Red Gates

Quest for tractor barn leads to elegant event venue in Odenville

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Graham Hadley
and Sweet Life Photography – Stefanie Knight and Lauren Hudson Photography
Contributed photos

It may have been fate or divine guidance, or both, that brought Steve and Desa Osborn to St. Clair County and a life-changing land purchase.

Either way, when the Osborns found 26 acres in Odenville perfect for building a barn for Steve’s tractor, Matilda, and an eventual back-to-the-country home, they also discovered a dream avocation as proprietors of a rustically-elegant event venue called Red Gates at Kelly Creek.

“God paved the path,” Desa says, looking back at the whirlwind transformation of the once overgrown land in the shadow of Taylor Mountain, named for the St. Clair family that once farmed the land.

The adventure began with finding the land – when machetes were needed to hack through the overgrowth to find the remnants of an old barn, a leftover pecan orchard, an original hand-dug well and two ponds.

As the Mountain Brook couple began making plans for Matilda’s barn, another search altered those plans. Their son Stefan Osborn and fiancée Mary Vlasis were planning a May 26, 2017 wedding and looking for a unique venue to host an after-rehearsal dinner.

After visiting venues – including the iron and wood-filled Iron City Birmingham in Southside — and finding venue-only fees costing up to $10,000, the Osborn family decided to build their own rustic iron and wood venue.

Today, a two-story 65,000-square-foot timber frame barn rises proudly to center the landscaped grounds, a veteran now of weddings and parties – including the first event that started it all, Stefan and Mary Osborn’s after-rehearsal dinner. Already booked through May of 2019, Red Gates at Kelly Creek has 28 weddings on the 2018 calendar, plus a charity function for a nonprofit foundation dear to the Osborns.

With a full caterer’s kitchen with a separate entrance, the venue can host 50 to 300 people. Folks were visiting and signing up even before the sawdust was swept up, Steve says. And, Red Gates at Kelly Creek – named for the red gates Desa wanted instead of the ordinary silver ones plus its location at 2800 Kelly Creek Road – has been busy ever since.

The journey from beginning construction in February 2017 to the first event three months later combined Steve Osborn’s design and construction knowledge with Desa’s eye for decorating and quality wood building materials plus the artistry and knowhow of timber frame builder, Joe Dick.

An environmental consultant who grew up near Florence helping his father build and fix whatever the large family needed, Steve Osborn designed the two-story timber frame barn. “I knew what I wanted, but I also knew enough to know when to hand it off to an expert,” he says.

That expert, Joe Dick Framing of Helena, brought in a mini-mill to cut timbers that were joined with notches and bolts and to mill the pecan wood, which came straight from the Red Gates land and was used as treads on the two staircases. Poplar milled on site was used for the vanity tops in the bathrooms. The crew welded the iron railing pieces on site, too. 

Desa, who was Desa Lorant when she attended Berry High school in Birmingham, called on the building materials expertise she learned during her 28 years working at Birmingham International Forest Products.

 She and Steve knew exactly what posts and beams and lumber they wanted where. “We were always going to build a barn,” Desa says, “but not this big of a barn.”

From Joseph Lumber Company in Columbiana, they got the 10 sturdy 22-to-24-inch-caliper Southern Yellow Pine posts that hold up the towering barn, plus the beams and lumber. The exterior of Cypress board and batten siding came from a south Alabama mill, fully treated and stained using Q8 log oil.

Two staircases with the pecan wood treads and iron railings lead to a wraparound loft upstairs. A chandelier centers the barn’s open area, and another chandelier hangs on the covered porch area, just above where Maltilda, the Mahindra tractor, often occupies an honored place.

 Tied together with shiny concrete floors inside and handmade benches dotting the porch area that’s cooled with ceiling fans, the rustic barn has ladies’ and men’s restrooms. As a plus, it features comfortable getting-ready rooms for the bridesmaids and the bride, each filled with antique furniture handed down from Steve and Desa’s families.

So far, about half the couples opted to be married inside the giant barn and the other half outside, where an arbor, a handmade mantle, the stocked pond and the chandeliered porch area are available as backdrops. Highlights on the grounds include a fire pit surrounded by Adirondack chairs, a lighted horseshoe pit, a flower garlanded tree swing and the small garden shed built with materials salvaged from the old tumble-down barn which stood 200 years on the site where the new barn was built.

They are still adding on. Steve is building a small groom’s cabin with a porch so the fellows have a place to dress, too.

Nature provides other backdrops for vows and pictures, including the lighted pecan trees that are producing nuts again, resurrection ferns and wild garlic native to the place.

One event circled in red on the Red Gates calendar is a benefit for the Clayne Crawford Foundation, a nonprofit supporting children, women and veterans founded by the Clay, Ala. actor and director. It’s the second benefit hosted at Red Gates for the Foundation founded by Crawford, star of the Lethal Weapon television series and the 2002 movie, A Walk to Remember.

A Pig Out Picnic Barbecue and Benefit – complete with pig roasting in the ground – was held in May at Red Gates at Kelly Creek. Desa serves on a Foundation committee, and both strongly support the Foundation’s projects, particularly the community work of The Music Room in Leeds that offers music therapy classes for autistic children. The Music Room also partners with the Autism Society of Alabama on “Inclusion Through Music,” a June camp that serves autistic children.

Ever since the young married Osborns moved from a rural area near Wilsonville back to Desa’s hometown, settling in Mountain Brook, they were always going to move back to the country, where Steve is happiest, Desa says. The search for their country place intensified as their son Stefan and daughter Kristina, who now lives in Gadsden, finished school.

Now, they talk about where on the property to build their retirement home when the time comes. Perhaps by the pond that’s stocked with Florida hybrid bass and Copper Nose Bluegill? Or on the other side of the pond at the tree-shaded foot of Taylor Mountain? They will decide eventually.

They both still work full time while managing and building their new thriving business.

But, they know that after years of searching, they’ve finally found what they were looking for – a picture perfect place where they can do what they love doing, together.

 

Canoe Creek Park

New park haven for anglers, boaters, vacationers on Neely Henry

Story by Paul South
Photos by Carol Pappas

Though decades have sped by since Jeff Brown’s boyhood growing up near Neely Henry Lake, his memories are as fresh as a newly-baked biscuit, or freshly-caught crappie squirming on a line.

“It’s been a marina forever,” Brown said. “When I was a kid, I remember running home from school, jumping in the boat and trying to catch some fish,” Brown, now a St. Clair County commissioner, said. But fishing for crappie and striped bass were only part of what hooked Brown on Neely Henry.

His voice cracked with emotion as he recalled camping with family near the lake. “I still remember my Mama making gravy and biscuits when we would be in our camper out there,” Brown said. “I’ve got a lot of great memories there.”

After investing more than $1 million to build the new Canoe Creek Boat Launch on Neely Henry, St. Clair County hopes to create a new batch of precious memories for current and future generations.

For many years, the launch was owned by Tom Willard, who eventually sold the facility to the county. For years, the county maintained the facility, until it learned of some grant funding available from the Alabama Department of Fish and Wildlife. In 2008-09, the county was awarded a $750,000 grant. The county came up with the additional funds.

“That got the ball rolling,” Brown said. The refurbished launch was unveiled last year.

“It’s a great facility,” Brown said. “We’ve got about 80 parking places for truck and trailer, 85 boat slips, four handicapped accessible slips, a floating dock you can put boats under in inclement weather, two fantastic docks, three lanes wide, to launch a boat from… In 2019, they are going to lower the water some, and the state is going to come in and add another 30 feet to the existing ramps. You’ll be able to launch in any kind of water then, whether it’s up or down. It’s been a great project.

“There’s also room for fishing off the banks of the lake. You can carry the kids down there and sit on the rocks and fish. It’s a very productive place to fish,” Brown said.

That productivity – waters teeming with bass and crappie – won’t only lure beginning anglers, but the county hopes some of the best fishermen in the world will come to Neely Henry for competitive fishing tournaments. In fact, tournaments may be a part of life at the new launch as early as this summer.

“It’s one of the targets I’d like to see it reach,” Brown said. “I’ve had people contact me already about holding bass tournaments and crappie-thons. I think it’s coming together quickly.”

Public and private efforts on the waters of St. Clair County like the new launch, kayaking, camping and cycling areas, picnic areas and new lakefront residential development, are helping transform the county into a hotspot for environmental tourism, from Logan Martin to Neely Henry, from Canoe Creek to Chandler Mountain.

Gene Phifer, president of the Neely Henry Lake Association, said the new launch has created a positive buzz.

“We have been down there and kept track of the progress. As far as being a functional, nice boat launch, it’s fully functional. There is a lot of excitement about it. It’s a beautiful facility.”

Brown agrees. “It’s a tremendous draw. Pleasure boating is a big thing on our lake,” Brown said. “You can’t just put a pontoon in any water. You have to have a good ramp and good water.”

The Canoe Creek Boat Launch project is close to Brown’s heart. He hopes the place will become special to visitors and locals alike. His own family camped at Evans Marina, only three miles from the new launch.

“I’m teared-up now,” Brown said. “Good times are hard to beat. I have a lot of good memories. I remember waking up to my Mama’s breakfast cooking. And we had fried crappie for supper a lot of times.”

As for the future of the launch and Neely Henry Lake, Brown is optimistic.

“I just see it continuing to grow. Growth is great as long as it’s done right, and that’s been the case with the private sector and with the county commission and the store owners,” Brown said. “It’s got to help Etowah County and Ragland, too. That’s what I love about the launch. It’s reaching out to a lot of different areas.”

Kelley Taft, engineer on the project, couldn’t agree more. She noted that the design “highlights the quiet lake community as a fishing asset. The marina is ADA compliant and creates inclusive access for people with a range of abilities. County Engineer Dan Dahlke and his staff did an amazing job implementing the design with skilled county construction crews.”

Brown is as clear as the lake water when he talks about the growth on Neely Henry. It’s about being a good neighbor to locals and tourists alike.

 “I want to grow in a way that the neighbors are proud of it. I don’t want to be the new kid on the block that runs the neighbors off. I want the neighbors to say, ‘Wow, look at what we’ve got.’”

Gone Fishing

Expert anglers reveal their
favorite fishing spots

Story by Loyd McIntosh
Photos by Michael Callahan
Submitted Photos

Few things in life are as secretive as people who fish often. Seriously, getting a fisherman – or fisherwoman – to give their closely-guarded secrets is like trying to track the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa.

However, in this issue of Discover St. Clair, a handful of local fishing experts are divulging their secret fishing holes on Logan Martin, Henry Neely and the Coosa River for the first time in recorded history (may be an exaggeration, if only slight one). Many of them will even tell you about the gear they use to catch fish after fish in our area. Take notes, people.

Zeke Gossett

A former standout for the Pell City High School fishing team and current star on the Jefferson State team, Zeke Gossett is familiar with many areas of Logan Martin but finds particular success fishing the back half of Rabbit Branch Creek in the spring and early summer months.

“There’s just a great population out there. It has a lot of good clay points, with shallower banks,” says Gossett.

The area is really successful for him in April and May due to the abundance of docks. “There are a lot of fish coming off the bank, and they like to hang out around those floating peers, so I really like fishing close to the docks in April, especially when it’s sunny outside.”

Gossett also says he really enjoys fishing in the Shoal Creek area on Neely Henry Lake during the spring, especially on the lower end near the dam. However, he says he adjusts his approach depending on Alabama Power’s generator schedule.

“When the water is running on that lake, and I’m going to fish up the lake around the City Dock area up around Gadsden, I would like current toward the bottom end of the lake,” he explains. “It helps, but I don’t need it as much as I do up the river.

“When you go up the river, it turns into a skinnier river about 100 yards across and not even that in some areas,” he adds. “So, current is a big must up the river, that time of year especially.”

Hayden Bartee

Gossett’s partner on the Jefferson State fishing team, Hayden Bartee, is another young and talented competitive angler with loads of experience fishing on area lakes.

Discussing his favorite locations during the first warm stretch of the year in mid-February, Bartee says Cropwell Creek near the city baseball fields has been a productive spot for him as of late.

“It’s been pretty good here the past couple of weeks,” says Bartee. “I caught a big fish out there a couple of weeks ago, and there’s always a good population of bait fish as well as bass.”

Bartee says that area of Logan Martin is great for sight fishing when the water is clear. In this situation, he uses a bait by Big Bite Baits called the Warmouth on a 7’4 Heavy Duce rod. Bartee also says the grassy areas around Riverside can be productive and has a certain technique that he uses when fishing that area. “You can catch them on a swimming jig,” he explains. “I’ll throw a Big Bite Baits swimming crawl as a trailer for my swim jig with Vicious 60-pound no-fade braid on my 7’4 heavy Duce. That’s another good way to catch them, especially this time of year.”

Joey Nania

A fixture on the BASSMASTER professional angler circuit since 2011, Pell City resident Joey Nania is well-acquainted with the ins and outs of Logan Martin and Neely Henry. Nania also operates his own fishing guide service and has fished in almost every nook and cranny in the area, and says spring is a great time find fish in shallow spots on Neely Henry.

“The key in the spring is the fish are going to be shallow, and so fishing in the grass is important,” Nania says.

“Canoe Creek has a lot of fish that live in it,” he adds. “You go to the back of Canoe Creek, and there’s a ton of grass and a lot of docks, and that can be really good fishing in the backs of the shallow pockets.”

Nania says he prefers to fish in areas on Neely Henry that aren’t disturbed by the currents caused by the generators near the dam. “The backs of the creeks and the shallow fishing areas aren’t really affected as much if the water level stays stable, and they don’t suck the water out and drop the water out of the grass,” Nania says.

While he doesn’t want to give up too much information, Nania will say the hard bottom areas of Logan Martin are good spots to find bass. “A lot of those main lake bluffs are really good,” he says. “Finding hard bottom is really important, like roadbeds, gravel humps, that kind of thing.”

When operating his guide service, Nania takes people all over both Neely Henry and Logan Martin and says his clients are more successful when paying attention to fish behaviors rather than focusing on locations. “People want to learn different patterns, and learning patterns is really more important than individual spots,” Nania says.

Robbey Stanford

A member of the Iron City Kayak Anglers, Robbey Stanford gets a different view of the lakes, creeks and streams in the area. A resident of the Liberty Park community in Vestavia Hills, Stanford’s mother-in-law lives in Riverside, which is where he likes to take his kayak into places the big boats can’t reach.

“I love to fish a lot of the creeks that run into the Coosa River,” Stanford says. “I like to take my kayak up there and paddle into some of those back waters.

“The great thing about fishing in a kayak is you get to go where the bass boats aren’t,” adds Stanford. “It’s just a whole different angle of fishing.”

While fishing from a kayak provides anglers with an unprecedented level of maneuverability, Stanford cautions that safety must be a concern, especially for a newcomer to kayak fishing. “The main thing is always wear your life jacket. It’s not like regular fishing because you’re in a boat that can easily tip over and you can easily hit your head and drown,” he says. “I’ve seen it happen.”

Bre Wyatt

Former state champion with the Pell City High School fishing team and now a member of the Faulkner University Bass Fishing Team, Bre Wyatt is one of the first female anglers to earn a scholarship to fish in college. Whether fishing for fun or competition, Wyatt spends a lot of time on Neely Henry and Logan Martin and goes to those tried and true spots any time she’s fishing in the area.

I “have a stretch on Neely Henry about 800 yards long that’s like a rock with docks on it,” Wyatt says, “and we go there every time we fish.”

Wyatt says she likes to fish in the grassy areas around Riverside, as well as near docks and old concrete bridges. She also likes brush piles and finds them to be a good source of bass depending on the current.

“On Logan Martin, if they’re running water, we’ll go upriver and fish the current with spinner baits,” she says. “Downriver, we fish mainly brush piles, but they’re scattered around, but right there in front of Lakeside (Landing) is always good, although that’s pretty much a community hole,” Wyatt says.

Curtis Gossett

Well-known in town as the head coach of the Pell City High School fishing team, Curtis Gossett has taught many young people not only how to fish, but to recognize where the fish are biting. One of his favorite spots to toss in a line is Cropwell Creek on Logan Martin. “We fish it from spring to summer,” Gossett says. “It’s an area that always holds fish.”

Gossett says he ventures over into the Talladega County side of Logan Martin regularly, particularly in the Stemley Bridge area, although good luck finding out exactly where, since he’s not even sure what many of these holes are called. “There are a lot of sloughs up through there that we fish that don’t really have a name,” he says.

 One spot that Gossett can point to with certainty is Poorhouse Creek, which he says can be very successful in the spring. “The fish move up into that shallow water to spawn and, on the other hand, it has good creek channels where, if we have a cool snap, they can drop back off to those channels,” Gossett says. “All that together equals some good fishing.”

As for Neely Henry, Gossett does have one spot near the dam. But ever the competitor, he’s not tipping his hand as to exactly where that spot is. “That’s one we don’t talk about much because we don’t want people flooding up there,” he says.

On a serious note, Gossett says some of those areas near the dam can be dangerous for even the most experienced anglers. “There are shoals all up in there, and we have seen people run up and just ruin boats and their motors,” he says. “It’s really bad in there. You have to know where to run or you’re going to be in trouble.”

Editor’s Note: Congratulations to the Pell City Panthers Fishing team for winning the first ASABFA Regional Qualifier at Lake Jordan for the 2018 season!

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.