ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current and Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Adventures in Genealogy
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Heritage Issue 137, Summer 2020
Issue 137, Summer 2020
Buy This Issue
Start Your Subscription
Give a Gift Subscription
On the cover: Margaret Murray Washington, the wife of Booker T. Washington, led the Black women of Alabama in the movement to win the right to vote. (Library of Congress)

FEATURE  ABSTRACTS


Female students at Tuskegee InstituteThe female students of Tuskegee Institute gathered in the chapel, c. 1902. Margaret Murray Washington believed training Black women to be good citizens was more important than promoting women’s suffrage. (Library of Congress)
The New Negro Suffragist
Tuskegee Clubwomen and the Fight for Suffrage

By La-Kisha Emmanuel
 
Though many fought for suffrage up through the early twentieth century, they were typically focused on voting rights for white women. While activists such as Susan B. Anthony garnered attention for their cause, numerous Black women throughout the country worked to advance their own cause. Women’s clubs—including one at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, formed in 1895 by Margaret Washington (wife of Booker T. Washington)—offered educational, social, and cultural programming as they worked to advance the status of African Americans in the United States.
 
About the Author
La-Kisha Emmanuel is a history PhD student at New York University. Her research examines the intellectual labors and transnational networks of rural African American clubwomen in the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American South. Prior to pursuing a PhD, she earned an MA in women’s studies and history from the University of Alabama and received her BA in history from Stillman College. Emmanuel recently interned for the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, where she supported its Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice. She has also volunteered as a researcher for the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. Her past fellowships include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Robert Frederick Smith Fellowship and the McNair Graduate Fellowship.

Additional Information
Tuskegee University:
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1583
 https://www.tuskegee.edu/
 
Tuskegee University Archives:
https://www.tuskegee.edu/libraries/archives

NPS Article: Between Two Worlds: Black Women and the Fight for Voting Rights
https://www.nps.gov/articles/black-women-and-the-fight-for-voting-rights.htm

NEH article: How Black Suffragists Fought for the Right to Vote and a Modicum of Respect

https://www.neh.gov/article/how-black-suffragists-fought-right-vote-and-modicum-respect

Back to Top

Coppernob, 1846 locomotiveCoppernob, 1846: A Preserved Edward Bury & Company 0-4-0 Locomotive (National Railway Museum, York, United Kingdom).
Industrial Revolution
The Locomotive Comes to Alabama

By Ken Boyd
 
Nearly two hundred years ago, the first steam locomotive passed through Alabama, indelibly changing transportation in the young state—and the nation. Though it was just one product of the Industrial Revolution, the locomotive remains a significant part of the state’s history. Photographer Ken Boyd offers this richly photographed history of trains in Alabama, chronicling generations of locomotives that have chugged across the state.
 
About the Author
Ken Boyd has been a passionate, enthusiastic, and award-winning photographer and writer for more than four decades. He has published two popular and internationally distributed books on locomotives entitled Historic North American Locomotives (Kalmbach Publishing Company, 2018) and The Art of the Locomotive (Voyageur Press, The Quartos Group, 2014). Boyd is also the editor for The Mid-South Flyer, a bimonthly publication of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. His latest book entitled Historic North American Watermills is scheduled for release by the University of Alabama Press in November of 2020. His photography has been featured in several additional historic books, and his work, techniques, and reviews have also been published in numerous magazines, journals, and trade publications. He has taught photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Samford University since 1985.
 
Additional Information
To purchase Boyd’s books, see the following links:
Historic North American Locomotives https://www.amazon.com/Historic-North-American-Locomotives-Illustrated/dp/1627005080
The Art of the Locomotive https://www.amazon.com/Art-Locomotive-Ken-Boyd/dp/076034691

Back to Top

Donald Comer, at left, with two classmates at the Bingham Military School, Asheville, North Carolina, c. 1896-1897.Donald Comer, at left, with two classmates at the Bingham Military School, Asheville, North Carolina, c. 1896–1897. (Alabama Department of Archives and History)
Donald Comer’s Great Adventure in the Philippines, 1899-1902 
by David E. Alsobrook


Donald Comer is best known for his role as the driving force behind Avondale Mills, the Alabama textile conglomerate. However, immediately prior to assuming the role of mill manager, Comer was pursuing an Army career.  His service in the Philippines provided him with ample experience in combat, but it also instilled in him a sense of leadership, and service—qualities that served him well in his future role as a businessman and executive.
 
About the Author
David E. Alsobrook was born in Eufaula, Alabama, and grew up in Mobile, where he currently resides with his wife, Ellen. He earned graduate history degrees at West Virginia University and Auburn University. He served as an archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH), supervisory archivist at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and as the founding director of the George H. W. Bush and William J. Clinton Presidential Libraries. His earlier article in Alabama Heritage became the genesis for his book, Southside: Eufaula’s Cotton Mill Village and its People, 1890–1945, published by Mercer University Press (MUP) in 2017 and recipient of the Alabama Historical Association’s C. J. Coley Award the following year. MUP also will publish his forthcoming work, Presidential Archivist: A Memoir, in December 2020. Special thanks to Scotty E. Kirkland at ADAH for his expert assistance with this article about Donald Comer.
 
Additional Information
To learn more about Donald Comer, see his profile on Encyclopedia of Alabama: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2616

Back to Top

Evergreen, Alabama, streetscape of downtown
With a population of 3,944 in 2010, Evergreen is classified as a city in Alabama. (Robin McDonald)
Alabama League of Municipalities
Promoting and Protecting Local Government Since 1935

By Carrie Banks
 
For more than eight decades, the Alabama League of Municipalities has helped the state’s cities and towns, providing resources, advocacy, and support. Carrie Banks explores the organization’s founding during the Great Depression and its history up into the Twenty-First Century, detailing the many ways it supports Alabama’s communities.
 
About the Author
Carrie Banks is originally from rural southeastern North Carolina, and she received her BA in journalism from East Carolina University and her MA in public relations and advertising from the University of Alabama. Since 1997 she has served as the communications director for the Alabama League of Municipalities (ALM), where she oversees the communications/marketing and strategic planning efforts for ALM and its affiliate organizations. She has taught “Fundamentals of Speech” as an adjunct instructor for Troy University, Montgomery, and has served on several statewide boards and committees, including the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and the Alabama Bicentennial Advisory Committee. She enjoys working in her yard, reading on her screened porch, and spending quality time with her two dogs—both rescues. She and her husband, Craig, are master-level scuba divers, outdoor enthusiasts, and occasional DIY home-improvement adventurists.
 
Additional Information
 
Alabama League of Municipalities: https://almonline.org/
Back to Top

DEPARTMENT  ABSTRACTS


Commander Howard Gilmore's widowCommander Howard Gilmore’s widow and their children participated in the 1943 ceremony posthumously awarding him the Medal of Honor. (Naval History Heritage and Command)
Portraits and Landscapes
Final Words of an Alabama Legend

By Chuck Lyons
 
During World War II in the waters near the Solomon Islands, an Alabama submarine commander lost his life—and saved his vessel and its crew, cementing his place as one of the state’s heroes in the process. Commander Howard Gilmore’s twenty-plus years of military service culminated in the fateful moment when he commanded his crew to take the submarine down, knowing that doing so would prevent his reentry but protect the USS Growler from the enemy fire pummeling it. His heroism earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor, which was accepted by his widow and their children.
 
About the Author
Chuck Lyons is a retired newspaper editor and a freelance history writer who resides in Rochester, New York, with his wife Brenda and a golden retriever named Jack.
 
Additional Information
Learn more about Gilmore at the Medal of Honor Museum, https://mohmuseum.org/howardgilmore/.

Back to Top

Alabama Governor William Hugh Smith (1868-1870)
Alabama Governors
William Hugh Smith (1868-1870)
By Samuel L. Webb
 
Alabama’s twenty-first governor, William Hugh Smith, was the state’s first Republican elected to the governorship. In the tumultuous years after the Civil War, governing in the South posed numerous challenges, and Smith failed to overcome them. His decisions angered opponents and even members of his own party, leading to his defeat after a single term.
 
About the Author
Samuel L. Webb holds a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a PhD in history from the University of Arkansas. This department is drawn from Alabama Governors: A Political History of the State, second edition, edited by Webb and Margaret E. Armbrester (University of Alabama Press, 2014).
 
Additional Resources
Encyclopedia of Alabama: http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2007

Back to Top

Adventures in Genealogy
Creel v. Creel: Divorce and its Many Layers
by Carlie Anne Burkett

Sometimes genealogists find fascinating resources in unexpected places. Descendants of one Mississippi family, the Rev. Albert E. Creel family, have much to learn from divorce records housed at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Thanks to the family’s mobility and the contentious nature of the divorce, many personal details appear in the records, including accusations regarding paternity of some of the couple’s offspring.
​ 
About the Author
Carlie Anne Burkett has been a reference archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History since 2017. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. Working in the research room allows her to fulfill her dream of helping others research history every day.
Back to Top

Abraham Lincoln monument in Lincoln Park, ChicagoTwo young African Americans collaged onto a postcard of the Abraham Lincoln monument in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois. The postcard was found in an album in Limestone County, Alabama, with the collage likely produced sometime during the 1920s. (Limestone County Archives, Athens, Alabama)
Behind the Image
A Visit with Abraham Lincoln
By Frances Osborn Robb
​
Though sculptor August Saint-Gaudens is commonly associated with New England, the effects of his work resonated with people throughout the United States. Indeed, his sculptures of Abraham Lincoln gained such renown that people traveled to see them, preserving memories of their visits in unique and compelling ways. Frances Osborn Robb reports on one such memory, likely associated with Limestone County’s Trinity School, which preserves the image of two young African Americans at the steps of Saint-Gaudens’s statue.
 
About the Author
Frances Osborn Robb is the contributing editor for the “Behind the Image” department of Alabama Heritage. She is the author of Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839–1941, and a List of Photographers (University of Alabama Press, 2017). She is passionate about historic photographs.
 
Additional Resources
Shot in Alabama  https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Alabama-Photography-1839-1941-Photographers/dp/081731878X

Back to Top

Gwen Patton
From the Archives
Glimpses of Gwen Patton
By Justin Rudder
 
Editor’s Note: The “From the Archives” columns during 2020, the centennial of women’s suffrage, will focus on the important roles of women in Alabama history.
 
This quarter’s installment of “From the Archives” explores items from the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s (ADAH) collection connected to Gwen Patton, an activist and scholar whose mentorship influenced many of the state’s young people—including current members of the ADAH staff. Patton’s role in the civil rights movement and her work at the state’s educational institutions, including Tuskegee University, reflect her life of activism and service.
 
About the Author
Justin Rudder is a digital assets archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. During Patton’s final years, he was her colleague, friend, and occasional chauffeur.
 
Additional Information
For an interview with Gwen Patton, please see the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2015669119/

Back to Top

Reading the Southern Past
The Federal Road
By Stephen Goldfarb
 
This quarter’s installment of “Reading the Southern Past” considers the Federal Road, whose passage through Alabama shaped the young state’s character. Under consideration are The Federal Road Through Georgia, the Creek Nation, and Alabama, 1806–1836 by Henry deLeon Southerland Jr. and Jerry Elijah Brown (University of Alabama Press, 1989); The Very Worst Road: Travelers’ Accounts of Crossing Alabama’s Old Creek Indian Territory, 1820–1847 (University of Alabama Press, 1998) an anthology compiled by Jeffrey C. Benton; and The Old Federal Road in Alabama by Kathryn H. Braund, Gregory A. Waselkov, and Raven M. Christopher (University of Alabama Press, 2019).
 
About the Author
Stephen Goldfarb holds a PhD in the history of science and technology. He retired from a public library in 2003.
 
Additional Resources
Benton:
https://www.amazon.com/Very-Worst-Road-Travellers-Territory/dp/0817355502
 
Braund, Waselkov, Christopher:
https://www.amazon.com/Old-Federal-Road-Alabama-Illustrated/dp/0817359303
 
Southerland and Brown:
https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Through-Georgia-Alabama-1806-1836/dp/0817305181
Back to Top
Online Store
​Customer Service
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
Corporate Sponsors
News
Join Our Email List

Employment
UA Disclaimer
UA Privacy Policy ​
​Website comments or questions?  

Email ah.online@ua.edu
Published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
​Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local: (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free: (877) 925-2323
Fax: (205) 348-7473

alabama.heritage@ua.edu