Issue 133, Summer 2019
On the cover: Joseph Volker, first president of UAB. [UAB Archives, University of Alabama at Birmingham]
Features
Volker’s Vision
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
By Cary Estes
It was perhaps not entirely likely that a New Jersey dentist would attend a conference in Birmingham and forever change the city’s history. However, that’s exactly what happened: Joseph Volker’s speech to the Alabama Dental Association attracted the attention of residents, who urged him to relocate to the South as dean of the new University of Alabama dental school. Over time, Volker’s enthusiasm, energy, and vision led to the founding of the University of Alabama at Birmingham—an institution that today boasts a sophisticated medical community and a campus with Volker Hall to commemorate the man whose vision enabled the institution to become what it is today.
Mobile’s Bragg-Mitchell Mansion
A Legacy of Five Families
By Monica Tapper
The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion, a mid-nineteenth-century dwelling that graces the Mobile landscape, holds several mysteries—including who its architect was and exactly what it was planned to look like originally. Despite this, much is known about the structure and about the five families who have inhabited it. These families—the Braggs, Pratts, Uphams, the Davis family, and the Mitchells—and their histories offer an insightful and entertaining view of the developing city and one of its distinctive structures.
The Art of Making Men around You Wiser, Better, and Happier
Daniel Pratt and the Working Mill Village
By Sara Caroline Taricco
When Daniel Pratt traveled from his New Hampshire home to Alabama, he carried a significant concept for a new kind of community, one built around industry and commerce. He enacted that community vision through founding Prattville, Alabama, where he established a mill and a surrounding village intended to meet all the community needs. By locating the blacksmith’s shop, mills, churches, and other establishments near the mill workers’ homes, Pratt ensured that his employees had everything they needed for a prosperous, happy life. In doing so, he created a model community that inspired others across the south.
Battles Like This Don’t Happen Every Day
The Forgotten Story of Alabama Vietnam War Hero Robert Lee Hilley
By Randy and Roxanne Mills
The Vietnam War ended nearly forty-five years ago, and as the time since the conflict grows, many people’s understanding of the events and their significant human cost fades. Primary sources—such as letters, photographs, and diaries from soldiers serving in Vietnam—offer poignant and descriptive glimpses of soldiers’ lives in country. The story of one such soldier, Alabamian Robert Lee Hilley, benefits from new details revealed in memorabilia sent home by one of Hilley’s best friends in the war, Dick Wolfe. Through Wolfe’s missives to family and friends and the photographs that often accompanied them, both men’s heroism and sacrifice become abundantly clear.
Correction: The description of the photo on page 38 says Hilley and Wolfe were with captured enemy weapons. Both were American weapons. The larger one in front is an M-60 machine gun. The smaller one held by Hilley is an M-79 grenade launcher.
Department Abstracts
Portraits and Landscapes
Of Noisy Celebrations and Quiet Revolutions
By G. Ward Hubbs
As Alabama’s bicentennial approaches, many of its cities are pausing to consider their own significant milestones. One such city is Tuscaloosa, whose seminal events include being one of the state’s early capitals, the home of the University of Alabama, an important site during the Civil War, and a focal point for industrial development—from mining to automobile manufacturing. In addition to such more noteworthy events, Tuscaloosa has also witnessed a number of smaller changes throughout its two centuries.
Alabama 200
A Treasure for the Future
By Jay Lamar
Several significant and long-lasting commemorations plan to preserve Alabama’s bicentennial spirit for future generations. One such development is Montgomery’s Alabama Bicentennial Park. Adjacent to the state’s capital, the park will feature bronze reliefs depicting important aspects of the state’s history to date and will inspire Alabamians of all regions and backgrounds to reflect on Alabama’s legacy and their place within it.
The Alabama Territory
Quarter by Quarter: Summer 1819
By Mike Bunn
This quarter’s installment of “The Alabama Territory” reflects on the state’s first legislative session and the challenges that officials of the new state faced. From enacting laws to establish social normal and legal parameters to establishing a state capital and navigating the thorny political waters of a visit from infamous Gen. Andrew Jackson and the death of the first governor, Alabama’s officials strove to lead the young state with grace and character.
Alabama Governors
Lewis E. Parsons (1865)
By Samuel L. Webb
Alabama’s nineteenth governor, Lewis Parsons, served a brief term but remained influential during the state’s Reconstruction efforts. Though considered a “moderate Unionist” at the time of his appointment, Parsons acted in ways that aligned with Confederate interests, including by working to disenfranchise African American voters. This trend continued throughout his life, and even after leaving the governorship, Parsons advocated against civil rights efforts.
Behind the Image
The Nutcracker Ballet, 1950s Style
By Frances Osborn Robb
A photograph of a dancer reveals interesting information about the intersection of social and military history. Frances Osborn Robb, Alabama Heritage’s resident photographic sleuth, explores the image and learns about a special ballet at Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal.
From the Archives
Alabama’s Defining Documents
By Scotty E. Kirkland
In celebration of the Alabama bicentennial, the Alabama Department of Archives and History hosts an extremely important and rare exhibit, “We the People.” For a brief time, all six of the constitutions used by the state since its founding will be displayed together. These governing documents from 1819, 1861, 1865, 1868, 1875, and 1901offer a historic glimpse of Alabama’s history and the way it has governed itself since its origin as a state two centuries ago. To represent the state’s breadth, the documents will also be displayed this summer at the Huntsville Museum of Art, giving northern Alabama residents the opportunity to view these historic documents as well.
Alabama Treasures
Gaineswood Flutina
By Teresa Boykin
Often conservation and preservation conversations focus on the bigger structures of an era, such as homes, churches, and other buildings. However, often the items within these structures carry their own historic significance and their own (often complicated) preservation needs. Such is the case with Gaineswood, the former home of Gen. Nathan Witfield, and its flutina, a specially-commissioned barrel organ. Thanks to the Gaineswood staff’s careful efforts, visitors to the property can enjoy listening to music from the flutina and imagine what life was like for its first listeners.
Adventures in Genealogy
The Nichols Memorial Library of Gadsden
By Donna Cox Baker
A valuable resource for genealogists, the Nichols Memorial Library of Gadsden holds a trove of materials to help unlock ancestral history. As the library of the Northeast Alabama Genealogical Society, it houses thousands of texts, including family histories and reference books. It is an essential tool in the researcher’s kit for learning more about family history and ancestry.
Reading the Southern Past
Jews in and of the South
This quarter’s installment of “Reading the Southern Past” explores Jewish life throughout Alabama and neighboring states by reviewing Dan J. Puckett’s In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust (University of Alabama Press, 2014), Eli N. Evans’s The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South (University of North Carolina Press, 2005), and The Quiet Voices: Southern
Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, 1880s to 1990s, edited by Mark K. Bauman and Berkley Kalin (University of Alabama Press, 1997).
