Tuesday, May 3, 2016

It's been a while and I've had a lot going on, but I thought folks might be interested in another family who lived in Steele about 100 years ago.  There's an interesting connection to someone whose name might be familiar to you, but I'll save that for the end of the story.

James Benjamin Stovall was a Presbyterian minister and his family lived in Steele at the time of the 1900 census.  He was originally from Odenville and was married to Effie Elizabeth Fowler.  By 1910 the family had moved to Brent in Bibb County where J.B. continued to minister and to teach.  Education and ministry would be continuing areas of focus for this family, as seen in the lives of his daughters in particular.

There were six children in the family:
Samuel Drewry Stovall  1897 - 1961
Chamintney (Mittie) E. Stovall 1899 - 1979
Zeila Jeanette Stovall  1901 - 1993
Willard Isadora Stovall  1905 - 1994
Katyleene Stovall  1908 - 2007
Ada Ruth Stovall 1913 - 2008

All of the children were born in St. Clair County and the two oldest stated on records that they were born in Steele.  In 1917 at age 49, J.B. was thrown from a wagon in which he was riding and he was instantly killed.  As you can see from the ages of his children, this left Effie with young children at home and no income.  Records from the same year indicate that Samuel Drewry Stovall was working as a gatehouseman at a TCI mine in Wylam.  He would continue to work for the company as a clerk, timekeeper, and accountant even after moving to Russellville.

Somehow in a day when a college education was terribly out of reach for most people in Alabama, Effie was able to see that all five of her daughters attended college.  Mittie and Zeila went to Maryville College in Tennessee.  Willard, Katyleene, and Ruth attended the University of Montevallo.  Mittie, a teacher, would marry Ralph Cage Thomas, who became Superintendent of Education in Franklin County.  Zeila, a music teacher, married Frank Pettus Steele from St. Clair County, who sold hardware in Tuscaloosa.  Willard was a welfare worker and married Thomas P. Lee and moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas where he worked for the soil conservation service.  Katyleene married Ralph Jones Kendall, an episcopal minister from Chicago.  They lived in Eutaw, Alabama.  And finally Ada Ruth remained unmarried and taught home economics.  J.B. and Effie, along with some of their children, are buried at Liberty Cemetery in Odenville.

Now for the "celebrity" connection:  Recently I came across a letter that Mrs. Vivian Qualls had received, thanking her for the autographed copy of her Steele History.  The writer mentioned that Steele was important to him because it was his mother's birthplace.  The letter was written by Joab Thomas, president of Penn State University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Alabama.  He was the son of Mittie Stovall Thomas.  Some of you may have known about this already, but I had no clue.  It's just another one of those interesting things you find when you dig up old roots.
Willard

Katyleene

Ada Ruth

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

I recently received quite a few old photos and it reminded me once again about how important it is to label them CAREFULLY with names.  It breaks my heart to find a wonderful old photo and then have no clue about the names of the people shown.  Some of the pictures were stuck into a photo album with dots of glue.  Even though the albums are beginning to fall apart it is hard to remove the photographs without damaging them.  Sometimes the glue covered information on the back of the picture which might have provided clues to the people or occasion which is represented.  Some pictures had names written in ballpoint pen over the bodies of the people in the picture.  I appreciate the effort at naming, but now we aren't able to look at the clothing and since the names were usually only first names, I still have a hard time figuring them out.  The best examples I have are listed on a separate card and kept with the photo.  I plan to lay out the photo and the listing together and scan them as one file.  That way the photo is not covered or disfigured but the names are easy to associate with faces.

I decided to post a couple today.  One of them is not so old (only about 60 years) and I know many of the names but I will let you have the fun of remembering them and commenting here.  The date on the picture says May 1957 but comparing it to another that's labelled 1955 I believe that one of them is wrong.

The second photo is much older and the only person that I have a clue about is the one with a slight check-mark over her head.  I believe that she is Eunice Modena Beason Buffington, the mother of Vivian Qualls and Madolyn Burttram.  If so, then that would date the photo to around 1900.  I believe that the writing on the back says "S School Group" which could be Singing School or Sunday School.  It might say "A School Group."  I'm guessing that the best chance of identifying one or more of these people would be that someone else has a copy of the photo and it's labelled.  

Now it's time to send me some names!  I'll do my best to label (CAREFULLY) the photos that I have.   You'll have to be responsible for labeling your own, but please do.  

Monday, February 29, 2016

Photo with Spinning Wheel

While looking through some old papers with my Dad, I found this photo of a girl and a spinning wheel.  Judging from the clothing, I would guess that the date is around the 1970's.  Would anyone know the setting or any of the people in the photo?


Sunday, February 21, 2016

First Families - Hall

Mattie Lou Teague Crowe says in her "History of St. Clair County (Alabama)" that the first settlers of what is today Steele were the "Halls, Logans, Jourdans, Tramels, Smiths, Beasons, and Chandlers."  She gives credit to Mrs. Vivian Qualls' book on Steele history for her information about Steele.  I thought it might be fun to look back at the earliest pioneers together so let's just start with the Hall family.

David Hall (1795-1868) and his wife, Sarah (1798-1870), moved to the area about 1850 from Murray County, Georgia where he owned about 160 acres.  He had been born in South Carolina.  Looking at the basic facts about him, I'm struck by the fact that he was not a particularly young man, being about 55 when he moved.  I admire the spirit of someone who left to settle in a fairly uninhabited place at an age when most of us are pretty firmly rooted.  Some of his children were already married, and since the census didn't list names of wives and children before 1850 it's really hard to find out exactly how many there might have been.  Some might have remained in Georgia, but a few children are known so we can look at their descendants, at least.

Frances Melissa Hall was born in 1821 in South Carolina and married on 10/6/1835 in Lumpkin County, Georgia to Jesse L. Baggett.  They moved to the Steele area around the same time as her parents.  They had two sons and three daughters that I know about.  Two sons fought for the Union during the civil war, enlisting in Company K of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry.  She died in 1912 in Blount County, aged 90 years.

James Elsberry Hall was born in 1823 and married 1/24/1872 in St. Clair County, Alabama to Annis N. Jordan (or Jourdan).  She was the widow of James Franklin Trammel who died in Chattanooga during the Civil War.  To my knowledge, James E. Hall had not been married before.  James and Annis had two children, along with her 9 year old son from the first marriage.  During the civil war, James was not able to fight, due to a severe limp but he did blacksmith work for the confederate army, however he was also charged at one point with being a union sympathizer.  He died in 1917 and was buried at Deerman's Chapel Cemetery.

Cynthia M. Hall was born in 1825 and married John G. Wilson.  The 1860 census lists them in Ashville, but the 1870 census shows Cynthia with two children and without John.  It's possible that he died during the civil war.  She later lived in Steele with her daughter's family, but I have not found where she was buried when she died in 1907.

I'm trying to keep things rather short, but some of the descendants of this family remain in Steele even now and the list would be extensive!


Friday, February 19, 2016

John W. Martin & wife, Lyda

In researching families who lived in Steele, I came across this couple who lived in the Flatwoods/Crump Road area.  First, what I know:

John was born in 1865 in Mississippi.  By 1930, he and Lyda were living in Steele.  She was born in 1884 in Kentucky.  They were married around 1901-1902.  John died in 1944 and his obituary says that he was a farmer and that he left only Lyda as his survivor.    He did have nephews who were pallbearers, but I don't know whether they were sons of his siblings or of Lyda's siblings.  His funeral was at the Methodist church in Steele and he was buried at Steele cemetery.  Rev. Lawrence Wood officiated at the funeral.

Lyda lived until 1967, but I don't have more information about her.  I believe that her maiden name may have been May, but that may have been her middle name.  She is also buried at the Steele cemetery.

Okay, longtime Steele residents, does anyone have clues about who they were?  Any connections to others living in Steele?


Friday, February 12, 2016

Beginnings

I've never thought of myself as a writer, but here I am typing my thoughts into a computer expecting someone to read and be interested in them.  The very idea.. but this seems to be a good way to communicate with people who are as interested as I am in the families and history of Steele, Alabama.

As I've searched the internet (for ages it seems) I've found precious little about our town.  There are plenty of pictures of Ashville and Pell City, Springville and Odenville, but almost nothing about Steele.  And yet I know about people who lived there and who had a part in shaping my life along with many other lives.  I knew some of them personally and have heard or read about many others.

Years ago I began to collect "data" about the people of Steele.  I hope you don't think that I'm nosy.  (My husband says that I am.)  I just love to know about our families... how they're related to one another, what brought them to Steele of all places, and why do they behave the way that they do sometimes?  I love to know about the churches and schools and civic organizations.  They all influenced my upbringing in the very best of ways.

I'll say it again:  I'm not much of a writer.  I do hope to provide a place where we can share a love of this sweet place that remains so dear to me and to you.  Steele, St. Clair County, Alabama!