the state. She took great interest in educational affairs” and always remained active in supporting “many movements for the betterment of her people.”
For several years she held the office of chairman of the St. Clair County Board of Education, earning her the noteworthy recognition of being the first woman elected to office in St. Clair County. “She was also president of the Baptist Missionary Union and a leading member of the Ashville Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy,” and “was a brilliant woman… (with) many cultivated talents.”
Both were laid to rest in Ashville City Cemetery.
DR. JAMES MADISON McLAUGHLIN
Dr. McLaughlin was born in Leeds in Jefferson County on March 22, 1838, to John and Margaret (Brinker) McLaughlin. The doctor’s father was an early settler of the State of Tennessee and was the son of Alexander Andrew McLaughlin, who had emigrated from Scotland to Tennessee.
James attended public schools and later read medicine with Doctors Robertson and Freeman in Springville. He later attended Atlanta Medical College, now the Emory University School of Medicine. During this time, he enlisted in Company C of 18th Alabama Regiment, CSA and was soon afterwards promoted to Captain. In 1864, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and held that position until the close of the war.
Dr. James Madison McLaughlin
On Jan. 4, 1871, James married Isadora Forman, the daughter of James and Parthenia (Dean) Forman. The bride’s father was noted as taking a “… leading part in all matters and issues in which people were interested,” and being “… true and energetic in behalf of his friends…”
The bride’s mother was the daughter of Nathaniel and Parthenia (Edmundson) Dean, and the granddaughter of Benjamin Edmundson, a Virginian patriot who fought for independence as a lieutenant in the American Revolution. In her obituary, Mrs. Forman was remembered as “… always cheerful…” and “… a faithful and affectionate wife and mother,” who was “… thoughtful of every interest of her children…”
In 1875, the doctor opened a pharmacy and two years later welcomed his only child, Katherine, into the world on March 27, 1877. She would later marry Jacob Forney, a president of Jacksonville State University, who was the son of General John Horace Forney and nephew of Alabama U.S. Rep. William Henry Forney.
It could never be said that Dr. McLaughlin did not live a full life. During his 70 years, he was a member and elder of the Presbyterian Church, a Mason and Knight of Pythias, Mayor of Springville three times, examiner for the New York Life Insurance Company, the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, and for the Equitable Life Insurance Company; member of the board of pension examiners, county health officer, member and one of the organizers of the St. Clair Medical Society and counselor of the State Medical Society.
After declining in health for two years, Dr. McLaughlin passed away and was memorialized as being “… closely associated with all movements for growth and prosperity of our county,” and giving “… freely of his time, energy and guidance for its welfare.” Furthermore, “(h)e was beloved by all with whom he came in contact and held the respect and admiration of all his business and political associates.”
The magazine, Confederate Veteran, honored Dr. McLaughlin and observed that he was “… a loving husband and father, a good citizen, a brave soldier and a Christian Gentleman.”
DR. FINIS E. PERKINS
Dr. Perkins was born on March 2, 1859, near Trussville to William Washington Perkins (1829-1910) and Elizabeth (Praytor) Perkins (1832-1886). Dr. Perkins financed his dental training by selling Bibles and began practicing dentistry about 1880.
He had offices in Birmingham, Springville, Odenville and in other small towns in St. Clair County. One of his main interests was to teach dental care and health care to public school children. For at least 50 years, he was a regular visitor at many schools and always emphasized that every bite should be chewed 32 times.
Dr. Finis Perkins
A part of every lecture was a Biblical quotation from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
He cooked most of his own meals and used olive oil exclusively to cook with because he considered animal fats to be bad for the teeth, gums and the human body. Wherever he ate, private or public, he first asked God’s blessing on that meal.
He was an active member and financial supporter of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Norwood in Birmingham.
Dr. Perkins was attracted to St. Clair Springs because of the healing powers of the sulfur waters available and in 1896 built a cottage there. He also took annual trips to Pike’s Peak and maintained a summer home there for many years.
Dr. Perkins never married and practiced dentistry up to his death on June 21, 1950, at the age of 91.
As Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician known as the Father of Medicine, once said, “Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is a love of humanity.”
The same could be said for St. Clair County’s early hands of healing.
Several lovely valleys run through St. Clair County and bear the name of the streams meandering through them: Coosa Valley, Cahaba Valley, Beaver Valley, and Shoal Creek Valley.
And then there’s Slasham Valley. Why name any place Slasham? A local fellow recently commented that he hoped it had nothing to do with slashing somebody. And it doesn’t.
The name’s origin rests in folklore passed down from the 19th Century. The story has been recorded in Mildred Wright’s book, Josiah W. Wilson and Lydia Melinda Wilson and Slasham Valley, St. Clair County, Alabama Kinfolk. “Tradition holds that in the early days of the settling of the valley, a house-raising was in progress. An Irishman with a heavy brogue stopped and offered to do work for a meal. After being served once, he said, ‘May I have another slosh o’ ham?’” Folk had fun mimicking his heavy Irish brogue in the retelling, and thus was the valley named.
When in the 19th century this occurred, we have no record. However, the earliest obituary mentioning Slasham Valley is found in Pell City Library’s online copy of By Murder, Accident, and Natural Causes. It reads: “Jun. 27, 1883, Southern Aegis: Died. Odom. On June 23, 1883, in Slasham community, this county, John Odom, about 22 years old.” The name no doubt predates this obituary by a number of years, for the north end of the valley consisted of enough families by 1830 to organize Hopewell Baptist Church.
Alsoin Josiah W. Wilson and Lydia Melinda Wilson and Slasham Valley, St. Clair County, Alabama Kinfolk, Mildred Wright gives the location of Slasham Valley, writing, “Slasham Valley lies east of the town of Ashville, between Canoe Creek Mountain and Beaver Creek Mountain. The primary watercourse is Permeter Creek. ‘Permeter’ is the colloquial name for palmetto (U.S. Government geological survey map, Steele quadrangle). Highway 33 runs the course of the valley.”
Lelias Kirby, born 1895, included the town of Steele in his sweeping description of the valley. His parents L. S. and Nannie Lee Spradley Kirby were married February 7, 1884, and settled in Slasham Valley near the Etowah County line above Hopewell Church on today’s Rainbow Drive. In the introduction to Lelias’ booklet, How Me and Amos Won WWI, Lou Harper states, “Although Slasham does not appear on any map of Alabama, Dr. Kirby claims it does exist somewhere in a circle taking in… Steele and Ashville.” In the book, Lelias writes that the community was “…located between Greasy Cove and Smoke Neck. …It was 10 miles to the nearest little village, Ashville.” Smoke Neck seems too expansive because it was in Etowah County. Today Smoke Neck is Southside, Alabama.
Today, Slasham Road begins in Ashville at 10th Street and Greensport Road and runs from there to County Road 33 near Gum Springs Baptist Church. It is a peaceful valley of farms and homes.
Stewart and Nannie Kirby’s family consisted of daughters: Elsie, May, Geneva, and Anna; sons: Joe, Amos, Lelias, Otis and Taylor.
Lelias became a well-known physician in Birmingham and authored 3 booklets: How Me and Amos Won WWI, Corncobs, Cockleburs and Country Boys, and Cotton Picking’ Coon Huntin’ Country Boys. Otis became a Methodist Minister, serving in the North Alabama Conference for many years. He authored It All Started in Slash-Ham. In these books, the Kirbys recorded their growing up in Slasham, St. Clair County Alabama.
In How Me and Amos Won WWI, Lilias told how the family “…walked two miles to Mount Hope Methodist,” and said, “I could see the lizards playing races across the rafters.” He told how their pastor, J. M. Wigley was encouraged as he preached his long sermons “…by a chorus of ‘Amens!’ from the ‘Amen Corner.’”
J. M. Wigley, a college student, lived in Steele and “…walked five miles through the flat woods” once a month to preach at Mount Hope. This was November 1913, and “…the log road was very muddy, but he arrived on time—11:00 A.M.”
Lelias recalled a non-religious family in Slasham that “never attended church.” However, at Bro. Wigley’s encouragement, the whole family attended a service. Two of the younger boys went to sleep on a pallet with other children. The Methodist in the South in those days were called “Shouting Methodist.” This was not “speaking in tongues,” but understandable shouts of praise to God. Therefore, as the service and preaching progressed, the saints of the Lord began rejoicing by shouting “Hallelujah!” “Praise the Lord!” “Glory to God!” As these praises reverberated from wall-to-wall, one of the boys awoke, grabbed his brother and said, “Quick, let’s head to the barn; Ma and Pa are fighting a-gin.”
Maragret, J. C., & Hubert Franklin
In his section on church life, Otis Kirby, in It All Started in Slash-Ham, writes “Mt. Hope [Methodist] Church was a large, unpainted frame building. I remember sitting on rough-hewn benches and reading my little Olivet picture card… The church stood on the banks of Big Canoe Creek in the northeastern corner of St. Clair County where Auberry Bridge spanned the creek.”
In her History of Steele, Alabama, Vivian Qualls records that “Bro. Wigley” was J. M. Wigley who pastored the Steele Circuit in 1913 and 1914. And in History of Methodism in Alabama and West Florida by Marion Elias Lazenby, Rev. James Milton Wigley is mentioned six times. The last reference is in 1929 when the Methodist Conference appointed him “Financial Agent” to Athens College.
The Kirby children attended Ford Schoolhouse. As related by Otis in It All Started in Slash-Ham, the school was named after “Uncle John and Aunt Jeff” Ford because they lived close to the school and “the teacher always boarded with them.” Constructed of boards, the school had one unpainted room. The teacher’s desk sat on a raised section that ran the width of the room. Being on the stage gave the teacher “…better oversight of the student body and indicated who was boss.”
“The water bucket,” Otis continued, “was placed on a shelf on the wall outside the front door. Everybody drank from the same dipper. We ‘toted’ water from the wet-weather spring down in Uncle John’s pasture.”
According to both the Kirby brothers’ memories, one end of the Ford Schoolhouse rested on the ground while the other end stood about three feet off the ground and was partially underpinned. Otis related that “…on rainy days goats and hogs would move out of the flatwoods and shelter themselves under the schoolhouse.” The animal noises sometimes drowned out the human voices. There were cracks and holes in the floor, and Otis recalled one winter when his brother “Amos quite accidentally (?) let a few red-hot coals drop through the holes onto the backs of the hogs.” This caused a pandemonium of grunts and squeals as the hogs fled the shelter and headed to the woods—for a few days.
In the April 1997 issue of Cherish: The Quarterly Journal of the St. Clair Historical Society, Ada Wilson Sulser (b1897-d1988) wrote memories titled “Zion Hill Schoolhouse.” She attended there beginning in 1903 and recalled that the school located next to Zion Hill Church held “…classes from November to April, weather permitting.” She also mentioned classmates: “Homer Waldrop , Clem Lowery, Claudie Wilson , Dora Putman, Houston Cobb, Clara Wilson, Wakely Wilson and Vivian Palmer.”
“The schoolhouse burned twice,” she recalled and added, “It was a standing joke that when a member of a certain family was expelled, the schoolhouse would burn.
Curtis and Lurla Fail Franklin set up housekeeping in Slasham Valley around 1925. In time the family grew to include five children: Hubert, Margaret, J. C., and Billy. All three boys became Church of God ministers and evangelists. Billy Franklin’s son is Jentezen Franklin, internationally known evangelist and pastor of a mega-church in Gainesville, Georgia. In 2008 his book Fasting was on the New York Times Best Seller list.
Today, 95-year-old Margaret Franklin Berry cherishes memories of living in Slasham Valley and attending Ashville elementary school. Her best friend at school was Betty Jean Hodges. “The family lived right in the middle of Ashville,” she recalled. “In fact, the first time I ever saw an electric refrigerator was at their house. She and I were in school together, and I went home with her for lunch one day. Her mother had frozen some little popsicles for us. I’ll never forget that.”
After the third grade, the family moved to Birmingham. Margaret’s father, John Curtis Franklin, had a job in Avondale. “He was a paint sprayer. And that’s when they used lead in the paint,” she told the interviewer. “Well, daddy got really sick. He had ‘paint poison,’ and ended up having to have his leg amputated. It was a terrible time. He was crippled and walked on crutches the rest of his life after the amputation. So, we moved back and forth from the farm to Birmingham several times.”
It was the Great Depression years, and the Franklin family would live in Birmingham for a while and then back to Slasham for a while during those Depression years.
“When we first moved back from Birmingham to Slasham,” Margaret reminisced, “the farm had been leased out to a sharecropper, and we couldn’t move into that house that daddy owned. So, we rented a house. We had no electricity in the area at that time, and I am positive they had no running water. Everybody had wells. But there was a spring on the place that daddy rented, and that’s where we kept our milk to keep it cold. I guess the milk was ice cold, for the spring water certainly was. Every night for dinner, mother would send me and my brother Hubert down there to get the milk out of the spring.”
Although it was hard times during the depression, Margaret recalled that Pawpa J. G. Baswell, her step-grandfather, “…had six sons and they all had houses all down Slasham… All you had to do was to let somebody know you needed help and help was there.” She thought a moment, then spoke of God’s goodness. “I can hardly ever think about all those years and what we went through, without knowing that we were so blessed, and that God took care of us. All of us.”
After commenting, “I’ve not thought of some of this in years,” Margaret recounted things she and Hubert enjoyed as children.
“On one of our returns to Slasham, we lived in an old house that had a porch, and when they picked cotton, they made one end of the porch, the cotton spot. I don’t remember how they enclosed it, but they would just pile that cotton up there, on and on and on until the day they took it to the cotton gin. Hubert and I used to play in that cotton. We’d jump around in it just like kids today jump on a trampoline. That was so much fun!”
Then another memory came to mind. “When we needed cornmeal, they would send Hubert and me out to the corn crib to shell corn. I remember gallon buckets of shelled corn, and I’d go with my daddy when he’d take it to the mill to have it ground. It was so fascinating to watch that miller pour the corn into that hopper, and it come out cornmeal.” She couldn’t remember the name of the grist mill her dad used.
A community event Margaret recalled was Box Suppers. In the 1930s and ‘40s, schools and churches would raise money by sponsoring “Box Suppers.” Girls would prepare a picnic lunch to place in a decorated box for this community event where the “box suppers” were auctioned, with the money going to the sponsoring school or church. These events were announced in the papers as seen in the Southern Aegis of January 29, 1920. “Box Supper at Zion Hill Saturday night Jan. 31st. Bring boxes and have a good time.”
Margaret remembered participating as a young girl. “You would just spend days and days decorating a beautiful box with ribbons and all kinds of decorations. And you’d think up something really enticing that you hoped would tempt the guys, you know. And they would bid on the box, and whoever bought it was who you ate with. Of course, you hoped that one of the guys you liked would be the one who bid on it! I must have had a sweetheart who I was wanting to bid on it.”
Margaret’s family attended Gum Springs Baptist Church in the old building and in the current building. The first sanctuary was across the street from today’s Gum Springs and located near the cemetery on that side of the road. There seems to be no photo of that first building.
An annual special occasion was “Decoration Day” (Memorial Day) each year on Mothers’ Day at Gum Springs. In olden days, the week before Mothers’ Day, community folk would clean the cemetery so graves would look nice for flower decorations on Sunday. On that Sunday, folk recalled old memories, enjoyed good preaching, joyful singing, and “dinner on the ground” after morning service. In truth, this event was a community reunion.
All day singings and singing schools occurred at Gum Springs Baptist and at Zion Hill Methodist. Margaret recalled them, saying, “They had Sacred Harp singing at Gum Springs. And they had special people come who taught us.” They called those events “singing schools.” Sacred Harp singing had no musical instruments, for the voice was the “sacred harp.”
County newspapers announced these singing Sundays, as in this September 28, 1922, issue of the Southern Aegis “Slasham News” column: “There will be a singing next Sunday at Zion Hill. Everyone come and bring your books.” Sacred Harp singers used special books which used fa sol la musical notations.
All Day Singings was another type musical event. They were also announced in the Southern Aegis, as in this October 17, 1917 issue. “All Day Singing at Gum Springs. Joe Baswell will sing at Gum Springs the third Sunday in this month, beginning about nine o’clock a.m. and sing all day. Everybody have [sic] an invitation to go and especially the singers, and still more especially those who will carry DINNER out for we may go, and if we do, it will take a lot of it, you bet.” You can’t have an “All Day Singing” without “Dinner on the Ground.” These were social as well as spiritual events.
Bo Davis, a 5th generation Davis living on the Slasham Valley Davis Farm, recounted interesting information in a recent interview.
The original Davis house burned and Bo’s great granddad, James Davis, rebuilt it. It still stands today on Davis Drive. “My Granddaddy, Robert Ely Davis, was born in 1878,” Bo said, “and the house burnt when he was two weeks old. His sister grabbed him up, pillow, mattress, and all, and carried him to the smokehouse.” Later, when the excitement of the fire came to an end, Jim asked, “Where’s the baby?” “He’s out there in the smokehouse,” they told him. And there they found him, sound asleep.
From the burned home, “They saved some of the sills and used them when they rebuilt the house,” Bo told the interviewer. “In that old house—my granddaddy’s house—the lumber on the walls are boards 25 inches wide. That lumber was sawed in 1878 when they built the house. They had a sawmill, and they sawed the planks and built the house back around the chimney of the old house.”
Bo was born in this house on December 21, 1943, and the valley was blanketed in ten inches of snow.
After Zion Hill Methodist Church burned, the Methodist Conference decided not to rebuild and all that remained was the cemetery. However, Bo remembered two preachers who came and held revivals on Zion Hill property.
One evangelist held services under a “brush arbor.” An online article, “The history of Brush Arbors,” gives this description: “Rural folk built a brush arbor by putting poles in the ground for the sides and then poles across these uprights. For the roof covering, they cut bushes and branches and laid them across the roof poles for a covering.”
Bo recalled that a “Rev. A. E. Jones would come from Gadsden and hold a week or two brush arbor revival on Zion Hill. He’d come down to my grandmother and get permission to run power lines down to my grandaddy’s house so they could have lights at night.”
“There was another preacher who ran a tent revival,” Bo recollected. “I think his last name was Bowlen who lived down around Margaret. He had tent revivals there back in the ‘50s.”
Slasham Valley has been a place called home for almost 200 years now. Settled year-by-year by families relocating from other states, it became a sweeping valley of farms and homes, schools and churches, and cemeteries, for with living comes dying. Folk who live, or have lived, in the valley speak of it with affection and love, and for all of those who have called it home, the lyrics of a song as old as Slasham hums in their hearts:
Ashville doctor leader in state mental health care
Story by Robert Debter Submitted Photos
artlow would become a leader in mental health care, making an impact across Alabama and be instrumental in service to those with intellectual disabilities with a facility named for him.
Long before there was an Alabama Department of Mental Health, Partlow Developmental Center was established in 1923 to allow individuals with intellectual disabilities to receive treatment in a state facility. It was located in Tuscaloosa, two miles from Bryce Hospital, and was the only one of its kind in the state until 1970.
Partlow was born on Feb. 4, 1877, in Ashville to David Alonzo and Modena Catherine (Beason) Partlow, who were married in St. Clair County on Sept. 13, 1866.
His grandfather, Dempsey Partlow, came from South Carolina to St. Clair County and was married on Feb. 26, 1839, to Mary Montgomery.
Through his mother, Dr. Partlow is the second great grandson of Edward Beason, a captain in the American Revolution and great grandson of Curtis Grubb Beason, who built the Beason House and the Teague Hotel.
David and Modena started their life together with very little, and they struggled for the first years of their marriage. But love, self-sacrifice and courage led David to open one of the first steam sawmills in northern Alabama.
David and Modena’s love story made a deep impression on their nine children, especially William. He perceived well the limitations of his family’s finances, but this only served to stimulate his determination. Educated with mother’s sound principles and encouraged by her love and devotion, he started making his own way at the age of 16. Deciding early on to pursue a career in medicine, he deprived himself of the usual teenage life and devoted his time to studying.
William graduated from St. Clair College, which became Ashville High School, in 1897. After graduation, he took the position of assistant to the principal at the college and used his earnings to finance his continuing education in the medical field. He studied at the State Normal School at Florence and in 1898, entered the School of Medicine of the University of Alabama at Mobile. On April 3, 1901, William graduated as valedictorian in his class and shortly after, became an intern at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa.
Almost a year later, the young doctor accepted an appointment as a medical officer for the marine quarantine service in Mobile Bay. His chief duties were to visit the ports of Central America, study Yellow Fever and recommend methods of safeguarding Mobile’s port against the disease.
In October 1902, Dr. Partlow rejoined the staff of Bryce Hospital and ever since was associated with Alabama State Hospitals. Upon his return to Bryce, he served as Assistant Physician and devoted his time equally to Male and Female Wards. In 1908, Dr. Partlow was promoted to assistant superintendent of the Alabama State Hospitals and 11 years later was elected superintendent by the board of trustees of the various hospitals.
Bryce Hospital
In 1923, Dr. Partlow was honored for “his advocacy of the establishment of such a sorely needed institution, and his persistent efforts, which brought into being” the Partlow State School for Mental Deficients.
Dr. Partlow never ceased in his study of the care of his patients and was highly regarded among American psychiatrists. In 1922, his alma mater, the University of Alabama, bestowed him with the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
He was greatly noted in his lifetime for his intelligence and the humane care he showed. During World War I, Partlow was chairman of the Medical Advisory Board and since 1919, was a member of the State Board of Health. In his WWI Draft Card, Dr. Partlow is described as tall with a medium build, brown hair and blue eyes.
On April 26, 1905, he married Margaret Nixon in Jefferson County, Alabama. They would have 48 years and five children together. Mrs. Partlow was noted as being an inspiring and devoted wife and lady.
Throughout the 16-year period of 1919 – 1935, funding for mental health was not appropriated by the Legislature and through effective management of his administration, Dr. Partlow was able to keep the institution on self-sustaining basis. During this time, his effectiveness led the hospital to raising almost $2 million for modernization and expansion.
Partlow also championed a medical college in Birmingham and was often spoken of and seen as the father of the college.
The doctor passed away at the age of 76 at his home in Tuscaloosa on July 7, 1953, and was interred two days later at Tuscaloosa Memorial Park Cemetery. Margaret was reunited with him three years later on Dec. 14, 1956.
On Oct. 29, 1941, Dr. Partlow was honored in a ceremony at the Bryce Hospital Assembly Hall directed by the Board of Trustees of the Alabama State Hospitals. Dr. George Denny praised Partlow as a great man and credited his qualities of “rare executive ability, iron will, rugged determination, intellectual and moral courage and common sense.”
He also observed Dr. Partlow’s “human sympathy, human modesty, and sense of humor blending with a rich measure of patience.” Dr. Denny closed saying, “… Dr. Partlow has set a standard of public service in Alabama that merits the accolade of universal acclaim and appreciation … For he is indeed one of the select number of Alabama’s ‘tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the clouds, in public duty and private thinking.’”
As city celebrates 200 years, a look back a century ago
Story by Robert Debter Submitted Photos
On the heels of observing the bicentennial of Ashville, memories and remembrances of the centennial celebration, April 26, 1923, emerge.
The event was conceived as a tribute to the soldiers of St. Clair County, both living and deceased, who had fought in the War Between the States, also known as the American Civil War. The event was spearheaded by Ashville Chapter 1488 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and great care was given over to the preparation of the event, which would culminate in the unveiling of a marvelous marble statue, procured from the McNeel Company in Georgia at the cost of almost $2,500.
In the Feb. 23 edition of the Southern Aegis, owner B.B. Cather, vowed “… to do all it can to help the U.D.C. women pay for their monument and at once wishes to state that any subscriber who loves this paper and wants to help these women can settle with them court week. One half of every dollar paid to them on subscription, new or old for the Southern Aegis, in the next 30 days will be given to this organization or the Monument fund.”
The March 29th edition printed the following notice:
Unveiling Confederate Monument
to St. Clair County Heroes
celebrating Ashville Centennial, April 26th
Public Cordially Invited
On the historic spot in Ashville where 62 years ago, the flower of St. Clair’s young manhood, marched forth to defend their homes and the sacred causes of the Confederacy, the Daughters of the Confederacy have erected a memorial to their loyalty, courage, and devotion.
They have selected April 26th, (Memorial Day), for the day of unveiling.
Ashville St. Clair Courthouse
Few towns can boast of 100 years of existence, such is Ashville’s Birthday. The Daughters have been asked by prominent and former citizens of Ashville to include a centennial program in the day’s celebration, which they are glad to help plan.
A parade headed by a Brass Band, composed of school children, Daughters, Veterans, and floats representing each business in town will take place in the morning, following this will be a Centennial program at which time, Hon. James A. Embry, a lifelong Ashvillian will preside.
The principal address will be delivered by Hon. O.R. Hood of Gadsden, a former son of Ashville.
The unveiling program will be held in the afternoon, at which time, Mrs. W.A. Beason, President of the Ashville Chapter U.D.C. and General Chairman of the day’s festivities will preside.
Principal address of the unveiling will be delivered by Mrs. E.L. Huey of Bessemer, State President U.D.C., gifted and beloved Alabamian.
The big event
Alongside the unveiling and celebrations, a grand homecoming was planned. Chairman Lillie (Phillips) Beason, wife of Dr W.A. Beason, and her publicity committee set to work and issued more than 500 invitations to reach veterans and their families, originally from Ashville, who had since relocated to other parts of Alabama and the country.
John Washington Inzer
On March 5, the Aegis reported, “The Monument Committee who has charge of the day’s program are to be congratulated upon securing Col. Oliver R. Hood of Gadsden, a former son of Ashville, of whom we are justly proud to deliver the Centennial address. Hon. James A. Embry, one of Ashville’s most brilliant and prominent attorneys, whose life has been spent in this peaceful city, has accepted the committee’s invitation to preside.”
As the day approached everyone was encouraged to “… greet every visitor with a smile and a welcome – leave that frown off your face for Ten days and be what God intended you to be, a booster for the Home Comers.”
Undoubtedly on that April morning the old veterans, such as Judge John W. Inzer of Ashville and John Washington Laster Jr., of Springville, recalled their days of service and those whom they marched and fought alongside, saw torn by war and perish from cannon, rifle and saber, and those they suffered with in prisoner of war camps in Illinois and Ohio.
To a crowd of over 2,000, the monument was unveiled by Misses Mattie Lou Teague and Sally V. Inzer. It was reported that the proceedings “… will be long remembered by every person who attended. Ashville was beautifully bedecked with flags and bunting.”
As for the veterans, they “… were treated royally and they seem to have appreciated to the fullest extent all that was done in honor of their dead comrades.”
Remembering the words of General Douglas MacArthur in his farewell address to the cadets as West Point in 1962, “… [T]he soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
Story by Robert Debter Photos by Becky Staples Submitted Photos
Hometown parade a big draw for event
It is 1822 in Alabama: statehood is still a recent memory – achieved in 1819 following two years under a territorial government after separating from the State of Mississippi. There are 32 counties, the state capital is located in Cahaba, near Selma, Israel Pickens is the newly elected governor, and the population is over 125,000.
These were the days when great men and leaders, such as Thomas Jefferson, still walked and wrote, and those who would become great leaders and better men, like John C. Calhoun, learned from them.
In St. Clair County, established in 1818, many of the distinguished and proud names, their descendants still living here, have created new lives and started families in this virgin land, hewn from the wilderness by the hands of heroes.
The Alabama Fever Land Rush and the War of 1812 had brought them here. From Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia they came: Ash, Battles, Beason, Chandler, Cobb, Cox, Cunningham, Green, Hodges, Jones, Looney, Newton, Phillips, Thomason, Yarbrough and more.
These families and others settled in and around the center of the young county, which was known then as “St. Clairsville.”
On Nov. 28, 1822, this thriving town was incorporated, and on Dec. 12, it was made the county seat. Shortly after these events, the name was changed to “Ashville” in honor of John Ash, a pioneer, early settler, and leader who became St. Clair County’s first elected judge and would later serve in the state legislature.
Celebrating 200 years
These stories of struggle and sacrifice, journeys and new life, muskets and covered wagons, and the triumphs of resting one’s boots and putting down roots in a fresh, new God-given land, were celebrated by citizens of Ashville, descendants and friends from near and far on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, in an impressive bicentennial event.
Great care in preparation was evident. Ashville Mayor Derrick Mostella took charge and established a bicentennial committee, co-chaired by Ashville City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tempore Sue Price and Becky Staples.
Working with Ashville City Clerk Chrystal St. John, they made sure the day of celebration would be nothing short of the honor deserved by those who paved this path 200 years ago. Joining them were members of the Bicentennial Committee: Robin Bowlin, Rena Brown, Jeanna Gossett, Susan Kell, Billy Price, Janice Price, Nancy Sansing, Ricky Saruse, Chad and Esther Smith, Rick and Liz Sorrell, Dr. Jay Stewart, Renna Turner, Denise Williams and Nick Wilson.
Other events became part of the celebration. In the weeks leading up to the day, a 5-K run was held, and Ashville High School seniors Joe Stevens and Rachel St. John earned the titles of “Mr. and Miss Ashville Bicentennial,” awarded to them by the Bicentennial Committee for winning the high school essay contest.
The events of the city’s celebration began at ten o’clock on the steps of the oldest working courthouse in the state of Alabama. Mostella welcomed the crowd by thanking everyone for coming out to the “greatest city in the greatest county in the greatest state.” William “Bill” Watkins, a naval veteran who served during the Korean War and is commander of St. Clair SCV Camp 308, who led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Newly elected St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon offered prayer, followed by commencement speech by director of the Ashville Museum & Archives, who began by asking all veterans from all branches of the U.S. Military to be recognized.
Guest of honor and grand marshal James Spann
A concise history of the founding and naming of Ashville followed with a recognition of several other historic and noteworthy family names: Ashcraft, Bothwell, Box, Byers, Cason, Crow, Hood, Inzer, Montgomery, Nunnally, Partlow, Robinson, Sheffield, Teague and dozens more.
“Ashville is the type of town that Americans treasure,” he quoted from author, historian and leader Mattie Lou (Teague) Crow. “Our old homes are beautifully kept. The courthouse, built in 1844 to replace the original log building, serves well the people of St. Clair County. The natural beauty of the location of our churches and other old buildings that here for a century give the town the looks of a safe place to live, a place where people share in meaningful work and play.”
Others joined the celebration with performances by saxophonist Kevin Moore playing the Star Spangled Banner, and Chris Cash singing America the Beautiful.
Bunting adorned buildings and streets throughout the city. Patrons toured its three museums: the Ashville Museum & Archives, the John W. Inzer Museum and the Historic Ashville Masonic Lodge and Mattie Lou Teague (Crow) Museum. Reenactors gathered between the Inzer Museum and the Historic Masonic Lodge, joined by a historic fife and drum band from Rome, Georgia.
The county seat’s historic courthouse square was alive with activity, from hand forged knives display to face painting for the children to special offerings by the St. Clair Historical Society, Springville VFW Post 3229, Ashville Masonic Lodge 186, Ashville High School and Pine Forest Baptist Church.
Carriage rides and a petting zoo highlighted the day’s events as did live music performed by the Martini Shakers, and Berritt Hayne, a native of St. Clair County who contended as a finalist on TheVoice.
Guest of honor and grand marshal for a grand parade had historic ties himself. James Spann, the noted broadcast meteorologist, is a grandson of former St. Clair County political leader and businessman, Judge Curtis Adkins. His uncle, Joe Adkins, followed his father into the banking world and also served as mayor of Ashville.
Our digital age gives access to newspapers without holding a copy in hand or sporting the ink smudges they leave behind. Although they can be read online, St. Clair County still has two newspapers one can hold, read and have ink-stained fingers if you want them.
Ashville published the first newspapers in the county, and the earliest was the Democratic Farmer, started by John Hambright in 1848, according to Mattie Lou Teague Crow in her History of St. Clair County. Mrs. Crow also documents The St. Clair Diamond, published by Thomas and W. J. Managham from 1859 until 1861, and then the Ashville Vidette published in the mid-1860s before and during part of the Civil War. After the war, in November 1868, S.J. Fowler published the St. Clair County Eagle for a while.
St. Clair’s first newspaper that continued publication began in 1873 as The Southern Aegis under the direction of George R. Cather, who moved from Maryland to Ashville with the expressed purpose to establish a newspaper. The Cather family owned the paper until 1944 when they sold it to Edmond Blair of Pell City. That paper is still published under the name of The St. Clair News-Aegis. Our other county paper is The St. Clair Times, published by The Anniston Star.
Since 1872, quite a number of newspapers were published in St. Clair County towns – Ragland, Odenville, Springville and Pell City. From 1873 when The Southern Aegis began, until the early 1920s, those towns published 12 different newspapers.
There is reference to one published in Cropwell in the 1890s, The Cropwell Enterprise, but there seems to be no copy existing today. However, a one-page photocopy from this paper dated Oct. 31, 1895, records some early history of Cropwell.
One paragraph tells of the difficulty of getting supplies to merchants in Cropwell and Coosa Valley in the first half of the 19th Century. It reads, “In this day of railways, it is hard for us to realize the inconveniences incident to business in Coosa Valley during the 1850’s and early 1860’s. Prior to 1866, all the merchandise for Coosa Valley was shipped to Greensport and carted thence to the points of distribution. When the river above Greensport was too low for navigation, the merchants were forced to haul their goods on wagons from Rome, Georgia.”
It further states that before the Civil War, the goods for Coosa Valley “… were purchased in Charleston, S. C., and no item was sold by the retailer for less than 100 per cent profit.”
Every newspaper had news from all communities, some of which no longer exist, such as Round Pond which was below Bethel Baptist Church on U.S. 411.
Interesting events caused by interesting people occurred in every community. The local news columns reported on who was visiting whom or who was “stepping out” (courting) someone. Church events and school events took first place many times. Sometimes feuds made the news and even murder. However, tidbits are often more interesting.
Liquor and religion combined in one brief report in the Springville Item’s, “Odenville News” on June 11, 1903: “Two fights Saturday at the church house. The Grand Jury should look after the boys. Young men, please leave your bottles at home when you start to church.” One wonders how the Grand Jury could “look after” the miscreants on a Sunday morning.
During the years of laying the railroad through Odenville, The Springville Item gave almost weekly updates of the construction progress. However, two reports had nothing to do with work.
On March 26, 1903, “Odenville News” in the Springville Item included with the railroad report, this comment, “Preaching was a failure in the [railroad workers’] camps Sunday.” Then three weeks later, April 16, the Item printed this: “Several of our railroad men joined the Odd Fellows Saturday night. Hope they felt like working Monday.” Preaching was a failure was followed by what must have been “A good time was had by all” weekend for the men later.
A reported suicide in Beaver Valley causes one to reread and speculate. As written Feb. 9, 1899, in The Southern Alliance, “Mr. Richmond Steed, of Beaver Valley, aged 70, killed himself at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Crow Harden, on last Monday morning. He used an old pistol which he brought home with him from the army in 1865. He fired three shots into his head.”
This was reported in several county newspapers with more information in each. The Southern Aegis of Feb. 9, 1899, gave specifics of the pistol. “During the war he had been a soldier in the federal army, and the weapon used in his own death was an army revolver he brought home at the close of the war and had preserved ever since as a relic of the war.”
Shooting himself in the head three times causes the inquiring mind to desire to question further.
The big news in April 1891 was electricity lighting the county seat of St. Clair. “Ashville Illuminated,” heralded The Southern Aegis, of Thursday, April 23, 1891.
‘Scott, Wells, and Lindsey’ [no surnames or company given] who installed the system, encountered several problems along the way, but finally they set the time and date, Saturday night at 7 p.m., April 18, 1891. The local steam whistle blasted on the hour, and 8-year-old Marcia Ney Cather quickly reached and pulled the switch.
The townspeople roared approval, guns were fired, and the band played as “Instantly … all Ashville was wrapt in a glorious brilliancy, magical, as it were, and wonderful to the expectant crowd watching the display. Ashville, for the first time in its history, could be seen in the light of one of the greatest inventions of the age.”
The invention of the automobile fascinated the citizens of St. Clair County, and when county folk began buying them, the excitement increased.
No one was more excited than Delia Smith, who wrote of day-to-day Ashville events in a diary she kept from June to November 1907. The Southern Aegis published the diary in 1932.
Delia expressed uncertainty about automobiles at first, writing, “Dr. J.B. Bass is having an automobile stable built to put his motor buggy in when it gets here. Give me old Dobbin. He may kick, (one kicked Andrew Cooley last Sunday), but at least they don’t sputter so.” June 26, 1907 [Southern Aegis, June 24, 1932]
Her attitude had changed by July when she wrote, “Ashville is getting bigger and better every day. We have three automobiles now. One for every 125 people. That’s more per population than any other town in the state. And folks thinking about buying more. I’m going automobile riding next week. I’m going to borrow Aunt Emma’s riding veil.” July 10, 1907 [Southern Aegis, July 15, 1932]
Then she went to the Alabama State Fair in October 1907 and wrote, that at the fair “… Walter Christie the great automobile racer was there. And you never saw such driving and heard such popping. I’ll bet he went every bit of 35 miles an hour. He simply flew, burning the wind as he went.” October 9, 1907 [Southern Aegis, October 8, 1932]
Delia Smith was not hopeful about hot air balloons and “air ships.” In the same diary entry as above, she wrote, “All Birmingham [at the fair] is talking of nothing else but Baldwin’s daring flight. [Thomas Scott Baldwin, 1853-1923] There were just heaps and heaps of balloons going up and down. I don’t believe that I’d feel particularly safe in that little basket swinging at the bottom of the balloon. I believe I feel safer riding a broom handle like the woman who sweeps the cobwebs out of the sky.”
And of air flight she observed, “I’ve been reading about these Wright brothers trying to invent a flying machine. One that will be run by a motor just like an automobile. The picture that they had in the paper looked to me like a couple of orange crates put together with a flutter wheel in front.”
One can hope that Delia flew in an airplane sometime during her life.
This headline from The Pell City News spurs curiosity, “Moving Van from St. Clair Raided Near Leeds” The Aug. 30, 1922, article begins, “Riley Jones is in the Hillman hospital with a bullet wound in his hip. Jas. Summerville and Mrs.BettisMary BettisMaryBettisMaryMary Bettis are in the county jail charged with violating the prohibition law, and Lee Bettis is a fugitive from justice, according to officers, as the result of an encounter with Deputy Sheriff J.E. Taylor and his assistant, BollingO. E.O.E. Bolling of Leeds, which occurred Thursday night … just outside the city limits of Leeds.”
Having been informed by long-distance telephone about erratic movements of the truck, Deputy Sheriff Taylor had secured search warrants and was ready when he stopped the truck. Riley foolishly made a grab at Taylor’s pistol, and Taylor shot him. Lee Bettis made a run for it and was still at large the next day.
When authorities searched it, “The truck contained a complete copper still, five hound dogs, two shotguns, one pistol, two kegs, one containing three gallons of whiskey and another two gallons; a jug and a quart bottle of whiskey, and a large cardboard box with many holes in it containing a “pet coon … The truck, dogs, coon and other articles are being held at the county jail.”
Elopements often made the news. Sometime the report used the old British phrase, “They went to Gretna Green,” a location in Scotland for secret marriages, like Rising Fawn, Ga., used to be for Alabama eloping couples.
The Aug. 4, 1897, issue of The Springville News in its “Brompton Paragraphs” column, reported an elopement intermingled with watermelon stealing.
“It is reported that a few nights since, somebody went over to Mr. Riley Moody’s to steal his daughter, but through carelessness … they got his watermelons. But foul play always comes when night is chosen rather than day. Mr. Moody himself chose day rather than night (to steal), so he came out all right with one of Mr. Taylor’s girls…. He chose for himself a Miss Mecie, one that he can call his own. Happy may you be, old friend, with your young bride.”
According to Rubye Sisson’s transcribed St. Clair County Marriage Records 1818-189, Riley Moody married Mercy Taylor July 29, 1897.
Wedding announcements should be standard – describing the bride’s dress, bridesmaids, flowers and music. However, one could ponder a while on this May 21, 1937, announcement in The Southern Aegis (names omitted to avoid embarrassment). “The many friends of Mrs. ___ ___ will read with interest the marriage of her daughter Miss ___ ___. The wedding was consummated in Houston, Texas, last week.”
Wrong choice of word or too much information? No matter, it just adds to the joy of reading old St. Clair County newspapers.
