Dead Towns of Alabama: Oxanna

There once was a place called Oxanna...perhaps a town on the yellow brick road to Oz? Let's investigate.

I've written before about Falco, a pretty much dead town in south Alabama just above the Florida line in Covington County. That town rose and fell with the timber industry; Oxanna's story is a bit different. 

In 1872 the Woodstock Iron Company was formed by Samuel Noble, Daniel Tyler,, and their families to build a furnace that would produce quality charcoal pig iron in Calhoun County. The company developed the private community of Anniston to support this effort; only workers, their families and other relevant individuals could live there. By 1880 the town had a population of 942.

In the spring of 1883 the Georgia Pacific Railroad being built from Atlanta to Birmingham reached Anniston. The town abandoned its exclusivity, and Woodstock planned to sell lots to anyone. Railroad developers John B. Gordon, his brother and others formed the Southern Development, Land and Immigration Company to purchase a small valley between Anniston and Oxford. They began development of "Central City" which was soon renamed Oxanna. 

The new town was expected to have areas for business, manufacturing and residences, sidewalks, and a first class hotel. The Oxanna Tribune newspaper began publication in September 1883. The Oxanna Hotel thrived for a period until the much fancier Anniston Inn opened in spring 1885. In 1886 the town incorporated and elected a mayor and council. 

By 1900 Oxanna had reached a population of 1184; Oxford had 1372 people and Anniston had boomed to 9695. Oxanna had soldiered on, but in the following year a successful petition from Anniston citizens to the legislature resulted in annexation of the smaller town. 

Wikipedia has a list of Alabama ghost towns, but neither Falco nor Oxanna are on it. The two also do not appear in W. Stuart Harris' Dead Towns of Alabama, first published in 1977.

I wrote a blog post in 2018 "Whatever Happened to Powhatan and Praco?" that examined the fates of those now-dead Jefferson County mining towns. My mother was born in Powhatan; one of her sisters, my aunt Marjorie, was born in Praco. I've also done "Whatever Happened to Advance, Alabama?"  I plan to examine more disappeared Alabama towns in the future. 

Newspaper articles below were found via the Library of Congress' Chronicling America database. 

Further Reading

Grace Hooten Gates has written extensively on the early history of Anniston and provides some information on Oxanna in her works. Her book The Model City of the New South: Anniston, Alabama, 1872-1900 was published in 1978. Her article "Anniston: Model City and Rival City" appeared in the Alabama Review in January 1978. That article has a good account of the rivalry between Anniston and Oxanna. Another of her articles, "Anniston: Transition from Company Town to Public Town" was published in the January 1984 issue of the Alabama Review. 

Savannah Morning News 15 October 1883 

Birmingham Age-Herald 11 January 1901

During it's short life, Oxanna had its share of troubles:

Birmingham Age-Herald 29 September 1899

Birmingham Age-Herald 8 September 1900

From George F. Cram's 1904 Alabama map, which shows Oxanna as a separate town. 

Source: University of Alabama Historical Maps

And now for something completely random....

Sacramento Daily Record-Union 20 Nov 1890

Source: ebay

“Bradycrotine, the Southern Woman's Headache Cure, was made in Macon GA by Dr. Welch.”

Who Was Joseph E. Pullum?

Sometimes I'm researching something and follow it down a rabbit hole that leads to another rabbit hole. And here we are...

I recently watched PBS' "American Experience" episode on Alabama native Joe Louis and his June 1938 championship fight with Max Schmeling. Well worth watching, by the way. During the program I heard a song from the 1930's about Louis on the soundtrack. Hmm, I thought, I wonder who wrote and sang that ditty. A little time on Google led me to a 2001 New York Times article discussing  the songs written about Louis. In it the author noted that composer and music researcher Rena C. Kosersky has identified over 40 songs about the boxer from the 1930’s & 1940’s. The first was Joe Pullum’s “Joe Louis Is the Man” recorded 27 July 1935 in San Antonio. 

Lo and behold, Pullum was born in Anniston. Let's investigate. 

Wikipedia gives his birthdate as December 25, 1905, but Pullum's World War II draft registration card--filled out by Pullum on October 16, 1940, in Houston, Texas-- gives the date as December 20, 1907 [see below]. That earlier date appears in the California Death Index 1940-1997 [accessed via Ancestry.com]; Pullum died in Los Angeles on January 7, 1964. 

According to the Alabama Select Marriage Indexes, 1816-1942 [Ancestry.com], his parents William Pullum and Dora Ross were both Alabama natives and married in Calhoun County on April 3, 1898. The family moved not long after Joseph's birth, since the 1910 U.S. Census shows them living on Andrews Street in Houston, Texas. In addition to Joseph and his parents, the census lists two older siblings, William Jr. who was ten years old and Carlton, who was six. By the 1920 census, they had moved to Meyer Street and added sister Evelyn, who was eleven, and Mary A. Ross, presumably Dora's mother, to the family group. 

By 1930 only Joseph and his parents were listed in the household at 1211 Arthur Street. The record notes that he could read and write and worked as a presser in a cleaning shop. The 1937 City Directory for Houston has the same trio at the same address, but Joseph is working as a musician. His father was a porter. Brothers William, Jr. and Carlton and their wives are listed at other addresses in the city. 

Pullum made a total of 30 recordings on Bluebird Records between April 1934 and February 1936; most were done in San Antonio. A vocalist, Pullum worked with two pianists on those sessions, Rob Cooper and Andy Boy. In the 1940's he moved to Los Angeles and recorded with another pianist, Lloyd Glenn, for Swing Time Records in 1948. Other than a rumored demo made in 1953, that was the end of Pullum's recording career. 

Pullum appears in California voter registration records at two different addresses  in Los Angeles between 1946 until 1962. Wikipedia notes that although he died in Los Angeles, he was buried back in Houston. I was unable to find him listed in Find-A-Grave. All of his known recordings were reissued in 1995 on Document Records in two volumes available here and here. 

His very first recording was "Black Gal What Makes Your Head So Hard?" on April 3, 1934, at the Texas Hotel in San Antonio. That number would become his most successful; he recorded several different versions including one titled "My Woman". The recording sold well and was covered by a number of other artists. 

Other songs recorded in the San Antonio sessions included "Mississippi Flood Blues", "Married Woman Blues", "Telephone Blues", "Dixie My Home", and "Cow, See That Train Comin'". 

Pullum is one of numerous blues artists whose lives are poorly documented. Questions here include why did the Pullums leave Anniston for Houston? One source quoted by Wikipedia says Pullum performed on a Houston radio station in  the late 1930's, but that station was absorbed by another in August 1932. Did Pullum perform in public venues such as clubs and roadhouses? Why did he move to Los Angeles, did he perform live there and what did he do for a living until his 1964 death? Where in Houston is he buried?

Perhaps some day at least some of these questions will be answered....

You can find some of Pullum's recordings on YouTube. "Joe Louis Is the Man" is here. 

Source: Wirz' American Music

Recorded August 13, 1935, in San Antonio with Andy Boy on piano

Source: Wirz' American Music

Pullum's entire recorded output was issued on two CDs in 1995 by Document Records; see links above. 

Source: Ancestry.com 

Alabama Victory Ships in World War II

I seem to be doing a series on this blog about ships with names connected in some way to Alabama. This post fits that group. In previous items I've discussed the 1898 USS Alabama battleship, the USS Birmingham and early flight, the effort to save the World War II USS Alabama battleship, and the SS Selma, a concrete ship. This time let's look at Victory ships named for Alabama cities. 

During World War II various United States shipyards produced 531 ships of the Victory class, cargo ships that were an improved design over the older Liberty class. Five types were constructed across two main categories; 414 were standard cargo ships and 117 were attack transports. You can find a list of the ships here and by building shipyard here.  

Many of the Victory ships were named after U.S. cities. In my research I discovered seven vessels named after Alabama locations. As you'll see I found little information on four and more on three of them. I've included the shipyards where they were built.


SS Anniston Victory Permanente Metals, Richmond, California delivered Feb 21, 1945

SS Bessemer Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles delivered Aug 30, 1945. Had some commercial service in Vietnam, remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and berthed on the James River in Virginia until sold in the late 1980's and finally scrapped in India in 1991

SS Dothan Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered Nov 7, 1945

SS Eufaula Victory Bethlehem Steel, Baltimore, delivered Dec 12, 1944

SS Selma Victory California Shipbuilding Corporation, Los Angeles, delivered July 29, 1944

USS Talladega Permanente Metals, Richmond, California, delivered Oct 31, 1944. The Talladega was the only attack transport I found among the Victory ships with Alabama connections. The vessel worked various areas of the Pacific during the war, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. Here's the details on that from the Wikipedia entry:

Talladega sortied from Saipan as a unit of Task Group 56.2, the Assault Group, on 16 February, and arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of 19 February, "D-day".^[4] Four Marines pictured in Joe Rosenthal's famous flag-raising photograph debarked from Talladega to climb Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima: Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Mike Strank.^[2] After landing her troops, she remained off the beaches embarking combat casualties for six days before heading back toward Saipan.^[4]

His Wikipedia entry notes this information about Hayes, a Native American:

He was the subject of an article by journalist William Bradford Huie, which was adapted for the feature film The Outsider (1961), starring Tony Curtis as Hayes. The movie inspired songwriter Peter La Farge to write "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," which became popular nationwide in 1964 after being recorded by Johnny Cash. In 2006, Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the World War II movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Sousley, Block and Strank are all portrayed in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers. William Bradford Huie, a Hartselle native, was a well-known novelist and journalist at the time. 

The Talladega also participated in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was finally scrapped in 1982. You can find many more details and a photo gallery about her here.

The city of Talladega has honored the ship with a monument on the courthouse square.

Photo taken by Rivers Langley 27 October 2011

Source: NavSource

SS Tuskegee Victory Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation, Portland, delivered June 5, 1945. The ship spent seven years in commercial service after the war, then returned to the National Defense Maritime Fleet in 1952. In 1958 she was refitted as a Bowditch class oceanographic survey ship for the Navy and rechristened the USNS Dutton. She served in that capacity until February 1980; the vessel was scrapped in September 2007.

.

SS Selma Victory and six other ships of the class being outfitted at the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Los Angeles in June 1944 

Source: NavSource Online

USS Talladega a Victory class attack transport ca. 1945

Source: Wikipedia

SS Tuskegee Victory after its conversion to the USNS Dutton

Source: Wikipedia 

Red Oak Victory in 2013, at that time the only operational vessel of the class

Source: Wikipedia