Issue 123, Winter 2017
On the cover: Nurses Audie Hill (left) and Margaret Moffat outside Red Cross headquarters in Montgomery. [Alabama Department of Archives and History]
Features
Von Braun’s Team in Huntsville
By Monique Laney
In the late 1940s, a group of German engineers entered the United States to work for the American military developing a rocket program. Led by Werhner Von Braun, the team eventually settled in Huntsville, where it had a profound impact on the local community and on American space exploration. The team experienced many successes, notably with the Saturn V rockets that enabled missions such as Apollo 11. However, the team members’ past in Nazi Germany raised questions about their participation in Nazi war efforts, led some members to return to Germany permanently, and tinged the legacy of their impressive space work.
Alabama Nightingales: WWI Nurses at Home and Abroad
By Haley E. Aaron
Prior to World War One (WWI), nursing was an emerging profession, one of the few open to women. As the United States entered the war, nurses gained increased professional prominence by volunteering to serve both at home and abroad. Alabama nurses, particularly those from St. Vincent’s Hospital, worked throughout the world to combat illness and injury and aid the war effort. Alabama nurses spanned varied experiences: some served despite resistance from families who favored more traditional pursuits for their daughters, some suffered their own illnesses while working near the front, and others labored to improve patient care and medical practice. African American nurses, although thoroughly trained, faced discrimination that prevented them from working in some facilities. Taken together, Alabama’s nurses in the WWI era reflect a wide spectrum of American experiences, even as they expanded opportunities for professional women.
Editor’s Note: In the article ‘Alabama Nightingales,’ Anne Beddow was identified as one of the first nurses to administer the anesthetic pentothal sodium, a technique she learned at Base Hospital 102. Although Beddow was one of the first nurses to administer the anesthetic, it is unlikely that it was used at Base Hospital 102. Instead, the anesthetic was likely first used by Beddow beginning in the 1930s.
Birmingham’s Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge
By Mary Stanton
Located in Birmingham, The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge (Colored Masonic Temple) boasts a storied history. Named for Prince Hall, a Boston abolitionist, the order traces its roots to the eighteenth century, when it originated as an option for African American men denied membership in all-white Masonic organizations. Birmingham’s lodge arose from the merger of two Alabama lodges in 1878, and it served for many years as a center of Birmingham’s African American community, offering meeting space, a library and ballroom, and office space for civil rights organizations. Although the building no longer functions as a Masonic Temple, efforts are currently underway to preserve this historic structure and adapt it for continued use.
Blount Springs Resort: Alabama’s Saratoga of the South
By Pamela Jones
While New England’s elite families relaxed at spas in the Adirondack Mountains, southern families retreated to Blount Springs Resort, seeking respite from the heat and illnesses such as yellow fever and malaria. Bolstered by a natural mineral spring, the area hosted southern aristocrats and celebrities, from frontiersman Davy Crocket and Vice Pres. William Rufus King to musician Lillian Russell. Known throughout the nineteenth century as an idyllic escape, Blount Springs was irrevocably damaged by a major fire that destroyed resort properties during the early twentieth century. The area never regained its status, leaving only stories of its former heyday.
Departments
Alabama Makers
Cheers to Alabama: Craft Beer Culture Is Alive
Early settlers of the Alabama territory enjoyed beer, and visitors to the area recorded beer consumption as early as the 1820s. Although Alabama holds a history of beer production, in the twentieth century, the scene dwindled dramatically, thanks in part to Prohibition. Even five years ago, Alabama’s citizens had few local craft beer options. Thanks to a movement called Free the Hops, craft brewing has returned to the state, with dramatic—and delicious—results that highlight one more skill set in Alabama makers.
Alabama Governors
Arthur P. Bagby (1837-1841)
By Samuel L. Webb
An attorney by trade, Arthur P. Bagby also worked in various elected positions before becoming Alabama’s governor in 1837. Alabama shared the financial problems sweeping the nation, and economic issues dominated Bagby’s tenure as governor. After serving two terms as governor, Bagby continued in politics, ending his career with a stint as the American minister in Russia.
Southern Architecture and Preservation
From Vacant to Victorious: Restoration of the Decatur Depot
By David Breland
Editor’s Note: Abandoned railroad architecture presents both challenges and opportunities to Alabama preservationists. Two of the state’s earliest railroad-related landmarks—Huntsville’s 1856 Memphis & Charleston freight depot and the even older Mobile & Ohio shops (1854) at Prichard—barely survived the Civil War, only to be lost in recent years. But the good news is that other structures are being creatively repurposed. One of the most recent is Decatur’s 1905 Union Depot. Here David Breland, a key player in the saga, tells the story of its rescue and reclamation.
Although Decatur’s Union Depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, its future was in question for some time. After spending almost forty years empty and in disrepair, the building was beautifully restored and repurposed. Today, it holds office space for the Decatur Police Department and a new railroad museum, successfully uniting the building’s history as a train depot with current city needs—and providing a renewed purpose for the historic structure in the process.
From the Archives
“Register Now!”: Recruiting Alabamians for the War Effort
By Raven Christopher
Thanks to careful advocacy by government employees, the Alabama Department of Archives and History now has a treasured new artifact: a rare and pristine canvas poster produced by the Alabama Department of Labor encouraging Alabamians to join in the state’s World War II (WWII) efforts. These efforts ranged from industrial production to military preparations, and Alabama served at the forefront of the war effort, making its worker recruitment programs essential to Allied success. The World War II labor poster is currently on display with other recent acquisitions in the Alabama Voices exhibit of the ADAH Museum of Alabama.
Alabama Mysteries
Mistaken Identities: The Mystery of Alabama’s Grand Dragons
By Alston Fitts III
Alabama’s Ku Klux Klan presence is no secret; images and accounts of its actions abound in historical records. Particular confusion concerns the identity of the Alabama Grand Dragon, although speculation has surrounded several prominent citizens. However, there is no evidence to support that any of the men associated with being Alabama’s Grand Dragon were even part of the Klan.
Portraits and Landscapes
A Decorated “Yankee” of World War II: Capt. William Wright Evans
By Jerry Davis Jr.
Thanks to his selfless heroism in World War II, Dothan’s William “Bill” Evans earned numerous military decorations and honors, including the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Although he returned to Alabama briefly at war’s end and married Erin Davis, Evans and his new bride soon returned to Europe, where Bill continued his U.S. Army career until his untimely death due to a blood clot. Dothan’s William Wright Evans Army Reserve Center still bears his name, a lasting tribute to the Alabama hero.
Adventures in Genealogy
The Alabama Department of Archives and History: Genealogical and Historical Heart of the State
By Donna Cox Baker
Alabama genealogists are fortunate to have an amazing set of human and archival resources at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) in Montgomery, where expert Nancy Dupree oversees the genealogy research department. Visitors to ADAH can access numerous state records as well as newspaper files, maps, and personal records such as diaries, letters, and scrapbooks. If you’re searching for your own family’s ancestors, be sure to pay a visit to ADAH; its stellar staff and resources will surely help you locate valuable information about your family’s past.
The Nature Journal
Jackson Prairies
Jackson Prairies, the rare habitat that offers home to many diverse plants and animals, appear in both Alabama and Mississippi. Although Mississippi’s prairie is preserved as a National Forest, Alabama’s is not accessible to the public. Perhaps in time that will change, and all Alabamians can enjoy the prairie’s wonders, from butterflies and wildflowers to turkeys, quail, and kites.
Reading the Southern Past
Aviatrixes of World War II
Women contributed substantially to the World War II (WWII effort), notably as pilots. Although they had limited routes to travel, female pilots helped ferry planes between various locations, freeing male pilots for combat service. Their story is told through several books reviewed this quarter: The Originals: The Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron of World War II (Disc-Us Books, 2001), Nancy Batson Crews: Alabama’s First Lady of Flight (University of Alabama Press, 2009), Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II (University of North Texas Press, 2008), and WASP of the Ferry Command: Women Pilots, Uncommon Deeds (University of North Texas Press, 2016), all by Sarah Byrn Rickman.
