Effie was once a thriving community with its own school and post office

Wooden grave markers at Antioch Primitive Baptist Church.

Years and years ago, when the Conecuh County Board of Education established a school at what we now call Lyeffion, they did so by combining the three smaller community schools at Holly Grove, Mt. Zion and Effie.

In fact, that’s where the name “Lyeffion” comes from. It’s a combination of the “Ly” from Holly Grove, the “eff” from Effie and the “ion” from Mt. Zion. When you put them together, you have “Ly-eff-ion.” According to historical maps produced by the University of Alabama, the name “Lyeffion” first appears on the 1951 edition of the county highway map, although I believe the Lyeffion school was created sometime in the 1920s.

I got to thinking about all of this the other day, and I was pretty sure that I’d been through the Holly Grove and Mt. Zion communities before. However, I wasn’t so sure about Effie.

According to old maps and local history buffs, “downtown” Effie was located at what is now the intersection of County Road 22 and County Road 30, which is almost due north of Evergreen. Sources say that Effie was once a sizeable community and large enough to support not only a community school, but also a post office that was in operation from 1898 to 1909. Last Thursday, the weather was just about perfect for this time of year, so I set out after lunch to visit Effie and to see for myself if anything remained from back when it was a larger community.

Not being in a huge rush, I took the scenic route to get to Effie. Leaving the newspaper office in Evergreen, I got on the interstate at Exit 96 and went north to Exit 101. There, I crossed the interstate and took the Owassa Road all the way up to County Road 19, which I then took south down to County Road 22.

As many of you who have driven the county’s backroads will know, if you cut west on County Road 22, it’ll take you by Antioch Primitive Baptist Church and the county lake. If you stay on County Road 22 until it dead ends at County Road 30, you’ll find yourself in “downtown” Effie.

When I arrived there last Thursday, I took my time to take a good look around. As best that I could tell, nothing remains from the days when Effie was a larger community. I saw no trace of the old school or post office, although I did see a number of comfortable homes and could hear the sounds of children playing somewhere off in the distance.

On my way back to Evergreen, I took County Road 22 and stopped for a few minutes at the county lake. As I stood there snapping a few photos, I was reminded that the proper name for this body of water is Lake Shirley and how its fed by two large creeks from the north. I also thought back to the time several years ago when some teenage boys sent me a photo of a purported “Bigfoot track” they found along a sandy bank not far from where I stood.

A little farther down the road, I pulled over and parked under a big shade tree in front of the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church and got out for a few minutes to take a walk through its old cemetery. This neat, old country church dates back to 1839, and its cemetery is full of some of the county’s most prominent pioneer families. Surnames you’ll find in this cemetery include Shell, Adams, Bolton, Hamrac, Johnson, Salter and many others.

Some of the burial sites there are so old that only small, flat pieces of lighter wood mark the spot of the graves. A number of old veterans are also buried there, including soldiers from the War Between the States. Among their number you’ll find Thomas Bolton, William J. Tomlinson, Elijah Haddox and others.

Eventually, I climbed back in my truck and shoved off for Evergreen. On the way back into town, I couldn’t help but think about those old-time residents of Effie and of those old pioneer settlers from that part of the county. No doubt their contributions to this area were many, and you can bet that their blood still flows through the veins of many who still call Conecuh County home today.