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In a parting glance at the Hollinger community it beckons the call to review the windswept tombstones of Enon's cemetery. Through blistering summers, wintery frostings of snow, hurricanes and a hundred or more spring time mornings, their gentle epithets ask the visitor to consider the life of the person buried here and to reflect upon their own mortality. Perhaps never a more suitable summation of the area exists than that published in the Monroe Journal on May 25, 1916. "There is hardly a man...
Hollinger, as mentioned last week, was an up and coming community in southern Monroe County in the late 1800s. Yet history is more than the names of forgotten towns on the yellowing pages of old newspapers and maps. The real history comes in the every day lives of those who made their way through day to day living, who reared families, worked, lived and died in the areas they held dear. No story is more poignant to the above sentiment than the story of Gilbert and Mary Louisa Cruit, who lived...
History along Butler Street has ebbed and flowed with the coming and going of numerous forgotten communities. Hadley, Vocation, Coley, Steadham are names lost to all but a few who dig into the past. Yet between Old Stage Road and Butler Street the forgotten lore of the Hollinger community beckons us to remember its forgotten past. Today, as tractors and other farm equipment sail across a sea of cotton and peanuts in the quite fields of south Monroe County, a history is slowly being forgotten. Th...
Federal forces assumed control of the port of Mobile following the evacuation of Confederate forces at the close of the Blakley campaign. A war weary populace watched as the blue coats marched up the Mobile streets which had, just weeks before, been the last Confederate port to hold out against the Union navy. After several weeks of occupation, the Union forces had stockpiled supplies and weaponry in the numerous water front warehouses. The Union forces soon created a magazine, or ordnance depot...
Housing was scarce in the early days of our area as the virgin pine forests awoke from their primordial slumber and the last shots of the War Between the States faded into memory. Sawmills began to dot the landscape and workers, who often arrived in the area with not much more than the clothing on their backs, needed living arrangements. Boarding houses filled this need and soon each community had several. A boarding house typically provided meals to the occupants and common areas were shared....
The years between 1861-65 were a trying time for those involved in the War Between the States. Adding to the turmoil was the misery experienced by those in captivity on both sides of the Blue and the Gray. Among the worst prisoner of war camps was Camp Douglas, Illinois which was located in what is today's Chicago city limits. In late December 1862, a very young Monroe County lad by the name of Private John William McKinley was captured at the Battle of Murphysboro and sent to the camp. In those...
If you find yourself with several days off work and desire to vacate the familiar scenery of our area, northern Mississippi might be calling your name. On a recent June weekend travelled north and discovered untapped gems of local color and history in previously unviewed locales. Our good friends Bruce and Cathy graciously allowed us to stay with them and soon the four of us were touring the area. After spending the night in the charming town of Tishomingo, Mississippi and a stop at a local...
The Great Depression had a profound impact on those who lived through it. It was a test by fire and hardened the resolve of those who made it through those dark days. The times were dark in that jobs were hard to find, starvation was right around the corner, and for some, hunger and despair were ever-present companions. At this point in history Franklin Roosevelt was elected President. Although many of his policies resulted in a dramatic increase in government programs and entitlements, these programs were not such that they rewarded inaction...
During the early 1900s a series of local newspapers did much to preserve the history and local news of the infant communities which dotted the landscape of Escambia County Alabama and Northwest Florida. R.W. Brooks, a reverend and a newspaper man, wrote many spirited accounts of history he witnessed first hand and, in doing so, provided a glimpse into the past for those of us reading his articles 90 plus years later. R.W. Brooks was the template for other journalist in the area. Some were...
The arrival of the automobile in the Southwest Alabama/Northwest Florida region marked the beginning of a departure from the slower travel of the horse and buggy and heralded the beginning of the end of the dominance of train travel. An 1896 newspaper account of the arrival of the automobile in the area noted that the "automobile was here to stay." This era is perhaps best summarized by the fictional tale of William Faulkner's town of Jefferson, Mississippi where automobiles were outlawed in...
During the early 1900s, The Atmore Advance kept a weekly account of area residents in short biographies which were written by Hugh B. Dubose under the column name Who's Who in Atmore. On May 2, 1929, Dubose chronicled the life of local farmer Lawrence McKinley. Lawrence was born to Elbert and Mary McKinley (Mary was a Stabler before her marriage to Elbert) on March 27, 1853. The young man grew up in the River Ridge/Franklin area of Monroe County. According to the Advance, Lawrence had five brothers and four sisters, yet only two brothers were...
The Deep South has given rise to many eccentric and unusual characters in the last 400 or so years that colonists, settlers, Native Americans and Southerners have collectively called the region home. Eccentric preachers such as Robert Sims led a war against authorities in the late 1890s. In Texas, outlaws who might have benefited from a diagnosis as sociopaths, like John Wesley Hardin shot hotel guests for snoring too loud. Indeed the list is endless and perhaps the South has more color and...
One of the truly great men I have had the opportunity to have known in my life was a man by the name of J.C. Marshall. He wasn't a politician, an astronaut, a general, or a man of great material wealth but he was a great man because his wealth lay in his family and his hard work. He was a memorable character not only in Canoe but in the surrounding area. When many men would sink into despair over loss or financial woes, JC always had a smile and an infectious laugh that ensured no room was going...
By the late 1800s, the L&N Railroad had become one of the major economic engines in the area. Not only did industry thrive on the ability of railroads to convey goods, but the railroads also provided rapid movement of travelers as well as news along its steel rails which cut through the rapidly disappearing virgin pine forests of the area. Salesmen, coming from Pensacola, often took the rails to Flomaton and other locations where they would depart and go door to door plying their trade which sometimes would be elaborate goods and other times...
In the old days, meaning that time before the early 1960s, when many of the tiny communities in our area seemed to prosper and their residents had more of a home view than a world view, there existed small places like Malta and Dugout which had a big influence on farming on industry. The exact origin of the name 'Dugout' is clouded with the fog of history but some say it comes from a train wreck that "dug out" a hill or from a dirt pit which operated there at the time of the construction of Highway 31 in the 1920s. At one time, an agricultural...
The advent of Highway 31 brought about rapid transportation between the hamlets and towns of the area. Motorists could now travel routes in a few hours that previously would have taken a half day, full day or multiple days to traverse. On April 5, 1934, The Atmore Advance reported the opening of the Highway 31 portion between Sardis Church Road and Canoe. All along 31, truck stops, motels and other tourist attractions began to spring to life. In Canoe, the Lighthouse was an early example of...
The late 1800s-mid 1900s saw the appearance of many small communities in our area as settlers moved in to get cheap land. Many of these settlements had at least one store, a post office, a school, usually more than one church and several families. Steadham, Alabama was no different. Steadham exists now only in the yellowing pages of dusty old newspapers and few, if any, still remember the community. Little is known of the history of the settlement but it appears to have been situated south of...
R.W. Brooks was one of the most prolific writers of local history. He was also a primary source of local history in that his writings reflect his personal observations from an earlier age. One can therefore cite with certainty his newspapers writings as to historical accuracy since he lived much of the history he reported. In October 10, 1929's edition of The Atmore Advance Brooks gives a curious account of ancient times in the Canoe and Atmore area of the 1870s. Brooks noted that he was 17...
Along Highway 31, in the quite farming community at Wawbeek, sets a lonely red dirt road leading to Bowman Cemetery. History has long moved on from the days when the location marked a vibrant saw mill community, having left only a stone orchard of headstones to mark its passing. The people who lay beneath these stones each have a story; a story of the life of their time and inter-mixed with their earthly remains are the aspirations, ambitions, successes and failures from the days they walked...
A trip to Dauphin Island almost invariably guarantees beautiful sunsets, white sandy beaches and friendly people who call the island home. My prior assessments of visits to Dauphin Island proved as true as a compass when a late March visit to the island brought me to the Dauphin Island Visitor Center in the Little Red School House and a meeting with Mr. James Hall, the Director, of the Dauphin Island Museum. The island always held an allure due to the fact that the first cousin of my great great...
The places where we live, just dots on a map to outsiders, hold a far greater meaning to those who occupy the dots. They are the places we have lived and loved, learned to walk, to talk, to pray, our battlegrounds, and the burial grounds of our ancestors. As much as these mapped dots matter to us, they are like the canvas of an artist and as each generation passes the canvas to the next, new colors and hues are added to the picture. This picture of our area, added to by each generation; may...
The age of antebellum river culture was already in decline at the outset of the War Between the States. Better roads and the coming of the railroad allowed easier access to distant inland areas. During the final days of the war, blue clad invaders marched through these areas during the twilight of their antebellum existence. Beginning in March 1865, General Frederick Steele's Union forces had begun the march north from Pensacola in support of General Canby's movements against Mobile. Steele...
As Dr. John Watkins and other settlers disembarked from steamboats at Holly Creek in 1813 the river culture of Southwest Alabama was already beginning to take shape. Predating Anglo settlers were Native Americans who lived in the river delta for generations before the arrival of the Europeans and who had a rich and vibrant culture of their own. The river culture that Dr. Watkins met on his journey to Burnt Corn would flourish in Antebellum Alabama until the storm clouds of the Civil War ushered in a new era of change. In a time where roads...
During the last days of the Civil War Union troops battled Confederate troops in Baldwin County at Blakely and Spanish Fort. Simultaneously the US Army dispatched troops up the Old Federal Road in order to cut off an expected Confederate retreat from Mobile to Montgomery. Their arrival continued a long tradition of military forays along the route. The Old Federal Road began as a horse path for postal riders in 1806. The original road stretched from Georgia to South Alabama. In 1810 the US Army...
General Edmund Pendleton Gaines (1777-1849) had a lasting impact on Alabama and US history. Gaines was a hero of the War of 1812, the Seminole Wars as well as the Mexican War. He is also credited as being the officer who arrested fugitive US Vice President Aaron Burr in Alabama in 1807. The times in which Gaines lived were exciting times. It was an era of big dreams and boundless ambition. People in this era took pride in being called Americans and it was a time when people weren’t afraid to rely on their abilities to propel them to g...
