Chandler Mountain

A pinnacle of St. Clair History

Story by Joe Whitten
Submitted photos

Rising to an elevation of approximately 1,315 feet in the northern part of St. Clair County, Chandler Mountain extends from the southwest to the northeast for about 10 miles.

Its average width is about two and a half miles with an area of about 25 square miles. The terrain is rugged with numerous outcroppings of rock.

According to Place Names in Alabama (The University of Alabama Press, 1999), by Virginia Foscue, the mountain got its name from Joel Chandler, “who brought his family to this area soon after the Creek Indians were removed in 1814.” He settled on Little Canoe Creek. The mountain behind his place provided good hunting, and hunters, who used a trail near his property to climb to the hunting ground, began calling the mountain Chandler’s Mountain. In time, the apostrophe “s” was dropped, and Chandler Mountain has been the name since.

Despite the rugged terrain, settlers arrived. The first, Cicero Johnson from northwest Georgia, entered land on Chandler Mountain in 1855. Historian Vivian Buffington Qualls records that others soon came with their families from Georgia and the Carolinas to join Johnson: Franklin Smith, Jake Lutes, John Bearden, W.V. McCay, John Hollingsworth, Boze Wood, Jake and Bob Robinson, John Hollingsworth and Levi Hutchens. Hezekiah McWaters came from Troy, Alabama. So, the area began to be settled and cultivated.

Darrell Hyatt tells a family story of his Robinson great grandfather, George, who as a boy learned to play the fiddle. During the Civil War, when Confederate troops had camped between today’s US 231 and the Beason House, George would entertain them by playing the fiddle. Years later, George married Susie, who played the banjo. Darrell shared a treasured photo of the couple—Susie holding her banjo; George, his fiddle.

An interesting feature of this Chandler Mountain lies in the water level. Water for family and livestock came from dug wells or creeks on the mountain and in the valley. According to written sources, mountain well-diggers struck water within 25 or 30 feet, whereas in the valley, wells sometimes went as much as 75 feet down before finding water. 

Lee Gilliland and Larry DeWeese, who grew up on the mountain, said that early on, wells were hand-dug and lined with rock, brick or wood. They also spoke of “punched wells.” A bit about 4 inches in diameter and attached to a long heavy tube was mounted on a truck. A motor pulled the tube high and then let it drop, pounding it into the earth. This process took up to two weeks before it reached the water source. The steady pounding could be heard for quite a distance.

Numerous springs bubble from the ground, but the water doesn’t flow far before sinking back into the earth. In 1949, D.O. Langston wrote his master’s degree thesis at Auburn University about Chandler Mountain. He stated that “Gulf Creek is the only stream that flows any distance, and its water disappears in dry seasons.”

Two roads give access to the mountain: Steele Gap on the east and Hyatt Gap on the west. Hyatt Gap is named for John M. Hyatt, who migrated from Heard County, Georgia, around 1875.

For his master’s thesis, Langston interviewed Hillard Hyatt, who gave an account of John Hyatt’s coming to Chandler. Hillard told that John, living in Georgia, fell in love with a young woman. Her parents objected to the courtship, so John came to his cousin, Hezakiah McWaters, on the mountain. After working for McWaters “for a year or so,” John bought “80 acres near the southwest end of the mountain.” Then, “…he went back home to Heard County, married his childhood sweetheart, and they came back home, bringing all they possessed on one small pony. They arrived with 20 cents in money.”  John’s 80 acres included what is today’s Horse Pens 40, an international tourist and recreational attraction because of its centuries-old rock formations. Its history includes an ancient Native American burial ground, a hideaway during the Civil War and for outlaw Rube Burrow. It was nationally known for bluegrass festivals with rising stars of the day like Lester Flatt, Bill Monroe, Charlie Daniels, Ricky Skaggs and Emmylou Harris. Today, it is home to world class bouldering, hosting the triple crown climbing championship.

Darrell Hyatt recounted that family lore named John Hyatt as the last person to be granted a homestead in Alabama and that John and wife arrived here with all they owned in a pillow case. Wikipedia says the park derived its name from the original deed when allocating the acreage: “the home 40, the farming 40, and the horse pens 40.”

 

Organization of schools and churches

According to Mrs. Qualls, the first school on Chandler was called Mt. Lebanon. The building was across the road from today’s Mt. Lebanon First Congregational Methodist Church. A note written in old minutes of the church states, “A building was near the site of Mt. Lebanon Church in the late 1880s and was used for school meetings.”

The Mt. Lebanon School was on the east end of Chandler. On the west end, around 1895, the McCay School was organized. Mrs. Qualls records that John Hyatt had recently built a new house and donated the logs from his old home for the school building on the McCay property. Langston states, “After this house was built, the school then alternated between the church located on the east end of the mountain and the school on the west end. The church being on the east end and the school on the west made it necessary to alternate between the two to keep peace and harmony. …” Then, in 1902, the school relocated to a new building on the Hollingsworth property.

The two schools eventually consolidated, and in time the school became the Chandler Mountain Junior High School, which flourished for many years. The students consistently made high scores on the yearly standardized tests. The county school system closed the school and today buses students to Steele and Ashville.

The date that Mt. Lebanon Church started worshiping together is not known, but they likely met in the Mt. Lebanon school building. It is known that the Mt. Lebanon First Congregational Methodist Church officially organized in July 1905 and that William Robinson, a Congregational minister, would come from Georgia to the mountain to visit his Robinson relatives. While on these visits, he conducted revival meetings, and one of these revival meetings culminated in the establishing of Mt. Lebanon Church. William Robinson served as the first pastor from 1905 to 1911.

The church purchased land on which to construct a building from Bent Engle. They paid $2 an acre for two acres. A penciled note in some old minutes record that Jeff Smith donated land for the cemetery.

From 1933 to 1936 the church had a woman pastor—Annie Struckmeyer Moats, an ordained minister in the Congregational Church. Annie’s husband was Alley Mathis Moats. Annie’s granddaughter, Barbara Robinson, is a current member of the church.

Mt. Lebanon celebrated its centennial in 2005, and as it has done for over a century, remains a vibrant contribution to Chandler Mountain.

Chandler Mountain Baptist Church through the Years—1910-2010, compiled by Ellis Lee Gilliland and Mary Gilliland, recounts that on Oct. 22, 1910, members of the Missionary Baptist Church met at Cross Roads, or as some called it, Pleasant Valley, in Greasy Cove District near Gallant, Alabama, and organized a missionary Baptist church. The organizing presbytery consisted of John Heptenstall, Colman Buckner, Mon Umphres, J.D. Vicars, J.B. Rodgers and H.H. Turley.

Minutes dated Nov. 6, 1910, give that name as Cross Roads Baptist Church, which indicates that was its first name. These minutes show the church elected John Heptenstall as minister and M.C. Rogers, son of Deacon J.B. Rogers, as church clerk.

Years passed, new buildings replaced outgrown ones, and in March 2001, the church named a committee to proceed with plans for building a new sanctuary with a basement fellowship hall and to obtain a loan for a stated amount. The committee completed its job, and worship services moved from the old 1948 building into the new. The first service in the new building occurred on Sept. 9, 2001. The church paid off the loan in 2011. They used the 1948 building as a youth facility.

Then in 2017, structural weakness in the trusses caused unsafe conditions in the new sanctuary, and the congregation had to meet in the old building again. Over the years, church members have been faithful and resilient in difficult times, and so has it been in this set-back. The repairs haven’t been completed yet, but the church is making progress and looking forward to being back into the 2001 sanctuary.

Chandler Mountain Baptist Church celebrated its centennial in 2010 and continues its 108-year legacy of a faithful church body that is a source of spiritual strength to the community.

 

Lumber and Sawmills

The Ashville Museum and Archives has photocopies of articles Kenneth Gilliland wrote of his family and the mountain. One tells of the logging industry of the 1920s. There were sections of timber that had never been cut over and contained “a large supply of virgin timber, mainly pine trees. The pines were tall and straight. We called them ‘Old Field’ pines. Many of the trees would yield 12” x 12” timbers, eighteen to twenty-four feet long.”

Kenneth’s and Lee’s daddy, Sylvester Gilliland, built a portable sawmill that he could move into a tract of timber and have it set up in a day or two. Kenneth wrote, “A gasoline automobile engine was used to power the mill. Daddy used an engine out of a 1927 Buick for many years. He equipped it with a gravity-fed carburetor system from a Model A Ford. He would saw 8 to 12 thousand board feet of lumber a day if all went well. … The trees were all cut down and cut into logs of the correct length by two-man crosscut saw” and the “… logs were snaked in by mules.”

In those days, men found work wherever they could — usually for $1 a day. Gilliland paid his workers $2.50 a day because “they were worth it.”

In an interview, Lee Gilliland commented that his dad could do anything he set his mind to. His brother, Kenneth, recorded one such endeavor — electrifying their home seven years before Alabama Power climbed the mountain with their electricity in 1939-40. He wrote: “…electricity came to the S.B. ‘Vester’ and Dora Gilliland family about 1932. Daddy installed two 32-volt D.C. Delco Light Plants. They were set on concrete slabs in the corner of the garage. These were a one-cylinder gasoline engine pulling a direct coupled D.C. generator. These engines would run on kerosene also. They would charge a bank of lead/acid batteries. Wire was run from the bank of batteries into the house. Mom’s first appliance was a 32 V.D.C. iron bought from Teague’s Hardware in Ashville.”

In a 1977 interview with Dale Short of The Birmingham News, Sylvester Gilliland said, “The first 5 dollars I ever got hold of after I was grown, I sat down with the Sears-Roebuck catalog and ordered me a book about automotive mechanics. Most folks around thought I was a little touched, because not only did we not have any sign of a car, but even if we had, we couldn’t have got it on or off the mountain, roads being like they were.”

Observing that Gilliland devoured the automotive book, then ordered a book about steam power, then one about hydraulics, and then one about radios, Short commented, “Now he can look back over half a century of keeping sawmills whirring, gins ginning, mowers cutting, and in later years, radios and televisions playing.”

It would be correct to say that Sylvester Gilliland was the right man at the right time for Chandler Mountain.

 

Peach paradise?

Many do not know that mountain farmers grew peaches and sold them commercially. A Mr. Sloat and a Mr. Bush came from Michigan and introduced peach orchards to Chandler Mountain. Just when they came and what their first names were seem unrecorded, but it can be surmised they arrived toward the end of the 19th century. Sloat and Bush convinced the farmers, and they planted several thousand trees.

Vivian Qualls writes that around 1907 W.L. Yeilding from Birmingham bought Sloat’s orchard. She quotes Yeilding’s son, Ency, “The farm included about 200 acres of land, one-half of which was in peach trees. … The original trees … were about 7,500. About three years later, he began to plant another orchard of between 3,000 and 3,500 trees.”

Mr. Langston wrote that the men built a stone packing shed near the railroad depot in Steele, and “the trees bore their first crop about 1900. The fruit was of a desirable kind and of very high quality. The packing house was ready. The crop, properly graded and packed, sold for a good price. The farmers were well pleased with their new adventure.”

Several years of good peaches selling for good prices followed. Then the bottom fell out of the market. Langston records that one farmer hauled 304 bushes of high quality peaches to Steele and returned home with $12.08. His crop brought about four cents a bushel.

Mrs. Qualls relates that the Yeildings built a canning plant so the peaches could be preserved and sold when prices went up again. For a few years the peaches were canned. However, Langston notes that when the average life of the first trees ran out, none of the farmers were willing to replant, and the peach industry dwindled out.

 

Tomatoes become king of mountain

Both Qualls and Langston record that Otis Hyatt, son of John Hyatt, raised the first crop of tomatoes marketed from Chandler Mountain. Over the years, Otis had learned farming from his father, John Hyatt.

John became a successful grower of garden produce. At some point, he raised enough to make it profitable to take the produce down the mountain to sell. Needing a more convenient road than Steele Gap, Mr. Hyatt built the road known today as Hyatt Gap.

Mr. Langston records that John built the road “single handed down the mountain to Greasy Cove.” Darrell Hyatt recently added that his great grandfather used a “team of oxen and a slip scrape” to build Hyatt Gap Road. The gap was paved in the 1970s.

In a 1940s interview with Mr. Langston, Otis gave 1926 as the first tomato year. He raised the crop, harvested it, packed the tomatoes in baskets and peddled them. He received “on the average one dollar per basket.”

The next year, his brothers planted tomatoes and sold them the same way. The brothers established routes and delivered tomatoes three times a week. Through experimenting with planting times, they found they could harvest from July to October, for first-frost came later on the mountain than in the valley.

Langston records that the Hyatts’ “… neighbors soon began to follow the same practice, and by 1932, the local markets could not take care of the crop produced.” Thus, began the crop that has made Chandler Mountain famous.

Production increased, and by 1940, McDonald Produce Company of Terry, Miss., was sending trucks to the mountain to be loaded with tomatoes for selling in Mississippi. With a longer growing season on the mountain, Mississippi and other states realized they could have fresh tomatoes into late autumn for their markets. In 1948, The Southern Aegis reported that the farmers shipped tomatoes to buyers “from New York to Miami.”

The farmers banded together and formed the Chandler Mountain Tomato Growers Association in 1943. As recorded by Langston, the following men were the first directors: Farmer Rogers, Cecil Smith, Hershal Smith, J.D. Osborne and Clarence Smith. The association incorporated in 1945. There were two packing houses for processing the crops, and that year, the association graded approximately 30,000 bushels of tomatoes.

Production continued to increase, and in 1946, Ross Roberson and J.D. Osborne built packing sheds near Whitney on the Birmingham to Chattanooga highway—U.S. 11. In 1947, the association processed 60,000 bushels of tomatoes, some coming now from Blount County farms.

As the 1948 season progressed, farmers saw excellent harvests and sales. October came with prices reaching $3.50 a bushel. Then disaster struck. As reported in the Oct. 22, 1948, issue of The Southern Aegis, an “unseasonable ‘snap-freeze’ that swept over most of Alabama Sunday night (October 17)” ruined an estimated 40,000 bushels of tomatoes. The Aegis put the financial loss at between $100,000 and $150,000.

Most farmers are invincible, and gradually tomato farmers recovered, and production still flourishes today.

So, the next time you slather mayonnaise on two pieces of white bread and cut thick slices of Chandler Mountain goodness for your sandwich, remember Otis Hyatt, who started it all.

And as you take your first juicy bite, whisper thanksgiving to the Lord for this summer satisfaction!

Making Alabama – Bicentennial Exhibit

Taking center stage in St. Clair County

Story by Katie Beth Buckner
Photos by Carol Pappas
Submitted photos

To celebrate the bicentennial of a county older than the state, officials in St. Clair knew the series of events they planned en route to November 2018, marking the county’s 200th year, had to be special.

At the heart of the county’s celebration was the state’s own bicentennial event – Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit presented by Alabama Humanities Foundation in partnership with Alabama Department of Archives and History and Alabama Bicentennial Commission. After all, a year later, on Dec. 14, 2019, Alabama would follow St. Clair’s move and become a state.

To commemorate, Alabama Humanities Foundation led a movement to assemble a traveling collection of interactive displays to retrace Alabama’s footsteps through eight periods of defining history. The exhibit features key events, people and cultures that played vital roles in shaping Alabama and is traveling to all 67 counties.

St. Clair County was one of the first stops on the exhibit’s journey through the state and was on display at Moody Civic Center April 9-22. Open to the public free of charge, it was an ideal time and venue to display historic moments, people and places in St. Clair County’s own history.

“That’s what makes these exhibit stops so amazing,” said AHF Executive Director Armand DeKeyser. “They each put their own one-of-a-kind signature on the state’s history and how their county fits into that larger story of Alabama becoming a state. St. Clair was no exception.”

“Hosting the bicentennial exhibit gave St. Clair County, the city of Moody and its civic center statewide recognition,” said Linda Crowe, a bicentennial committee member who serves as Moody’s mayor pro-tem. The St. Clair County Bicentennial Committee, a group of 34 appointed individuals, worked tirelessly to make the event successful. They devoted several hours of their time to plan, promote, set up and work this event.

“Putting on something like this takes the efforts of several folks. Fortunately, we had a wonderful committee that volunteered a lot of hours to put this event together and be a part of it while it was exhibited,” said St. Clair County District Judge Alan Furr, who chaired the committee.

The end result was an impressive display of the county’s history told through storyboards and artifacts from not only the county’s overall vantage point but from the angle of every community in St. Clair.

The county exhibit combined iconic photographs and brief overviews of historically significant events and people to create informative storyboards for each of the county’s 10 municipalities. Two additional storyboards were dedicated to the history of the county’s early modes of transportation and settlements that no longer exist.

Several of the locals were intrigued by the storyboards. According to Furr, they enjoyed the storyboard’s visual elements and easy to read descriptions.

“A lot of people were appreciative of the state exhibit, but they responded really well to what we did locally,” Furr said. “We saw people spend a lot more time looking at the storyboards.”

The St. Clair County storyboards sparked great conversation. A few locals recognized individuals and places pictured on the boards and were able to share memorable stories with others in attendance. For others, the storyboards served as educational tools, enabling them to learn about monumental pieces of their town’s history.

“Getting to meet and hear stories from folks who love and appreciate the history of the county was exciting,” Furr said. “We had several folks come through and share information about some of the photographs – how they came to be and the people in them.”

The traveling exhibit’s various displays kept visitors engaged while showcasing important pieces of Alabama’s history. A combination of artistic collages, an audio sound wall and interactive computer tablets that delved deeper into the history of each period provided them a rare learning experience.

Moody Civic Center proved to be a great location to host the exhibit. The newly built building offered adequate square footage for the exhibit’s vast layout and ample parking for guests. Its central location made it easily accessible as well.

“The civic center’s layout kept the flow of people moving, especially when we had large attendance from schools,” Crowe said.

“Despite all our efforts to promote and advertise it, the exhibit came and went with a relatively small part of our population getting a chance to see it,” Furr said. But they now have an opportunity to see portions of it in their own communities.

After the exhibit’s time in Moody ended, Furr distributed the storyboards to each respective municipality. They are currently on display at city halls, museums, community centers and libraries throughout the county for locals to view. Also, each courthouse has a storyboard on display highlighting its historical significance.

In addition to hosting Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit, St. Clair County has already held or will hold more celebratory events leading up to its bicentennial. The St. Clair County bicentennial hymn sing held in Ashville earlier this year had an impressive turnout. Since it was a success, a second hymn sing will be held Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. First Baptist Church in Moody. It’s a great opportunity for locals to fellowship and sing old-fashioned hymns with one another.

A St. Clair County Bicentennial calendar, full of historic anecdotes and old photographs, was published by the committee, and this keepsake is available at libraries throughout the county.

The crowning event will occur on November 20, the county’s 200th anniversary of statehood. A birthday type celebration will be held at each courthouse, complete with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque. Festivities will kick off at the Ashville courthouse at 10 a.m. and move to the Pell City courthouse at 2 p.m.

Restoring History

Cropwell marker, others tell county’s storied past

Story and Photos by Jerry C. Smith

As Alabama celebrates its Bicentennial over the next three years, it seemed an ideal time to refurbish and rededicate a decades-old monument in Cropwell that had fallen victim to age.

It is a fitting example of devotion to history known as Cropwell Memorial Park, and it was funded by a grant from the state’s Historic Marker Refurbishment Program. The marker was unveiled in a special ceremony in July, celebrating the history that has taken place there. Others throughout St. Clair County, a county older than the state, are undergoing the same improvements, taking note of and preserving the county’s history.

In Cropwell, following a series of prayers, music and inspirational addresses by local civic leaders, the restored historical marker was unveiled, followed by a 21-musket salute and Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. The marker has an Alabama state flag at the top with the words: “Cropwell Historical Park and St. Clair County Alabama” and notes that the post office there was established in 1834 as Diana. The name changed to Cropwell in 1837.

Speaker Gaston Williamson explained to attendees that the Cropwell Park Committee, composed of local citizens, built the park in 1975 with private funds on land donated by the St. Clair County Commission. He pointed out that all five structures making up the monument area are of local sandstone, specially chosen for shape and matching colors.

The henge-like array consists of four waist-high boulders set into a brick courtyard surrounding a tall, irregular obelisk. Each stone bears bronze plates describing various events and information about what happened here and elsewhere in Cropwell.

In June 1861, some 200 men enlisted in Company F of the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment. Local legend says they mustered under an apple tree near the park site, then marched 75 miles to Montevallo to catch a train and join Gen. Robert E. Lee’s forces in Virginia. This regiment fought in 29 bloody battles, including Harpers Ferry and Gettysburg.

A long bronze plaque on the obelisk lists names of those who enlisted, including substitutes hired by wealthy draftees to fight in their stead, a common practice in those days.

 Besides the tribute to Southern soldiers, other bronze markers commemorate various facets of Cropwell history. One tells how the town began as Diana in 1834 and was renamed Cropwell in 1837, the Masonic Lodge’s charter in 1857, and the coming of the Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad to Cropwell in 1887.

Another speaks of the charter of the local United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914, and the impoundment of the Coosa in 1946 to form Lake Logan Martin (although this date is a typographical error; should be 1964). A third plaque mentions a cotton gin startup in 1883 and Cropwell Baptist Church in 1889; and the fourth tells of Andrew Jackson’s crossing of the Coosa near Cropwell during the Creek Indian Wars of 1813-14.

Among the re-dedication celebrants were a contingent of re-enactors from Ashville-based St. Clair Camp No. 308 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, resplendent in authentic uniforms as well as homespun garments usually worn by soldiers from less-affluent families.

Pell City Manager Brian Muenger, when approached by a local resident several months previous about the park’s condition, sent an application to the state’s Historic Marker Refurbishment Program, which was created by the Alabama Department of Tourism in connection with Alabama’s Bicentennial.

There are many such markers in Pell City and St Clair County. For those who wish to visit these sites, GPS coordinates are provided in an accompanying box.

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN PELL CITY, on the southwest corner of the courthouse lawn, spells out in great detail the city’s founding and development.

Another, at Second Avenue and 21st Street North, adds more early history under the title PELL CITY’S HISTORIC RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT.

A COUNTY OLDER THAN THE STATE, on the corner of 19th Street and Cogswell Avenue, provides some interesting facts concerning St Clair’s earliest days and is matched by a sign of the same title on the courthouse lawn in Ashville that adds history of that city’s founding.

PELL CITY, ALABAMA, in front of City Hall, tells of the founding of the city by Sumter Cogswell and of the industries that followed. THE MILL VILLAGE, posted on Comer Avenue at 26th Street, gives a thumbnail history of Pell City’s chief industry, Avondale Mills, and the community it created for its workers.

All are within comfortable walking distance, and together they nicely sum up Pell City’s early history.

Other markers around St Clair County are CAMP WINNATASKA on Winnataska Drive in the Prescott Mountain area, delineating that facility’s development. JOHN LOONEY HOUSE, on County Road 24 between Ashville and Greensport, tells of a pioneer family’s pilgrimage and their impressive double-dogtrot log house, which is open for annual fall festivals.

FORT STROTHER on US 411 near Neely Henry Dam, commemorates a site used by Andrew Jackson during the Creek Indian Wars of 1813-14.

A history of the founding of HARKEY’S CHAPEL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH is posted on AL 144 near No Business Creek Road, and SITE OF THE COOK SPRINGS HOTEL, near the rail tunnel on Cook Springs Road, describes a late 19th century luxury spa that once drew visitors from all over the South.

In his address to the crowd in Cropwell, Muenger noted, “Monuments like this serve to remind us of where the community came from … and to look back and appreciate all the great things that happened in the history of St. Clair County and here in Pell City.”

Speaker David Jackson is the son of W.D. Jackson, who had worked on the original Park Committee along with George Williams, James Ingram, Charles Abbott and Mary Mays. Jackson said, “We all hope that future generations will recognize this park as far more than rocks, plaques and brick walkways. It represents the history of the Cropwell community and the memory of those from here who volunteered for military service.”

As a child, Jackson helped his father work on the park. “It was a hot, muggy day, and threatening rain, just like today,” he said. “I wanted to give it up and go home, but Dad said that it was the best kind of day for this work because the rain and warmth would help the newly-sown grass to grow.”

Ostensibly as a patriotic gesture, the rain held off until a few minutes after the ceremony was concluded. l

Alabama Bicentennial

Alabama Humanities launches Bicentennial exhibit in Moody

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Michael Callahan

Forward thinking and a prompt application helped St. Clair County become the first stop for the 18-month tour of Making Alabama. A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit, an impressive blend of state history, culture and humanities.

After its debut in Montgomery in March 2018 at the state’s capitol, it begins in April of 2018 in the City of Moody and Lee and Wilcox counties and continues through November of 2019 en route to all 67 Alabama counties and the official 200th anniversary month of Alabama’s statehood.

That St. Clair County is a year older than the state – having been created as a county by the Alabama territorial general assembly on Nov. 20, 1818 – is a happy coincidence that local planners had in mind when they quickly applied to host the traveling exhibit “as early in 2018 as possible,” says St. Clair County Bicentennial chairman, District Judge Alan Furr.

The timing means that the county will be celebrating its bicentennial as it hosts the state’s first 200th birthday party. Alabama officially became a state on Dec. 4, 1819.

“Because St. Clair County was formed prior to statehood, we believe our hosting of the state exhibit as it begins its trek throughout the state is significant,” the judge says. “And, because we are celebrating our county bicentennial during 2018, being able to host the state exhibit during 2018 enhances our own local celebratory efforts.”

The new Moody Civic Complex met all the venue requirements and will be the site for the exhibit. It is being presented by the Alabama Humanities Foundation with support from the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, corporate sponsors, individuals and organizations across the state.

Making Alabama will travel to each of the state’s 67 counties, where local exhibits created by host communities will showcase each county’s role in their own story of Making Alabama.

Planners in St. Clair County anticipate that the St. Clair story will include information and artifacts relating to Andrew Jackson’s residence at Ft. Strother, an 1813 fort – now a series of archeological sites west of Neely Henry Dam near the Ten Islands Historical Park in Ragland.

The fort near the banks of the Coosa River was used as a military supply depot and operations center for Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee Militia during the Creek Indian Wars and as a local theater of the War of 1812. Other aspects of the St. Clair local exhibit may include construction of the first brick courthouse in Ashville, the county’s mining operations and the importance of the Coosa River to the county and its communities.

“St. Clair County has a rich and diverse history,” Furr says. A subcommittee including Furr and Ashville Archives Director Robert Debter, representing the county, plus Councilwoman Linda Crowe of Moody, Sherry Bowers of Pell City, Dr. Robert Harris of Springville and Nancy Sansing of Ashville is already working on locating materials and artifacts to tell the story of St. Clair County, an early Alabama county named for General Arthur St. Clair, who was president of the Continental Congress.

Created from a portion of Shelby County when it was founded in 1818, St. Clair would eventually be divided several more times to create surrounding counties, first Jefferson in 1820 and Cherokee and DeKalb counties in 1836. Then Etowah County was born of a northeast section after the Civil War.

In announcing the order of the bicentennial exhibit, the Alabama Humanities Foundation noted St. Clair as the first stop, followed by Wilcox County in the Alabama Blackbelt, then Lee County in east Alabama, a triangle of counties in distinct sections of Alabama.

“These three communities stepped forward early to become part of this historic event, and we thank them for their eagerness to get involved in the celebration of our becoming a state,” said AHF Executive Director Armand DeKeyser.

As a partner in the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street Program, AHF recognizes the value of exhibits like this coming to communities in Alabama, DeKeyser says. “It’s an opportunity they and their citizens won’t soon forget.”

In addition to developing the local exhibit, the St. Clair Bicentennial committee that Judge Furr chairs has a list of tasks to make sure the exhibit’s up to three-week engagement in St. Clair runs smoothly and is staffed by local volunteers to serve as exhibit docents.

Plus, committee members – representing St. Clair’s towns and communities – have related tasks and projects to complete in the next year. These include documenting historic markers, local festivals and historic tours, developing a local speaker’s bureau and bicentennial T-shirts, planning a gospel sing and establishing and publicizing a calendar of events surrounding the county and state celebrations.

A cross section of residents in St. Clair County make up the Bicentennial Committee in addition to the subcommittee. They are: Shirley Phillips of Argo, Charlene Simpson, Rena Brown, Loretta Moore, committee secretary Elizabeth Sorrell and Eloise Williams, all of Ashville; Gaye Austin and Patsy Spradley of Moody; Joe Whitten, Brenda Riddle, Ann Coupland and Jennifer Forman, all of Odenville; Danny Stewart, Deanna Lawley, vice chair Gaston Williamson, Latoya Orr and Andy Eden, all of Pell City; Marie Manning, Pat Ford, Gerri Bunt, Sandi Maroney and Jerry Sue Brannon, all of Ragland. Gary Hanner of Riverside; Nancy Tucker and Carol Waid of Springville and Rosemary Hyatt and Sharon Ingle of Steele.

Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit will feature eight periods of history that defined Alabama as a state and the decisions and turning points that shaped what the state would become and will be, according to the websites promoting the Bicentennial celebration.

They are:

Pre-history to 1700, natural environment and an introduction to the exhibit.
1700-1815: The Creek War and Statehood
1815-1860: Settlement and Slavery
1860-1875: Secession, Civil War and Reconstruction
1875-1940: Political Power and the Constitution of 1901
1940-1965: World War and Civil Rights
1965-1990: Economic and Social Adjustment
1990-2020: Our Alabama

On May 5, the three-year Bicentennial celebration kicked off in Mobile, near the site of Alabama’s first state capital, St. Stevens, with another historic first – an introduction by Gov. Kay Ivey, Alabama’s first Republican female governor. “Why is it Alabama is sweet home?,” she asked the crowd. “Because of the innovation and fortitude of our people.”

That innovation and fortitude will be honored and celebrated throughout Alabama over the next two and half years. In 2017, the theme will be “Exploring Our Places.” In 2018, Alabama will “Honor Our People,” and in 2019, the state will “Share Our Stories.”

Alabama Humanities Foundation and St. Clair County will follow suit with celebrations of their own through this traveling exhibit.

Through interactive displays, historic photographs, art and narratives that delve deep into Alabama’s history and the people – some known, some not-so-famous – Alabamians and St. Clair Countians alike who helped shape that history.

The state exhibit is expected to tell the stories behind the stories about the people, places and cultures that made a difference in Making Alabama.

“St. Clair, a county older than the state, is an integral part of that story,” Furr said, “and we are proud to be a part of launching this historic exhibit.”

Editor’s note: For more information and resources associated with the exhibit, go to www.makingalabama.org. For more on the Bicentennial celebration activities throughout the state as well as resources, go to www.alabama200.org.

Springville Museum

Quest to Preserve Past a Labor of Love

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Michael Callahan

Designed and curated by history-loving volunteers, the Springville Museum takes visitors on a tour of people, events and artifacts of the St. Clair County town named for its natural springs, known for its historic downtown and a famous son who had a TV pig named Arnold.

Located at the 1903 downtown building that once housed Masonic Lodge No. 280, the Springville Museum opened in the fall of 2015. Volunteers with the Springville Preservation Society staff the museum when it’s open to the public the first and third Saturdays each month and on special occasions, says Museum Director and volunteer Kathy Burttram.

“We are very proud of the museum and want everyone to come see what we’ve accomplished,” says Burttram, who adds that Springville volunteers and expert advice from the Alabama Department of Archives and History helped get the museum ready for visitors.

Two Masonic Bibles, an antique Masonic emblem and signs from the turn-of-the-century building are displayed behind the museum counter and gift section. This section also features artwork by artist Clay Allison, including intricate watercolor and line drawing prints of the town’s many historic building and homes, plus note cards and Christmas ornaments that are sold to benefit the museum and the Springville Preservation Society. Allison, a volunteer himself, also designed the exhibit signs and museum of city history signs out front on Main Street.

The society owns and operates the museum plus a recently refurbished 1800s cabin they call the White House, which will be the city’s welcome center next to city hall, and the 1921 Rock School.

Initially called Big Springs about the time the first church was built in 1817, the town’s name changed to Pinkhill in 1833, when the first post office was established, and officially became Springville in 1834 and incorporated as a town a generation later in 1880, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Museum sections include a children’s area, a vintage kitchen, a music room, plus exhibits on famous Springville folks of note, military veterans, businesses and schools, including the first grade to college academy, established in 1861 and later called Springville College, that attracted college students from throughout the southeast until it was destroyed by fire in 1912.

The CHILDREN’S exhibit is an interactive space with rotary phones and their corded touchtone cousins, plus manual typewriters, vintage board games and children’s books. The Preservation Society wanted an area where children could experience things from the past and stay busy while adults tour, Burttram says. The museum plans to continue the “Children’s Day at the Museum” program started last summer by society president Frank Waid, with interactive activities and stories on a summer date to be announced.

The KITCHEN exhibit – designed by Sally Golsby, Sandra Tucker and Carol Tucker – is centered by an antique Norge refrigerator, on loan by Frank and Janis Price. Antique dishes, a wooden ironing board and iron complete the display that looks like your grandma’s or even great-grandma’s kitchen.

A LIVING room exhibit, also called the music or church area, was developed by volunteers Gail Hammonds, Sara Trotter, Kathy Burttram and Donna Davis. They created a nostalgic music parlor highlighting an antique piano and organ, surrounded by antique velvet furniture and hymnals, song books and sheet music dating back a century or more.

The upright piano was originally in the Forman Street home of James L. Forman and his son, the late St. Clair probate judge Ward Forman, and is on loan from Forman descendant Lew Windham. Next to the piano is an ornate organ, circa late 1800s. The organ was originally in the parlor of the McGee family from Lamar County and is on loan from a descendant, Evelyn Criswell of Springville.

A CAMERA exhibit, developed by volunteers Clay Allison, Donna Davis and Ed Bruchac, includes a display case of vintage still and video cameras on loan or donated by local folks. These include 35 mm and the wider 110 mm cameras and the film and film canisters that were commonplace before the advent of digital photographs.

A 1921 one-tube radio rests on top of the camera display.

Appropriately, on the wall near the camera display case are framed play bills from the Springville Theatre, a movie theater that changed movies every two days back in its heyday in the 1950s. Donated by local resident Janet McBroom and preservation society volunteer Carol Pearson Waid, the posters show the movies that were at the downtown theater with original play bill artwork. Some posters include notations handwritten by a young Mrs. Waid, who noted who she went to the movies with. Teasing her about her teen-age record keeping on the movie posters, Burttram says, “Somebody told Carol, ‘I didn’t know you dated so many different people.’”

Carol Pearson Waid and her husband, society president and Vietnam veteran Frank Waid, helped put together the MILITARY exhibit which includes armed services uniforms dating back to World War I plus some Civil War documents. “We have been so fortunate that as word got out about the different exhibits being put together, people would just bring items to loan or donate,” said Burttram.

This was true of many exhibits, particularly the military ones, which includes a wide variety of armed services uniforms, plus battlefield letters to and from home and other sentimental items from military families.

Frank Waid, who was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam and served in combat again in the Desert Storm conflict, loaned Vietnam era items. These include a tail rotor blade, signed by servicemen, from a UH1N twin engine Huey helicopter used by special operations forces in Vietnam. Waid also loaned for exhibit his Vietnam Flying Squadron party jumpsuit worn at celebration parties after successful completion of exceptionally long or difficult missions. The unofficial jumpsuit, with its star-spangled peace sign patch, was from the 20th Special Operations Squadron at Cam Rahn Bay in South Vietnam.

At museum center is a full-sized metal traffic light from downtown Springville, complete with bullet holes. The ragged bullet holes in the light’s thick metal frame came courtesy of a nearby resident who got frustrated with the red-yellow-green lights shining in his windows and tried to shoot them out more than once.

A BUSINESS exhibit includes an antique cash register and scales and one of the “premium” bowls customers could earn by trading at Bud’s Dollar Grocery store. The bowl was shared with the museum by the Joe and Helen Sarusce family. The Pearson sawmill, founded by Carol Waid’s grandfather, is featured as being the largest employer in Springville during its peak period prior to its closing in the 1960s. Pearson Hardware, the Simmons sawmill and an old barbershop pole, on loan from the Ricky Hill family, are highlights of the business exhibit designed by Kathy Burttram and Donna Davis.

An exhibit on the Springville Skating rink, includes a giant rotating disco light and sign from the skating rink ceiling. Skates are on loan from Carol Waid and Carol Tucker.

A MEDICAL section features Ash Drug Store, pharmacist Dr. Harold Bettis, and local physicians, Dr. Robinette Smith and Dr. James McLaughlin, and includes a syringe kit from about 1900 and other antique medical items.

The Springville Museum name drops with a FAMOUS PEOPLE exhibit. Noted Springville natives include Hank Patterson (1888-1975), an actor who portrayed Fred Ziffel on TV’s Green Acres, a character known for his pet Arnold the Pig, and had a recurring role on Gunsmoke.

There’s Margaret Byers, an actress, musician and “little person,” who starred on Broadway, including playing a munchkin in a Broadway production of The Wizard of Oz. Miss Byers later taught first grade back home in St. Clair County. And, there’s Springville-born cartoonist Milton Caniff who created the Steve Canyon comic strip.

Springville natives who made their mark in the sports world include Arthur Lee “Artie” Wilson. Wilson was a shortstop and left-handed hitter whose .402 mark with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 is thought to represent the last time anyone at the top level of professional baseball broke the .400 barrier.

Springville sports notables include Brandon Moore, who played baseball at Auburn University and played and coached on a number of professional baseball teams, including the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox organizations. He also had a coaching stint with the Birmingham Barons.

The exhibit also includes native son Randy Howell who brought fame to St. Clair County when he became the 2014 BASSmaster fishing champion.

In politics and public service, Springville’s Marilyn Quarles was the first modern day female member of the Alabama House of Representative when she was elected as a Democrat in the 1970s. She was also a teacher, and her family owned the town’s Dairy Dip and Springville theater.

Noted among local politicians is James Clarence Inzer, an attorney who served in the state senate and board of education in the 1920s and 30s and as Alabama lieutenant governor from 1947-1951.

Also featured is current state senator for District 11, Dr. Jim McClendon, a Vietnam veteran, retired optometrist and member of an original Springville family.

The museum also recognizes Springville families with FOCUS FAMILY Tree display that rotates every three months. Recent focus families are The Charles Lovett and Mildred Terry Herring family and the James Shelby and Emma Tucker Jones family.

Another display tells the story of a train derailment in 1969 that shook the town and destroyed the depot. On January 16, 1969, a train carrying propane tanks derailed at the Springville Depot and hit additional propane gas tanks that then exploded. Firefighters from from as far away as Birmingham and the National Guard responded to help fight the blaze. Although damage to the town was considerable, and 400 people were evacuated from their homes, no one was killed.

SPRINGVILLE SCHOOLS display, designed by volunteer Donna Davis, features a 1929 yearbook for the Springville High School Tigers and pictures of classes from the 1950s and earlier.

UPSTAIRS at the museum, volunteers work organizing reference and research materials to be used for genealogy searches. New Springville resident Paulette Kelly is helping to organize materials, including ledgers and vintage books for the upstairs section. Springville native Sandy DeBerry is another volunteer helping to ready the archives and reference areas.

“It’s fun learning the history of Springville as we go along,” Paulette says

“I love history and love the small town I grew up in,” says Sandy DeBerry. “Preserving history is important work.”

A plat map cabinet upstairs, donated by the Tucker family, will be used to store maps, large ledgers and bound copies of the St. Clair Clarion, a weekly newspaper that operated through the late 1980s.

To learn more about protecting the artifacts and treasures displayed and available for reference upstairs, museum volunteers visited the state’s department of archives and history, where Museum Services Director John Hardin was particularly helpful, Burttram says. In turn, state Archives staff visited the new Springville Museum.

That relationship helped the museum volunteers know to apply for a small grant from the state archives. The grant helped purchase a dehumidifier, tinting for front windows and archive supplies to store scrapbooks, ledgers, journals and old photos.

Projects taking shape upstairs also include work on a book about veterans of St. Clair, the design of a display using the electronic bell from the Methodist Church that still chimes, and creation of a music display featuring donated albums and sheet music. Two types of pews original to the Masonic Lodge are upstairs along with a quilting frame still to be developed into a display.

Burttram says anyone interested in volunteering or helping with or participating in the St. Clair veteran booklet can contact her at kpburttram@hotmail.com.

Other Museum volunteers who have helped with bookkeeping, cleaning, remodeling, painting and more include Millicent Yeager, Glenn Miller, Crissy Sharp, Harold Riker, Tami Spires, Sandy DeBerry and Society secretary-treasurer Sean Andrews.

Marcus H. Pearson

marcus-pearson-inventor-plowTales of a Springville inventor, entrepreneur

Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.
Submitted photos courtesy Carol Waid

Marcus H. Pearson was a small, quiet, humble man, with big ideas that made an impact on farmers, herdsmen and churchgoers.

Those big ideas netted two patents (one when he was just 26), made putting up wire fences a little easier and aided congregations with their building projects.

Oh … and his chicken house once held Auburn University’s live War Eagle mascot.

According to granddaughter Carol Pearson Waid of Springville, Pearson was quite the entrepreneur. “Granddaddy had several different businesses.” Among them were Pearson Lumber Co. and Sawmill, a grocery store and a gristmill.

All were on property situated at US 11 and Cross Street. Also on the site were Pearson’s home, workshop that was full of punches and patterns, and, of course, the famous chicken house.

“All of this was Pearson property,” Mrs. Waid said about the expanse that surrounds Pearson’s home, where she and husband Frank Waid now live. “This is the house Grandma and Granddaddy built.”

The 1931 home features original wood floors and cabinetry, four fireplaces, a telephone directory from 1956, Pearson’s accordion and a bed that belonged to his grandmother.

The yellow building at the corner of US 11 and Cross Street that currently houses Louise’s Style Shop and C.E. Floral Gifts and Novelties was the grocery store.

Mrs. Waid worked at the grocery store as a girl. “I worked there for a nickel a day,” she said.

The lumberyard was behind Pearson’s house, as is the current home of grandson Tommy Burttram.

As for the gristmill, Burttram’s parents – Ed and Willie Pearl Pearson Burttram – remodeled it for their home as newlyweds. When they decided to build another dwelling, they relocated the gristmill and incorporated it into the architecture.

Being enterprising seemed to be a family trait as Pearson’s father, W.R. Pearson, was also a business owner. He operated a blacksmith shop just across US 11 from where the Waids live. Working in the blacksmith shop, Marcus Pearson learned smithing, buggy repairing and woodworking.

Kathy Burttram, Tommy’s wife, has a ledger from the blacksmith shop chronicling the work done there daily.

Close to the blacksmith shop was the home of Pearson’s parents. They had the first telephone, first radio and first bathtub in Springville. Mrs. Waid said neighbors came to see the bathtub with their towels in hand.

Born in 1879, Marcus Pearson received from his mother, Frances Amelia Truss Pearson, the lineage of the Truss family for whom Trussville is named, Mrs. Waid said.

As a child, Pearson watched the creation of what became a tourist attraction in Springville until the 1960s. Mrs. Waid explained that Springville gets its name from a spring, which later was transformed into a lake. “Granddaddy saw them dig (the lake) with oxen,” she said.

In 1909, Marcus Pearson’s red, Pope-Hartford Model B became the first automobile recorded in Springville. His was only the fourth vehicle to be registered in all of St. Clair County.

He married at age 41, played the accordion and harmonica, and did not believe in working on Sunday.

“He thought Sunday ought to be kept holy,” Mrs. Burttram said.

He was a disciplinarian, lived 95 years and enjoyed hearing Mrs. Waid play What a Friend We Have in Jesus on piano.

“Granddaddy was on the building committee of the ‘Rock School,’” Mrs. Waid said, referring to Springville’s historic hillside school constructed of rocks. “He wanted to build it on the level ground. But he was outvoted because people wanted it built on the hill so people from the train could see it.”

Mrs. Waid said one of Pearson’s friends was James Alexander Bryan, who was a noted minister and humanitarian in Birmingham. In fact, “Brother Bryan,” as he was called, officiated when Pearson married Opal Jones.

The Pearsons had three children, one of whom was Marcus M. Pearson. Son Marcus — Mrs. Waid’s father — assumed the lumber business in 1950, served on the board of education and was mayor of Springville in the 1960s, Mrs. Waid said.

When another son, Frank, decided to play baseball for Springville, the automobile that father Marcus H. Pearson had at that time served as the team “bus.” It was spacious enough to transport the whole team to the games, Burttram said.

Marcus H. Pearson actually held patents on two different plow designs. The 1907 patent was for improvements to make the wooden plow more durable and easier to manufacture, according to his application to the U.S. Patent Office. This farm implement also had adjustable handles and a design that would “take the ground better and … not choke up as rapidly as the ordinary plow.”

That plow and his Pearson Fence Stretcher — to keep wire fencing from tangling during installation – received a blue ribbon at the 1907 Alabama State Fair.

In 1951, he received his second patent, this time for a “regulator for flow of material from a hopper” affixed to a plow.

The hopper, explained Burttram, distributed guano (fertilizer) simultaneously with tilling.

The patent application states that the design offered “lever control without stopping use of the hopper, adjustment without a ratchet or wrench, (and) locking in a fixed position without a tool.”

Burttram quite literally had a hand in the manufacture of this model when he was but a lad of 10 years old.

“Tommy’s first job was working for Granddaddy Pearson,” said Mrs. Burttram.

With a chuckle, Burttram recalled that his grandfather did not ask Burttram if he would like a paying job. Instead, Pearson asked the boy if he would like to have a Social Security number.

Having a Social Security number was something to be envied, so Burttram naturally wanted one. When he received it, his grandfather put him to work painting distributor boxes on plows.

Burttram said he was paid 10 cents for each box he painted.

“I thought I was really something,” Burttram said with a grin.

marcus-pearson-inventor-plow-1Mrs. Waid warmly recounts going with Pearson to sell and deliver his plows. Traveling to Oneonta or Blountsville or wherever made the preteen girl feel pretty special.

She and Burttram said Pearson’s blue Studebaker pickup served as the delivery truck. All these years later, Mrs. Waid parks her automobile under the same carport where Pearson kept his Studebaker.

Also, one of the 1951 plows has a place of prominence on Mrs. Waid’s front porch.

At one point, Sears & Roebuck asked Pearson to put a gasoline engine on his plow as a prototype. It also had additional wheels for stability, Mrs. Waid said.

Through his lumberyard, Pearson established a legacy in several churches in the area, Mrs. Waid said.

For example, Pearson assisted in 1926 with the manse of Springville Presbyterian Church, which is noted by an historical marker, Mrs. Burttram said. (Incidentally, Mrs. Waid is secretary at that church.)

For Burttram and Mrs. Waid, the lumberyard was not a place of business, but rather a land of adventure.

They explained that the freshly milled lumber was placed in triangular stacks to allow the wood to dry.

marcus-pearson-inventor-teaser“They made great, little playhouses,” Mrs. Waid said of the triangles. She and playmates also would get into them to picnic.

The imaginations of Burttram and his friends transformed the stacks into army bunkers.

And finally, we come to the story of how Pearson’s chicken house entered the annals of collegiate trivia.

In the mid-1960s, when Mr. and Mrs. Waid were married students attending Auburn University, Waid was a volunteer trainer and handler for the live War Eagle mascot. After a game in Birmingham between Auburn and its in-state rival, the University of Alabama, the couple spent the night with Mrs. Waid’s parents, who lived next door to the Pearsons.

Because the cage used for transporting the eagle was a little tight for an overnight stay, Waid decided to give the bird a place to spread its wings, so to speak. Thus, the little fowl guest was given accommodations out back in Pearson’s chicken house … minus the chickens, of course.