Pennington High School - Yearbook (Blountsville, AL)

Page 160 text:

Blountsville Is One Of The Oldest And Most Historic Spots In ounty The Sunday edition of the Birmingham News- Post Herald May 12, 1929 featured, the history of Blountsville in an interesting way. This article by Grank Willis Barnett is reproduced. Town Was Founded in 1816 by Settler Caleb Friley. Sunday we had a story about Oneonta and in it gave some of Blount County's history. Oneonta is a new town, but now we are going to write about an old town, for Blountsville was settled before Alabama became a state. Here stood Bear Meat Cabin, home of a Creek chief in 1815. Here in 1816 came Caleb Friley, first settler in the first wagon ever in the county. Under shelter of high bluffs on Sand Mountain to the north, this resting place for the stream of traveling immi- grants southward was established. A blacksmith shop was set up for convenience of travelers, and it is said one smithy brought in many bars of iron out of which he intended to make different imple- ments, but he had to use all his material for iron horseshoes alone. This is the best possible evidence of the number who used the road which led through Bear Meat Cabin located on Towne Creek on Huntsville Pike. By 1819 it had become important, and in 1820 Blountsville became the Seat of Blount County. This county, created by the territorial legislature February 7, 1818, originally was of vast extent, and included the present county of Jefferson and that part of Walker County east of Sipsey Fork, on the Black Warrior. It was almost Wholly in the Creek Indian Cession of August 9, 1814. It was re- duced to its present limits by acts of December 13, 1819 creating Imperial Jefferson County, and of December 20, 1824 creating Walker County. It is still a sizeable county, having an area of 649 square miles or 415,630 acres. Blount County, as well as Blountsville, was named for Gov. Willie G. Blount, of Tennessee, governor of that state during the Creek Indian War, 1813-14, and his sympathetic response to ap- peal of settlers of Alabama, then in the Mississippi Territory, made him a hero, and they were glad to perpetuate his name. Help Create Magic City It may be of interest now that here in Birming- 158 ham we are going to have such a magnificent courthouse to know the act creating Blount County provided its courts shall be holden at the house of major Kelly in Jones Valley. This point was within two miles of the present courthouse in Bir- mingham, so Blount Countians can take pride in claiming that at one time they had a part in creat- ing what later became the Magic City. County officers were appointed by William Bibb, governor of Alabama Territory. On the same date of the formation of Jefferson County, December 13, 1819, John Gilbraith, William Rino, Stephen Box, Moses Burleson, and Henry McPherson were appointed Commissioners to fix on a suitable place for the seat of justice. The commisioners settled on Blountsville as the permanent county seat, and December 18, 1820 Blountsville became the county seat and it retained the honor until 1891, when it was moved to Oneonta, 16 miles away. At Blountsville, or, as it was then called, Bear Meat Cabin, we hear of a great old Methodist pioneer preacher, whose name lives in Alabama Methodism, for the Reverend Ebenezer Hearn preached there in 1818. He was the first to preach the gospel in Blount County. If you are interested in his life and labors, you can find some interest- ing data in Dr. Anson West's History of Meth- odism in Alabama, page 119. Blountsville, and the community about it, was largely made up of Tenesseans and Carolinians, a fine old stock, out of which has come great leaders in Alabama's social, political, commercial and reli- gious life. The life of the late Bishop James McCoy is an example of preachers who can trace back their spiritual heritage to Ebenezer Hearn. Here in Birmingham, we have such families as the Drennens, Yieldings, Hoods, etc., who came to us from Blount County. All this came to us as we rode from Garden City Wednesday morning with Professor C. 0. Davis, out to Blountsville to deliver the commencement address at the State Secondary Agriculture School. It was not our first visit to the lovely little village with such a historic background. We had made our way to it from Bangor, and from Oneonta. The road out was in fair shape, and we enjoyed the ride in spite of a terrific rain.

Page 159 text:

In 1927 the State Legislature passed an act creating a Demonstration Farm in connection with State Secondary Agricultural Schools. At this time a farm, now known as King's Farm, of 120 acres was purchased and converted into a modern demonstration farm. On the farm the following buildings were erected: superintendent's home, a tenant house, large dairy and horse barns, a cow barn, machine sheds, poultry houses and a seed house. The entire farm was furnished with running water and the superintendents house contained a central heat- ing system. The new addition to the school was purchased and built at a cost of about S20,000. Again on August 28, 1938, the halls of the school at Blountsville were swept by fire. The fire was discovered by the Principal, J. B. Pennington, about 9: 30 A. M. Once again the people of Blounts- ville rallied to rebuild their school. School opened on Monday morning in the elementary school and the following Monday in a ten room temporary building the men had built in a week. They set to work immediately and in less than a year the new building was completed. The citizens of Blounts- ville honored J. B. Pennington by naming this new school for him. Thus the J. B. Pennington High School we know today was created. The school stands today on a beautifully landscaped campus overlooking the town. The main building has twenty classrooms, library, restrooms, and auditorium seating 600. In 1966 the School Improvement Committee purchased twenty acres of land across the high- way from the school to be used for a recreation area. In 1967 a modern lunchroom seating 200 was constructed. Tennis courts were added in 1969. The spirit and value of a school cannot be told in buildings and grounds but is exemplified in the lives of its students. Serene in the assurance of duty well performed, Pennington celebrates her diamond anniversary in a Shine of Glory. Safe under the waving flag of this country and proud of the past, the institution proceeds to the future-a school of the people, by the people, for the youth of Blount County. PER ASPERA AD ASTRA.

Page 161 text:

In all of our travels in Alabama, we have never seen so much honeysuckle as lines the highway from Garden City to Blountsville. It covers the banks, fills the gullies, climbs around fences and festoons trees. It was in full fiower and the per- fume at times was almost overpowering. We saw few fields, as the valley is narrow, but we did see some wonderful apple trees. Early settlers of Blount County grew a considerable quantity of corn even back in 1817, and yet not enough to sup- ply the constant stream of immigrants which kept pouring in or passed its boundaries. In 1817, it was a most profitable crop, selling at 82.00 a bushel, in 1818, at 81.50 a bushel, and in 1819 scarcely any sale, as by this time best land had been filled. We are bringing out these facts because it is an agriculture school that is now flourishing at Blountsville. Blount County residents realized enough money from crops to pay the first install- ment on their lands, when they were thrown open for entry at Huntsville in July 1819. It seems difficult for us who live in the Twen- tieth Century here in Birmingham when the mill- ing and banking industries have been so developed to realize that only about a century ago, when Jefferson County was a part of Blount County, that the early settlers had no mills for grinding corn, but pounded it into meal in a mortar, or made it into hominy. Wheat was raised in 1817, but it is not known when the first mills were built. It is said a mill, expressly for wheat, was built by Dr. Hanby, on Turkey Creek, in what is now the upper part of Jefferson County. We spoke of the fine old apple trees on the road from Garden City to Blountsville. The County is noted for its fruit, particularly apples, and Blountsville is the center of the apple country of the county. We recall when we first came to Bir- mingham back in 1884, it was a familiar sight to see covered wagons from Blount filled with choice apples. Their introduction to the county dates from 1817, for it was then John Fowler came, and in five years he had imported many varieties from East Tennessee. This was before there was any fruit inspection. The name and fame of Fowler's Apples became widely extended, and considerable quantities were marketed. We stopped to chat on our return trip to Garden City with Farmer Chamblee, and on telling him we had forgotten the name of the man who first brought in apple trees, he immediately said, Oh, You are thinking of Fowler and so his name is kept fragrant through his association with apples. Operates 160 Acre Farm We had plenty of time to talk with Professor Davis who teaches vocational agriculture, and we regretted the heavy and incessant rain kept us from goingover projects and the farm. When J. B. Pennington, Principal State Secondary Agricul- ture School, Blountsville, took charge, grounds took in about two and a half acres, while now they embrace 14 acres, and besides, the school owns and operates a 160 acre farm. This means the boys have a chance to profit not only in the usual garden projects, but to get in close touch with real farm- ing. Principal Pennington is thoroughly posted and up-to-date in farming as he specializes in voca- tional agriculture. He is a veritable human dy- namo, and generates energy in others. Every boy has to take vocational agriculture and every girl has to enroll in home economics. As a whole, we know of no student body doing more real work than is being done by pupils at Bloontsville, It isn't any place for drones. A drone would soon die of lonesomeness, for everybody is busy at work Books have their proper place, but work also is a major in the school. There is a modern brick dormitory for girls. It will accomodate 40, and is the only one of its kind ever seen by the writer. Three girls occupy a room. In the basement is a row of kitchenettes. The girls do their own cooking. How does it work out? It's worthwhile knowing. The bedroom and the kitch- enette for three girls cost them 83.00 a month. The boys have two wooden dormitories. A room for two boys costs 83.00 or 31.50 each a month. Kitch- enettes for boys, for they batch , are for four, two rooms go together. There are accommodations for 40 boys. How It Is Done This gives you an idea of the cheapness of rooms and the chance to live at a minimum cost. Here is the way it works out. Most students come from farm homes. A large part of what they eat is raised on farms from which they come, and is sent by parents, but more than this, the girls, during the fruit and vegetable season, put up in their kitchenettes all kinds of canned goods, as well as preserves, jellies and pickles, in glass. We talked to a bright-eyed mother who lives near Guntersville. Her husband is a farmer but both of them have a passion for learning and have 159