Author Showcases "forgotten places"

The Pioneer Museum of Alabama is a place for looking back at times, places and things too often forgotten.

At the Pike Pioneer Museum of Alabama on Sunday, the afternoon was dedicated to looking back at things forgotten.”

Award-winning photographer Brian Braden, program guest of the Pike County Historical, Genealogical and Preservation Society, chronicled the slow-motion apocalypse of abandoned homes and businesses within the Wiregrass region.

Braden told the gathering of local history and photography buffs that the Wiregrass, the deepest of the deep South, is teeming with “forgotten places.”

As he travels the roadways in search of places that people and time have seemingly forgotten, he looks for tell-tale signs.

“Trees are signs of forgotten places, especially old oaks,” he said. “Empty, baron fields, overgrown areas, lone chimney stacks, lingering lantana and ditch daisies, just any signs that indicate that no one has been that way in a long time.”

Braden said the lingering aftershock of the 2008 economic crisis and 2018 Hurricane Michael still reverberate in the Wiregrass.

These pressures, along with an aging and declining population, have created a region where abandoned buildings are commonplace, Braden said. These forgotten structures speak of dreams lost; from crumbling sharecropper shacks, to desolate main streets, to modern homes where the owners simply moved on.”

Braden chronicled the slow-motion apocalypse of abandoned homes and businesses of the Wiregrass and also offered hope for areas where citizens fight to revitalize their hometowns and preserve a rich cultural heritage.

Keith Roling, a local history buff and museum board member, said Braden’s presentation and then the reading of his book, “Abandoned Wiregrass: The Deepest South’s Lost and Forgotten Places” resonated with him.

“Living all my life in the center of houses and areas like the book shows, it seems that most of these have a good up story,” Roling said.  “The people who moved mostly moved on to better and more modern places. Their memories of life on the old home place were replaced, in the city with modern bricks, city water and neighbors.

Roling said WWII brought along opportunity. People could leave the farm and made a good living, including opportunities with Uncle Sam.

When family land was divided among children, the old homes were often left behind.

“Renovation and restoration were too expensive, so, it was cheaper and easier to build a new house or to buy a nice, warm trailer,” Roling said. “Now, many grandkids are finding rural properties more attractive. There is a continuing tread toward the antebellum homes and old barns that were abandoned. The federal government set photo teams to capture those images. The Siler house next to me was basically abandoned during the 1950s to early 1960 and look at it now.”

Roling said as long as people continue to prosper, the trend will continue. New will replace the old.

“Unfortunately, precious memories are all that remain and that is the reason photographs and the Pioneer museum are so valuable,” he said. “They preserve those memories.”

Story by Jaine Treadwell, Troy Messenger

PIKE COUNTY CELEBRATES BICENTENNIAL

     Pike County,  located in the southeastern section of the state, is one of the oldest counties in Alabama.  The county was created from portions of Henry and Montgomery Counties by an act of the Alabama General Assembly on December 17, 1821.  Pike County was named for General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, an explorer and stateman from New Jersey who mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase.  In the early years, Pike County covered over eleven hundred square miles and was often referred to as “the State of Pike.”  Over the next few years, Barbour, Bullock and Crenshaw Counties were carved out of Pike County and by 1897 the county was reduced to 674 square miles.

     Located on the Meriwether Trail is the small community of China Grove.  It is believed that China Grove is one of the oldest settlements in Pike County, along with Orion, Brundidge, Henderson and Goshen.  China Grove was probably settled before Alabama became a state.  On December 13, 1821, the home of Andrew Creswell Townsend was established as the temporary site of the Seat of Justice for the newly formed County.  Andrew C. Townsend was Justice of the Peace in Montgomery County in 1820  and upon moving to Pike County he  later served as Representative to the State in 1828 and 1830.  He also served as Postmaster at China Grove in 1832.  The Townsend family was very active in community affairs and were influential in the early years after Pike County was established.  Many of the Townsend descendants still live in Pike County today. 

     Unfortunately no records remain from any of the court proceedings of that era.  The county seat was moved just over a year later to Louisville, which at that time was in Pike County but now is in Barbour County.  In 1827 the county seat was moved to Monticello and finally to Troy in 1838.

     As part of the Bicentennial celebration, the Pike County Commission purchased a historical marker to commemorate China Grove as the first seat of Justice.  On December 16, 2021, the marker dedication was held at the China Grove/Concord Cemetery which is believed to be near the original home of Andrew C. Townsend.  Speaking at the event were Pike County Commissioner Robin Sullivan, Mayor Jason A. Reeves, City of Troy and Dianne Smith, Pike County Historical, Genealogical & Preservation Society.  The Charles Henderson High School ROTC presented the colors, Rev. Darryl Caldwell of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church gave the invocation and Sheila Jackson, City of Troy Department of Tourism sang the National Anthem.  At the conclusion of the program, the marker was unveiled by Pike County, City of Troy and local officials.