I thought you might like to hear about a fun experience that Mary Beard Gilliland and I shared a few weeks ago.  I arrived late to the memorial / decoration service and spoke with Mary just as she was leaving the cemetery in Steele.  She and Lee had found a rectangular tombstone lying flat on the ground near her Frazier relatives' graves and she was concerned that she was omitting placing flowers on a grave that she "should" have been remembering as she had promised to family members in the past.  When the stone was found, there was no engraving but Lee managed to flip it over and found that there was an inscription on the bottom side:  "Frank E. Whitney 1908."

We both wondered how long the stone had been in this position and who Mr. Frank might have been.  There were a couple of similar stones nearby, but I noted that the surnames weren't the same.  Later that day I looked in the records that I have on my computer and found that I did indeed have a record of this grave (thank you, Dad, for good record-keeping) and then I realized that in my database of  over 35,000 people connected with Steele I didn't have a single other person with the name Whitney.

That made me wonder who this person could be and why he was buried at the cemetery in Steele.  I decided to dig a little bit and see if I could figure it out.  The first thing I noticed was that there was only one date: 1908.  Usually when there's a stone with just the one date, I would guess that there is an infant under a year old buried there, or possibly a stillborn baby.  I decided to look for any marriages in St. Clair County with the name Whitney during the years just before 1908.  I only found a couple, which makes sense because the name Whitney is not common in our area.  This made the next few steps much easier.

One marriage that seemed promising was for Benjamin F. Whitney and Mary L. Womack on October 29, 1899.  It seemed possible that a couple would have a child 9 years after their marriage so I began to try to find out more about Benjamin and Mary.  I found that Benjamin was born in West Virginia and his wife, Mary, was born in Alabama.  His full name was Benjamin Frederick and her name was Mary Lou.  In the 1900 census they were living in West Virginia with his parents where he was a teacher.  I stopped to think about Mary Lou marrying in Alabama and moving such a far distance from her family in 1899-1900.  I also wondered why in the world Benjamin came to Alabama to start with.  I found that Benjamin's father was Silas Porter Whitney who was the leader for the Adventist Christian Church in West Virginia and a very well-known and well-educated man.

By 1910, Benjamin and Mary Lou were living in the Atlanta area where they had two sons, Fred (born about 1903) and Clarence (born about 1905).  They would later have two more children, Grady (born about 1911) and Thelma (born about 1914).  I noticed that there seemed to be a gap in the birth dates of the children where little Frank would fit, but I still couldn't figure out how he came to be buried in our cemetery and I didn't know how to be sure he was really the son of these Whitneys.

Finally, I decided to look into Mary Lou's family.  The story is getting long, so I'll leave out a few steps.  I came to the conclusion that Mary Lou must be the daughter of Thomas Womack and his wife, Cynthia Payne Womack.  I called Mary Gilliland to see if she happened to remember the names on the tombstones close to baby Frank.  She offered to check the cemetery and found that the two stones by Frank E. Whitney which looked very similar to his were none other than Thomas and Cynthia.  So finally, we have Frank E. Whitney placed and according to all the research that I've done he is the grandson of the Womacks that he is buried beside.

That may not mean much to you, but to me there is something very satisfying about assuring that baby Frank will be remembered for who he was.  Thanks, Mary, for an entertaining mystery -- and he's not related to the Fraziers so you're off the hook for decoration!

Drama in School

Since our daughter is grown, it has been a while since we've had the chance to attend a school play.  I remember the "drama" of middle-school girls, but that's not what I'm remembering fondly in her case (or in mine).  I lovingly remember those days on the old stage at Steele School.  That gym/auditorium was the place for everything from PTA Christmas programs to end-of-school plays for 9th graders to musicals and other entertainment performed by civic organizations like the Lions Club.  In my case, those piano recitals were a vital part of my up-bringing as well and most of those were held at the old gym too and of course there was graduation when one was ready to move on to higher things.

I don't know about you, but I can picture the footlights that didn't seem to work too well except to blind the people on stage.  The curtains were great for hiding during practices.  I knew where every light switch and floor crack was.

I recall being hit in the head with a baton while practicing for a gala majorette routine performed to "Winchester Cathedral" in third grade, I believe.  I can still quote most of Luke 2 due to being asked to read that chapter for the PTA meeting when I was still in second grade.  It's always amazing to me that Miss French took every single person in her class home, two at a time, and sewed angel costumes out of white sheets so that we could perform "The Littlest Angel."  The horror of being required to accept a kiss from "Don Quixote" Dale Stracener in the fourth grade play is also part of my psyche to this day and then in fifth grade I had to recite this memorable line in our hillbilly play: "There's more tears than 'taters in that 'tater salad Ma's makin'."  What in the world kept me from Hollywood?

In our ninth grade play I had the part of the mother in the program.  I was so disappointed that I didn't get one of the more interesting roles, but looking back I can probably understand.

At any rate, I thought that I'd post one of the pictures from an operetta that occurred in the mid-1950's.  I'm not sure about the year of this photo but I have another one from 1954 that is labelled "Dedication of School Bldg" so I'm sure it's sometime after that.  The extravaganza in this picture was called "America: Yesterday & Today."  Written on the back is a note that says "entire cast of 150" which had to have been most of the children in the school.  Also on the back is written "Heads are bowed as they sing 'America' - the last verse as a prayer."  Try getting away with that in school now!  There are only two people identified  on the reverse side of the photo.  Since heads are bowed it may be hard to determine who the others are unless some of you recall your own participation.  "The Spirit of New America" was Fay Kilgore and I believe that she was the taller young lady in the center of the picture to the left of the flag.  "Patriotism" was portrayed by Vona Barron and I suppose she would be the girl to the right of the flag in the center of the picture.

Memories anyone?

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

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.  

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?

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!

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?