The old Nellie community was once located between Coy and Dry Forks in Wilcox County, Alabama

St. Emanuel No. 2 Baptist Church

I got the itch to get out and do some riding around the other day and eventually found myself at the Dry Forks crossroads in the southwestern part of the county. At Gullett’s Bluff Baptist Church, I cut west on County Road 13, which takes travelers down into Coy. About two miles later, I pulled over for a closer look at the St. Emanuel No. 2 Baptist Church.

According to the church’s cornerstone, this stately old church was founded in 1890 and was rebuilt in 1964. When the cornerstone was laid, the Rev. E.M. Dubose was the church’s pastor, and the church’s deacons were Scrap Nettles, Eli Moye, Robert Kelsaw and Willie Williams. Robert Kelsaw was the church’s clerk.

Before leaving, I spent a few minutes exploring the cemetery behind the church. Just eyeballing it, I’d say that there are at least 50 graves there, maybe more. Some of them appear to be very old with no legible dates on them.

While examining a grave near the wood line, an unseen animal snorted loudly and set me on edge. I froze in place and listened intently, thinking that it might be a wild pig in the woods behind the church. Another loud snort followed a minute or so later and after a good look through the woods, I could see what looked like a couple of mules or donkeys in the field on the other side of the patch of woods. Good thing it wasn’t an angry wild hog with menace on his mind because I’d neglected to put my pistol in my back pocket when I got out of my truck.

On my way out of the cemetery, I was reminded that this church is located near what was once called the old Nellie community. Records reflect that Nellie was once so large that it had enough people to support its own post office. Sources say that the Nellie post office was established in 1887 and that it closed in 1915.

The earliest reference to the Nellie community that I could find in old editions of the Wilcox Progressive Era was from 1889. In that year’s May 8 edition, the paper mentioned a “Capt. Sam. C. Cook of Nellie,” who had promised to write a complete history of the Wilcox Dragoons for the newspaper. I believe that this Capt. Cook is the same Samuel Calvin Cook, who passed away in 1904 and is buried in the Cook Cemetery at Cook Hill, west of Camden.

As I stood there by my truck, I was also reminded that I wasn’t standing too far from the ancient Indian village of Uxapita, which was located a short distance northeast of the Nellie community. According to the 1977 book “Dead Towns of Alabama” by W. Stuart Harris, Uxapita was located at the mouth of Pursley Creek, at its junction with the Alabama River. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his expedition visited Uxapita on Oct. 8, 1540.

In the end, as I pointed my truck back towards town, I thought more about the old Nellie community and wondered what it must have looked like during its heyday. If anyone in the reading audience knows any more about the history of the Nellie community, I’d like to hear from you. I’m especially interested in any ghost stories, local legends or Indian lore from this part of the county, so if you know of anything along these lines, please let me know.