Wilcox-Monroe county line passes across Walnut Street in Vredenburgh

Vredenburgh Mayor Calvert Wright

If you ever find yourself traveling north on Walnut Street in Vredenburgh, pay close attention to the pavement. Just north of the Bay Street intersection, a sharp-eyed motorist will notice that there’s a distinct change in the pavement, a visible line across the street where newer pavement meets older pavement. This line marks the border between Wilcox County and Monroe County.

I was in Vredenburgh a few days ago and ran into Vredenburgh Mayor Calvert Wright. Wright, a retired corrections officer, was appointed to the position of mayor several years ago by Gov. Kay Ivey, a native of Wilcox County who also has strong family ties to Monroe County. Wright and I talked for a while, and I eventually asked him if he knew where the Wilcox County line passed through the town.

He hopped in my truck and directed me down Bay Street and onto Walnut Street. We parked and got out, and he showed me the line of pavement across the street. Wilcox is on the north side of the line, and Monroe is on the south side.

Later, former Vredenburgh resident Julia Richardson told me that she’d always heard that the county line ran right through the First Baptist Church of Vredenburgh building, which is a stone’s throw from Walnut Street. During services, the preacher is said to be standing in one county while the congregation is seated in another. This reminded me of the historic Mt. Moriah Fellowship Baptist Church near Pine Apple, which sits astride the Wilcox and Butler County line.

Behind the First Baptist Church of Vredenburgh, you’ll also find a sizeable cemetery. Just eyeballing it, I’d say that it contains about 50 marked graves. The oldest that I saw there belonged to Deacon James Hardy Sr., who passed away in 1951.

Today, about 220 people live in Vredenburgh, which has a very interesting history. Due to its location, it has always had strong ties to both Wilcox and Monroe counties. Even today, many from the Vredenburgh area do their business in Camden, which is a lot closer than to Vredenburgh than Monroeville.

According to “Places Names in Alabama” by Virginia R. Foscue, Vredenburgh was founded and named for Peter Vredenburgh II of Springfield, Illinois. He built a sawmill there in 1912, one year after a post office was established there. The town was officially incorporated in 1913.

Interestingly, when I looked through old issues of The Wilcox Progressive Era, the oldest reference to Vredenburgh that I found was in the Oct. 1, 1908 edition of the newspaper. On the front page of that week’s paper, it was reported that the “dry kilns of the Vredenburgh Saw Mill, which were destroyed several weeks past by fire, are being rapidly replaced by a handsome brick kiln.” The paper also reported that Messrs. R.E. Kelley and Tom Lacy had resigned their positions with the Vredenburgh Saw Mill Co. and had left several days before for places in Mississippi and Louisiana.

In the end, if you ever find yourself in Vredenburgh, take a few minutes to drive down Walnut Street. Keep an eye out for where the pavement changes and know that you are traveling over the boundary between two neighboring counties with a lot of shared history.