De-ja vu all over again

De-ja vu --- On a trip to Decatur, Alabama

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, Sweetie and I decided to drive to Decatur, Alabama, to one of our favorite antique malls and shop a while to break the lugubriousness which comes from too long winter, too much restriction to indoors, and to celebrate the coming of Spring. Daffodils and Hawthorns are blooming in Fulton, Mississippi, so spring must be upon us.

It snowed lightly on us on our journey --- but in the end the sun won and the sky became filled with blue and sunlight although the wind made it feel very cool.

We drove north through the Itawamba County hills to the highest points along Ridge Road and crossed over into Alabama and through the small town of Red Bay. Traveling Alabama Highway 24 east, we both noticed a new historical marker sign at just about mile maker 35 east of Russellville. We pulled off --- and, gosh, was I amazed.

The marker was for the historic area of Newburg and Denton Hollow, Alabama --- both areas about which I'd written (but never visited) in Issue 7, The Thornton News, September 16, 2002, in the feature article William Walter Thornton and Mary Jane Pace Thornton. In that article I featured a historic map of Newburg along with photographs provided me by family members in Texas and Oklahoma plus additional information from family members in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida.

And in 2002 I made a mental note to find both Newburg and Denton Hollow one of these days and see for myself. Today when I found the historical marker for Newburg, I knew I was in the right place.

But was it the "right" time? Sweetie had extracted a promise that I wouldn't get side-tracked cemetery hunting on her antique shopping trip

Note: Left click images for a larger view

The historical marker states

NEWBURG. First known as New Boston when a post office was established here in 1832, by 1834 the community was known as Newburg. The Newburg Masonic Lodge #388 was organized in 1872. Since its completion in 1876, the Lodge hall has been a center for community events, serving as the meeting place for the Masons and other clubs, as well as church, school, and voting precinct. Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church, active since its founding in 1824 by Rev. James Smith, located 1/4 mile east of this site.

Denton Hollow burial site of William Russell (ca.1745-1825) one mile south. Major Russell, for whom nearby Russellville was named, served with Andrew Jackson during the Creek War and returned to this area to settle after the war.

Denton Hollow and Newburg awaited us. Shopping could wait was the decision made unilaterally as I was the driver. Sweetie and I stopped our eastward progress to the antique mall and drove south stopping at the Mt. Pleasant Church and cemetery located close to the marker.

Then we drove through the small town of Newburg not stopping but marking its location well to return in warmer conditions. We then proceeded south to the burial site of William Russell. [Markers guided us the way --- but the mileage posted seemed "off."

Grave marker for William Russell stands in front of a carved marker of native stone and of his stone-covered grave topped with a large flat stone. The modern military marker reads:

William Russell. Alabama. Major. Mounted Gunmen. Tennessee Volunteers. War of 1812. February 16, 1825.

Russell was one of the first settlers into the region --- Russell Valley (now in Colbert County) and the city of Russellville, Franklin County, are both named for him. His burial marker is most interesting, as is the other burials in the small cemetery where he lies.

Knowing that we were in Denton Hollow, Sweetie and I drove east toward the range of hills marking the edge of the hollow and, there directly along side old Highway 24 was Macedonian Baptist Church and cemetery --- I squeaked to a halt and said "This is it."

And indeed it was. According to family history, William Walter Thornton, who died young at age 34 leaving a widow and seven children, is buried in a five-person rock covered grave at Macedonian Church Cemetery. It was easy to find --- and I photographed the area where he is said to be buried.

Sweetie and I then proceeded on to the antique mall near Decatur and shopped, enjoying the antiques, the bargains we found, the off-again, on-again snow, and were both awed by the snow still on the ground from yesterday's wet snow in that region. Most touching of all, however, were the dozens of snowmen melting slowly in the yards of houses (where children or young-at-hearts lived, we decided).

Heading home, we stopped at Moulton for a late lunch. When we got to Russellville, we turned off the bypass and went into downtown. There a historical marker helps to understand the importance of Russellville and the history of Monroe County, Mississippi.

First, the historical marker in downtown Russellville:

RUSSELLVILLE. Incorporated on November 27, 1819, three weeks before Alabama achieved statehood, Russellville was platted around the intersection of two historic roads.

Edmund Pendleton Gaines began work on the road that would bear his name on December 26, 1905. Gaines' Trace extended from Melton's Bluff, at the head of the Elk River shoals, to Cotton Gin Port on the Tombigbee River in present-day Mississippi. Lawrence Street follows part of that route through town.

Work on a more direct road from Nashville to New Orleans began in 1817 under Andrew Jackson's supervision. The route was called Jackson's Military Road, and Jackson Avenue as it passes through Russellville

The Gaines' Trace across Monroe County was the Indian Treaty Boundary Line separating early Monroe County, Mississippi, USA, from Indian Nation. By treaty, the Trace across Monroe County could never be improved beyond that of horse-path so traditionally in my home county the Trace has no import as a road --- just as a boundary separating two nations. Of course the fact that the Range, Township, and Sections numbers all end on one side of the Gaines' Trace and begin anew on the other side of the Trace with another set of numbering schemes makes map research in Monroe County difficult and interesting. (The county expanded north and west by a later treaty.)

When Franklin County, Alabama, was first organized, it included all of the land of present-day Franklin County and Colbert County. After the Civil War, because of north-south factions and the strong feelings local unionists and. local confederates had against each other, Colbert County was formed from the northern part of Franklin. The fertile valley bearing William Russell's name today lies inside Colbert County.

It was from Russell Valley that my great-great-great-grandfather Frederick Weaver led the first wagon train containing the first group of settlers into Monroe County, Mississippi, in 1816.

It was through old Franklin County that my great-grandfather James Monroe Thornton made his way to the Union lines to volunteer to serve in the First Alabama Cavalry USA. It was through Franklin County that his brothers Martin Van Buren Thornton and Henry M. Thornton made their way to join the First Alabama Cavalry USA and to die while serving their county. It was to Denton Hollow where the young family of William Walter Thornton moved after the war to farm in the rich scenic bottom lands ringed by hills. It is in Denton Hollow where William Walter Thornton lies buried at Macedonia Church Cemetery. It was nearby that my Great Aunt Alice lived --- and where as I child I remember going to her house for annual family reunions. It was in Russellville where I later attended several Thornton family reunions at the old park overlooking the city water-works. And it was in the southern part of the county that my great-grandfather and his family once lived at Spruce Pine.

I love to go antique shopping --- I always learn so much family history along the way.

Sources:

Photographs by Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi, March 3, 2010.

Newburg. Historical Marker. Alabama Historical Association. 2009. Road-side marker, Franklin County, Alabama.

Russellville. Historical Marker. Alabama Historical Association, 2007. Street-side marker, Russellville, Franklin County, Alabama.

William Walter Thornton and Mary Jane Pace Thornton, The Thornton News, Issue # 7, September 16, 2002. Edited and published by Terry Thornton, Rinnie, Tennessee. Privately printed and distributed.

A Hill Country Place: MT. ZION

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

The area known as Mt. Zion in eastern Monroe County Mississippi is centered around the Mt. Zion Church. Located at the crossroads of Mt. Zion Road and Parham Gin Road, the community has a rich history and rich heritage as good farming land filled with prosperous and caring people.

The map snippet below from a current Monroe County Road Map (available online from http://www.gomdot.com/Home/Home.aspx) shows the location of Mt. Zion Church in relationship to several other features. (Left click the map for a larger view)

Parham (shaped light red) is located on the far right of the map lying on the Hatley-Detroit Road (shaped light red). The Hatley-Detroit Road had its origin as the "great thoroughfare to Tuscumbia," the pioneer road connecting the first American town in all of north Mississippi, Cotton Gin Port, to Tuscumbia, Alabama and the ports along the Tennessee River.

Mt. Zion Road (shaded light green) starts about one and one-half miles west of Parham. It runs almost due north for about one and one-half miles and then turns sharply left and runs west about four and one-half miles. This portion of Mt. Zion Road lies just south of the old Indian Treaty Boundary or the old Gaines Trace (shaded light blue). The location of Mt. Zion Church is shown at the crossroads at Parham Gin Road.

Sullivan Store was located at the intersection of Mt. Zion Road and Hatley-Smithville Road. Mt. Zion Road ends at the intersection with Highway 25 just north of Amory. Highway 25 and the area around the end of Mt. Zion Road is sometimes called the Trace Roads area. Brooks Store was located at the intersection of Mt. Zion Road and Highway 25.

Mt. Zion Road covers a bit more than six miles of Hill Country. Along its route are evidence of much of our Hill Country heritage from Indian Nation, international boundaries and pioneer roads, to agriculture enterprises upon which the region was based, walk-sheds between rural stores, and the rich Anglo-Christian background upon which much of our common heritage was built.

The next time you are in the area, drive Mt. Zion Road and remember that at one time, this was as far north as you could go in Mississippi and remain in the United States. The original Monroe County ended along the Indian Treaty Boundary Line just to the north of Mt. Zion Road.

Needed: Photographs of the original Mt. Zion Church Building, Parham's Gin, Faulkner Store, Brook's Store, and Sullivan's Store. If you have photographs to share, please send them via email to hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

Sources:

Monroe County Road Map showing Mt. Zion Road and Community modified from http://www.gomdot.com/Home/Home.aspx

Photograph of Mt. Zion Church, Monroe County, Mississippi, August 2009, Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi.

HILL COUNTRY PLACES: Amory, Mississippi

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

AMORY: Named for an official of the

Kansas City, Memphis, and Birmingham Railroad

COTTON GIN PORT seems a more appropriate name

Amory is a young town --- it is now in its 122nd year. Formed in 1887, Amory's roots are, however, much deeper and much older. Amory has its origin in the first town in all of North Mississippi --- Cotton Gin Port.

Along the eastern side of the Tombigbee River, a cotton gin was built in 1801 by the United State government. Although the gin wasn't a popular idea with many of the citizens of Indian Nation upon which lands it sat (it was promptly burned to the ground), a small port, village, and ferry was established called Cotton Gin Port.

Cotton Gin Port, the first town in north Mississippi, was connected by water to the rest of the world via the Tombigbee River. Steamboats could nagivate as far north as Cotton Gin Port. Overland, the Natchez Trace was just a few miles west inside Indian Nation and connected south to Natchez, Mississippi, and north to Nashville, Tennessee.

A horse path surveyed by Edmund Gaines in 1807-08 to theTombigbee River at Cotton Gin Port from a point along the Tennessee River in the Shoals area of northwest Alabama was opened in 1811-12. That horse path became known as the Gaines Trace --- and that small narrow path was etched forever in the history of the Hill Country in 1816 when it became the international boundary separating Indian Nation (to the north and west) from newly opened United States lands (to the south and east). The treaty signed in September 1816, Treaty of Pontotoc Council House, formally opened what is now eastern Monroe County for settlement.

Look at any current map of modern Monroe County (the official MDOT Monroe County Highway Map is a good one to use) and you will see that the townships and ranges stop at a line running across Monroe County ending at the original site of Cotton Gin Port.

After settlers were officially allowed to come into Monroe County and take up lands, Cotton Gin Port was the final frontier town on the border between two nations. It became a vital link and a vital point of connection between the United States and Indian Nation.

Monroe County, during these early years, didn't extend west of the Tombigbee River. Smithville didn't exist because that land was not a part of the United States; Aberdeen didn't exist because that area was not a part of the United States; and Cotton Gin Port was the point of travel for the earliest settlers into this new country.

In late 1816, Frederick Weaver (my great-great-great-grandfather) lead the first wagon train of settlers and they came straightway to Cotton Gin Port. That group of pioneers "spent the Christmas of 1816 at Cotton Gin Port" according to Weaver's daughter Dorcas Weaver Hollingsworth (my great-great-grandmother). Those hardy early settlers scattered across the land and forged a new county --- and for several decades Cotton Gin Port was the leading city along the river.

The first post-office in the newly formed county of Monroe was at Cotton Gin Port -- it was established in 1822. The second post-office was the one mastered by George Good in 1827 --- the office was called Good's Tanyard and there is evidence that it was located near present-day Amory.

By the mid-1830s, the boundary of the United States was moved west of the Tombigbee River and Cotton Gin Port lost some of its influence as a center of business and government and society with the development of Aberdeen. Rich planters, some were absentee landlords, flooded the rich flat farm lands west of the river with plantations looking to make their fortunes growing cotton and slaves.

Cotton Gin Port continued to survive buts its influence began to wane when the county seat was moved from the Hill Country to the newer town of Aberdeen after a protracted conflict between the west-of-the-river-group and the Hill Country group.

But the deathblow to Cotton Gin Port came in the 1880s when the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad surveyed out the route of a new line across Monroe County missing the little port city by about four miles. The officials of the railroad pinpointed a spot mid-distance between Memphis and Birmingham and decree that there they would build a railroad center to provide maintaince on the vital rail link between those two major cities.

Cotton Gin Port closed down and was moved. "Lock stock and barrel" is how I've heard it described as, in some cases, entire intact buildings were rolled on wheels from Cotton Gin Port to the new empty city of Amory. The railroad surveyors had platted the city placing a main street running parallel to the railroad, a park, and streets for residential lots. The sale of those lots was brisk and fast --- and Cotton Gin Port moved to Amory.

Today Cotton Gin Port is completely empty except for some foundational stones and a monument or two. On private property, the ruins of the oldest town are out of public view.

But the new town of Amory which opened for business in 1887 is going strong and, as all young thriving towns, is still expanding and growing.

With the development of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, the Port of Amory has many more options and larger traffic than officials of the port at Cotton Gin Port could have ever imagined.

Main Street, Amory, Mississippi, looking north

Not only does Amory trace its origin to the oldest town in North Mississippi, it is also proud of its heritage as Mississippi's first planned city. Following the wonderfully laid out lines of the original plat, visitors can determine where the original town started and stopped. More recent developments around that planned portion are easily seen by driving any direction from the center of town just a few blocks.

For instance, I once owned the May House at 100 North 9th Street (just beyond Amory Middle School and across the street from the Old National Guard Armory). That property was originally a part of the town's community pasture --- a log cabin sat on the site where the family lived who took care of the town peoples' cows. And that site was just beyond the reaches of that original "planned" part of the city. The area of the old cow pasture was low, swampy lands made less so by fill of cinders from the railroad. Anywhere in my yard, if you dug deep enough, you would usually strike a layer of cinder-fill.

Further down the street to the north was once the town's brick yard and a pit from which clay was dug to bake into brick for building --- that area is now a beautiful lake surrounded by lovely homes, McAlphine Lake. Very close to the park at McAlphine Lake is a city block containing a walking track --- once home of the Amory Elementary School, a large two-story brick building removed in fairly recent times.

McAlpine Lake, Amory, Mississippi

A couple of block south from that walking track is the current Amory Middle School ---- which was once the location of the Amory High School, another two-story brick structure long removed. The large playing field south of the school and in front of the old Armory was the footfall stadium for Amory High at one time.

But these were not the first schools in Amory --- they were schools built to accomodate the rapidly growing population of the young city as it grew and grew.

As a railroad center, Amory has served as the mid-point on the railroad line between Memphis and Birmingham. The Frisco Railroad was for years one of the major employers in Amory --- and Amory was a staging area for railroad workers plying the line. A "round house" and maintenance shops were developed along with a large depot in Amory. Locomotives could be turned around in this facility; repairs could be made to rolling stock in this railroad "shop."

During the years when steam locomotives were "state of the art" Amory was a vital link along a busy railroad corridor. But as steam locomotives were converted to diesel powered machines, several developments occurred that have had a lasting impact upon Amory.

When Frisco Railroad needed a new facility to moniter and contol rail traffic on the line between Memphis and Birmingham, they built an administrative building in Amory adjacent to the city park in downtown. In the early 1950s, that building was dedicated and an open-house gave the citizens of the area a first-hand look inside.

I was about twelve years old --- and I remember the activities associated with that event vividly. My most "gee-whiz" moment was in the control room of the Frisco Building where all of the railroad lines between Memphis and Birmingham were shown on huge boards with diagrams and lights to indicate switches and trains. As a train would move, the lights on the board would show that movement. This in the age before transistors and digital information was an impressive use of the latest in processing information using electrical current and electrical display boards and a multitude of small lightbulbs. I was amazed that a controller sitting in Amory could monitor and control all of the Frisco train traffic over that distance.

The other sight that inspired me was the gift of Frisco's Engine #1529 to the City of Amory. A temporary spur railroad line wa put down from the main Frisco line across the city park and Engine #1529 came steaming down that track to its final resting place as memorial to the railroad. The gift today stands as a major fixture in city park, a park now called Frisco Park.

Engine #1529 is credited as being the last steam engine to pull a passenger train on the Frisco Railroad --- and is a monument to the workhorse steam locomotives of the past. Engine #1529 also pulled President Roosevelt's passenger train across north Mississippi in the 1930s. My mother was fond of telling me that she saw that train when it passed through Gattman, Monroe County, Mississippi.

Today the Frisco Administrative Building serves as Amory's City Hall. The Frisco Building continues to serve the citizens of Amory --- and is a constant reminder of the importance of railroading to the town.

An early family in Amory was the Gilmore family. E.D. Gilmore and his wife Virginia Gilmore established a hospital, the Gilmore Sanitarium, in Amory in 1916. From that beginning, the Gilmore Hospital grew --- the Gilmore Foundation prospered --- and when the hospital outgrew its original location, the old sanitarium was accepted by the City of Amory as a Bicentennial Project. Converted to a regional museum in 1976, the building has recently undergone extensive remodeling. It reflects the city's past assosication with railroads --- and it preserves much of the history of the Hill Country in its artificts, display, and structures including the Wright Cabin on the museum grounds. Also at the museum is a restored Pullman Car.

Amory Regional Museum. West Entrance.

Wright Cabin, Amory Regional Museum

Next door to the museum is the Gilmore Foundation Center which continues to serve the interests of Amory and of the Hill Country.

Many lovely Victorian-style homes are found in Amory's older residential areas.

The public library in Amory is another major asset of the city.

The Park Hotel on Main Street is undergoing extensive rennovation.

The Monroe Journal, Monroe County's newspaper, is headquartered on Main Street.

A landmark on Main Street, Amory, Mississippi

New commerical building on North Main Street, Amory, Mississippi.

Monroe County Office Complex, Amory, Mississippi

Two additional articles relating to Amory may be also of interest to readers. They are

Amory Mississippi: Through the Windshield Video -- a short video of an early morning ride up main street. Click link to view.

Amory Mississippi Centennial Silver Medallion, click link for photographs.

SOURCES:

Amory -- A Planned City at http://www.amoryms.us/ (click to read)

Amory, Mississippi. Wikipedia (click to read)

Amory Regional Museum at http://amoryms.us/museum.html (click to read)

Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi. Wikipedia (click to read)

Evans, W.A. Mother Monroe. Hamilton, Mississippi: Mother Monroe Publishing, 1979, page 32 [September 20, 1816, Treaty with Chickasaw Nation or the Treaty of Pontotoc Council House] and page 43 [Dorcas Weaver Hollingsworth's statement about being in Cotton Gin Port in the winter of 1816].

Gaines Trace. Wikipedia (click to read)

Indian Land Cessions Maps at TNGenWeb Project [On map linked here, click to enlarge. The Indian Treaty Boundary Line is shown as "Gaines Road" and is superimposed on a more modern map of Mississippi.]

List of Post-Offices in the United States With the Names of the Post-Masters, of the Counties and States, to Which they Belong; the Distance from the City of Washington, and the Seats of State Governments, Respectively, Exhibiting the State of Post-Offices, on the 1st of June, 1828. By Direction of the Post-Master General. Washington: Way and Gideon, Printers, 1828. Available at Google Books.

List of the Post Offices in the United States Arranged Alphabetically and Giving the Salaries of the Postmasters; also an Appendix Containing the Names of Post Offices Arranged by States and Counties with Money Order Officers and Other Postal Information. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1870. Available at Google Books.

Monroe County Highway Map. Mississippi Department of Transportation. Available at www.gomdot.com

Photographs of Amory, Mississippi., September 6, 2009. Terry Thornton. Fulton, Mississippi, September 6, 2009. All RIghts Reserved.

HILL COUNTRY PLACES: In Search of Adley

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

One community near where I lived as a child is called Adley. Little information has been printed about Adley, Monroe County, Mississippi, and much about the community and its school has been forgotten. The following map shows the approximate location of Adley superimposed over a modern MDOT county highway map. (Click map for a larger view)

On the map above, note the small creek called Section Creek --- it starts in the hollow behind Parham Store and Parham House. When I was a child, a gang of us kids used to walk that creek from Parham to where it flowed under Firetower Road (just below Mr. Autry Raper's house and farm) and then walk the road back home. None of us knew then that we had walked to Adley and back.

At one time, the small rural community was centered about the Adley School --- and several citizens of the Hill Country remember family members who went to school there. A current resident of the community, Di Stevens whose house is built at the approximately location of the old school, states that her grandparents James F. Cox and his wife Belma Brasfield Cox taught at Adley as well as Brock School. Di's mother-in-law, Lessie Hathcock Stevens, attended Adley School. Di has some artifacts from the old school but so far has not been able to located a photograph or much printed evidence of the school.

Other nearby residents remember names of teachers. Dale Swan is quoted by Mary Anna Riggan as stating that his aunt, Dena Swan Hathcock (sister to Rosco Swan) once taught at Adley School.

Apparently at one time residents of the community put "Adley" on their mailing address for mail delivered to Adley by the Smithville Post Office. Dorothy Cauthern, according to her daughter Rita Thompson, grew up in Adley and remembers the address.

Jerry Harlow sends word that Monroe County historian Charles Granville Hamilton stated that the "Adlai School" was started in 1892. Jerry also provides information that Minnie Lee Maxey Suggs was once a student at Adley School.

Miss Jessie Pierce (in History of Smithville, page 5) states that some of the early Burdine fields that were abandoned became known as "the Skinner Fields (close to old Adley)." Miss Pierce's step-aunt, Georgia Davidson, would often ride horseback to these old abandoned fields where cattle ranged and locate her family's cows by the sounds of the bells on the cows' neck --- "close to old Adley."

The most recent use of the word "Adley" as a place name in Monroe County Mississippi of which I am aware was in the obituary for Mr. Autry Raper, a resident of Adley, who died in 1980.

Adley School was located in Section 9, Township 12 South, Range 17 West. According to records at the Bureau of Land Management, the earliest land patent holders in Section 9 were John Burdine (1822); Murdock McDuffie (1859); Andrew J. Parham (1859); and Thomas Andrew Harris (1914). Mr. Burdine's lands are difficult to trace because when they were recorded there was still confusion as to which state Monroe County was in --- so three of Mr. Burdine's patents are recorded in the Alabama records of 1822 and one in the Mississippi records of 1825 --- but all 316 acres of the Burdine land patents are in Section 9, Monroe County Mississippi.

But little else is known about Adley.

Even the name is a mystery. One spelling of the community is "Adlai" --- and some suggest that the school may have been named for a teacher whose first name was Adlai.

Others suggest that the school and community may have been named for a family with the surname Adley. But no Adley family groups are found on the census of Monroe County.

Another good suggestion was that the community may have been named for the John Hadley family, an early pioneering family of Monroe County. The "H" may have been dropped over the years and the name corrupted to "Adley."

Adley School was, as reported above, started in the 1890s --- and it obviously continued on until the mid- to late 1920s and perhaps beyond. No photographs of the school have been found.

On the following map, it is easy to see how one could speculate that Adley may have been one of those frontier villages which pushed right up against the international boundary between Indian Nation to the north and Monroe County Mississippi United States to the south. (Click map for a larger view)

On this map, the Old Indian Treaty Line (the Gaines Trace) divided early Monroe County Mississippi from Indian Nation. Officially, Americans were not allowed to settle or to take up lands north of this boundary but there are many reports of settlers pushing up right against the line and doing trade with the Indians who lived just north of the line. It is possible that Adley was one of the early trading posts sites which didn't thrive after the removal of the Indians and the expansion of the United States borders. This possibility for the orgin of Adley is just that --- a theory. Certainly the location of the school and most of the older house places in the center of Adley indicate that the majority of the American activity was south of the boundary line.

The only business activity of which I remember near the center of Adley (basically at the intersection of today's Hadaway Bottom Road and Firetower Road) was the small country store operated in recent times by Mr. Terry Hathcock. Whether or not an older store was at that site remains to be determined.

It is entirely possible that Adley was one of those small rural communities which sprang up in the late 1890s around a school and then faded away rather than having much earlier history. It is hoped that readers will discuss Adley School/Community with their family elders and report information back to the rest of us.

Below are three photographs of the general area of today's Adley. There are no stores or schools left in Adley --- just beautiful hill country lands and homes of Adleians. I do hope someone has a detailed history of their community to share with readers of HILL COUNTRY (Click photographs for larger images)

Above: Hadaway Bottom Road looking south towards intersection of Firetower Road and the "center" of the old community, Adley. This photograph was taken from about the crossing of the Indian Treaty Boundary Line (the Gaines Trace) which divided two nations in the early history of Monroe County Mississippi.

Above:Intersection of Hadaway Bottom Road and Firetower Road looking east down Firetower Road. The Adley community was centered near this location.

Above: Intersection of Hadaway Bottom Road and Firetower Road looking west -- about one mile west this road (past the late Autry Raper's place) runs almost on top of the Indian Treaty Bounday/Gaines Trace. The road changes its name when it crosses Parham Store Road to Little Road which, for the first half-mile or so, runs along the Indian Treaty Bounday.

It is interesting to drive this section of road knowing at one time the older horse path there divided nations and served as an international boundary in Hill Country.

If you have photographs, information, or artifacts from Adley Community or Adley School, I would most enjoy hearing from you. Leave a comment or send an email to hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

SOURCES:

Adley Community and School, general information from members of the Monroe County Discussion Group (Jerry Harlow, Mary Anna Riggan, Rita Thompson, Judy Sullivan, Bob Franks, James Alverson, and Lori Thornton) in a series of emails to Terry Thornton, August 2009.

Adley Maps modified from the Mississippi Department of Transportation official highway map of Monroe County, Mississippi. Original map available at www.gomdot.com.

Adley Photographs, August 23, 2009, Terry Thornton, Fulton, Mississippi.

Adley School, information courtesy of Di Stevens, Adley, Mississippi; Dale Swan, Parham, Mississippi; and the Monroe County Discussion Group, August 2009, various emails to Terry Thornton.

Landowners from the area around early Adley, General Land Office, Bureau of Land Management. Available online. Accessed August 30, 2009.

Pierce, Miss Jessie, History of Smithville and Surrounding Territory, July 1958. Privately printed and published by L.H. Pierce, Amory, Mississippi, as transcribed by Terry Thornton, December 12, 2008, and published 2009 in Hill Country of Monroe County Mississippi Volume 1, Numbers 756 - 762.