The winds of time flow around Old Scotland Church

George 'Buster' Singleton

(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 “The winds of time flow around Old Scotland Church,” was originally published in the March 7, 1996 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

A few days back while on one of my excursions, I wandered along the narrow dirt road that leads by Old Scotland Church. Stopping for a moment, I found myself thinking just how it might have been back in the days when this old community was bustling with activity and community togetherness.

As I sat there and listened, the winds of the early afternoon seemed to call from around the old church and tell its story.

The time was around 1814 when the Scottish settlers unloaded their wagons and began to build the settlement that was later to be known as Old Scotland.

They had traveled far and the hardships had been many before this place was reached. Here were to be the new homes of the members of several clans who had come to the new world, hoping to find a better place to live and raise their families – a place where the land was good and the water was pure; a place where the hills were high and the wind blew most of the times, as it did in the old country far across the sea.

This was to be a place where they could worship their God without fear of persecution and live according to their own standards. This was a place where people did not have to be at war with their neighbors; a place where all was at peace.

So the McCorveys, the McMillans, the McCrorys, the McCantses, the McFaddens and many more began the awesome task of cutting a community out of the forest that covered the surrounding hills.

How had this area been selected by these people? The story goes that when Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory) marched his ragtag army into this area during the War of 1812-14, a man by the name of McCorvey signed on with Jackson as a scout. During one of his scouting expeditions, McCorvey passed through the area that was later to become Old Scotland.

Greatly impressed by the high hills, the scenic views and the rich soil, he vowed to return and settle this special place and make it his home. Later he would return, bringing with him others who had heard the tall tales of the land that resembled their beloved Scotland.

The community grew; a town hall, a school, a church and a marketplace were built where the folks could come together and play their bagpipes and dance to such popular Scottish tunes as “Bonnie Dundee,” “Scotland the Brave” and “The Wewaddleing Song.” I can hear them now – the straining notes of a half-dozen bagpipes, the swirling kilts and silvery sounds from the strings of several fiddles.

Yes, the music of the bagpipes affects each individual in different ways. Some want to dance; others, for reasons that can’t be explained, feel the urge to fight. To others, it’s a peaceful sound. To me, one whose blood is mixed from both sides of my family with the blood of Scottish ancestors, the sound of the bagpipes is most beautiful.

The community of Old Scotland suffered the same fate as many other communities within the area with the coming of the railroads, the decline of the small farm and the coming of industry.

But as you stand quietly around the old church and view the old cemetery, don’t be surprised if the faint sounds of the bagpipes ride across the hills, fiddle music causes your feet to shuffle, and you feel that you are in another place, another time, with people whose words are sharp and hard to understand, and everyone calls you “Laddie.”

(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 on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County. 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.)