The Story of Elias (Clevelands Cross Roads)

The Story of Elias (Clevelands Cross Roads)

By

Don C. East

At the outset, it should be emphasized that very little information could be found relative to the his­tory of Elias, commonly called “Cleveland’s Cross Roads.” The majority of the information in this brief historical sketch was derived from taped interviews with John Aubra Cleveland, son of the founder of  Elias. Two taped interviews with John Aubra Cleveland were made by his grandson (the author) in 1975 and 1981 when Mr. Cleveland was 92 and 98 years of age respectively. Other data used to round out and substantiate the information in the interviews was found through research in the Alabama State Archives and History Library in Montgomery, Alabama, and in oral history handed down through the generations in the Cleveland and Nail families of Elias.

Before beginning this historical sketch, a few words are in order to geographically define Elias. For the sake of clarity, the community of Elias is herein defined as the area within a two-mile radius of the original commercial area, where the homes of the late Gladys Cleveland East and Virginia Thomas Green now sit. The Elias site is located 1.5 miles directly east of the point where Alabama State Highway #63 junc­tions with State Highway #9. The community is five miles north of Goodwater and six miles south of Millerville, The center of the Elias community is situated on the east side of a north-south range of foothills measuring 800 to 1100 feet elevation. This unnamed range of hills is the watershed between East Alabama’s two major rivers, the Coosa and Tallapoosa. The major stream draining the Elias area is Broken Arrow Creek (originally Likachkahatchee Creek in the Creek Indian language). A large spring, which is the headwaters of Broken Arrow Creek, was the source of water for the old commercial section of Elias. Elias is one of the southernmost, currently active settlements in Clay County, being about one mile from both the Coosa and Tallapoosa County lines.

A flood of White settlers poured into the lands between the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers after the expulsion of the Creek Indians in the mid 1830s. Some of these first White settlers eventually found their way westward, first to Pinkneyville, and later on to the present site of Elias. But before this mass migra­tion by the white man, what would later become Elias was at the geographic center of the Creek Indian Confederacy. As this brief history will show, the Creek Indians played a role in the settlement of Elias.

The Creeks, properly called Muskogees, derived their common name from the many streams that ran through their territory. By the early 1800s, the Creeks became divided into the Red Sticks and the White Sticks, or more commonly, the Upper and Lower Creeks, respectively. Those occupying the Clay County area were the Red Stick (Upper) Creeks fiercely believed in their ancestral traditions and customs. They looked with scorn upon their White Stick (Lower) former brethren who adapted more readily to the ways of the oncoming flood of Whites. Because of their geographical location, it was inevitable that the Creeks would be caught up in the imperial ambitions of the American, Spanish, British and French at the turn of the 19th century. A complex sequence of events led first to a Creek Civil War in 1812 between the Red and White Stick factions, that later, in 1813, turned into a war between the Red Sticks and the United j States. At the conclusion of the Creek Indian War, the Treaty of Fort Jackson gave the majority of the Creek Indian lands to the United States, leaving the Creeks only that 5.2 million acre portion roughly between the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Later, there was further encroachment on these Indian lands by the onrush of White settlers, amplified by the discovery of gold in the area in 1832. Thus, more conflict arose between Indians and Whites, which eventually led to the Indian Removal Treaty of 1832 and the expulsion of the Creeks and other Indians of “The Five Civilized Tribes” to the west of the Mississippi River by 1836. Although the Creek Confederacy is gone from this area of Alabama now, it left its imprint on Clay and surround­ing counties in the names of streams, towns, mountains and other geographic features. It also left a Creek heritage behind for many Clay County citizens with Creek Indian blood in their veins.

     In the vicinity of Elias, there were several Creek Indian sites of historical importance.  Located one and a half miles to the east of Elias was Hillabee Town, the site where Brigadier General White of General Cooke’s Eastern Tennessee Volunteers massacred  about 65 sick and wounded Creek braves in November 1813 during the Creek Indian or “Red Stick” War. These Indians had been wounded a few days earlier at the Battle of Talladega. Other historical sites include Pochusehatchee Village, about four miles westnorthwest of Elias on Hatchet Creek; and the site of the Battle of Enitachopko, about two miles east of Elias, where a portion of General Andrew Jackson’s command was  ambushed by the Creeks on January 24, 1814. In this battle, “Captain Jack” was forced to leave the field at great loss. The author can recall finding many stone arrowheads and other Indian artifacts in the Elias area during his child­hood.

With this brief background on the Creek Indians, it is appropriate at this point to make a more spe­cific historical connection between those Indians and the Settlement of Elias.

Robert Grayson, a native of Scotland, gained the trust of the Creek Indians and settled among them as a farmer and trader sometime in the late 1700s. He settled in an area just north of the confluence of Harbuck Creek (formerly called Colloffadehatchee by the Creeks) and Little Hillabee Creek, two and a half miles east of Elias. Grayson married a Creek woman named Sinnugee, became fluent in the Creek language, and soon developed a large farm and trading post. His wife bore eight children. These half-breed Grayson children and their descendants intermarried with both the local Creeks and with early White set­tlers. Grayson had many acres of farmland where he grew mostly cotton. However, he also grew rice, corn, vegetables and fruits. U. S. Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins reported Grayson as having 40 Negro slaves, 300 cat­tle and 30 horses in the late 1790s. Grayson used the skill of the local Creek Indian women from Hillabee Town to pick the seeds from the cotton before sending it to markets in Tennessee, Mobile and elsewhere.

By the time of the expulsion of the Indians to the west in the mid 1830s, a mixed community of Whites, Indians, Blacks (from Grayson’s slaves) and mixed bloods had begun alongside Grayson’s farm. This village was later named Pinkneyville. Although many of its citizens were of mixed blood, Pinkneyville became the first recognized White settlement in the southern section of what would later become Clay County in 1866. Pinkneyville was one of only 12 settlements listed in the initial census taken of Clay County in 1870; the others being Lineville, Ashland, Millerville, Coleta, Copper Mines, Bluff Springs, Flat Rock, Delta, Mellow Valley, Weyokaville and Blake’s Ferry. It was subsequently the growth of Pinkneyville to the west that gave rise to the settlement of Elias. Meanwhile, Pinkneyville eventually became a Negro settlement, and by the early 1960s it was a ghost town. The only sign of civ­ilization there today is the New Hope Negro Church and Cemetery. The early Negro settlers at Pinkneyville descended from Grayson’s slaves, slaves freed from the local area during the Civil War, or a combination of both.

The first White settlers in the Elias community, mostly from Pinkneyville, probably arrived in the middle of the 19th century. These early settlers were primarily operating small farms. Although there were few slaves owned by these farmers because of their small land holdings, many of the Elias men nevertheless joined the Confederate Army when the American Civil War began in 1861. Many of these men, such as Captain Martin Slaughter, along with William and James Vardaman, signed up with Hilliard’s Legion. This organization was named for its organizer and Colonel-in-command, Henry W. Hilliard. The rural cemeteries around Elias hold the remains of numerous Confederate veterans that survived the war to return to Elias, such as Captain Martin. However, there were also many that were killed in action and interned on battlefields far away from home. Such was the case with the Vardaman brothers. After the Civil War, Elias appeared to have little or no growth during most of the Reconstruction Era as the citi­zens struggled to rebuild their lives and farms.

Many of the early Elias community family names appear in the 1870 census, the first taken after Clay became a separate county. Some of these family names were Vardaman, McPhail, Saxon, Luker, Shores, Gilbert, Carmichael, Munrow, Hardagree, McDairmid, House, Smith, Slaughter, Thompson, Adair, Shadix, Harlan, Brown, Swindle and Patterson. Today, some of these family names can be found in the Elias community or on tombstones in the local cemeteries of New Prospect, Rock Springs, Hatchet Creek and Liberty.

The 1870 Census reveals some details about the lives of early Elias pioneers. The Edwy Vardaman family will be used as an example of personal wealth and education level. The Vardamans are in the maternal branch of the Cleveland clan. In the 1870 Census, Edwy Liles Vardaman was shown as head of household. Also listed were his wife, Martha (Conway) Vardaman, and four children. Prior to this time, two of the Vardaman boys had been killed in the Civil War (discussed earlier), and six others had either died before 1870 or married and moved out of the household. E. L. Vardaman reported in the census that his real estate worth was $800.00 and his other personal possessions totaled $425.00. All the Vardamans in the household were reported as being able to read and write. However, over fifty percent of those in families residing in the Elias area at that time could neither read nor write according to the census infor­mation.

The Cleveland family name did not appear in the 1870 census. According to information in the inter­views with John Aubra Cleveland, his father, Elias Brantly Cleveland (son of Richard Cleveland and Barbara House, born August 25, 1849), did not move to Elias until about 1871. He moved to the com­munity from the area of Gilbert’s Mill, where he was employed as the operator of a steam-powered sawmill and grist mill. Gilbert’s Mill was located about three miles northeast of Elias on a tributary of Little Hillabee Creek. The only trace of the Gilbert’s Mill remaining today is a partial stone foundation.

John Cleveland said his father arrived in Elias, at age 22, with a yoke of steers, pulling a wagon loaded with all the family’s possessions. With him were his wife, Narcissus Maria (Cissy) Craddock Cleveland, and three young daughters, Kate, Ester, and Edna. John Aubra Cleveland would be born later (1883) followed by four other sons: Troy, Julius, Cecil and Robert (who died as an infant); and two daughters, Barbara and Rosa. Elias Cleveland moved into an old, one-room log schoolhouse where the current Highway #63 passes the old Talmadge Shaddix residence. The family began clearing the land for farming and Elias Cleveland built a blacksmith shop. Mr. Cleveland eventually operated a four-horse farm along with the blacksmith shop. He later opened a general store/trading post. By 1886, Elias Cleveland had built a steam-powered combination grist and saw mill and the community was growing.

Because of his ownership of all commercial activities in the area, Elias Cleveland was considered the “unofficial” mayor and the area began to be known as “Cleveland’s Cross Roads.” The community’s: commercial activities were situated at the intersection of the East-West Chapman Road and the North-South Goodwater/Ashland Road. As mentioned earlier, the considerable volume of water coming from the spring that formed the headwaters of Broken Arrow Creek provided the water for the mill’s steam engine.

In 1886, a post office was established, making Elias an official town and giving it a place on subsequent editions of the official map of Alabama. According to family oral history and the interviews with John Aubra Cleveland, when the government postal official arrived in Elias at Cleveland’s Trading Post, he began filling out the forms necessary to establish the post office and the discussion went as follows*: “Mr. Cleveland,” asked the postal official, “What is this place called.’” Cleveland responded “Cleveland’s Cross Roads.” The postal official looked at the form and said, “That name it too long for my form. What’s your first name, Mr. Cleveland?” When he heard the response, “Elias,” the postal offi­cial said, “That will do just Hue. From now on, this place will beon the map as Elias, Alabama.” Elias was then appointed Postmaster over the post office consisting of a cubby hole in the back of his grocery store. With the title of Postmaster, came an annual salary of twelve dollars and forty-two cents ($12.42). This salary slowly vote to the whopping sum of fifty-one dollars and eighteen cents ($51.18) by 1905 when the Elias post office was disestablished

After the post office was established in 1886, the community continued to grow and Elias Cleveland continued to add businesses required of any population center: a cotton gin, a flashing mill, and a syrup mill. In addition to the commercial activities already mentioned, there was also a school house and a church.

The initial school in the community was the same one-room log building that Elias Cleveland bought and moved into when he settled in the area. The second school house in Elias was built in the late 1860s on top of the hill, south of Highway 63 near where it leaves Highway #9 today. This room log building that had only one teacher according to John A. Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland attended this school for two years from about 1890 until 1893. At that time, the teacher was a Mrs. McPhail. There were a total of about twenty students in the school, at all levels or grades.

In 1892 a new church was built about 400 yards to the east. School was held in this new church building during the week, with Church services being held there on Sundays. The New Prospect Primitive Baptist Church sits on this site in Elias today. School was held in the New Prospect Primitive Baptist Church until about the turn of the century when Elias’ fourth school building was constructed. This school, named Center, was located about one half mile north of the church on the road that crossed the Old Chapman Road at the church and led north ward to the Shady Grove community. The Center School remained in operation until consolidation with the Millerville School in 1929.

By now, new family names began to appear in die census rolls of Elias such as  Berry, Dunn, McRight, Reynolds. Williams, Hutchinson. Murphy, Burns. Kelly and McCord. Several Black families also settled in the Elias community, most after being freed from slavery during the Civil War. Like the Elias Whites, most worked as tanners or saw millers. Old Black family names such as Moon. Horton» Slaughter, Lauderdale. Carmichael. Ross. Brown and Thomas were common. As a youngster, the author can remember being fascinated by watching “Prince” Carmichael, then about one hundred years old making beautiful white oak cotton baskets and chairs. Born in about 1850, Prince said he was born into a slave family. Another memorable Elias Black was Will Brown. Will was admired by blacks and whites alike in the community for the beautiful and productive farm he owned in Pinkneyville along Harbuck Creek. This farm was located on a portion of the old Robert Grayson farm discussed earlier. Every Saturday morning for as long as the author can recall, another local black. Jim Thomas came through “downtown” Elias with his horse and buggy going south to Goodwater for his weekly shopping excursion. Like clockwork, about dark. Mr. Thomas would pass back through Elias headed northeast to hot farm on Little Hillabee Creek, about one mile northeast of Pinkneyville. Finally, there were Henry and Minnie Ross. This couple lived on a farm on the Old Chapman Road about one mile east of Elias.  Like many of the local young blacks in the 1950s, most of their children had migrated to the North to work in the automobile and steel mills. Living by themselves, and with their nearest neighbor about a mile away, Henry and Minnie would frequently walk to the stores in Elias to shop and pass time talking to friends and neighbors. No one could make pear preserves like Minnie Ross! The author traded many squirrels and rabbits he’d killed in nearby Hick’s Swamp for precious pints of her mouth-watering preserves. Henry and Minnie are buried in the New Hope Cemetery in Pinkneyville.

Although more rooms had been added, by now Elias Cleveland’s family had outgrown the old log school house home. In about 1890, he built a new house from lumber produced at his mill. This house, which remained standing until about 1945, was of typical southern frontier style. The bedrooms were on the west side of a north-south breezeway or dog run, and the living room, kitchen and dining room were on the east side. There was a front porch facing south for wintertime use and a back porch facing north to provide a cool place to sit on hot summer evenings. A hand-dug well with a log windlass was enclosed on the back porch. In approximately 1896 Elias Cleveland moved to the Shady Grove community to the northwest. He lived in the Shady Grove community for a few years before moving to Goodwater. After his wife, Cissy, died in 1935, he moved to Birmingham to live with his daughter, Rose, until his death in 1944 at age 95. He and his wife are buried in Goodwater in the Methodist Church Cemetery.

After Elias Cleveland moved away from the settlement that bore his name, his son, John Aubra Cleveland, remained in Elias fanning and operating the mills. When Elias Cleveland moved to Shady Grove in 1896, he sold his house and half-interest in the mills to James Ira Nail. James Nail moved his family into the old Cleveland house and operated the mills in a fifty-fifty partnership with John Cleveland. James Ira Nail was born in Randolph County in 1870. He was the son of Joseph H. And Seniya C. Nail. James’ parents moved to Clay County in approximately 1875, where he grew up near Ashland. In 1890 he married Zarrella Day Luker (Zadie) of Clay County and moved to the Elias com­munity to start their family. James and Zadie Nail raised seven children in the old Cleveland house in Elias. One of these children, Ethyl, married John Aubra Cleveland in 1910 and continued the Cleveland tradition of living, working and dying in Elias.

In order to paint a picture of life in Elias, Alabama during die late 1800s to early 1900s, the follow­ing edited excerpts are offered from the taped interviews with John Aubra Cleveland:

EDUCATION:  The school house was just one room and was made of logs. There was one teacher for the total of about twenty students. There was no division of the students into grades, just indi­vidual attention by the teacher according to each student’s capability. No one went to school for twelve full years, but just long enough to learn to read, write and cipher (arithmetic). Most of the students only attended for two to five years; by then it was time to go to work helping out on the farm. There was liberal use of a hickory switch to maintain order and discipline in the school. My daddy, Elias Cleveland, never attended school. My mother taught him to read, write and cipher after they were married.

NEWSPAPER:  We received a monthly newspaper delivered to Elias. I don’t remember where it came from. That was all the news we had from the rest of the country.

MAIL DELIVERY: The mail was delivered to the post office in my papa’s store about once each week. The mail man made his rounds with a horse and cart. He came from Goodwater, to Elias, to Pinkneyville, and then on up towards Millerville.

LAW ENFORCEMENT: We didn’t have any law enforcement officers in Elias. The nearest law man was in Hackneyville, five miles to the southeast. If we had a problem, we just formed up a group of local citizens and did what we thought was right (true frontier justice!),

 PUBLIC ROAD MAINTENANCE:  All able-bodied men, 18 years and older, were required to work a total of nine days each year to maintain the roads in the area. There  was one overseer, paid by the County, to direct the work. We used mule-drawn plows and  scoops, along with shovels and lots of muscle to maintain those dirt roads.

FARMS:  First, we had to clear the land and that was a big job. I especially remember  the pines; they were great big trees. We would chop around the trees (girdle) to kill them. Then, when they died and fell, we would pile them up and burned them. The stumps remained for many years, and we just plowed around them. We picked up all the rocks from the field and piled them up. We raised corn, cotton, vegetables and some wheat. We had cows, pigs, chickens and some sheep for wool. The cows were branded or marks put in their ears and they just ran loose. The chickens usu­ally ran loose also so they could fend for themselves in the woods and fields.

COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE EFFORTS: We always helped each other out in the community. If one family needed something done, all the other families would meet and help out. They would usually have big dinners afterwards and “likker” drinkings. When we had a com shucking, the owner would usually put a five gallon jug of homemade moonshine under the big pile of corn to be shucked. This way, you had to finish shucking all the corn in order to get to the likker. The women had a rotating quilting bee so that during a year, each family would get a new quilt.

HUNTING AND FISHING:  We had lots of game and fish then. The deer were hard to kill, but we got plenty of squirrels. After it got cold weather in the fall, we would kill and clean squirrels and put them in barrels of salt to preserve them. The fishing trips were a community effort. We would take mules and wagons, seines and fishing poles, and all go to Hillabee Creek. We caught lots of fish and eels and also packed them in barrels of salt if it was getting close to winter. We had lots of wolves and  wildcats (cougar and bobcat) in those days, too.

TRIPS  TO TOWN:  We used Goodwater as our shopping town since it was closest. We  would only go there about four times a year because it took two days by mule or oxen and wagon, one day down and one day back. Mama and Papa would go once each season of the year; fall, spring, etc. One or two of the children would get to go each time. There was only three stores in Goodwater then: Carmichael’s Hardware Store, Gilliland’s Guano Store (feed and seed), and Dave White’s General Store.

SOCIAL LIFE:  There wasn’t the kind of social life you have today. We had to work most of the time. But we did have parties at people’s houses. We sort of rotated these between the family’s houses from one time to the next. We would use big pine lightered knots for torches to light our way. The only other entertainment was a traveling man with a dancing bear that would come around once in a while.

 John Aubra Cleveland remained in Elias and continued the family tradition of farming, black smithing and running various mills after the turn of the century. From 1914 until 1931, his wife Ethyl gave birth to six children: Gladys, John Aubra Jr. (Buzz), Sara Nell (Doodle), James Robert and Billy Joe. Their sixth child, a boy, died shortly after birth.

In the 1920s, when portable gasoline engines became available, John Cleveland converted the sawmill portion of the mill complex into what was known as a “peckerwood” sawmill. The peckerwood mill, with its portable gasoline engine, no longer requiring a source of water for the bulky steam engine, could now be moved from one tract of timber to the next. Cleveland, along with such names as Twilly, Nelson, Shaddix, McCord and Hooten, became major saw millers in the Clay County area.  According to interviews with Johnny Cleveland, his sawmill sites ranged from Shelby County on the West, to Hackneyville on the East and from Chandler Springs on the North to Goodwater on the South.

The author recalls an incident of possible historical interest that occurred in approximately 1948 when John Cleveland’s sawmill was cutting a tract of timber about one mile east of Elias. When the car­riage was transporting a huge log through the circular saw a loud noise occurred, accompanied by flying sparks and saw teeth. After shutting down the saw and backing out the carriage, the workers chopped open the log and found what appeared to be a solid iron cannon ball embedded in the center of the huge tree. Although we did not understand the significance at the time, it could have been one fired during the Battle of Enitachopko, the tree being cut in the immediate vicinity of the battle site.

By the end of World War II, the old mill complex at Elias was only a grist mill, powered by a gaso­line engine. This, too, was closed by the end of the war. In the 1950s, John Cleveland bought a grist mill in Millerville, but after a short while, moved it to Elias where it was put in a new building just 300 yards south of the cross roads, on the east side of the old Goodwater-Ashland Highway. Cleveland continued to operate this mill until about 1960. The events surrounding its closing form a case study in Alabama frontier spirit. One day, an inspector from the Federal government showed up at Cleveland’s grist mill and after looking around, told Cleveland that the law required that he install an attachment to his mill that would add a vitamin supplement to the corn meal as it came out of the grinding stones. John Cleveland told the inspector that the residents of this community had been using meal from Cleveland grist mills for about one hundred years now without seeing any need for a vitamin supplement. The gov­ernment man told him it was either add the supplement or close down the mill. Being of true pioneer spir­it and resolve, John Cleveland padlocked the last grist mill in Elias and walked away. He continued to live in Elias as a farmer until his death in 1981 at age 99 — the last of the Elias pioneers!

Meanwhile, in the early 1900s, Elias Cleveland’s original general store began a series of ownership changes and a second general store was built in Elias. Elias Cleveland’s store was sold to the Blair fam­ily sometime after 1905. This store was later sold to the Carter family and subsequently to the Meachums. In the interim, the building was moved a few hundred yards to the northwest comer of the (intersection of the two main roads making up “Cleveland’s Cross Roads.” In 1932, Julius Elliott Thomas moved to Elias from the Hissop community in Coosa County. J. E. Thomas bought the old Cleveland store from Mr. Meachum.

The second general store in Elias was opened sometime in the 1930s by the Crew family and was later sold to Harold Robbins. Dan East of Glencoe, Alabama, married John Aubra Cleveland’s oldest daughter, Gladys, and bought the general store from Mr. Robbins in about 1940. This establishment, now the Dan East General Store, sat on the northeast comer of the Cross Roads. Those two general stores and the old Cleveland grist mill were all that remained of the old “downtown” section of Elias by the end of World War II.

Later, in about 1949, Lonnie Bramlett opened an automobile repair shop just across the street, east of the J. E. Thomas General Store. When business was slow, Mr. Bramlett was also the local barber, using a wooden nail keg as a chair. He used the old-fashioned hand-squeeze clippers, which pulled out more of your hair than it cut. Being a jack-of-all-trades, Mr. Bramlett also preached at the local Brush Arbor Holiness Church.

The Dan East General Store closed its doors in the mid 1950s. Meanwhile, in 1951, J. E. Thomas built a new store building about one quarter mile to the northeast on the new highway #63. He continued to operate this business until his health failed in 1968. At that time, his daughter, Alice Virginia, operated the general store until 1984. J. E. Thomas died in 1971.

Also in the mid-1950s, Talmadge Shaddtx opened a small general store in Elias on Highway 63 just west of the old “downtown” section. This store was subsequently operated by Jimmy Smith. Palmer Thompson, Orcn Lukcr, and finally, the Sims family before it, too, closed in the mid l980s.  After these closings, there were no more commercial activities in the once-thriving Elias community.

            In the early years, these Elias general stores carried most of the day-to-day items needed by the Elias residents, such as axe handles, plow blades. lamp globes, kerosene, groceries and staples, and so forth. Horse, cow and hog feed, as well as flour, came in colorful, patterned cotton sacks that were used by the housewives to make shirts and dresses. Each of the stores sold coffee beans that produced a very pleas­ant aroma when ground in the old-fashioned coffee mills. During the winter, salted mackerel fish were available in large wooden barrels. After the advent of the automobile, gasoline was sold from glass-topped gravity pumps. About half of the local shoppers charged their purchases and paid up by the week, month or in the autumn when a crop of cotton or corn was sold. Plastered and nailed to the old store buildings and grist mill in Elias were the common commercial signs of the day advertising the likes of Brewton Snuff, Brown Mule Chewing Tobacco, Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale, Clabber Girl Baking Powder and of course, the ever present “See Rock City” sign. I-hen in the 1950s, a large oak tree by the J. E. Thomas General Store still had metal rings attached to it for hitching horses.

        The life of Elias citizens was not easy, since they worked long and hard hours on the farm, in the log woods or, in later years, at the defense plants and fabric mills in Alexander City, Talladega, and Sylacauga. However, Elias was not without its local colorful and humorous characters. Most unforget­table to the author in the 40s and 50s was great, great Uncle Belius R. Nail. He was the brother of James Ira Nail who was discussed earlier. “Uncle Rill” as he was known, had ran away from home as a young boy and traveled about America working at various professions including fur trapping. He finally returned to settle in Elias when he was about 35 or 40 years old. Being of mixed Indian and White blood, Uncle Bill preferred to live alone in the backwoods. He was locally known for his humorous stories, tall tales, practical jokes, good fox hounds, and the powerful “moonshine” he made for sale at a still in the hollow behind his house. Uncle Bill was a member of a group of Elias men that passed the day sitting around the East store’s pot-bellied stove or out front on a bench swapping yarns. A young boy could learn a lot by listening to this “spit and whittle gang,” some of which should have been censored! Uncle Bill died in 1950 from an overdose of his own moonshine. He is buried in the Nail family     plot at nearby Rock Springs cemetery along wife his brother James Ira and his wife Zarellia Day.

         All that remains of Elias today is the New Prospect Church and about two dozen widely-scattered homes. Elias. like so many other frontier towns of early Alabama statehood, has been reduced to a small, residential community. However, the old stone terrace and chimneys that can be found among the fields and forest of the area remain as monuments and testament to the toil, hopes and spirit of our early Clay County forefathers.

(Note:  This article, along with several photographs, can also be found on pages 126-136 of the book entitled “The History of Clay County, Alabama.”) Download article as pdf documentThe History of Elias (Clevelands Cross Roads) (54)

15th Annual Hatchet Creek History Roundup

May 7, 2011
10:00 am	to	3:00 pm

15th Annual Hatchet Creek History Roundup
Saturday 7 May 2011 – starts at 10 am

General public is invited.

This is an annual meeting at the oldest Church (1832) in the area (Hatchet Creek Presbyterian Church) located on Clay County, Route #7, about 4 miles north of Goodwater in the Brownsville Community.

Begins at 10:00 am and goes until lunch time when all enjoy lunch in the old arbor attached to the back of the church. Attendees bring a covered dish. There is always some great home cooking.

The speaker this year is Michael Flannery, who is the associate director of the Lister Hill Library at UAB.  His subject is Civil War Medicine.

This is a great event to trade history and family genealogy stories.  RSVP to Bruce Johnson at (256) 839-5892 or Wayne Finley at (205) 969-1942.

A Sketch of Clay County: The Land and It’s People

“A SKETCH OF CLAY COUNTY  -  THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE “

© 2010 By Don C. East – creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com

A SENSE OF ISOLATION

I began this brief sketch of Clay County in an attempt to explain how our landscape and people came to be as they are. This proved to be no easy task, because even to us natives, Clay County seems to have an evasive identity – a split personality of sorts.  The county is at once an island that is isolated by both nature and man, while at the same time it is encircled and influenced by an array of nearby modern cities.  From its earliest days, Clay County has been isolated on the west by the rugged expanse of the Talladega Mountains, with their dense forests and paucity of natural gaps.  To the east, the region has been blocked by the deep defiles and swift currents of the Tallapoosa River.  Even after white civilization belatedly came to the area following the expulsion of the Creek Indians in 1836-37; either through design, necessity, or pure circumstance, major communications arteries have shunned the area.  Today, there is only one railroad line, no interstate highways, only one small airport and no navigable waterways.  These factors tend to keep Clay County off the beaten path.  Clay County’s 66,800 remote acres within the Talladega National Forest further adds to its sense of isolation. And finally, although the county is ringed by the cities of Atlanta (80 direct miles to the east), Birmingham (55 direct miles to the west), and Montgomery (65 direct miles to the south); all of these lie outside reasonable commuting distance. These natural and man made barriers have somewhat isolated Clay County, allowing it to maintain a distinctly Appalachian society.  Although it is located at the extreme end of the mountain chain, it is Alabama’s best and most intact example of the geographic features and culture known as “Appalachia.”  Those practices, methods and ways of life found in the FOXFIRE series books very nicely describe this county of yesterday, with many signs of it still evident today.

While this sense of isolation may seem to make Clay County have one foot in the past, it definitely has its other foot in the modern hi-tech South.  While it is not unusual to see a farmer using a mule-drawn plow or syrup mill in Clay County, his grandchildren are learning to “surf the web” in one of the county’s public schools.  Even though Clay Countians can seek solace and refuge from many of the pressures and stresses of modern times here in our “fortress;” within a short drive they can take advantage of the many amenities of the large, modern cities.  Although the large cities ringing the county are outside normal daily commuting range, those urban dwellers have nevertheless “discovered” our county.  The county’s scenic mountains and hill country; blessed with an abundance of forests, streams and wildlife, have drawn outsiders.  Some of these become part-time residents, while many become a full-time part of our communities.  This tourism and retiree influx has added a new and important dimension to the county’s economy as well as impacting its culture.

NOT NEO-CLASSICAL MANSIONS, BUT ROUGH LOG CABINS

Clay County is not from the publicized antebellum South of William Faulkner or Margaret Mitchell.  The traditional antebellum mansions, with large land and slave holdings, were found in most any direction from Clay County, but were never a part of the landscape here.  With the mountain land being unsuited for the economic production of cotton, and since it was held by the Creek Indians until the mid 1830s, this county was settled primarily by the less fortunate late comers.  These frontiersmen owned very few slaves, lived in rough log cabins and had relatively small land holdings.  When the log cabins finally gave way to homes built of sewn lumber, they remained small, simple and rough, such as the old Lamberth house and barn lying along the Chapman Road in southern Clay County.

Thus, the economic golden era of the ante-bellum South largely bypassed Clay County.  Although there were brief flashes of prosperity from mining and timber, it did not produce a broad based economy.  Clay County was primarily a land of “one horse” farms during those better times that existed in other parts of the state.

Nevertheless, most of our Clay County ancestors were staunch supporters of the Confederate cause when the American Civil War came.  With a predominance of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the perpetual champions of individual and states rights, Clay County probably sent more men to the war per populace than many of those slave holding plantation areas nearby.  Even a cursory look at the tombstones in the county’s cemeteries dramatically attests to this fact.

THE LANDSCAPE AS AFFECTED BY ECONOMIC TRANSITIONS

While the culture of Clay County has remained relatively intact over time, its landscape has undergone major change as its economic base went through transitions.  When the American frontiersman began to arrive here in the mid-1830’s, they found a heavily forested region, crisscrossed by mountains, streams and narrow Indian trade trails.  By the start of the Civil War, a large portion of the dense forest had given way to the axe and the plow as subsistence farming had replaced the hunting/trading economy of the Creek Indians.  With the harsh administration of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, many local farmers perceived that they had a choice to either transition to an ill-fated corn and cotton cash crop system or to migrate elsewhere in search of more productive land.

Minerals and timber had brief, but intermittent prosperous runs for the Clay County economy from the late 1830s until the end of World War I.  Gold was discovered in Clay and other east central Alabama counties in 1830.  That boom lasted only until most of the miners abandoned their claims and headed to California in 1849.

Then, the logging industry, led by the giant Kaul Lumber Company of Hollins, brought in more jobs and income until the prime long leaf pine trees were largely exhausted by the early 1900.  Then the Kaul Lumber Company moved to the Tuscaloosa area to set up shop. Following this timber era, minerals again returned to center stage as graphite, pyrite, etc. pumped a spurt of cash into the county’s economy until the end of World War I.

These short periods brought temporary prosperity to the county, but it soon returned to the subsistence and emerging cash crop farming to eek out the normal lower standard of living for most of the county’s population.  However, as a partial stopgap, during the period starting with the steam engines in the late 1900s, several Clay County men took advantage of the lumber needs and began operating small “peckerwood” sawmills.  The author’s grandfather, John Aubrey Cleveland, was one of these.  He, along with other Clay County men, moved their small portable mills from timber tract to timber tract to cut the remaining larger trees.  These operations provided an income for many Clay Countians until the scraps of larger timber were exhausted in the late 1950s.

Nevertheless, settlers continued to arrive, and by the 1920’s, Clay County reached an apex in population (over 22,000) and in numbers of farms (over 3,500).  By now, almost all the forestland had given way to cultivation.  However, with the ultimate depletion of the topsoil and the onset of the great American depression, the cotton and corn fields began to go fallow as most of the farmers either went to the towns and cities in search of jobs, or again migrated in search of better land.

Through natural regeneration, the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the beginnings of commercial reforestation operations by large timber and paper pulp companies, the forest began to reclaim the abandoned farmland.  With the advent of government and state cost share assistance programs for reforestation, the farmers themselves contributed to bringing forestry and forestland back to its original position of dominance. With this profitable reforestation movement, the price of Clay County forestland began a dramatic rise in the early 1970s.  These timberland prices rose from the cheapest forestland in the state to some of the most expensive.

During the late 1990 and early 2000s, these elevated land prices motivated the numerous industrial forest landowners such as Union Pacific, Inland Rome, Kimberly Clark and others to divest themselves of thousands of acres.  This land was quickly gobbled up by private individuals, LLC (Limited Liability Corporations) and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts).  Presently, over 95 percent of the county’s extensive forestland is owned by private, non-industrial owners.

When row crop farming bottomed out in the 1950s, after 100 years of struggle, Clay County farmers finally hit upon a form of agriculture suited to these rocky hills -  cattle, chickens, and pine trees. By the 1980s, Clay County was a matrix of dense forest with interspersed pasture land, and dotted with the long houses of the chicken industry.

Supplementing the timber and agricultural economy of Clay County today is a new trend of small and medium industry.  These family-owned and corporate satellite businesses employ a sizable portion of the county’s available labor force.

Another positive economic factor for the county was the completion of Lake R.L. Harris (aka Lake Wedowee) in 1984.  Although only a very small sliver of this hydroelectric impoundment is in Clay County, it nevertheless brought significant economic benefit in the form of housing construction and service jobs.

These latest economic trends have brought with them a new phenomenon that could have an impact upon our demographics of the new millennium, and ultimately the culture of the county.  As these industries expanded and increased in numbers by the early 1990s, they found the size of the local labor pool to be insufficient.  Like many areas, notably in the southwest, west coast and Florida, Clay County began to receive an influx of Hispanics to fill the labor void. Today, these workers continue to arrive from Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America.

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR ORIGINS

Along with the land, it is the people that make up the character of a county.  The forefathers of today’s Clay Countians probably mirrored the ethnic makeup of Southeastern settlers in general, but there are also some specifics we can point to.  The migration of settlers into what is now Clay County came via two primary routes.  First, there was the major one, commonly known as the Coastal Plain/Piedmont route.  This migration route usually began in Virginia, then passed through the Carolinas to Georgia, and finally to Alabama.  Most families using this route would stretch its traverse into six or seven generations.  They normally spent 2-3 generations in the Carolinas and another 2-3 in Georgia, before moving on to Alabama.  The ethnic makeup of these migration routes is far too complex to discuss herein, but in general, the Coastal Plain/Piedmont route largely consisted of English, Scott, Irish, Scotch-Irish, plus a few Germans and French.  A second and less significant migration route leading to Clay County settlement is commonly known as the Inter-Mountain route.  This route also usually began in Virginia and then went southwest into Tennessee, and finally southward into Alabama.  This settlement stream was primarily English, Irish and Scotch-Irish.

Along both these migration routes, some of our Clay County forefathers found Native American brides.  These full and part-blood Indian women were from the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, or in the case of the earliest Clay County settlers, the women were from Alabama.  Some historians and ethnologists believe that around 25% of Alabama’s population can count some American Indian blood.  Those doing so in Clay County would primarily claim either Cherokee or Creek.

Those African Americans that have deep roots here in Clay County can probably count their lineage from either of two possible sources. It was either from slaves severed from their Indian owners after the 1813-14 or 1836 Creek Indian wars, or from slaves freed from White owners after the Civil War.  There is another significant demographic trend applicable to the African American population of Clay County.  In the 1940s and 1950s, there was a major migration of young adult African Americans to the large steel and automobile industry cities of the North.  As these individuals reached retirement age beginning in the 1980s, many have moved back to Clay County to reclaim their roots.

CLAY’S NOTABLE PEOPLE

The often explosive history, rough landscape and hardscrabble economic existence of Clay County natives have produced a breed of citizens with a great deal of individualism, grit and determination.  Coming from mostly humble backgrounds, many Clay County natives have gone on to make their mark far beyond the county’s borders.

Some examples of these individuals are: Hugo Black, member of the Supreme Court of the United States; LaFayette Hoyt DeFrese, private counselor to England’s Queen Victoria; Bob Riley, current Governor of the state of Alabama; Oliver Cromwell Carmichael, President of Alabama College at Montevallo, President of the University of Alabama, and Chancellor of Vanderbilt University; Robert Daniel Carmichael, dean of graduate school of the University of Illinois; Patrick Henry Carmichael, dean of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia; Claude Denson Pepper, a long-serving Senator from the state of Florida, U.S. presidential candidate in 1984 and Medal of freedom winner; Irene Vansandt Teel, a noted fortune teller; the husband and wife doctor team of Wayne and Sarah Finley, who did important medical work in genetics research, and finally, at least 50 medical doctors were born in this rural county.

In addition, there have been sports and military figures from Clay County such as NASA astronaut Joe Edwards, Jr.; Howard Ballard and Johnathan Carter, who played professional football; Alabama’s first Olympic Games gold medal winner Edward Yancey Argo; Jack Treadwell, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner; more military personnel per populace than any county in America and probably more 2A and 3A high school football state championships than any county in Alabama.  All these individuals proudly proclaim Clay County as their birthplace and native soil.

CHARACTER TRAITS OF CLAY COUNTIANS

Whatever their ethnic makeup, Clay Countians have some rather distinct character traits that tend to set them apart as a people.  These traits have evolved through several generations, molded by the county’s historical experience, and influenced by the nature of the rugged landscape itself. By way of example, and for the sake of brevity, some of the more prevalent of these traits will be used below in an attempt to define the character of Clay Countians.  Each of the predominant traits listed below are supplemented with an appropriate local “saying.”

• A sense of endurance  -  “You can’t keep a (insert family name) down for long!”
• A strong work ethic  -  “Hard work never hurt anyone.”
• Resourceful -  “I guess I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got.”
• A sense of community  -  “We know we can always count on our neighbors if we need anything.”
• Calvinistic resignation  -  “I guess God meant for it to be this way.”
• Optimistic -  “When you stir up good and bad in a pot, the good always rises to the top.”
• A strong religious faith  -  “We have more churches in Clay County than we have people.”
• An awareness of ancestry  -  “My grandpappy once told me that our ancestors  ……”
• Tenaciousness  -  “I’ll get this done if it kills me!”
• Stubborn  -  “By comparison, he/she makes a mule seem obliging.”
• Patriotic  -  “We had more Clay Countians involved in the Persian Gulf War per populace than any county in America.”
• Generosity  -  “We always raise enough in our garden for us, the deer, and our neighbors.”
• Grit  -  “I will not let this get the best of me!”
• Hospitable  -  “Y’all come back to see us real soon.”
• A love of the land  -  “My great grandfather and my grandfather lived on this land and hell will freeze over before I let it go!”

AND FINALLY

Over the years, very little about Clay County or its citizens has found its way into print.  The most notable exceptions up to this point in time have been Garrett Mitchell’s “Horse and Buggy Days on Hatchet Creek,” Eddie B. Roselle’s “Recollections – My Folks and Fields,” G. C. Saylors “Shinbone,” Pamela Grundy’s “You Always Think of Home – A Portrait of Clay County, Alabama,”  and more recently, Don C. East’s (creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com) “A Historical Analysis of the Creek Indian Hillabee Towns.” Finally, the Clay County Heritage Book Committee produced a book of county family histories and selected historical topics. This same source more recently produced a book of Clay County History.  See more at this page: Books or Pamphlets Written About Clay County, Alabama.

Perhaps some of the once obscure and personal reflections found in these books will help define the county as a place and as a people.  If nothing else, perhaps they will ignite an even greater effort to detail our rich history, so that future generations of Clay Countians will not forget who they are, and will continue to take pride in their strong historical and cultural heritage.

NOTE: The Clay County Chamber thanks Don East for allowing us to provide this information on our website. Contact Don East at creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com.

Books or pamphlets written about Clay County, Alabama

Books or pamphlets written about Clay County, Alabama

Compiled by Don C. East, 2010

Few words of description and definition have been put in print about Clay County since its beginnings in 1866.  The following list of published material contains the thoughts of a few native countians and a couple of outsiders regarding this mountainous east central Alabama county and its people.  Many of these sources are now out of print and difficult to find.  In many cases, there is only a single copy known to be available to the public at each of the two county libraries in Ashland and Lineville. The sources are in chronological order of publishing or printing.  Any suggested additions to this list of books on Clay County should be forwarded to this Clay County Chamber of Commerce web site via Richard Arnold at keycon@centurytel.net or Mary Patchunka-Smith at claychamber@centurytel.net.

1. Shinbone Valley, The Stricklands and the Elders. By Vista Strickland.  Self-published pamphlet. Circa 1920s.  This pamphlet cast some light on a secluded section in the mountains in north Clay County.  Ms. Strickland’s remembrances go back to the earliest pioneer settlers in the area.  This source is out of print.  Copies are held at the Ashland and Lineville public libraries.
2. Horse and Buggy Days on Hatchet Creek.  By Mitchell B. Garrett. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa and Auburn. 1957. This book describes life along Hatchet Creek in western Clay County as it tells the story of a rural Alabama boyhood in the 1890s.  Limited used copies of this book can be sometimes found on the web and copies are held by the Ashland and Lineville public libraries.
3. Recollections; My Folks and Fields.  By Eddie Rozelle. Self-published copyright 1960 by E. B. Rozelle, Talladega, Alabama. 1960.  This book covers many aspects of rural life on Hatchet Creek in western Clay County.  Out of print.  A copy is available at the Ashland public library.
4. Irene Vansandt Teel.  By Ammie Anderson. The Lettercraft Shop, East Point, Georgia. 1965. This book covers the life of the famous fortune teller of Millerville in Clay County.  The book is out of print.  A copy is held at the Ashland public library.
5. Shinbone. By G. C. Saylors. Self-published by G.C. Saylors 10/15/79, registration nr. TXU30-704. 1979.  This book is a folksy story of a slice of Clay County Americana  from the Shinbone Valley area in the early 1900s.  Out of print.  Copies are held by the Ashland and Lineville public libraries.
6. The Hatchet Creek Presbyterian Church 1832-1982.  By Mary E. Watts. A self-published pamphlet. 1983.  A well-written history of the oldest church in Clay County.  Out of print. A copy can be found at the Ashland public library.
7. The Shiloh Delta Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.  By Mildred Smith Laney and Margaret Cockrell Dunkerley. Self-published in 1984. A brief sketch of the Shiloh Delta Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. Out of print.  A copy is located in the Ashland public library.
8. Appointment of Postmasters; Clay County, Alabama 1832-1985.  Author unknown. Self-published. 1985. Out of print. A listing of postmasters for the various Clay county villages and towns from 1832 until 1985. Copy in the Ashland public library.
9. Cemeteries of Clay County, Alabama.  By the Clay County Historical Society. Copyright by the Clay County Historical Society in 1987. Published by the Family Tree, LaGrange, Georgia.  Out of print.  A copy is available at the Ashland public library.
10. You Always Think of Home; A Portrait of Clay County, Alabama.  By Pamela Grundy and photographs by Ken Elkins. The University of Georgia Press, Athens and London. 1991. Go to web sites of Books-A-Million, Amazon, Barnes&Noble to search for copies.  Copies of the book are at the Ashland and Lineville public libraries. Pamela Grundy wrote this book while a doctoral candidate in history at the University of North Carolina.  She was inspired to write the book after working as a reporter for the Anniston Star, which covers Clay County.  The book uses the voices of over 80 Clay County natives to make up an eloquent portrait of Clay County and its people.
11. Pamphlets entitled “The Quarters; A Place to Call Home” (1997) and “A Black Historical and Sociological Annotated Ownership and Achievement Survey.” (2005).  By Arthur G. Oliver. These pamphlets cover some of the aspects of Clay County’s Black citizens. Out of print. Copies are available at the Ashland public library.
12. A History of the Ashland Church of Christ 1961-2000.  By Mamie French Creed, Will Pearle (Brown) Atkisson, Flora Moore Poe and Georgia Ann Brown Mann. Self-published in 1999. A brief history of the Ashland Church of Christ. Out of print.  A copy is available at the Ashland public library.
13. The Heritage of Clay County.  By the Clay County Historical Society Book Committee. Published by the Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc. Clanton, Alabama in 2000.  This book contains Clay County family histories submitted by various authors.  It also contains some historical data on the early county, communities, schools, churches and military figures.  Out of print.  Copies are available at the Ashland and Lineville public libraries.
14. History of Clay County.  By the Clay County Historical Society. Edited and published by the Clay County Historical Society and the Clay County Arts league in 2001. This book is a compilation of articles about Clay County and its people written by various individuals.  Some early Indian history, and histories of villages, churches, towns, schools and individuals are included.  Out of print.  Copies are available at the Ashland and Lineville public libraries.
15. Caney Head.  By J. Wayne Creed. Green Quill Publishing Co, Lineville, Alabama. 2001.  This first-person account of the adventures of a Clay Countian during the 1930-1970s brings out some aspects of rural life in Clay County.  This book is available for purchase at the Lineville Public library.
16. Confederate Soldiers of Clay County, Alabama.  By Cathy Dianne Vickers Reed. Published by the Clay County Historical Society. 2004. Out of print. List the Confederate Soldiers mustering in at Clay County sites. Copy in the Ashland public library.
17. A Historical Analysis of the Creek Indian Hillabee Towns; and Personal Reflections on the Landscape and People of Clay County, Alabama.  By Don C. East (creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com). Iuniverse, Inc. New York and Bloomington. 2008.  This book tells the story of the Hillabee Towns of the Creek Indian Confederacy in southern Clay County.  Then, after the Indian removals of the 1830-40s, the book details the early pioneer settlement of villages in the southern part of the county.  This book can be obtained (autographed) direct from the author, purchased at the Ashland or Lineville public libraries, or ordered from the web sites of Barnes&Noble, Books-A-Million, Amazon or Iuniverse.
18. Remembering Mrs. Rena: The East Alabama Soothsayer.  By Elizabeth Wade.  An article published in the Fall 2009 issue number 94 of the Alabama Heritage Magazine.  This article contains some aspects of the life of Irene (Rena) Vanzandt Teel, the renowned “Fortune Teller” of Millerville, Alabama. This magazine issue can be purchased via the web by typing “Alabama heritage Magazine” into your search engine and following the directions. A single copy of the magazine is in the Lineville public library.

Many thanks to Don East for providing this list to the Clay County Chamber of Commerce. Don East may be contacted by email at creekstreefarms2@yahoo.com.

Little girl stays on Clay County’s mind

One stranger’s grave has become a symbol of Clay County’s good will over the course of the last 140+ years. The Little Grave, as it’s known here, bears no name and has no family to claim it. It’s as nondescript as the fields around it off Alabama 9, save for the inscription on the marker that lets visitors know, “Here lies a baby girl who died while her family was traveling west.”

The story goes that, in the 1860s, a Georgia family headed to Mississippi by wagon was passing through on what would become Alabama 9 when their 2-year-old girl suddenly fell off and didn’t survive the impact.

The family buried her by the road, on the condition that her final resting place would always be watched after.

“Could you imagine how horrible it would be, to leave your child and never come back?” said Matt Benefield, owner of Benefield Monument.

Benefield made the marker now on the grave, and helped move it about 10 feet from the side of the road to its current spot. He said all that remains of the girl are “little bitty buttons,” light in color.

Benefield said throughout the years anonymous donors would put flowers on the grave and erect wooden crosses and keep it from becoming overgrown.

Bob Steele, a member of the Clay County Historical Society, said from the time of the girl’s death to now, the grave’s story was passed from one generation to the next, so someone has always taken care of it.

“There was no family or anything that was left over,” Steele said. “It was kind of a countywide thing to make sure that it’s maintained.”

It became a source of pride for Clay County residents, a reminder that promises are to be kept.

“You can tell the measure of a people by how they respect their dead,” Benefield said.

Ronny Sudduth, along with his brother, owns the property the grave is on.

They haven’t always owned the property, but Sudduth said he’d known about the grave since childhood.

He said people’s interest in caring for the grave is about paying respect, the same way one would for their own friends and relatives who’ve passed on.

“You still don’t forget about them after they die,” Sudduth said.

Source: Montgomery Advertiser