Alabama History & Culture News: August 7 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

New curator hopes to broaden Alabama Music Hall of Fame - Charlotte Observer Charlotte Observer TUSCUMBIA, Ala. When Mickey Lollar walks through the Alabama Music Hall of Fame he senses more than a museum. He feels the history and story of ...

Alabama ghost towns: Lentzville | | enewscourier.com The News Courier The historical marker sits at the entrance to the Lentzville Cemetery and the old Methodist Church off Lentzville Road.

It's Way Too Hard to Put Up a Monument to Lynching Victims - The Daily Beast The Daily Beast Just off a street corner in Mobile, Alabama, a historic marker spells out the grisly details of Richard Robertson's 1909 lynching.

Historic Looney House in Alabama 'heavily damaged' in fire - al.com

AL.com

According to a historical marker at the house, “the two-story log house with double dog-trot is a rare example of pioneer architecture in Alabama.

Horseshoe Bend military park announces symposium | | kilgorenewsherald.com

Kilgore News Herald

All three authors are local Alabama historians including professors ... a historical archaeologist at University of South Alabama's Center for ...

Fire heavily damages historic John Looney House in Ashville - WVTM 13 Birmingham

WVTM 13 Birmingham

An historic Alabama building and tourist attraction in Ashville was heavily damaged by fire early Saturday morning. The city of Ashville issued a ...

Rollng Store coming to Pioneer Museum - The Troy Messenger The Troy Messenger The Pioneer Museum of Alabama has received a historical treasure from the Tourism Council of Bullock County — the Locklar Rolling Store that was ...

George Wallace in Wisconsin: Book explores how the Badger State helped elevate a ... The Milwaukee Independent Fifty years before Donald Trump upended politics in the U.S. and in the Badger State, Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, an ardent proponent of ...

'Sean of the South' to Publish New Book - Opelika Observer Opelika Observer ALABAMA ––. From celebrated storyteller “Sean of the South” comes a laugh-out-loud funny true story of a loving relationship, a grand adventure ...

Furr publishes new book on sociology of mental health Office of Communications and Marketing - Auburn University A new book by L. Allen Furr, professor emeritus of sociology, explores sociology's key contributions to the understanding of mental health ...

Alabama poet laureate Ashley M. Jones awarded $50000 grant from the Academy of American Poets The Birmingham Times Delegates will be chosen based on strength of application materials and a demonstrated history of working within the region on poetry projects and ...

Historical Marker: First Baptist Missionary Church 1875 and Midway Baptist Church Union Springs Herald The marker for the First Baptist Missionary Church 1875 was erected in 2000 by the Bullock County Historical Society and the Alabama Historical ...

For some clergy in the past, facilitating abortions was faith in action - The Washington Post The Washington Post Lisa Lindquist Dorr, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, is working on a book on abortion in the South

James Shipley, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, laid to rest FOX6 News Milwaukee ... was laid to rest at the Veterans Cemetery in Higginsville, Missouri. ... his basic training at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

New Chapel Baptist celebrates 75th anniversary The Alabama Baptist Ellen Dewberry (left) from the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission presented a certificate. The church recognized Donna Jones, clerk and Sunday ...

Bayer Properties, The OPAL Fund have started contruction on the historic Hardwick Steel Plant AL.com The Pizitz is home to Alabama's first food hall and Warby Parker; Forge, the city's first large coworking space; the only independent film screening ...

Decatur's historic McEntire House to be redeveloped as boutique hotel | The Bama Buzz The Bama Buzz A beloved historic home in Decatur is getting new life! ... About Decatur's historic McEntire House. Decatur ... Alabama Center of Real Estate.

2 new businesses bring Troy's historic square to full occupancy - WSFA WSFA The Troy Square, built in the early 1900s, is still open for business and is now adding two new storefronts!

Timeline of events in the 84-year history of the Bama Theatre - Tuscaloosa News Tuscaloosa News A banner strung outside declares the Bama “Alabama's Finest and Most Modern Showplace." Grand opening of the Bama Theatre in 1938 Online archive.

LIST: The shortest-serving governors in Alabama history - WHNT.com WHNT.com The governor's mansion in Montgomery has been home to more than 50 chief executives since Alabama became a state in 181

Alabama Library Association in 1904

I began working at Auburn University's Draughon Library in 1973; in 2015, I retired as librarian for the UAB Department of Anesthesiology. In between those places I worked at Tuscaloosa Public Library. Thus, if my math is correct, I worked for 42 years in libraries in Alabama, academic, public, and medical. So I thought for my 801st blog post I'd discuss this little publication, the Proceedings of the First Meeting of the Alabama Library Association, an account of the gathering held in Montgomery on November 14, 1904. 

I've written some other pieces on library history in the state. The topics include Carnegie libraries, the state's first library, libraries in Alabama in 1851, unusual libraries in Birmingham, bookmobiles and traveling libraries, and medical libraries. I'm also working on "Alabama Libraries Before 1920: A Chronology in Progress" found here. 

Papers presented at the meeting are included in this book, but as can be seen in the contents below most address general library topics with little or no Alabama content. The one exception is Thomas Owen's "Public and School Libraries in Alabama" which is an attempt to list those libraries in the state operating at that time. 

Perhaps the most useful material here is the listing of officers and charter members. This provides a snapshot of the library community in Alabama in 1904, both actual librarians and the friends of libraries. One of the latter was Russell Cunningham, M.D., then Lieutenant Governor of the state. Others included John Abercrombie, President of the University of Alabama, and novelist Frances Nimmo Greene, who at that time was principal of Capitol Hill School in Montgomery. Thomas Owen was founder and director of the state archives, the first such organization in the U.S. His wife is listed as Mrs. Thomas Owen. She was Marie Bankhead Owen, a member of the prominent political Bankhead family and aunt to actress Tallulah. She would become director of the archives for 35 years after her husband died in 1920.  

A preliminary announcement with a tentative program was issued prior to this meeting. That publication also contained the announcement of a second meeting to be held in Mobile in 1905 and included a tentative program. That program indicates more papers with Alabama material would be presented. 

In his "Prefatory Note" Owen acknowledges "the work of the meeting was not in any way notable", due to the fact that library development in the state was only beginning. He felt the papers would especially aid "the village librarian, the struggling teacher, and the poorly equipped library assistant" rather than the state's professionals, which were few at the time. Presumably he would be pleased to see the development of both libraries and librarians in Alabama over the past 100 years. 

In 1962 Jean Le Furgey Hoffman completed a dissertation at Florida State University, "The Alabama Library Association, 1904-1939: A History of Its Organization, Growth and Contribution to Library Development." That dissertation can be downloaded as a PDF here. The Alabama Library Association's web site provides information on current activities. 

I've written about a 1922 silent film based on one of Greene's novels here.

The meeting was held at the new Carnegie Library in Montgomery at the corner of Adams and Perry Street. 

Alabama History and Culture News: July 31 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Theater Review: M Ensemble's "Blues for an Alabama Sky" at Sandrell Rivers Theater Miami New Times Miami's M Ensemble first presented "Blues for an Alabama Sky" in the ... Tommy Kwak Captures Miami Beach's Lifeguard Towers in New Photo Book.

The Haunted Book Shop moving to new digs - FOX10 News FOX10 News (WALA) - Mobile's funkiest bookstore, The Haunted Book Shop, is on the move. ... CDC: More than a dozen cases of monkeypox in Alabama ...

Neo-gothic debut novel satirizes reality television | DON NOBLE - Tuscaloosa News Tuscaloosa News Lee Rozelle is an Alabamian, raised, he says, in “backwoods Alabama,” by which I think he means northeast Alabama. He also says he was raised by ...

Historic Commission receives national honor | Alabama Mountains

Spot On Alabama

The Decatur Historic Preservation Committee has been honored with a national award for the creation of an educational booklet.

Hobson City announces Founder's Day details Yahoo News 27—HOBSON CITY — Ministry and history will be the highlighted themes for ... Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Black Heritage Council.

'Art is history': National Endowment for the Arts chair visits Alabama Black Belt artists Montgomery Advertiser Alabama artists gathered in Selma last week to discuss the joys and hardships of supporting the arts, especially in rural parts of the state.

A New Orleans tradition continues at this historic Alabama restaurant - al.com AL.com For the staff at the historic, 115-year-old Bright Star restaurant in Bessemer, Ala., the annual Night in New Orleans celebration is like ...

Buckeyes get 'goosebumps' visiting historic sites in Alabama - Ohio State News

Ohio State News - The Ohio State University

They also toured the Civil Rights Memorial Center, the Alabama Department of Archives and History and the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum, ...

Alabama finds ways to narrate complex and painful Civil Rights history with new cultural sites - iNews iNews The state will soon unveil its latest memorial, remembering 'Clotilda', the last known slave ship to arrive in the US that was discovered in the ...

Local businessman, former Auburn trustee Michael McCartney dies at 88 - Gadsden Times Gadsden Times Burial will follow in Forrest Cemetery. ... “My dad started a little construction business here in Gadsden, Alabama, and wanted me to come home," ...

102-year-old WWII veteran from segregated mail unit honored in Alabama - CBS 42 CBS 42 Romay Davis, 102, will be recognized for her service at an event at Montgomery City Hall. It follows President Joe Biden's decision in March to ...

Alabama Girl Becomes Youngest Black Med Student in US History - The Root The Root Alabama Girl Becomes Youngest Black Med Student in US History. Alena Analeigh Wicker will begin her med school studies in 2024.

Gadsden's Miss Alabama celebrates 75 years of her title Gadsden Messenger Featured Photo: Pictured above, Miss Alabama 1947 Peggy Elder Butler (left) and her ... We've had three Miss Americas in the Miss Alabama history.

Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame chosen for "Southern Cultural Treasure" program by South Arts Bham Now The Carver Theatre in Birmingham's Fourth Avenue Historic District. (Jacob Blankenship / Bham Now). On Thursday, July 21, Councilor Carol Clarke ...

15 Alabama restaurants that have stood the test of time - al.com

AL.com

Rich in history and renowned for its sweet-and-tangy orange rolls, the All Steak Restaurant has been a Cullman institution for nearly 85 years.

Historic 135-year-old Homewood Church Makes Plans For Future Generations The Birmingham Times Since the man is in his 90s, the Union Missionary Baptist Church will have to dismantle the organ and bring it to his home in Central Alabama to .

Part of Historic Area in Downtown Opelika Destroyed by Fire - Alabama News Network Alabama News Network Fire crews from Opelika and neighboring areas spent the overnight hours battling a large fire in the city's historic area. The fire happened in a ...

How Wisconsin helped propel an Alabama governor onto the national stage Wisconsin Examiner Book explores George Wallace's appeal in the Badger State as he took aim at ... Alabama governor George Wallace shaking hands with members of the .

Legacy remains of WSY, Alabama's first radio station Alabama NewsCenter But the company's embrace of another cutting-edge technology, just 16 years after Alabama Power's incorporation, is also historic. One hundred years ...

Alabama ghost towns: Coffee Pot, Scarce Grease, and Cotton Port | | enewscourier.com The News Courier “While none of the graves were identified at the time, and in fact, most of the bodies were nothing but dust in wooden boxes by that time, ...

Children of Industrial Huntsville, 1908-1915

Yes, here's another entry in my continuing series, "Downsizing My Book Collection." This title is a bit of an oddity, so let's explore it.

The book contains affidavits filed with the probate judge's office in Huntsville between January 1, 1908, and September 1, 1915. These filings were the result of a state law making it illegal for anyone under the age of 12 to be employed in a mill, factory or manufacturing company. These affidavits were required of workers between the ages of 12 and 18 until the passage of a later law prohibiting children under 16 from working with dangerous machinery. 

The introduction shown below gives the details of this process. I have also included the book's copy of the 1908 law, the list of manufacturing facilities in Huntsville, and one of the sample affidavits included in the book. Finally, three sample pages of listings are given. The book is 315 pages long, consisting almost entirely of the affidavit listings in alphabetical order by child's name. A state law forbidding children under 14 from working had been repealed in 1894, and reformers finally managed passage of the 1908 and then 1915 laws. B.J. Baldwin's 1911 article, "History of Child Labor Reform in Alabama" can be found here.

Behind these listings with some basic information are hundreds of real children who worked in the Huntsville mills. We do learn names, dates and places of birth, and names of parents associated with the affidavits. Many of the children came from small towns surrounding Huntsville, even many in Tennessee. If the children worked in more than one facility their movements are tracked during this period.

One interesting byproduct given in many entries are the names of physicians or midwives who attended the births. They will be listed for example as Dr. Sutton or Mrs. Rose. The doctors could be traced in various physician directories; the midwives would be more problematic. I did not notice any midwives listed as "Miss". 

This book's author was the mother of one of my classmates at Lee High School in Huntsville, Curtis Maulsby. She published at least one other book, Merrimack Cemetery, Huntsville, Alabama, which I presume is an inventory of the cemetery founded in 1900 for workers and families at the Merrimack Mills. The cemetery can be searched at Find-A-Grave. 

This 1987 self-published Children's book was obviously an effort dear to the author; apparently few copies have been distributed. There's an entry on Amazon, but no copies were currently for sale. None were offered on eBay or Bookfinder.com either. According to WorldCat.org, only 10 copies are owned by reporting libraries, half in Alabama. 

I have also included two photographs of the 38 taken by Lewis Hine when he visited the Merrimack Mills in 1910 and 1913. Hine [1874-1940] was a sociologist and documentary photographer. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about his work with child labor:

In 1908, Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), leaving his teaching position. Over the next decade, Hine documented child labor, with focus on the use of child labor in the Carolina Piedmont,^[3] to aid the NCLC's lobbying efforts to end the practice.^[4] In 1913, he documented child laborers among cotton mill workers with a series of Francis Galton's composite portraits.

Hine's work for the NCLC was often dangerous. As a photographer, he was frequently threatened with violence or even death by factory police and foremen. At the time, the immorality of child labor was meant to be hidden from the public. Photography was not only prohibited but also posed a serious threat to the industry.^[5] To gain entry to the mills, mines and factories, Hine was forced to assume many guises. At times he was a fire inspector, postcard vendor, bible salesman, or even an industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery.^[6]

More than 200 of Hine's Alabama photographs can be seen at the Library of Congress digital collections. He also visited Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Bayou La Batre documenting child labor. 

Hines' Huntsville photos name 11 children; 10 of them are included in the Maulsby book: Frank and George Baldwin (both p. 12), Madeline Causey (p. 52), Gracie Clark (p. 57), Millie and May Crews (p. 70), Pinkie Durham (p. 84), Charlie Foster (p. 95), Buford Fox (p. 97), and Sanford Franklin (p. 99). I did not find Pete Henson. I've included two photographs below, along with details from Hine's notes and the Maulsby book. 

You can see a photo of Dallas Manufacturing here and Merrimack Cotton Mills here. That Merrimack photo is on a postcard. 

 

Madeline Causey at Merrimack Mills, November 1913. About this photograph Hine wrote "Been working there for four months. Fills batteries. Mother said she was born July 7, 1903". The Maulsby book has her birthdate as July 7, 1901, which made her 12 years old when she began work at Merrimack on October 20, 1913. Her birthplace is given as Hillsboro, Alabama. Mrs. Rose was the midwife and J.T. Causey is the parent listed. Her brother Oscar, born in February 1900, also worked at Merrimack. 

Source: Library of Congress 

Charlie Foster at Merrimack Mills, December 1913. Hine wrote, "Charlie Foster has a steady job in the Merrimack Mills. School Record says he is now ten years old. His father told me that he could not read, and still he is putting him into the mill." Charlie, from New Market, Alabama, was born May 3, 1901, with Dr. Charlie Blanton attending. Jess Foster was the parent listed. He began work at Merrimack on May 9, 1913; he moved to the Huntsville Knitting Company on May 11, 1914. 

Source: Library of Congress

Note at the end of the third paragraph in this introduction, the author locates the affidavits in the basement of the Madison County Courthouse. That means she or someone spent who knows how much time there collecting the information in this book. Real old-time research, folks, no Google, no digital collections to search from the comfort of home. 

I've done a lot of both types of research over the decades, and that hands-on-the-real-documents way is a lot more exciting. Too bad I don't get to do much of that anymore. There's nothing like spending a few hours in the dark, lonely basement of a big library, going through page after page in bound newspaper volumes, making fascinating discoveries. 

I need to monetize that on Tik Tok, don't I?

Boys Swearing in Huntsville in 1881

As one is apt to do on a hot summer day, I recently wandered around the Library of Congress' collection, Chronicling America, which offers digitized newspapers from around the country. In the June 18, 1881, issue of the Huntsville Gazette, I found the following item of editorial comment. 

That is all...