George Singleton tells of visit to old Red Hills community and cemetery

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Red Hills – community of yesteryear” was originally published in the March 23, 1972 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

It derived its name from red rocky hills scattered for several miles in all directions; hills of red clay and small rocks covered with dogwood and pine timber, and at one time – not too long ago – people. There were houses on most of the ridges. Quite a few families lived in and farmed the area. Yes, at one time Red Hills was a large community, with two churches, a school and a store, and many, many memories.

Nothing remains now but a narrow winding road that follows the high places along the ridge tops. Occasionally one passes the ruins of a rock chimney where a house once stood. By following the winding road far enough one eventually comes to the Red Hills Cemetery. The size of it indicates that many of the people that farmed these hills were laid to rest beneath the same red clay that grew their crops.

Much can be found out about a community by visiting the cemeteries. Walking among the headstones, one can tell who were the larger families and who lives in the area the longest; who were the wealthiest and the poorest; whether there are survivors according to the condition of the graves. And as one walks farther and sees the unmarked graves, one can read the heartbreak and tragedy that was common in the era when Red Hills was a community.

I have talked to several older people who were raised in the Red Hills settlement. Each tells the same story of how their parents moved away seeking better jobs or looking for more fertile farm land along the bottoms to the south and west. Each one tells of the lure of the towns and the promise of a better life just over the hill or down the road a ways.

Finally; nothing is left but the memories and the cemeteries that hold for all time the departed who wait beneath the red clay for the final roll call of eternity.

When I visit these places, a certain sadness comes over me because I too was raised in a place similar to Red Hills. There are times when I return and reminisce, and remember the times when I was a boy. During these visits I find myself longing for the life and the old places that were so familiar during my earlier years. And when I visit the final resting place of my grandfather and grandmother and my father, I remember the kindness and affection that was plentiful when I was in there presence.

So it was when I visited Red Hills. I stood there and saw the things that once had been, and I saw it as it is today. Then I remember that nothing is forever, and I returned as I had come, by the winding road.

[This column was accompanied by a photo taken by Singleton that carried the following caption: Red Hills Cemetery – all that remains of a community that once flourished. Pictured during a visit to the cemetery is Barton Singleton, son of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Singleton of Monroeville.]

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)