(In 1982, The Evergreen Courant newspaper published a
six-part series called "A History of Brooklyn," which was originally
written by the late R.G. (Bob) Kendall Jr. The sixth and final installment in
the series, which you'll find reprinted below, was originally published in the
May 6, 1982 edition of The Courant. Other installments of the article can be
found in the April 1, April 8, April 15, April 22 and April 29 editions of The
Courant from 1982. Five of those installments have already been posted on this
blog during the past month. Without further ado, here's Part VI.)
“A History of Brooklyn: Part VI” by the late R.G. (Bob)
Kendall Jr.
In the years between 1910 and 1925, medicine was practiced
in Brooklyn by Dr. W.A. Blair, Dr. W.A. Haggard and Dr. U.L. Jones. Dr. B.D.
Dozier provided dental service. Mr. E.N. Amos, Mrs. W.G. Rabun and later Mr.
Everett Knowles ran general stores.
A drug store was operated by Aubrey Brown and next door to
Mr. Brown in Brooklyn’s only brick building Ned Robinson ran a general
merchandise operation. P.W. Johnston operated a garage in Brooklyn and as a
side line had an electric plant which generated electricity for the other
businesses in town. Telephone service was provided from time to time, on what
must have been an unreliable basis, on a line that came out from Evergreen.
Finally, for those desirous of a haircut or shave, barber services were
provided by Mrs. Nellie Pate.
To go along with its other commercial developments, plans
were made about 1913 to organize a bank. A group of Brooklyn citizens set out
to do just this. John A. Feagin, who was to be president of the bank, and John
Williams, one of its strongest backers, along with the other stockholders built
a bank building on the main street and equipped the bank building with a vault
and a time safe. Unfortunately, that year Mr. Feagin was killed in a motorcycle
accident; and when the economic depression following the entrance of the boll
weevil into this area came in the following year, the bank collapsed and the building
was sold. Williams sold the assets of the bank, including the vault (which
finally found its way to Pensacola into the possession of one of the members of
the family).
Mr. Williams’ daughter, Ethel, was the wife of Wilse
McCreary, the direct lineal descendant of one of Conecuh’s earliest settlers,
Adam McCreary, who came to the county in 1821 and settled on what is now the
Horton Plantation and who is buried close by the Horton house. The McCreary’s
later moved further down the road southeasterly towards Brooklyn and opened a
large and fine farm known as Red Acres, which is still in operation by members
of the McCreary family.
Brooklyn’s renown was not confined to the military or the
business field because it produced men equally well known the realm of sports.
Brooklyn was noted in the old days for its fine baseball teams. Mabry
Stallworth and Henry Crumpton, teachers in the school shortly after the turn of
the century, got the boys interested in baseball.
During the years from 1910 up through the teens, Brooklyn
consistently defeated Evergreen, Brewton, Castleberry and other teams from the
area. Some of the fine players on the Brooklyn team included Harry Robinson,
who later attended Auburn University and was an All Southern end in football
and terminated his career in athletics by becoming coach of the team at
Pulaski, Tenn.; Carey Amos, a casualty of World War I; Russel Amos; Sanders
Cumbie; Henry Roberts; Wheatley Johnston, who was another World War I casualty;
Cleavie Brewer; Cap Sanders, and Newt Johnston.
In the 1920s and into the 30s, Brooklyn turned out other
fine teams. The players included Everett McGowin, Monroe Sanders, Milton Amos,
Tom Kendall, U.L. (Doc) Jones, Strawberry Thompson and Archie Barfield. Archie
is noteworthy because he is the father of the new Auburn football coach, Doug
Barfield. So the area has made its contribution to athletics.
But as the years rolled by and after the mill company had
taken up its railroad and closed its operations in the Fish Pond area, Brooklyn
began to die. The death, I suppose, was really brought into focus more than
anything else by World War II because it gave an opportunity for a great many
of the young men in the area and some of the young women who were unable to
find opportunity at home to go out into the world. The old people gradually
died out, the homes closed, and Brooklyn almost became a ghost town.
There have been some good newcomers to Brooklyn in the last
20 and 30 and 40 years. They include the Beverly family, the Rawls, the Thames,
the Pates, the McClendons, the Finleys, the Thomasons, the Logans, the Watsons,
the Hamiters, the Tillerys and many others. However, in spite of this influx of
good, new people and new blood, the town commenced to dwindle and today it’s only a shadow of itself.
In closing this article, I am reminded of an event which, I
think, typifies the last years of Brooklyn. About 1938, Mr. Gus Johnston and
Miss Sally were celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary. To commemorate
the event, they had a supper in the upper floor of their fine, old antebellum
home located on the ridge in that part of Brooklyn that has always been known
as Johnstonville.
All of the old couples of the Johnstons (because nearly
everyone in Johnstonville was a Johnston) and their relatives came that night,
and it was a final, real gathering of the clan. Then it was all down hill and
Brooklyn today is just a memory and its former self, a great and a sweet
memory, but nevertheless, one of a time lone past.
(If you’d like to
go back and read Part I, Part II, Part
III, Part IV and Part V of Kendall’s
“History of Brooklyn,” visit http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/part-i-of-rg-bob-kendall-jrs-history-of.html, http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/part-ii-of-kendalls-history-of-brooklyn.html, http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-history-of-brooklyn-describes-sinking.html, http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/history-of-brooklyn-alabama-tells-of.html
and http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-history-of-brooklyn-part-v-describes.html.)
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