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To
The
Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society Website
Dedicated
to
History and Historic Preservation
in the Pea River
Area
of
Coffee County, Alabama
THIS WEBSITE IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED
INFORMATION HERE IS OLD INFORMATION AND NOT CURRENT INFORMATION
DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING OFF ANY PAGE ON THIS WEBSITE FOR NOTHING HERE IS CURRENT
Blessings
From the
Pea River Historical & Genealogical Society
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September 13th, 2006: The framed acts creating Coffee County arrived at
Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society Research Library/Gift Shoppe!!
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We still have a need for volunteers right now at all three facilities (Welcome Center, Museum Depot and Research Library/Gift Shoppe). If you find yourself sitting for a couple of hours per week wondering what to do with that time, we have a spot for you in our society facilities. Please step forward and volunteer for two hours per week to help us out. Tell a friend who might enjoy volunteering. Talk to those in your church or social group who might be interested.
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HISTORY of the PEA RIVER HISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Excerpt from the Official Publication of the Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society, Pea River Trails, Volume 24, Fall 1999, Number 3:
The Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society was begun in 1970 to collect, record, and preserve the history and genealogy of those who came to these piney woods to settle and make their home. Enterprise was incorporated on April 27, 1896.
Perhaps, Enterprise's most notable claim to fame is the only monument in the world dedicated to a pest--the BOLL WEEVIL. It was erected on December 11, 1919 in the center ofdowntown Enterprise. The Mexican boll weevil wrought destruction to "King Cotton", the principal "money crop" of the area and farmers began to diversify their crops and introduced the peanut which became their main crop.
The Pea River Historical Society shortly after their organization, acquired the old Atlantic Coast Line Depot in downtown Enterprise in which they operated their Society and began collecting items of interest to house in the museum.
The Depot is located immediately behind the historic Rawls Hotel, although the entrance next to the railroad was originally the front entrance. The passengers coming in on the train only had a short walk into the Hotel lobby.
One of the Society's members, an avid historian and genealogist, Miss Alla James, donated a plot of land on US Highway 84 Bypass to the Society.
The Society built a log structure on the site as a rest stop and information center for transients who travel through Enterprise, and the new-comers moving into Enterprise to make their homes. Souvenirs, books, maps and brochures of interest about places and things in Alabama are available. Thousands pass through the Welcome Center each year.
One of the volunteers maintains and beautifies the landscape around the Welcome Center. A rose garden graces the front of the site, which is dedicated in honor of Dr. James F. Stanley, Sr., one of the organizers of the Pea River Society, now deceased. His wife, Maizie Stanley is still a faithful volunteer at our Welcome Center.
Home Builders of Enterprise devoted a great deal of time and effort in constructing the Welcome Center of the Society and the City of Enterprise assisted with the paved parking lot.
The Welcome Center is located on an access road that is adjacent to the ByPass. (Note: Near Arby's and Winn Dixie.)
After the celebration of the Enterprise Centennial, the Society was given a replica of an old one-room schoolhouse which was placed on the Welcome Center lot.
The Boy Scouts have built a replica of an old outdoor toilet (outhouse) at the Welcome Center and a replica of an old fashioned open well which were quite common a few years ago.
Groups are taken through the facilities when requested. This facility, like the other facilities of the Pea River Society, are staffed by unpaid volunteers. The Society has no paid employees, and is supported by donations, membership dues and from profit from sales of books and novelties sold in the Gift Shop and Welcome Center.
The Little Red Schoolhouse is very popular with the children and young people who have never experienced saying their lessons before several classes.
A few years ago, the Pea River Society was fortunate enough to be able to buy a building on South Main Street in which is located their Gift Shop, Office and Library. This building is their center of activity.
The Library has microfilm, microfiche and readers for them. It also contains many historical books, family sketches, photographs and other memorabilia about days gone by. Many individuals spend hours looking through the materials, and learning about their ancestors who once lived in the area. A photocopier is available for making copies of material for the researcher at the cost of twenty-five cents per page. This is a nice price for most Societies today charge more.
The Gift Shop contains many sovenirs including pins, caps, shirts, historical and genealogical books by local authors which are available for sale.
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NEW MEMBERS WELCOME
Join us in preserving our history and heritage. The Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving history and heritage of Coffee County and its people.
We invite you to visit our library research room at 108 South Main Street, Enterprise, Alabama Monday through Thursday 10am to 4pm (we are in great need of volunteers)
You may do your own research at any time during regular library hours which are 10 am until 4 pm Monday through Thursday. Mrs. Gloria Evans is again opening on Friday from 9am to 1pm.
As all of our workers are volunteers, some may be able to assist you in your research while others will not be able to do so.
Please obey the rule of only entering the research area of the PRHGS Library with a pen and writing pad. Laptops are allowed, but laptop bag will not be allowed. Due to theft, no one will be allowed near the research documentation and materials with purses, satchels, bookbags, backpacks, laptop bags, or anything other than a pen, notepad and/or bagless laptop.
Please remove only one book from shelves at a time. Replace book before removing another book or document. This will help volunteer to keep eye on the materials for your use and help secure the security of materials for all.
We appreciate every donation of genealogical and historical information regarding our area and its people. We also welcome financial contribution at any time.
We request that you encourage your friends and relatives to become a member of our Society, and to share their treasured memories and valuable family records with others for preservation and future reference by descendants and researchers.
With your membership, you will receive the quarterly publication of Pea River Trails.
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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Are you local to the Enterprise area? Volunteers are always needed and very much appreciated!! It only requires two hours of your commitment per week! Be a part of this positive action to help preserve our history!! Wouldn't you like to serve as a volunteer? Just give us a call! No experience necessary - we will help you to fill these positions.
If you would like to volunteer at one of our facilities, please call
1920 Census Records of Coffee County, Alabama Book
The Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society will on March 1, 2003
have the 1920 Census Records for Coffee County in hard copy which will be
for sale at the Gift Shop.
Many thanks an gratitude to Cindy Osborne for this new addition.
Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society Gift Shoppe
108 North Main Street
Enterprise, AL 36331-0628
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1850 Coffee County Census Records
Indexed
1860 Coffee County Census Records
including Geneva Precincts
Indexed
1900 Coffee County Census Records
Indexed
1920 Coffee County Census Records
Indexed
Ancestors & Descendants of Griffin, Jacob & James Crumpler
Ancestors & Descendants of Levi Heath & Prudence Swinson
Ancestors & Descendants of Robert Alexander Fleming:
Jefferson, Warren, Columbia, & Harris County, Georgia;
Coffee County, Alabama & Others
Boiled Peanuts and Buckeyes NEW 08312006
Early Memories of Lee Eudon Holland
by Lee E. Holland (native Coffee Countian)
Limited Number of Copies For Sale
"Born in Esto, Florida, in 1932, Eudon lives in six different cities by the time he is fifteen years old. But his childhood in Enterprise, Alabama, is as sweet as watermelon savored on a hot July afternoon. It does not matter that he, T.E., and Mom live on the "wrong" side of the tracks, separated literally from the wealthy white families by the railroad tracks upon which the train carries the town's cotton and peanut products across the country. T.E., the young genius, is a budding economist, and Eudon is a future football star. They share the same side of the tracks as the poor black families, and it makes no difference that they live in a two-room wooden structure owned by the Bama Cotton Mill. They have their radio, their country & western songs, their comic books, Martin's Drug Store, Mom's homemade biscuits, the Ritz ("Picture Show") Theater, and their hand-made toys. Dominating everything is the scent of fresh peanut butter mingling with the smell of cotton that constantly floats in the air."
�
"Among my most vivid childhood memories is the pervasive smell and delectable taste of the boiled peanuts that were so much a part of Southern life . . . . How many pleasurable hours I spent indulging in these delicacies, savoring their salty flesh, I can only surmise . . . . I spent an equal amount of time strolling through the streets of Enterprise, Alabama, peddling bagfuls of the tasty morsels from a shoe box as I chanted my catchy little sales jingle: �fresh boiled peanuts, five cents a bag; fresh and fine, right off the vine. If you don�t have a nickel, I can change a dime!� . . . . I desired nothing more � until my senses were awakened by football, that is . . . . in Enterprise, Alabama . . . ."
�
"In 1995, my Aunt Myrtelee (Armstrong) Peeples, my mom�s youngest sister, who lived in Montgomery, Alabama, paid a visit to our new beachfront home in Seagrove Beach, Florida, near Panama City. She and I drove to Geneva County, Alabama, to meet with two of her and Mom�s brothers, Hilburn and Ralph Armstrong. On the way, we visited the gravesite of Ada Myrle (Whitaker) Armstrong, her and Mom�s mother, at the Whitaker Methodist Church and Cemetery. Aunt Myrtelee repeated the story of how she, Mom, Ralph, Myrle, Hilburn and Wilburn were divided up at their mother�s gravesite at the time of her funeral in March of 1922. This agonizing story had been told to me by my mom and other family members ever since I was a youngster."
�
"I had left Enterprise, Alabama, in the middle of the sixth grade. Life�s twists and turns took me to Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Miamisburg, Ohio; and finally to Detroit, Michigan, with no thought of whether I would ever return to this special place of my roots that my kinfolk, the Armstrongs, Hollands, and Whitakers, had called home for several generations."
�
"Standing in the midst of all this history, on the land and in the building that had been donated and financed by my great-great-grandfather, James Denard Whitaker, and surrounded by the graves of my ancestors, still humbled and warmed by the church service, I was nearly overcome with emotion . . . . Yet I knew that, like friends parting, I would never truly leave."
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Byrd History and Related Families
by Tera Byrd Averett
Claybank Memories - A History of Dale County
by Val L. McGee
Coffee County Cemetery Records
Compiled 1969 by E.H. Hayes
515 Pages
Coffee County Marriage Records 1877-1935
174 Pages
Coffee Grounds - A History of Coffee County
1841-1970
by Fred Watson
Reprinted 1985 - 299 Pages
Cold Mountain Bomber Crash: The Enduring Legacy NEW 07/14/2006!
by Doris Rollins Cannon
Cookbook
A Taste of History Cookbook
Cookbook
Brunson Reunion Cookbook
Cookbook
Cherished Recipes from Mama's Kitchen:
Lebanese-American Cuisine
of Mary Elizabeth "Mel" Farris Saloom
Cookbook
Confederate Home Cooking
Cookbook
Cooking for the Cause:
Confederate Recipes
Cookbook
Dining Cars and Depots:
Train Food in America
Cookbook
Helen's Recipes
Helen Metcalf
Cookbook
Home Front Regiment 1861-1865
Cookbook
Make Okra, Not War
by Susie Hobson
Cookbook
Pack the Skillet American Pioneer Cooking
Cookbook
Plantation Row Slave Cabin Cooking
Cookbook
The Good Land:
Native American and Early Colonial Food
Cookbook
Southern Born and Bread
Dateline: Enterprise
by Roy Shoffner
Enterprise - The First 100 Years
by Roy Shoffner
Illustrated - indexed - 412 Pages
Gachets and Thorntons
by Rochelle T. Farris
1979 - indexed - 461 Pages
Hartford City Cemetery
Heritage of Coffee County, Alabama
by All Researchers of Coffee County, Alabama
This book is chock full of great information and stories!!
I Remember When
Jernigan and Cooper
(Jones-Craig-Wesley-Ellis)
by Virginia Ruth Jernigan Sanders
1996 - indexed- 126 Pages
Kith and Kin Volume 1
by Clayton G. Metcalf
Kith and Kin Volume 2
by Clayton G. Metcalf
Kith and Kin Volume 3
by Clayton G. Metcalf
Kriegy -
The Story of His Capture
by the Germans
during World War II
by Clayton G. Metcalf
Mortal Matters:
When A Loved One Dies
by Sara Engram
Pea River Logic
by Marion B. Brunson
Pea River Sketches
Pest of Honor -
The Story of the World's
Most Unusual Monument
by Roy Shoffner
Quilt of Memories
From A Place Called Home
New Brockton, Alabama -
Scots and Their Kin Volume 1
Shoulders of Giants
by Dr. Gaylor McCollough
Study of the Metcalfs
by Clayton G. Metcalf
The Ancestors and Descendants
of
James Alexander Story
by Dr. Norman Dasinger
Paperback - indexed- photos - charts - 360 pages
The Country Preacher
by Rev. Q. P. Jones
The Gillis Family in the South
by Clayton G. Metcalf
The Golden Olden Days
The Murdock Family
of
Southeast Alabama
by Larry James Murdock
1998 - indexed plus pedigree charts - 108 Pages
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The Origin of Ft. Rucker
by Val L. McGee
The Wise Kin Now and Then
by Mary Agnes Wise
This Ain't No Shoe Shop
by Jim Reece
Check PRT's Article Index 1975 through 2003 Here
Available Back Issues
of
Pea River Trails
�Created by
Phyllis Jeannae Kwanja Owens
Presented to PRHGS February 19th, 2000
for our friends at the
Pea River Historical and Genealogical Society
Last Modified March 27th, 2012
�2000-2015
Website creation started 1998 |
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