Pickens County Genealogical Society Library

11/15/2024

Can you identify these young men?

Bostic School ... year unknown.

10/28/2024

07/19/2024

Did your Pickens County ancestors plant kudzu on their farms? What about privet hedges and bamboo?

01/21/2024

Do you have ancestors who were laid to rest in the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church cemetery?

The theme for is and for .

The First Presbyterian Church of Carrollton, Alabama, was first organized in 1839. It then dissolved in 1844, was reorganized in 1853, and again in 1868. The one-room church building was erected in 1901, after the original church burned. The church is located two blocks east of the Pickens County Courthouse off Highway 86.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2331

01/20/2024

The theme for is and .

Mount Pleasant Baptist Church of Gordo was founded in 1843. The first church was a log building with a dirt floor and seats made of split logs and was heated by an eight-foot wide fireplace behind the pulpit and lit by oil lamps. The church had very strict rules and did not tolerate non-attendance, intoxication, profane language, theft, party playing, adultery, dancing, fiddling, gambling, lying, or joining the “anty” Baptist church. The church took a firm stand against alcohol and the sale of alcohol in Pickens County and was a leader in the defeat of several attempts to vote for the county to go wet.
The second church building was the wood frame building, shown above, that was built around 1904. A brick church replaced this one in 1971 and the brick church was replaced in 2018. With 13 charter members in 1843, the church has grown to over 400 members. (Information from Melba Wilson Moss published in The Pickens County Herald, July 18, 2018).

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2466

01/19/2024

The theme for is and for .

The First Presbyterian Church of Carrollton, Alabama, was first organized in 1839. It then dissolved in 1844, was reorganized in 1853, and again in 1868. The one-room church building was erected in 1901, after the original church burned. The church is located two blocks east of the Pickens County Courthouse off Highway 86.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2331

08/27/2023

The theme this month is because there are a lot of national food days in and we have had some great food in and
🍔🥕🍓🍑🥧🍯☕🍟🥓🍽

The Bus Station and Café was located on the north side of U.S. Highway 82 just east of the intersection of Alabama Highway 17 in Reform. The building just to the left in the photo was a service station. At that time there were service stations on each of the four corners.
After the bus station closed, probably in the 1950s, the café continued to operate using the part of the building on the left that had been used as the bus station as a private dining room.
After the café closed, a business was located in the building until the 1970s when the building was torn down.
The area where the bus station and service station were located are part of Advanced Chevrolet dealership lot in 2019.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2552

08/23/2023

The theme this month is because there are a lot of national food days in and we have had some great food in and
🥦🥔🧅🥚🍞🥓🫘🍎☕🥄🐝

The Busy Bee Restaurant in Gordo, AL, is shown in this photo from 1915. The restaurant was located on Main Street in Gordo.
Men shown from the left are Lovie Zeanah, David A. Cummins and Julius Geer. The child is unknown.
Dr. Patton had an office above the Busy Bee.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2523

08/16/2023

The theme this month is because there are a lot of national food days in and we have had some great food in and
🧅🥓🧈🌽🍍🌶🍳🥧

John Frederick Mullenix is pictured in 1938 with his 5-year-old son, Searcy Mullenix, beside his 1927 Model T that he used to deliver Watkins products and other goods to rural families in northern Tuscaloosa County.
A longtime resident of Echola, Mullenix was born in Gordo, in 1888. He contracted polio at the age of 18 months and was severely crippled, losing the use of one leg. Despite his disability, he attended business school in Columbus, Mississippi. He began keeping the books for his uncle, Jim Free, and learned the lumber business and became part owner of some sawmills. He owned and operated J. F. Mullenix Merchantile in Gordo until the Depression.
Mullenix began farming to support his growing family and when the boys were mature enough to manage the farm, he began his Watkins Products route to areas around Brownville and Moores Bridge. He often traded products for eggs or chickens, which were put in coops tied to the running board of his Model T. Another son, Clifton Mullenix, (not pictured) often went along to catch the chickens. A five-gallon can of fly spray was tied to his running board.
John and his wife, Effie Fendley Mullenix, had 10 children, one of whom died in infancy. Mullenix died in 1972.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/462

08/13/2023

The theme for is in and
🥑🥞🦪🫖🫓🍖🍳🥦

The historic Phoenix Hotel in Carrollton, Alabama, was built in 1841.
The hotel was a two-story, 27-room hotel located on the main street just across from the county courthouse. In the old days when transportation was a problem, men who served on the jury at the county spent the night in the hotel. There was a spring, called Johnny Woods Spring, located just a few blocks from the hotel and during the 1920s and 1930s, people would come to stay at the hotel just to visit the spring and drink the water.
The hotel was noted for its fine food served buffet-style on a large lazy-susan table. The table had been sold and was, in 1966, being used at a beach house on the Gulf Coast.
Benjamin F. Roper built the hotel, naming it the Phoenix because it arose from the ashes of the Roper house which had burned. A livery stable was built beside the hotel. Roper operated both the hotel and the livery stable for 12 years.
During the Civil War, Northern troops burned the courthouse, but spared the hotel and enjoyed the lodging there.
Olivia B. Sullivan purchased the hotel in 1945 and ran it until the early 1960s.
The hotel was typical of antebellum buildings with square nails and wooden pegs used in construction and much of the lumber hand-hewn heart pine lumber. An coat of white paint kept the building looking immaculate.
The Phoenix was demolished in 1966 to make room for a new county activities building. Probate Judge Robert H. Kirksey said the county had advertised to sell the building, but got no offers. The county finally gave the building to a Tuscaloosa man if he would tear it down and remove the materials.

🔗 https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/2326

06/20/2023

Please contact Vonceil Duckworth for information about the Library: 205/399-4629