Wow! Looks like the freemasons had a headstart in Alabama from the inception…my people are from weogufka and new site. I live there now. Interesting, a lot of black people names in that area derived from white settlers but no mention of slaves or blacks. Only whites and indians.who knows?history is really deep in this area as well.
David Arnold
It’s good to see more of the detailed writings of Rev. George E. Brewer being brought to a later audience. Just one note to clarify the period in which his material was written. After a long and distinguished career as an educator, military officer, elected official and minister, he became an early employee of the Ala Dept of Archives and History.He wrote his “History of Coosa County” from personal experiences and research during 1917-1919. He died in 1922 at age 90. He created a number of unpublished historical articles and it would be a great service for more of them to be published. Part one of his Coosa history was published in the department’s quarterly Vol 4 in 1942. The number of reprints of that volume attests to the popularity and interest in his writings.
The building is still there, but it is no longer used as a school. They combined the 3 high schools in Coosa County several years ago.
Nell Wilson Gilmer
I went to Curtis Consolidated School (later called Curtis Jr High although there were 9 grades) in lower part of Coffee County (between Elba and Opp). The school burned in 1940 before I started to the first grade and a new school built and opened in 1941. We haven’t been able to find any photos of either the old school or the new one. It was closed in 1967 and burned a few years later. I secured an historical marker for the school a few years ago. If you ever come across any info or photos, I would appreciate learning about them. We have a school reunion the 2nd Sat of Oct every year near where the old school was located, having had our 30th reunion this year.
We have retired and moved back to Elba in 1997. Our little town has been named a Main St AL town and we are just getting started on downtown preservation. My vision is to establish a history museum in one of the empty stores on the courthouse square. if you go to Facebook and enter “city of Elba” you can view a short video we presented to the Main St committee early this year as part of our application process. A local photographer put this together and our chamber director wrote the script.
Nell Wilson Gilmer, author of “Elba – Then and Now, 1853 – 2012”, published locally and for sale at Elba Chamber of Commerce.
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Land of my ancestors. Harris, Wilbanks, Thornell, Gilliland, Haynie – Rehobeth is a suburb of Nixburg.
Those are my folks as well. My grandmother, Mary Thompson Harris, taught at a school near Goodwater, in the 1920’s.
Wow! Looks like the freemasons had a headstart in Alabama from the inception…my people are from weogufka and new site. I live there now. Interesting, a lot of black people names in that area derived from white settlers but no mention of slaves or blacks. Only whites and indians.who knows?history is really deep in this area as well.
It’s good to see more of the detailed writings of Rev. George E. Brewer being brought to a later audience. Just one note to clarify the period in which his material was written. After a long and distinguished career as an educator, military officer, elected official and minister, he became an early employee of the Ala Dept of Archives and History.He wrote his “History of Coosa County” from personal experiences and research during 1917-1919. He died in 1922 at age 90. He created a number of unpublished historical articles and it would be a great service for more of them to be published. Part one of his Coosa history was published in the department’s quarterly Vol 4 in 1942. The number of reprints of that volume attests to the popularity and interest in his writings.
My sister lives in Weogufka and that school is still there!
The building is still there, but it is no longer used as a school. They combined the 3 high schools in Coosa County several years ago.
I went to Curtis Consolidated School (later called Curtis Jr High although there were 9 grades) in lower part of Coffee County (between Elba and Opp). The school burned in 1940 before I started to the first grade and a new school built and opened in 1941. We haven’t been able to find any photos of either the old school or the new one. It was closed in 1967 and burned a few years later. I secured an historical marker for the school a few years ago. If you ever come across any info or photos, I would appreciate learning about them. We have a school reunion the 2nd Sat of Oct every year near where the old school was located, having had our 30th reunion this year.
We have retired and moved back to Elba in 1997. Our little town has been named a Main St AL town and we are just getting started on downtown preservation. My vision is to establish a history museum in one of the empty stores on the courthouse square. if you go to Facebook and enter “city of Elba” you can view a short video we presented to the Main St committee early this year as part of our application process. A local photographer put this together and our chamber director wrote the script.
Nell Wilson Gilmer, author of “Elba – Then and Now, 1853 – 2012”, published locally and for sale at Elba Chamber of Commerce.
Shirley Reeves
My father, Robert DuPriest was the first principal of Kellyton School in Coosa County, a 3 room wooden frame building.
One room school. ❤️