Everything but the kitchen sink.

BARBARA VADEN SPROULL, homemaker and community volunteer

Born: Christmas Day, 1926, Anniston

• The widow of Horace Miller Sproull Jr., who died in 2008, she is the daughter of Thomas Hunt Vaden, who married Eula Crook in 1925 and lived in a house where the Quintard Hardee’s restaurant is now.

Vaden worked for the power company.

• Eula Crook’s parents were Samuel L. Crook, who was a first cousin once removed to James F. Crook. Crook was a business partner of Dr. T.W. Ayers in the Jacksonville Republican, later moved to Anniston to become The Anniston Star. They had bought it from Mr. Crook’s father.

• Samuel L. Crook was cousin to a Calhoun County probate judge, Emmett F. Crook. They had a daughter, Margaret, who married Ned Almond, later to become Gen. Almond, aide to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. Gen. Almond retired in Anniston.

• Barbara Vaden Sproull’s late husband, known as Miller, was the son and only child of H. Miller Sproull Sr. and Sara Powers Sproull. She died within days after Miller was born; Sproull senior died when Miller was 21.

Sproull Sr. was the son of James Creswell Sproull. He had three sisters: Caroline Sproull Knight, who married Roy; Virginia Sproull Weatherly, who married Clay; and Catherine Sproull Hamilton, who married Ralph Hamilton, one of three Hamilton sons of Tobe Hamilton. One of the sons, Charles Hamilton, became a benefactor to several local institutions, including the hospital, the Boys Club and the YMCA.

• James Creswell Sproull, born in 1856, came to Anniston from Rome, Ga., in 1887 and founded Anniston Hardware, which, when telephones were installed, had the number 1.

via Generational Kudzu: Barbara Vaden Sproull | AnnistonStar.com.

History of Shelby County Alabama

By Bobby Joe Seales

Welcome to Shelby County, “The Heart of Dixie”. We’re glad you’re here taking a look at us, because we’re proud of our county and like to show it off. While visiting this site, should you have any questions, comments, or need any assistance that I may help you with, please e-mail me.

Shelby County is the geographic center of the state of Alabama. It is one of now seven counties comprising the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area. The others are Jefferson, Blount, and St. Clair counties and three new additions in June 2003 – Bibb, Chilton, and Walker. Shelby County is bounded by Jefferson and St. Clair counties to the north, by Talladega and Coosa counties to the east, and by Chilton and Bibb counties to the south and southwest.

Shelby County was created by an act of the Alabama Territorial General Assembly on 7 February 1818, from former Creek Indian territory ceded in the Treaty of Fort Jackson on 9 August 1814. The county was formed out of the northern portion of what was then Montgomery County. Originally, Shelby County was one of the largest counties in the state. However, the state legislature soon began carving up the area to create other counties, including St. Clair County, Jefferson, Talladega, and Chilton counties. The marker for the geographic center for the state of Alabama can be found on the steps of Main Hall at the University of Montevallo. The actual geographic center, however, is said to be located in the Richardson-Randall Cemetery, about 2 miles east of Montevallo.

The county was named for Isaac Shelby, a hero of the King’s Mountain Battle during the Revolutionary War. Also, he was the first governor of the state of Kentucky, and had refused election to a second term as governor in order to fight the Indian wars. The first courthouse was fashioned of logs, and was located at Shelbyville, long since deserted, however, believed to have been located within the modern-day city of Pelham. It was selected as the county seat in 1820 and the county’s first courthouse was built by Thomas Amis Rogers, Alabama’s first Secretary of State, who, along with his neighbor George Phillips, represented the county in the state’s first Constitutional Convention in 1819. Judge Thomas W. Smith was the first judge to preside in it. The Shelbyville courthouse, built at a cost of $53, was used until 1826, when the decision was made to move the courthouse and the county seat.

In 1826 the location of the courthouse was moved to an old school building in Columbia, located in the central part of Shelby County. However, an act of the Legislature changed its name to Columbiana on 13 January 1832, and the county seat was then permanently located at Columbiana.

via Shelby County History.

There are many mundane attractions from mountains to the sea, naturally. That can also be said about other states. However, South Carolina is a world of discovery. It’s home to a variety of magnificent gardens that attract visitors from all over the world. The multi-colored azaleas and a plethora of flowering, fragrant species slumber beneath the moss-draped cypress trees of the Lowcountry. They are heaven-sent, pictures of beauty exquisitely framed by the black, still waters around them. Colorful flowers create impressions that linger long after visitors have flown away. Our own Festival of Flowers is a testament to that beauty.

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History, to be sure, is integral to the state’s rich heritage. From revolutionary times to today, the state’s lineage is evident. It’s the march of time in review, a reminder of who we are. From Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, to Star Fort at Ninety Six. From the Mars Bluff Confederate Navy site on the Great Pee Dee River, to the John C. Calhoun Home on the Clemson University campus, to the South Caroliniana Library on the USC campus, history is a consummate teacher. It gives us insights into how the past impacts the present and prepares us to face the future.

Think about Cokesbury College and old Sheldon Church near Yemassee. Native American names reflect the lives and times that have had a lasting influence on this state, the South and the nation.

Historic Abbeville is a jewel. Add Camden, Kings Mountain and on and on and on. There’s a wealth of knowledge, not only for visitors, but especially for our own. There are the obvious signs of history all around. There also are many reminders of our past that we might miss if we don’t pay attention. There are markers along roadsides that point the way to and highlight the significance of many sites tucked away, often in secluded areas. All are worth exploring. They help explain lifetimes long forgotten.

Other cultures provide glimpses into our past that also define who we are. What could be more informational and colorful than Gullah life on the state’s sea islands? It harkens back to West Africa, complete with stories, customs, music, dress and foods.

via Index Journal | Greenwood, SC | Our View > Behind The News.

The Times-Journal Published January 01, 2004 7. Fascinating Finds: After months of digging, examining and logging, scientists finished their work at “Dead Man’s Curve,” and an ancient burial site was uncovered. A study was ordered before work on widening Highway 11 could begin.

What was discovered was truly amazing. More than 100 sets of human remains were unearthed near Wills Creek, some dating back as far as 7,000 B.C., and some as recent as 700 A.D.

Cassandra Hill, a forensic osteologist who has worked similar finds throughout the Southeast and Northeast, called the dig one of the most significant she had seen.

via Native Americans of Northeast Alabama.

CREEK-SOUTHEAST post/query – dated 13 April 2009

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Hey Tim,

There are quite a few Creek Reserves in Alabama and Georgia. They were
granted to “Friendly Creeks”. In most cases, the legal owners were driven off
their lands only a short time after the reserves were granted. I don’t
know the legal particulars of the two tracts you read about, however.

Jacksonville University advertises on its web site that the original land
for the college was purchased from a Creek mikko named Ladiga.

Richard T.
**************T

….

Notes on the Creek Indians http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/creeknotes/index.htm

Early Creek History http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/creek/early-history/

Migration Legend of the Creek Indians ref=”">http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/creek/migration/

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To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CREEK-SOUTHEAST-request@rootsweb.com with the word ‘unsubscribe’ without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

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This make m e wonder if Anniston Council Member Ben Little actually has found something that give The creek Nation claims to a good portion of what is now Jacksonville, Alabama; if not part of McClellan…

NOTE: Links were made made ‘active’ by me.

– Cathy Ann Abernathy

Lost Crusaders' Tunnels Found Near Palace on Malta

James Owen

for National Geographic News

March 25, 2009

For centuries it's been said that the crusading Knights of Malta constructed an underground city on the Mediterranean island of Malta, sparking rumors of secret carriageways and military labyrinths.

Now a tunnel network has been uncovered beneath the historic heart of the Maltese capital of Valletta, researchers say. But the tunnels—likely from an ahead-of-its-time water system—may render previous theories all wet.

The newfound tunnels are said to date back to the 16th and early 17th centuries, when the knights—one of the major Christian military orders of the 11th- to 13th-century Crusades—fortified Valletta against Muslim attack.

The tunnels were uncovered on February 24 during an archaeological survey of the city's Palace Square in advance of an underground-garage project.

“A lot of people say there are passages and a whole new city underground,” said survey leader Claude Borg of the Valletta Rehabilitation Project. “But where are these underground tunnels? Do they exist?

“We've now found some of them, at least.”

via Lost Crusaders’ Tunnels Found Near Palace on Malta.

ABBEVILLE — No one knows how many people have lived in the three one-room servant cabins sheltered behind the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House, but historians recognize the need to preserve the unusual 150-year-old buildings that dozens might have called home.

Often called The General’s House, the McGowan-Barksdale-Bundy House is unusual itself.

Located on North Main Street, the mansion features its own tower, a turret, multi-faceted roofs and windows in different sizes and shapes.

The building’s nickname follows its two most prominent owners, both generals: Confederate Gen. Samuel McGowan, who bought the property in 1865, and WWII Gen. W.E. Barksdale, the last owner to live in the home.

In its heyday, a time of carriages and wealth, multiple buildings would have stood behind the main home, including a kitchen building, stable, chicken coop and slave or servant quarters. Of all the adjoining buildings, only three remain: the raised one-room cabins built for the household servants.

via Index Journal | Greenwood, SC | News.

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Local Abbeville, South Carolina histrical site news.

– CAA