Local Joe’s

Eclectic business living up to its name

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Michael Callahan

A man walked into Local Joe’s Trading Post near the Rainbow City/St. Clair County line one day and slammed his hand down on the countertop. “I just found out something about my wife,” he said, startling employees and customers alike. “For the past four years, she has not cooked turkey and dressing at Thanksgiving. She’s been buying it here. She even brings her own casserole dish for you to put the dressing in!”

While Jodie and Karen Stanfield, owners of Local Joe’s, don’t advocate trying to fool anyone, they are happy to supply smoked turkey breasts and all the accompanying fixings for Thanksgiving or Christmas. In fact, they serve smoked turkey, mouthwatering bakery goods, barbecue and four other meats, along with the traditional barbecue sides, all year ‘round. When you combine the food with all the locally-made items on their shelves, you come up with the smells and tastes of a barbecue joint and the feel of an old country store.

“We slow-smoke our turkey, chicken, ribs, pork butt, ham and sausage on site in cast iron smokers that were custom made by HBT Smokers in Guntersville,” says Jodie. “We do it Southern style, with no rotisserie, no fire beneath them and no additives.” He sells 500-600 four-pound turkey breasts every Thanksgiving to people like the anonymous wife above.

It will take all your willpower to pass by Local Joe’s without stopping for a bite when that pit smoke is floating on the breeze. If you could gain weight just by looking at sweets, you would be too big to waddle out after scanning the array of cookies, scones, cake balls and baked pies in the bakery case. While waiting on your order, you can browse through the general store section, with its wide-planked pine floors and walls covered in old-fashioned metal and wooden signs. That’s where you’ll find the local honey and produce, wine jellies and sauces, candles and kitchenware that gave Jodie the idea for the name of his store.

“We named it Local Joe’s because we buy from local-Joe farmers,” Jodie explains. “We buy their produce and homemade items. We also make some in-house products, like pimiento cheese from the hoop cheese we sell, and fried pork rinds.”

Karen rattles off a handful of local product examples, like the spiced peaches and hot crackers made by Smokehouse Crackers in Boaz, the Augustine Coffee that is ground in Etowah County, and the cheese straws made in Athens. They also buy seasonal plants such as poinsettias, mums and hanging baskets from the greenhouse of Rainbow Omega, a home for mentally and physically challenged adults in Talladega.

It becomes apparent that “locally” goes beyond the county line. Still, all except a few items are made in Alabama. Jodie likes to support small businesses, including Nancy’s Fudge Company in Meadows of Dan, Virginia.

Although the Stanfields opened Local Joe’s eight years ago, its history and general-store tradition date back to 1940. Henry Bowling built a two-bedroom house and operated a general merchandise store called H.D. Bowling’s Grocery out of it. He also had a barbershop there, charging 10 cents per haircut, and sold Shell gasoline at pumps in the front, according to his nephew, Henry Jester.

“My aunt told me that when they put the roof on the house, she had saved enough nickels in one year to pay for that roof,” Jester says. “My uncle also cut hair at Camp Siebert, a military base that was located down Pleasant Valley Road near Attalla during World War II. “His merchandise included barbed wire and nails.”

Jester says his uncle cut hair for many famous people at Camp Siebert, including boxer Joe Lewis and movie star Mickey Rooney. “Elvis stopped there at the store and drank a Coca-Cola when I was six or seven years old,” Jester recalls. “It was the year he got out of the army.”

Henry Bowling sold his business in the late 70s to Thomas Peterson, who renamed it Peterson’s. The Stanfields have their pecans cracked by Peterson’s widow. “We also buy from individual pecan orchards,” Jodie says.

Lead caterer Rebecca Killey and cashier Lori Shaw are responsible for the homey feel of Local Joe’s. Enamelware bowls and mugs, metal salt and pepper shakers, wire baskets and wooden signs with sayings such as “Sweet Home,” “Farm to Table” and “Farm Fresh Eggs” are displayed on shelves and hanging from the walls. Herbed soup and dip mixes are showcased in metal bins, and a photo of Lucile Ball as Lucy Ricardo rests on top of a Pepsi-Cola case. “We sell bottled soft drinks, and it’s cool watching a grandpa showing his grandchild how to open one,” says Jodie.

Two signs that bring on lots of giggles are, “Fanny’s Rest Stop, Eat Here and Get Gas,” along with a more modern proclamation, “What happens here will be posted on Facebook.” The large hoop cheese slicer is more than 100 years old and is still in use. Tshirts are sold bearing the outline of the state of Alabama, with the latitude and longitude of Rainbow City and Alexandria prominent, because there’s a Local Joe’s in each city.

The farmhouse decor includes a table lamp with an old-fashioned electric mixer and bowl at the base, and another one with a replica of a wringer washing machine. Everywhere you turn, there are iron pigs. A customer can buy anything off the walls or shelves, or Karen will refer them to its source. “All of our decor is for sale,” she says. “If it doesn’t sell, it remains as decor.”

The Stanfields employ 55 people at their two locations, including Executive Chef Damon Wynn, often found in the kitchen making Alabama Caviar (black-eyed peas and corn relish). Pit master and chef, Nathan Nolin, is Le Cordon Bleu Culinary-trained and is married to the baker, Hilary McMahon.

 McMahon bakes multiples of sweet treats almost every day, including Granny’s Baked Pies. Jodie’s Mom, aka Granny, used to bake the pies herself, and she helped Jodie establish the business. The recipes are a combination of Granny’s recipes and those of local customers. Flavors include apple, peach, blueberry, strawberry, coconut, pecan and s’mores. “They look and taste like the traditional Southern fried pies, but they are baked instead of fried,” Karen says. McMahon also makes a variety of scones, such as white chocolate, orange cranberry and chocolate chip, plus several types of cake balls.

“Damon prepares a Farm-to-Table Dinner using our facilities,” Jodie says. “He buys all his meat and produce locally, sells tickets, and holds them at different venues.” The next one will be at Local Joe’s on the new side porch that has just been built.

Along with adding the porch addition, the Stanfields have been knocking out walls for the past few months and making improvements to add to the customer experience. Most of the remodeling has been handled by Shane Elmore, aka Elmo, who owns S&K Home Improvement.

The tables where customers eat are made of barn wood by a friend, Steven Lang of Albertville, who also made the red planter boxes outside the store.

The former front bedroom of the old Bowling house is becoming a conference room with a six-foot diameter copper-topped table on a wrought-iron base that came from a former Greek restaurant in Homewood. Occasionally, you’ll find customers eating lunch in that room when a catering consultation is not in session.

As catering managers, Karen and JoAnna Duckett are responsible for the 60-plus weddings Local Joe’s caters each year. Because they have the use of the kitchens at both locations, it is not unusual for them to have three or four weddings or other large catering events per weekend.

“Our highly experienced catering staff love what they do, and it shows each and every time they serve anywhere,” Karen says. In the past few years, they have also catered four large community events: The Mayor’s Ball, which benefits the Boys and Girls Clubs of America; The Mardi Gras Magic Party, which benefits the Family Success Center; The Paws for St. Paddy’s, which benefits the local Humane Society Pet Rescue & Adoption Center; and The Girlfriend Gala, which benefits the Success by Six program in coordination with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. “We cater at various large manufacturing plants, which employ from 100 to 1,700 people,” states Jodie.

Often Jodie and Karen will have their staff make extra goodies when they cater an event, and serve those extras on Sample Saturday, a special, un-advertised event they hold periodically for loyal customers.

All of these services led to Jodie being named Alabama’s Small Business Person of the Year in 2017, which garnered the couple a free trip to D.C. and a meet-and-greet with the other 53 state winners from across the nation, along with President’s Trump’s SBA Director Linda McMahon, Vice President Mike Pence and First Daughter Ivanka Trump. Local Joe’s also was named the 2017 Retailer of the Year by the Retail Association of Alabama.

“We honestly and truly know where our blessings come from – and we are thankful that God has continued to bless Local Joe’s and allows us to pass on those blessings to our employees and the community,” Karen says. “We are in the people business, but food is what we do.”

 

A decoration for the nation

Pell City artist paints ornament for
national Christmas tree display

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
Submitted photos

When the 95th annual National Christmas Tree Lighting display opened in Washington, D.C., in December, a little piece of Pell City was among the decorations.

That is because local artist Buddy Spradley had painted one of the ornaments.

Spradley’s work and that of 13 other artists from North and Central Alabama were selected to help decorate the state’s tree in President’s Park. According to the National Park Service, 56 Christmas trees – one for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories – showed their splendor in President’s Park from Dec. 1, 2017, through Jan. 1, 2018.

The effort to provide the dozen ornaments for the Alabama tree was coordinated by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and locally by Heritage Hall Museum in Talladega.

“It is our honor to decorate our home state tree and help the nation celebrate the holidays in one of our most recognizable parks,” said Valerie White, director of Heritage Hall Museum. “We are all excited to be part of the ‘America Celebrates’ display. It gives us an opportunity to show our pride in our state’s artistic talent, stunning natural wonders and vibrant cultural heritage.”

Spradley was excited too, in addition to “speechless, nervous, … thankful, honored.” He said he is “proud to represent Alabama to the U.S. in that way, through art.”

Spradley’s ornament depicts two waterfalls at Little River Canyon in Fort Payne. He chose Grace Falls as the main focus, with another Little River waterfall on the opposite side of the ornament.

Little River Canyon “has a special feeling to me,” he said. “(I’ve) always had a personal closeness to that area.”

Many times through the years, he has gone to Little River Canyon with his dad, nationally known watercolor artist Wayne Spradley of Pell City. The elder Spradley has painted Grace Falls in the past, a fact that influenced his son’s decision to feature it on the ornament.

“Now, he and I both have done Grace Falls,” said Buddy Spradley.

Although Spradley had not previously painted a spherical piece, he was able to complete the acrylic project in about two weeks during September 2017. He did confess, however, that holding the ornament and painting it at the same time presented quite a challenge. But duct tape saved the day. Spradley found that the center hole of a roll of duct tape made the perfect cradle for holding the ornament steady while he painted on it.

 

An artist’s early start

Spradley’s chance to help decorate a national Christmas tree through art really can be traced back 45 years when he won his first art competition at age 8. That piece was an abstract.

He grew up around art, watching his dad create wildlife scenes and landscapes that would gain national acclaim. In the early 1980s, his dad produced the artwork for the Alabama Waterfowl Stamp.

After Buddy Spradley graduated from Pell City High School, he put art aside and instead earned a mortuary science and forensics degree. For eight years, he worked at Kilgroe Funeral Home, with his uncle and aunt, Sonny (now deceased) and Jane Kilgroe. From the couple, Spradley learned much about respecting, serving and helping people. “That job did teach me compassion,” he said.

It was also during those years that he felt a calling to teach. To prepare for the career change, he studied graphic art and anthropology at Jacksonville State University, and then art education at the University of Alabama.

For two years in Anniston, followed by 18-plus years in Pell City Schools, Spradley taught art to “thousands of kids.”

During the years of teaching, his art mostly consisted of pieces he painted as classroom demonstrations for the students. His focus was on educating and encouraging his students, rather than producing his own pieces.

He called the job a “blessing,” saying he went to school each day with a smile and left with a smile. The time in between was spent trying to instill in every child a sense of success and accomplishment.

Dr. Micheal Barber, superintendent of Pell City Schools, described Spradley as a “wonderful artist and wonderful teacher. … He brings life into art.”

Barber said Spradley incorporated into art class what the students were learning in history, science and other subjects.

Spradley is retired from the classroom now and greatly misses teaching students. He still feels a deep sense of responsibility toward them.

“Teaching school was such an important, big part of my life. … You’ve got to behave yourself and be a good role model … in and out of school,” Spradley said. “Even though I’m retired, I feel like I’m still responsible for making a good impression.”

The Christmas tree in his living room at the time of Discover’s visit with Spradley gave evidence of the impact he has had upon many young lives. Decorations given by past students adorned the tree from top to bottom.

It is not uncommon for former students who are now adults to tell him, “I’ve still got the Christmas tree we did in art, and I put it up on the mantle every year.”

His own heritage of art has become one of his treasures. In fact, the art table he uses is the very first one that his father had … back in 1954. He also has, as a keepsake, a sizable stack of his dad’s art demonstration pieces.

Prior to retirement, Spradley’s life journey already had taken several significant turns. Among them were an emergency triple bypass at age 38 and the death of his mother, Pat, from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Then, in September 2015, his journey took a path that made retiring necessary. Spradley was told he had gastric and esophageal cancer that was stage 3 – bordering on stage 4.

“I had less than a 9 percent chance of survival,” Spradley said. “… But I knew I was (going to make it). … Thank God, I had some of the most professional, caring doctors. They saved my life. My surgeon prayed with me before surgery. … They cared about my wellbeing and I am so thankful for that. I never would have survived without my family and my friends. Never.”

Spradley said his dad had always been “my rock,” but was even more so during that time. Also, aunts Jane Kilgroe and Jean Phillips were very caring and continue to be.

The chemotherapy treatment, which lasted a year, caused nausea, fatigue, neuropathy in his hands and loss of appetite. The neuropathy prevented Spradley from holding a paintbrush.

His determined dad devised a means for his son to return to painting. It involved inserting the brush handle into a small tube and taping the tube to his son’s finger. With such a setup, Buddy Spradley did not have to hold the brush, he only had to point his finger to paint.

It worked well and Buddy Spradley again was creating wildlife and landscape scenes and an occasional abstract. Painting, he discovered, helped to overcome the neuropathy.

On one particular day during the battle with cancer, Spradley stood at his kitchen window, looked out and prayed. He said he was about to start the next part of his life and asked God what He wanted Spradley to do.

Very soon, things started happening.

Almost overnight, Spradley felt a stronger commitment to art. He became “completely engulfed in my painting.”

Also, his skill reached a new level.

Wayne Spradley noticed a marked difference in his son’s artwork, especially in draftsmanship and execution. He saw his son’s abilities draw ever so close to perfection.

Then, came the invitation for Buddy Spradley to paint an ornament for a Christmas tree in the nation’s capitol.

“It was so unexpected,” Spradley said. “And it all goes back to when I was standing in that window and was asking for guidance for the second half of my life.” When God opens doors, Spradley said, “(you get) to do things you didn’t think you could do.”

Wayne Spradley was thrilled that his son was chosen for the honor. “I was proud of him,” he said. “I encouraged him as much as I could.”

Buddy Spradley could also imagine his mom’s voice telling him she is proud of him, too, just as she had done so often during his life.

In early 2018, Spradley embarked on another project – that of submitting an entry to the Alabama Waterfowl Stamp art contest. The painting he has in mind to do will be painstaking, considering that each feather of the ducks will have to be done individually. Yet, he looks to the challenge with the hope of being listed among the winners, just like his father is.

At times, Spradley still struggles with residual effects of cancer treatment. “It’s something you learn to live with and not let it stop you. (You) have faith that the Good Lord is with you, (and you) try to make a difference in every day.”

He said that experiencing cancer has changed life entirely. He has learned to see God’s miracles in everything. “ ‘Only the Good Lord can make beautiful things,’ ” Spradley remarked, recalling what he had heard his mother say so frequently. “I carry that quote with me daily.”

He cherishes family, enjoys friendships, studies with an insatiable hunger for knowledge, paints with conviction and appreciates the preciousness of life.

“I’m thankful for every day.”

Buddy Spradley’s artwork is available through his Facebook page and at Pell City Coffee Company. Visit www.heritagehallmuseum.org/community to see Buddy Spradley’s ornament, as well as those produced by the other 13 North and Central Alabama artists. (A note of interest: Three of the other 13 artists are current students of Wayne Spradley.)

Lost schools of St. Clair

Once the heartbeat of local communities

Story by Joe Whitten
Submitted photos

Schools were the heart-beat of communities for most of St. Clair County’s past 200 years. Wherever folk settled in the county, they soon organized a school which became central to community activity. Information is gleaned from newspapers, local and family histories, and diaries for some schools. For others, only a remembered name.

Lost town of Easonville housed thriving schools

About 1820, Bolivor Eason settled in Coosa Valley. Other families came, and by the end of the decade, the settlement had its first school, which met in homes. By the 1860s, classes met in the Coosa Valley Baptist Church.

When the post office came in 1872, the town became Easonville. By the1880s, Coosa Valley High School was established there in a one-story building. Later, they constructed a two-story building containing an auditorium and classrooms, and it served Easonville, Cropwell and Mt. Pisgah.

  • Vera Wadsworth recorded these prominent Alabamians associated with Easonville schools:
  • Dr. Henry J. Willingham, state superintendent of Education and later president of Florence State Teachers’ College.
  • Dr. John W. Abercrombie, state superintendent of Education, member of Congress, and President of the University of Alabama.
  • Dr. Issac W. Hill, state superintendent of Education.
  • Dr. Thomas Neal, president of Howard College, now Samford University.

Today, the waters of Lake Logan Martin lap over the lost town of Easonville.

A log school was located at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. Lee Wadsworth (b.1872) recalled the building as a crude one, constructed in 1870 and located on the ridge where the cemetery is today. In the 1880s, the community built a better school that contained benches with backs, glass windows and a heater for winter. Maurine Sims, in A History of Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, states that when the school was torn down, the wood was used to build a barn.

 

Eden school has storied history

The date for Eden’s first school is uncertain, but New Hope Baptist Church was organized in 1824, and where there was a church, there was usually a school. A Dec. 15, 1960, St. Clair News-Aegis article says that in 1875, Eden school was a log building located on Wolf Creek Road. The later three-room school was located where the church gym stands today. That building was used for both school and church until about 1900 when a separate two-story school was constructed. A tornado in the 1920s damaged the school, but it was repaired and used until 1948 when classes moved into a new building.

 

Cook Springs School lasted until 1950s

Cook Springs School, located near the hotel and the Baptist church, began in the 1870s and continued classes for more than 70 years. In The Village and Its Neighbor, Anita Smith writes that Russell Carreker donated the land for the first school. Then in 1914, LaFayette and Eliza Cooke donated additional land, and a larger two-room school replaced the first building. Smith states that it was a spacious building, having “large windows, a foyer-like hallway…, a big pot-bellied stove that provided better heating, and a bit of space set aside for a coat closet.” Outhouses served bathroom needs; hand pumps outside provided water. The school closed in the 1950s.

 

Mining company associated with five schools

The DeBardelabens’ Alabama Fuel and Iron Company operated schools in their mining communities of Margaret and Acmar. Fred Marvin’s history, Alabama Fuel and Iron Company and Its People, boasts that in addition to the schools on company property, the company partnered with the St. Clair County Board of Education to operate the schools at “Low Gap, White’s Chapel, and Copper Springs.” Marvin’s history states that in taking the three schools, the company “… rebuilt the structures, making them neat and attractive and assumed all expense attached to their maintenance, although many of the children attending are not those of company employees.” In both White’s Chapel and Low Gap, which accommodated white children, the buildings were of field-stone construction. There’s no record of work done at Copper Springs School in Branchville.

White’s Chapel School closed at the end of the 1960-61session. Afterwards, these students attended Moody schools through the ninth-grade and then St. Clair County High School until the Board of Education established Moody High School.

Low Gap School burned Feb. 13, 1946. Students finished the year at Low Gap United Methodist Church, but in the fall, these students began attending school in Odenville.

In Margaret, the company provided schools for both races. For the white community, the schoolhouse was at the top of School Street. According to Marie Butler in Margaret, Alabama … and now there’s gold!, in 1916 Thomas Glover was principal and “taught by the Golden Rule.” Two early teachers were Elma Lee Sansing and Annie Laurie Merritt, both teaching multiple grades. The first school, c1916, burned in 1924, and the company erected another building which also burned in 1941. A wood-frame replacement served as the school until it closed in 1965.

For the black community, the two-story St. Philips Methodist Church/Beulah Baptist Church was finished in 1918 as a community building. School met in the downstairs, and church met upstairs with Methodists and Baptists meeting on different Sundays. This continued as a school with Professor S.J. Dillard as principal until the 1930s when a school was built in the black community on today’s South Hillcrest Street.

Marie Butler records in her book that Professor Dillard served as principal until his retirement in 1953. Then, Mrs. Eddie Lee Turnbough Franks, Professor Dillard’s student, became principal. Mrs. Bernice Holston Young and Mrs. Alberta Jones also taught in this school in the 1950s. Professor Dillard’s son and student, Oliver W. Dillard, made a career of the Army and retired as a brigadier general.

In a brief history of Copper Springs Baptist Church, William Ragland records that the first school building was used for both school and church. The log building, built in 1873 by the Formans, Turnbaughs, and Vandegrifts, stood until the late 1800s when it was torn down and replaced by a frame building.

The first teachers at Copper Springs were Mrs. Mary Forman and Professor Hawkins. Mrs. Eddie Lee Franks taught there in the 1930s. Although Fred Marvin’s history says the DeBardelabens helped the Copper Springs School, Mr. Ragland didn’t mention it in his history or in a 1990s interview with this author. This school closed in the 1940s. Then, depending on the grade, students went to Margaret or Ruben Yancey in Ashville.

 

In Ashville, Yancey School has historic roots

Ruben Yancey School was a continuation of the first school for black students in St. Clair County. Mrs. Bessie Byers wrote of this school, saying, “Ashville’s first school for colored children was housed in the ‘Old Hall,’ which stood below the Methodist Church located on what today is known as 10th Street.” On April 15, 1872, Pope Montgomery and wife deeded a building to the Methodist Episcopal Church “to serve as a church and a school for colored children.” Student numbers increased until some classes met in the Methodist Church.

By 1935, they needed a new building, and the Board of Education bought from James Beason three acres on a hill top known as the “Jim Beason Pasture.” Here, they constructed a three-room, white-painted frame building, well lighted by windows. This was named the Ashville Colored High School, which served grades one through 12.

Ruben Yancey, an Ashville native, became principal in 1947 and served until 1956. Mrs. Byers wrote: “Because of his humanitarian efforts, the community grew and became a better place to live.”

Professor Yancey worked toward getting a larger facility with a lunchroom and a library. This came to fruition in the 1950s with help from Ashville’s white citizens. Forced into retirement by poor health, Professor Yancey did not live to see the building finished.

At completion, Principal Lloyd Newton and school friends requested the County Board of Education name the school Ruben Yancey in honor of the man who had labored for the betterment of their community and school. Superintendent D.O. Langston and the Board honored the request. Professor Newton remained as principal there until integration and then finished his career as principal of Ashville Elementary School.

 

DAR School took its place in history books

Six miles north of Ashville on US 411, the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) School stood adjacent to Hopewell Baptist Church on a five-acre plot purchased by the State of Alabama in 1917 from Thomas S. Black and wife, Katie J. Black. This school operated until 1924 when it was relocated to Gunter Mountain, Marshall County, because that mountain area needed an accessible school.

Some years ago, Charles Pruett Fouts, Sr., who had attended there, recalled classmates as being Willis Hood, Arvil Glenn, Clyde Vaught, Phillman and Warren Knight, Eugene and Elbert Sprayberry, O. A. Hood, Fletcher and Ed Sheffield, and Alvin and Oscar Roberts.

 

Zion Hill, Gum Springs lay claim to school history

Ada Wilson Sulser (1897-1988) wrote about Zion Hill Schoolhouse, located next to Zion Hill Methodist Church on today’s Highway 33 in Slasham Valley. Having begun school there in 1903, she remembered it as a one-room school with classes meeting from November to April, weather permitting. The school burned twice, in 1903 and 1914.

Mrs. Sulser recalled the families of Cobb, Lowery, Palmer, McBrayer, Jester and Jenkins. Her teachers were Lena Shore, Tom McDaniel, John Gunter, Mr. Allman, Will King, Lonnie Kirby, Lewis Wright, Earl Palmer, John Teaver, Ethel Gilchrest and Lilly May Merchant.

Mrs. Sulser also mentioned the Ford Schoolhouse near Gum Springs Baptist Church and that the Baswells, Kirbys and Willards attended there.

 

Argo schools remembered

Earl Massey in his monograph “Argo Schools, 1820-1953,” wrote of Reed’s Grove School, stating that H. B. Venable and wife gave two acres on Blackjack Road for a school. He gives no date for this, but notes that in 1920 G.W. Minyard deeded one and a half acres to the State of Alabama to be a part Reed’s Grove School. In 1947, after the school closed, the County Board sold the property back to Mr. Minyard.

Massey also writes of Fairfield School, in the Wade community, on today’s US Highway 11 where it crosses I-59. Quoting Gordon Melton, student there in the 19th Century, he records: “There was a one-room schoolhouse on our farm facing the ‘big road’ as we called it then (Highway 11). … Fairfield School was about 150 yards from our house.” Melton recalled a school session as four or five months during fall and winter, when children could be spared from farm work, and wrote that some years as many as a hundred students enrolled in the one-teacher school. He remembered cows grazing around the school and the constant ringing of their bells disrupting class until boys would go chase the cows away. The school closed in 1930 and the School Board sold the property to Addie Waldren.

 

Springville ‘college’ not really a college

In Springville, Spring Lake College opened in 1893.This school consolidated the two existing high schools.

Although “college” was in its name, the grades covered were primary through high school. Tuition ranged from $1.50 for the primary class to $5 for the senior class. The curriculum included basic English and math but also offered:

  • Elementary Algebra and Latin, seventh-grade.
  • Word Analysis, French History, and Latin Grammar, eighth-grade.
  • Rhetoric, Philosophy, Cicero’s Orations, Higher Algebra and Geometry, freshman year.
  • Geology, Zoology, Botany, Latin Prose Composition and Horace, sophomore year.
  • Logic, Psychology, Chemistry, Cicero de Oratore, and Trigonometry, junior year.
  • American Classics, Political Economy, Mental and Moral Science, Evidences of Christianity, Astronomy, Analytical Geometry, Parliamentary Law and Oratory, senior year.

Greek was offered as well. For additional fees, students could take music, art or commercial classes of bookkeeping, shorthand and typewriting.

The Spring Lake College Catalogue for 1894-95 states that the school “…is the result of combining the two flourishing high schools of Springville under one management.” It speaks of Springville as “a community of the highest type of American citizenship,” and that “one of the chief glories of Springville is found in her ample facilities for lodging and feeding all who sojourn within her gates. Pupils are taken into the best families of the town. …”

Margaret Windom writes in her History of Springville that “On February 10, 1896, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church deeded the town of Springville the “building and ground known as Springlake College.” On Feb. 8, 1912, the school burned, and Springville constructed a two-story brick building which was used by Springville High School into the 1970s.

 

Early 20th Century schools no longer here

From Bethel community up US 411 almost to US 231, there existed several schools in the early 20th Century.

Bethel School stood across the highway from Bethel Baptist. A photo from the 1930s shows the student body with teachers I.W. Inzer and Mrs. Prickett.

Odenville was first called Walnut Grove and so was the school, which was probably organized shortly after the Hardins and Vandegrifts settled there in 1821. About 1864, a one-room log structure heated by a fireplace was constructed near today’s Pennington Garage. Jim Hardin was teacher. His school bell is in the Fortson Museum.

Much later, the area school was at Liberty on the Liberty Church property. The last year there was 1906. In 1907, Odenville Elementary School was built under the leadership of the county school system and began operation. This wooden building burned in the mid-1920s and was replaced by a field-stone structure.

Well into the 20th Century, there was a school for black students at Hardwick, off today’s Pleasant Valley Road. William Ragland recalled that Miss Mattie Johnson, teacher, often had as many as 90 students enrolled.

Friendship School, of field-stone construction, still stands today and is owned and used by Friendship Baptist Church. Though the date of origin is obscure, in the 1920s, C.J. Donahoo was principal, and Mrs. Bertha Bowlin was a teacher.

According to The Heritage of St. Clair County, Pine Forest School was on US 411 “west of today’s Pine Forest Baptist Church.” This school began operation around 1917 and continued until it closed in 1939. Henry Cash bought the building and property about 1947. Some years later, the Cash family sold the property to Clyde and Stella Mae Thomas.

 

Pell City had its share of schools

In Pell City and surrounding communities, several schools existed for black students. In an interview, Mrs. Marion Frazier referenced schools in New Town, Riverside and Greenfield. She named Morning Star in Ragland and Mt. Zion in Cropwell, and recalled that her mother spoke of New Life School, but didn’t recall its community location.

When asked about a school before St. Clair County Training School, she named the 1927 Rosenwald School. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck & Co., created the Rosenwald Fund to provide matching monies for schools in the rural South. In 1914 in Alabama, that fund helped build six schools for blacks. St. Clair County wasn’t mentioned in the article; however, Rosenwald School is remembered locally as the forerunner to the St. Clair County Training School.

This school was in the county school system, and the first seniors graduated in 1947. The last senior class graduated in 1969. With integration of county schools, the Training School became the Walter M. Kennedy Elementary-Intermediate School. Today it is Duran South. The Kennedy Elementary School was relocated to 19th Street.

Mrs. Frazier, a 1962 graduate, talked of the activities at the school, mentioning especially the choir and the band. Geneva Martin’s memories, written for the 50th reunion of the 1966 class, spoke of the homecoming parades, of Mr. Larry Turner leading the band in the parade, of dances after football games, of student variety shows, and of walking to the National Guard Armory for basketball games until “Mr. Kennedy’s efforts paid off in having an auditorium built.” She recalled Mr. Kennedy’s requiring men teachers to dress professionally by wearing ties.

Of the 1966 graduation, Ms. Martin wrote, “We walked across the stage with pride and our heads high. … We had a stern warning from Mr. Kennedy. He said remember, there were no actual diplomas in our books, and if we messed up that night, we would not get one. Oh, yes, we had to attend the last day of school. That’s how Mr. Kennedy rolled.”

Walter Kennedy finished his career as assistant superintendent of Education in St. Clair County.

 

Leaping Lizards! What kind of name is that?

The most unusual name for a school must be Lizard Lope. Located east of Ashville on today’s Highway 411, it was later called Union Grove—but no one knows the date the name changed. Tradition says the name arose when logs were being dressed and stacked for constructing log houses. Lizards would sun on the stacks and leap from log to log. Thus, Lizard Lope. l

 

Editor’s Note: St. Clair County is rich with school history, and there is much more to be mined from various sources. Discover Magazine encourages communities to collect and record history during this bicentennial year. We are fortunate that Lizard Lope did not lope into oblivion. Long live the memories.

Honoring a Veteran

Special presentation adds local footnote to D-Day history

Story and photos by Carol Pappas

It would be hard to imagine that when William E. Massey, who enlisted in the Air Force at age 21, could have anticipated what he would witness during his time ahead in World War II.

But as June 6, 1944, approached, 1st Lt. William E. Massey of the 8th Air Force Mission knew he had just one job in mind – “keep the German Air Force out of the air,” he said.

In what would become known as D-Day, Massey, now 91, retold his story to a spellbound crowd at St. Clair County’s Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home with the patience and skill of a seasoned teacher.

By the numbers, 210,000 men took part as airmen, 26,000 were killed, and 28,000 were taken prisoners of war. “One out of every four airmen who went out didn’t come back,” he said.

Massey told his personal story of one of the ones that made it back to a crowd gathered at the veterans home for a presentation. One of his fellow residents, Joe Zeller, built a replica of the 4-engine B17 G called Channel Express, “like the English Channel,” Massey said, explaining that it was the same plane he flew during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

It carried three tons of bombs – a dozen 500-pound bombs called “blockbusters,” he said. In formation to cover the target, 54-81 planes would have flown. With that volume and power, “You can cause a lot of damage,” he said.

Zeller, 3rd class boatswain, served from 1951 to 1955 in the Navy. He built the plane before Massey even arrived at the veterans home, but when he learned that Massey had flown that very plane, he wanted to present it to him. What prompted him to build it? “I think the Lord told me to build that. I think God sent me here.”

In a formal ceremony, Zeller presented the model to Massey who then donated it to the veterans home so others to come may hold and examine a piece of history.

Massey’s son-in-law, First Sgt. Scott Leigh, in full Marine uniform was there for presentation. He couldn’t disguise his pride in his father-in-law. “He is one of the true warriors,” he said.

 

Eye-witness to history

As Massey began to tell his story, the audience’s attention to every detail was evident. His crew’s mission leading up to one of the greatest conflicts in history was to block the route in the Far East, he said. They flew to Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Syria with the purpose of preventing oil and gas to get to Hamburg for the Germans

On D-Day, he flew two missions to bomb bridges and cut off the possibility of the Germans to reach the beach and combat the invasion.

Massey flew directly over Omaha Beach and Utah Beach. Overhead he could see there was “not room for another canoe out in that water.” The critical factor in the mission’s success was to be dominant from the air. With more than a little hint of pride showing, he proclaimed, “Not a single German plane came up to contest the invasion.”

He spoke of his bombing mission to Berlin a month earlier – on May 7 and May 8. “On May 8, we turned around and went back to Berlin and bombed it again. You can’t imagine the devastation.”

He flew his fourth mission on May 29 to Berlin. The plane was loaded with incendiary bombs. When they were through, there was “no need to come back. Berlin had to be rebuilt from the bottom up. The Germans were defeated actually before then.”

Quoting German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to Hitler, he prophesied, “If you can’t stop those bombers, we can’t win the war.”

Looking back to that fateful day in June, Massey reflected, “It seemed to be impossible. Those young men gave their all. When you hear what they did, what they accomplished…young men, some only 19, they weren’t afraid. They manned their post and did an excellent job.”

Thirteen days later proved to be a more formidable challenge for Massey. He wasn’t supposed to fly that day, but he had to replace someone who couldn’t go. His plane was shot down. “The plane was on fire. It was filled with black smoke,” he said. “I couldn’t see the instruments.”

The crew was forced to bail out, and he jumped free of the plane but in doing so, he didn’t have on his chute. It was in his hand. “The ground was coming up mighty fast.” He got one side of the chute on, managed to pull the rip cord and the chute opened about 3,000 feet from the ground.

Guardian angel? “Somebody pulled that cord,” he mused.

Once he hit the ground and made it past the enemy, he connected with the French Underground and stayed with them until the end of the war.

His interrogator told him: ‘Lieutenant, your promotion to captain was sent in on the date you were shot down.’ He asked the interrogator if he knew the status, and he told him, ‘Don’t worry. You go home. It will catch up with you.’

“It never did.”

 

Biking St. Clair

County’s terrain, beauty draw cyclists

Story by Will Heath
Photos by Mike Callahan and Susan Wall

Something about St. Clair County keeps drawing cyclists from all around back to its roads. Perhaps it’s the winding paths that lead to unrivaled scenery, like Chandler Mountain, Washington Valley, Logan Martin and Neely Henry lakes.

Maybe it’s the feel of the wind and the solitude as you pedal one more mile and then another to get a glimpse of one more breathtaking view.

Ask a cyclist, and they will readily tell you it’s the countryside – rolling pastures, meandering creeks, an old barn, a roadside waterfall – it all keeps them coming back for more.

“There are more and more people getting involved in it,” said Jay Hollis of Pell City. “Last year and particularly the year before, there were quite a few new cyclists in the area.

A rider himself, Hollis now estimates that “probably 35-40 people” in the area ride with about 15 to 20 on a regular basis. His own group, the Pell City Cycling Club, bikes two to three times per week.

“It’s a really well-known area,” he said. “A lot of the men and women we ride with, they will pass through here, and we meet up with them when we can. They come from Irondale, Chelsea and the Shelby County area. … I ride with a group from Vestavia sometimes on Sundays. They come over about once or twice a month for 40-50 miles around the area.”

St. Clair County offers them a central meeting point, with a friendly culture and picturesque scenery.

“I love St. Clair County,” said Sherry Wilson of the Urology Foundation, which for a decade chose St. Clair for its Tour de Blue to raise money and awareness about prostate cancer. “It’s just a beautiful countryside. The people are so nice and friendly.”

 “They pitched in and helped us with our ride,” Wilson said. “We just kept going back to the same area to put on this event because the people in Moody were just fantastic – from the mayor’s office to the police department to the volunteers to the school system. We started at the elementary school and meandered around the countryside. The (administration) was just great to work with, and we just really enjoyed it.”

Although Wilson and fellow organizer, Tom Moody, said they were discontinuing the ride for the time being, “I have nothing but good things to say about the people of Moody, and the terrain was lovely,” Moody said. “The positive parts were the generosity and support of the people, particularly the mayor’s office and the chief of police and the government. And the beautiful scenery we had the riders go through it.”

That ride included a century ride – 100 miles in all – that had cyclists from multiple states biking over Blount Mountain and passing McClendon Gap, circling around Chandler Mountain, and through historic Ashville. It was a remarkable showcase for the county’s scenery, one that earned no shortage of praise from riders in various forums around the web.

“This is a ‘must do’ ride in Alabama,” said Doug Tinkham of SwimBikeRunAlabama.com

“Put this ride on your calendar,” said Dan (“Dirtdog”) Watson, creator of Dirtdogs Birmingham Cycling Google Group

“Awesome route. One of the most scenic centuries I’ve ridden,” said John Halsey, another participant

Biking is an activity that draws in participants from all over. Tim Pemberton of Trussville’s Cahaba Cycles says he sees a “steady increase” of riders from around his area.

“I think it usually starts off like, ‘I want to do something to get in shape,’” he said. “You go from riding around the neighborhood to seeing how far you can go.

“There are lot of people who ride up to Springville by the prison (St. Clair Correctional Facility in historic St. Clair Springs) and come back on 411, make a big loop there. There’s also, up in Springville to the left, you can climb Pine Mountain up there. Lots of people are riding in Springville and make that kind of loop and come back (to Trussville).” The view from Pine Mountain’s ridge is incredible.

Pemberton sees riders of all ages, particularly since Hewitt-Trussville High School added a mountain biking team. “It’s all over the place,” he said. “They go from that (high school) age to as old as you want to be.”

For his part, Hollis says he and others ride from one end of the county to the other – “all the way to Ohatchee, to sometimes the tip of Talladega,” he said. “We’ll ride down to Vandiver or Sterrett or to locations near Leeds,” also a popular destination point for scenic routes on Highways 55 and 43 (Wolf Creek Rd). “Sundays, we’re out sometimes four to five hours at a time when everyone can get together.

Hollis enjoys the Northwest section of the county just as much – “probably more toward Springville and Odenville, there are amazing rides out there,” he said, adding that the Pell City Cycling Club would like to start adding some routes to the area. We will post routes on our site and we encourage anyone wanting to start cycling or veteran cyclists to look us up and join in.

 “We like getting out, just being outdoors. A little bit of exercise while enjoying the beautiful rolling hills in the area.” Sometimes while riding I cant wait for it to end only to find myself thinking about when the next ride begins. You cant help but enjoy the fresh air and the winding backroads.

 

Safety, equipment
critical to sport

It’s more than just the ability to pedal. Pemberton said he frequently field questions from first-time riders to veterans alike. He and others at Cahaba Cycles can offer tips on safety, as well as equipment.

“There’s a different bike for riding around the neighborhood, or if you’re going to be in a big group riding on the road,” he said. “I try to tell everybody to at least have some lights to keep on even during the daytime, and some high viz clothing or helmet or something, so at least you’ll be seen.”

And as cycling numbers have grown, so has the need for more awareness about vehicles and bicycles on the road together. Hollis noted that a member, Charlie Browning, worked tirelessly and helped encourage the county to erect “Share the Road” signs to help support riders.

As the county continues to grow, “Hopefully they (county government) will get more behind it and make it a bit more rider friendly in the next few years,” Hollis said. It is a beautiful destination for people to come and enjoy cycling or running.

For now, though, no one’s complaining. They just board their bikes, take in the scenery and enjoy the ride.

Economic Evangelists

Lyman Lovejoy and Bill Ellison tirelessly
work to boost St. Clair County

Story by Paul South
Photos by Graham Hadley and Carol Pappas

Look around one of the top five fastest growing counties in the state, and it is hard to miss the work of two individuals who put county first and profits second. Make no mistake, both are successes in their careers, but they are strong forces for progress, envisioning what can be and becoming the catalysts to make it happen.

Lyman Lovejoy, president and CEO of Lovejoy Realty, and Bill Ellison, president and CEO of I-20 Development Inc., not only share a friendship, they share common traits – perseverance, vision, heart, emphasis on teamwork, integrity, legacy and love of community. That’s what matters most to them, and St. Clair County has become the beneficiary.

 

A cheerleader for the county

For 47 years, Lyman Lovejoy has worked in real estate and development in the county as president and CEO of Lovejoy Realty. His company has built residential subdivisions and farms and helped young couples buy their first home. But he has done more, much more.

He makes it his business to get involved with every city government in the county as well as the County Commission, St. Clair Economic Development Council and other entities that share a common goal of moving forward. He knows every mayor and council member in the county by first name, and when he sees a need, he works to fill it.

He is an essential part of the growth of Margaret, which grew by 278 percent between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. The next five years tacked on another 8 percentage points of growth. When the town needed a drug store, a dentist and a doctor, Lovejoy successfully recruited them to town. He’s done the same in other St. Clair communities.

Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair EDC, remembers his surprising first encounter with Lovejoy, when Smith was interviewing for the assistant executive director’s role. He expected someone with a large portfolio of successes to be far different from the down-to-earth man he met.

“I expected him to be cutthroat and ruthless,” Smith said. “At the time, I thought it was hard to be that successful without kind of selling your soul a little bit. What I learned quickly was this: Lyman has one of the purest hearts of anyone I’ve ever met. He can’t lie. He tells you everything he’s thinking in the first two minutes after he meets you. He is about as transparent as anybody.”

 “We do more business in some parts of the county than others,” said Lovejoy Realty’s Qualifying Broker Brian Camp, who is also Lovejoy’s son-in-law. “But Lyman is still out promoting the county because he loves the people. He loves the life that it promotes. He just thinks it’s a great way of life out here and wants everybody to know about it. He’s just all for the county and its people.”

He has served as chairman of the county’s Industrial Development Board, on the Alabama Real Estate Commission, and been honored by the SCEDC with its Chairman’s Award. Past recipients have included retired Alabama Power executive Tommy Bowers of Pell City, Circuit Judge Bill Weathington of Moody, Spencer Wideman of Ragland’s National Cement and others.

“He believes in a better tomorrow,” Smith said. “While some people see a vacant lot, he sees it’s going to be a piece of property that’s going to be home to a lovely neighborhood, or a store to serve the community or a church that’s going to be a gathering place on Sundays for the community. That’s what he sees. He loves this community.”

For his part, Lovejoy downplays his role. He says his success came with the help of others. In turn, he works to help others.

 “Lyman would tell you he’s in the people business, not really the real estate business,” said Camp, who’s worked alongside Lovejoy for 20 years. “He digs down in every aspect of their lives, where they work, where they go to church, what they’re doing. It just naturally comes to him, helping people in their lives, then he works with them on their houses and land. He works to help people get jobs or move from one position to the other. He’s actually involved in more of people’s lives than just real estate.”

Camp added, “Ninety-nine percent of what Lyman does in the community is not about real estate. He helps and works to make a difference and stumbles into business while doing that.”

Smith agreed. “I’ve walked up behind him while he’s talking, and he’s not even talking about his properties, but about the county. He’s a one-man marketing machine for the county.”

For Lovejoy, it’s not about a transaction or numbers. Over the years, Lovejoy’s firm has owner-financed home mortgages for folks whose credit may not be up to par.

“It is about relationships,” Lovejoy said. “If people know you care about them, then the business will come to you.”

Lovejoy was beating the drum for St. Clair County decades before it became a hot property for commercial and residential development, when cold calls to bankers and others were met more with skepticism than optimism. Times have changed.

“It’s kind of a comical thing. When I first moved down here, people would laugh and say, ‘What are you going to have, hoot owls and chickens?’ Years later, they were calling me asking me to get them a little piece of property in St. Clair County. I guess we had the last laugh.”

Lovejoy, now 76, with the energy of someone half his age, seems always on the move, chatting up strangers in the grocery store checkout, performing Christmas carols or favorite hymns for residents at nursing homes, or walking property, thinking of its potential. It’s all part of learning about the county and the communities he loves.

Over the years, he has helped recruit Jenkins Brick, now ACME Brick, and large corporations; located numerous industrial and new school sites; and brought in retail, in addition to dozens of subdivisions he developed, appropriately earning him the moniker, “The Land Man.”

 

Hard work, bird dogs and a legacy

Bill Ellison was semi-retired when he moved from Kentucky to St. Clair County in 1985 after building a string of successful fast-food franchises and economic development projects.

An avid outdoorsman who hunts, fishes and competes at a high level in bird-dog field trials, Ellison fell in love with the woods and waters of the county. But ever the hard-working entrepreneur who would labor seven days a week in his eateries from dawn to dark, Ellison saw a need in the Pell City and sought to fill it.

“At that time, living in Pell City, entertainment, restaurants and shopping options were minimal,” Ellison recalled. “To shop for most things, we were having to go to Talladega, Leeds, Birmingham or Oxford. There just weren’t that many choices in Pell City for shopping. You would hear it in the community. People wanted more retail options.”

 Even though he had development experience, he’d never done anything on a scale to match a retail shopping center. But Ellison went to work. He cast his eye to the north side of I-20. It became the Bankhead Crossing development, anchored by a Wal-Mart, followed by Home Depot and dozens more on both sides of the US 231 interchange.

The growth seen today didn’t happen by accident. It took him 14 years to assemble the multiple properties that now comprise what is a sprawling commercial district along that corridor.

Folks learned quickly that Bill Ellison is a persistent man and he is not afraid to solicit help. He welcomes it. From partners to city and county governments to economic development officials and bankers, he skillfully put together a collaborative effort that would become the thriving commercial district you see today.

He obtained option agreements, and those, combined with the Pell City government’s realization that the future growth of the city and its tax base could be realized in that corridor, all worked together to make it happen.

Once he had assembled all the purchase agreements, he had to go to the City of Pell City for help with major hurdles like annexation and the extension of utilities under the interstate.

The city and the county officials realized that the interstate was important to their future economic growth. It was Ellison’s vision, but the city and the county, Ellison’s partners and Ed Gardner Sr., former executive director of the St. Clair EDC, all worked to make it happen.

And there were cold calls, lots and lots of cold calls, to prospective retailers. From that piece of ground with Ellison’s persuasiveness in obtaining letters of intent grew an Arby’s, a Wendy’s, a Hampton Inn, a gas station and a Western Sizzlin’. Ellison had been recruiting the steakhouse for years, and he and his partners actually bought the franchise and opened it. The others soon followed because of the success of Western Sizzlin’.

The story is important, because it speaks volumes about Ellison. It’s about persistence. It’s about teamwork. “It’s about everyone working together – the city, the county, the EDC – were all focused on what had to be done in retail development.” Look at the county’s economic growth, and you see it was a tipping point. “Because of the successes we had, the whole county realized that if every one worked together, we could achieve anything we wanted to achieve.”

“I’m a little bit fearless,” Ellison said. “Looking back on it now at 71 years old … the timing for what we did was perfect. You can work hard. You can work real hard, but you’ve got to have the elected officials believe in you. And you’ve got to have some luck. I’ve had a lot of help and luck along the way,”

He added, “We were fortunate that we had success.”

And there would be more successes to follow, translating to a broader tax base, boosting schools, helping bring new and improved parks and recreation facilities, the Center for Education and the Performing Arts (CEPA), where crowds flock to hear legends like Martha Reeves and the Vandellas bring a “Heat Wave” to Pell City.

These amenities resulted from Ellison and that cooperative effort and enhanced the quality of life not only for Pell City but the region.

“He has been one of the largest growth catalysts that Pell City has ever had, since the opening of Avondale Mills (which opened in the early 1900s),” Smith said.

Look all around Pell City to see more evidence of that. He began with the groundbreaking for an Exxon convenience store. Following, his work became responsible for Walmart Supercenter, Home Depot, Publix, Metro Bank, USAmeribank, Krystal, Arby’s, Wendy’s, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, Cracker Barrel, Walgreens, Comfort Inn, Golden Rule, Zaxby’s, Dairy Queen, Bojangles, Buffalo Wild Wings and scores of retailers and service businesses. They are not located in just one area, but citywide, benefitting everyone. His developments account for four of the city’s top 10 sales tax generators and no less than 35 percent of total sales tax base.

While Lovejoy tries to fit locals into local niches – like home-owned drug stores – Ellison’s contacts cast a wider net into larger retailers and franchises. Almost all the development on the U.S. 231/I-20 interchange was the result of decades of Ellison’s tireless work. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, a movie theater, three hotels and every fast-food eatery imaginable dot the landscape, Smith said.

“He’s constantly encouraging retailers to come to the market, three or four years before the market is ready,” Smith said. “When the market is just at the verge of being ready, they’ve already heard about Pell City and the market because of Bill Ellison. He is responsible for two of the three largest sales tax generators in Pell City.”

Ellison sometimes tells a self-effacing joke, Smith said, that speaks volumes about the Lexington, Ky., native’s persistence.

“The joke is that many times retailers come to Pell City, not because the market’s large enough, but just so Bill will leave them alone. He is tenacious.”

Big retailers may have their algorithms and mountains of software to help them analyze the viability of a franchise in Pell City, but spreadsheets often miss the mark, Smith said.

“Many times, they don’t get it right, until they just trust in Bill, because he knows that people who shop in Pell City aren’t all from Pell City. He knows there are people who come to the lake (Logan Martin) or spend their summers at the lake – and those numbers don’t show up on a census report. He knows that Pell City’s economic strength is much greater than any demographic report a retailer may run.”

Ellison calls his persistence “moving the rock.”

“Every day you try to move the rock,” he said. “Every day, you try to have a positive push somewhere. Some days you push the rock, and the rock doesn’t move, but some days you push, and the rock does move. But you’ve got to try to move the rock every day. And it’s not just one rock. You have to multi-task.”

Timing, tireless work, teamwork and more than a little luck, made the developments happen, Ellison said. But at its heart, the growth began with countless cold calls, not over days and weeks, but years.

And he had help along the way from the late Don Perry, chairman of the board for Metro Bank, who over the years believed in him, helped him and encouraged him. “I can’t say enough about Don’s leadership, Metro Vice President Richard Knight and the bank’s philosophy in general about putting community first.”

First Bank of Alabama and its president, Chad Jones, have given him help along the way, too, he said.

He cites a lesson he learned in the restaurant business as a key that translated into his success in economic development efforts.

“Restaurants (are) a people business,” he said. “I’m no better than (the dining experience of) my last customer. In the development business it’s the same way. You’re no better than your last transaction. You’ve got to treat people right. You must be honest. You must be fair. It’s about satisfying your customer every single transaction of the day.”

He added, “I want to do something the right way.”

Like Lovejoy, Ellison seems constantly in motion. Ellison fills pages of a legal pad with his weekly to-do list. He works hard, and he plays to win, constantly listening, looking and learning.

That “can-do” work ethic can be traced back to his childhood, he mused. He described himself as a hyperactive child, and when his grandparents would babysit him to allow his parents to go out for the evening, they kept him occupied with puzzles.

The problem solver seen today in Ellison’s approach to business stems from those puzzles he figured out as a child. “Economic development is like a puzzle you have to figure out, making sure all the pieces fit in the right place,” he said.

Finding a way through the obvious maze of economic development in and of itself can be stressful. His release comes in the field, with his bird dogs. On the 2017 United Field Trialers Association circuit, Ellison has the two highest point amateur dogs in the nation. “I get to go out and shoot my gun and let the stress melt off. That’s what I use my bird dogs for.”

Like his dogs, development is a passion.

“Real estate is a business, but it’s a love that I have for chasing things and trying to bring more businesses in here. It’s something I love doing,” he said.

Ellison has an unmistakable love for St. Clair County. And he’s the same kind of cheerleader for the county that Lovejoy is.

“We’ve got a great county,” Ellison said. “My pitch is, St. Clair County is a great county today, and it’s going to be even better in the future.”

With Ellison and Lovejoy leading the effort, that prediction looks to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.