Southern-Style
A Downhome Perspective on All Things Southern

Houston County, Alabama, Heritage

DHS Class of 1916	Chamber Leaders 1953 J. H. Bryson, 1940, J. H. Brennan, Sr., 1935-1937, Arthur Ussery, W. J. Forrester, Charles H. Adams, Beaty Whiddon, W. C. Faulkner, James Spann, Raymond Spann, Walton Walters, Alto V. Lee III, Clyde Lovern	Early Mayors of Dothan	Hammond-Young Drug Tower behind summoned volunteer firemen to duty. Corner of North Foster and Main. Later site of J. C.Penney 1927, Later site of the Ritz Theater 1940-1050s	Bruce Dickerson, Lester Farmer, Jeff McCarty, Frank Ussery, T. W. Morris	J. M. Brown business, Johnny Mack Brown's father John Henry Brown stands in front of the store. Johnny Mack Brown led the Crimson Tide to victory in the 1926 Rose Bowl. Went on to Hollywood and starred in Billy the Kid and Bad Man from Red Butte. Made 163 films and starred in 138 of them.

Co-Moderator and Webmaster:  Sharman Ramsey
Co-Moderator and Photo Archivist:  Frank Moss Gaines

Our Weather

From DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, by Douglas Fields Bailey, page 122:

"Damned jackass weather. Three days till Christmas and winter still ain't headed up."

The weather never did make up its mind in Aven. Most places in the world had four seasons of the year. In Aven, though, God had given them only two seasons, summer and winter. Spring couldn't be called a season proper because spring frolicked right into summer so sweetly it was like a twinkle in a child's eye just suddenly being
a smile. And autumn! Autumn was a faker in a red and yellow jacket whose flaunted colors faded and ran in the first winter rain. Then winter wouldn't make up its mind until it was almost past time for it. December would come along and the calender would say it was time for frost to sweeten the persimmons, but the soft winds from the Gulf would tell the possums to wait a little longer near the burdening tree on the fence line, and the hot sun would say there wasn't much use in hilling your sweet potatoes. The farmers would come in the store all out of heart, eyeing the meat block and growling, "By killin' time, the hogs'll 've et up all the corn an' there won't be no meal to eat with the meat."
 

If you live in Houston County, Alabama, you know this to be true! 

The Houston County, Alabama, Heritage Association brings together those who love our little part of the world and want to help facilitate the preservation of its many unique elements.  It is an umbrella to promote and encourage the organizations dedicated to the collection, preservation and dissemination historical and genealogical materials.  We will use our website to help disseminate this information.  Inspired by the prodigious efforts of luminaries who have guided our way, Carol Bishop Lee who led the way with Landmark Park, our living history museum, Evelyn Mullen Isbel, who encouraged the preservation and special memories of our pioneer families by collecting the genealogies and family histories now in the Library at Landmark, and Ceya Minder who spearheaded our Houston County Heritage book...and all of those who have maintained the genealogical and cultural societies throughout our community, we hope now to add that glorious beginning. 

By encouraging the writing of histories in the different areas of our Southeast Alabama culture we will be preserving the collections of the many different organizations.  The beginnings of these histories will be started with programs and slide shows highlighting the photographs to be presented at our Association gatherings  that demonstrate how within these many different areas of our culture people and events have reflected the times, helped progress and break new ground, and demonstrate the unique talents and abilities of individuals who have lived among us. 

As these publications are developed and made available, we will help facilitate the printing of these (publication manly funded by those organizations whose history they write) to sell through the Landmark Park store which will be accessible online or by the individual with the stipulation that a percentage of the profit of all publications sold on our website will be given back to the Association for continuation of its projects. 

We challenge the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the American Colonists, Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Daughters and Sons of the War of 1812, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to collect photographs of their ancestors and write up a biography of that ancestor (including genealogy sheets to add to our Genealogical records) with their military record to share with us.  Those of more recent wars should write their own history and provide us with pictures.  Please notice the history I wrote of my mother's WWII service and pictures also on this website.)  We will place some of those photographs and stories on our website, it will be a part of our purpose to enable the scanning and collection of  the digitalized photographs to make available in CD form.

Southeast Alabama is blessed to have an official archivist at Archives of Wiregrass History & Culture located in the library at Troy State University Dothan Library, under the direction of Dr. Marty Oliff.    However, the task of soliciting, retrieving, scanning, archiving,  and digitalizing photographs, etc, is one he is undermanned to effectively accomplish.  Currently old photographs are being solicited by the Dothan Eagle.  Our resources are being divided and through those divisions, we are not cataloguing and sourcing the resources as effectively as we might if we band together and use our Southeast Alabama Heritage Association as the disseminator of accumulated sources.   By pooling our resources, organizing our assets, and mobilizing volunteers, including the professors and students at Troy State University, our Southeast Alabama area might actually uncover new facts and an understanding of who we are and how we came to be here while preserving the materials already available. 

Let there be no misunderstanding.  The purpose of this organization is not to duplicate services.  This is not an organization to be an organization.  Each entity has its own purpose.  The Houston County, Alabama, Heritage has one major purpose...to be a social gathering of folks who love our little part of the world.  In the process, through each individual choosing to participate in something that fascinates them...art, music, architecture, quilting and sewing, local native American history, cooking, military history, genealogy...and developing programs that eventually become books, we will have fun and make a difference at the same time. 

I am anxious for Don Bennett to find his mother's poetry book.  It should be reprinted so we can all have a copy.  She was an extraordinary woman.  Let us make sure we remember her...and so many others whose memory depends on what we do now.  (These are my favorite poems that she wrote.)