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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 34
Mitchell's wife's name was Lena. She dressed very neatly. Mitchell wore suits; they were not expensive ones. He had an old Model T Ford he kept running. “He always had a deep smile” and Lena was always at his side.
Lewis Powell, pastor at Blackburn's Chapel and Old Grove on Slaughter Road preached occasionally at Union Hill. Reverend Jones and Albert Robinson described Powell as being a “very bright [light-skinned] man, and when he got to preaching real hard, he'd turn real red.” Cy Fletcher also preached at Union Hill once in a while.
When asked about names of members of the congregation of Union Hill Presbyterian Church, Reverend Jones and Mr. Robinson said, “That's been a long time.” The names that came to their mind that day were:
John Fogg
Jim and Zumma (Zummer) Holding and son Thornton
Wyatt Hyder and his wife
Pansey Lee Jefferson
Albert Robinson and wife Octavia
McKinley Jones, Sr. and wife Mary Lou
McKinley Jones, Jr.
Ada Toney
Alla Lee Glisper
Ollie Mae Willie
Bill Rice and wife Viola
Lena Jeffries
[In 2005, Polly White Isaacs told the researcher that she attended “Union Hill Church school and identified herself as a member of the church. She lived by Indian Creek and also described having to walk over a “foot log” to get there.]
Jones and Robinson commented that people played ball behind the church. A man from Pond Beat with whom the researcher talked later in time recalled being invited to picnics that were sometimes held at Union Hill Church and that he would go there from Mullins Flat. What he remembered most about the picnics was eating so much homemade ice cream. [Note: This study has found that the churches were places where community activities were held.]
Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church School/Union Hill School
The existence of a “Union Hill School” building on the arsenal has been asserted by Julie Coco, a current researcher (Alexander et al. 2005). It is Coco's contention that the Union Hill School was not synonymous with the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This is not consistent with this researcher's (Curry's) findings. The issue is presented at length below because the former residents of the community state their church/school is being incorrectly depicted.
Coco has provided three pieces of evidence: (1) a photograph held in the Madison County Library, (2) a USGS topographic map dated in the 1930's that has “Union Hill School” labeled on the location, and (3) school records held by the library that indicate they were sent from “Union Hill School” at the time land was taken by the Government.
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