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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 35
While Coco's conclusion based on these three pieces of evidence is understandable, this researcher makes the following assertions:
• The photograph is incorrectly labeled.
• The label on the topographic map indicates the location of the structure where the school was held and thus labeled Union Hill School because school was held in the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
• School records on file in the library that are shown to have been sent from “Union Hill School” at the time the arsenal closed were sent by the teachers who held school in the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and thus the name “Union Hill School.”
In the Madison County Library Heritage Room, a photograph is held which is labeled on the back, “Union Hill School” in the photographer's handwriting, and “on the arsenal” in a different handwriting. Long-time library employee Renee' Pruitt recognized the handwriting of the added words, “on the arsenal,” to be that of historian James Record, who wrote on the photograph after it was held by the library. The name “Union Hill” was a place name in other areas of Huntsville/North Alabama. It is asserted here that Mr. Record was in error when he wrote “on the arsenal” on the photograph. This assertion is based on the statements given by those who attended the school and the church.
• McKinley Jones and Albert Robinson went to school held in the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Polly White Isaacs (born 1913) also said she went to school in the church. It is common knowledge among the older people that school was held in the church, and there was no other school in that area for Black children, and the White children had no school in the area.
• The USGS 7.5' Madison quadrangle map of 1936 places the Union Hill School and the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the same location.
• Since the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church was the only place in that area where school was being held at the time the Government took over the land, then any school records would have come from the teachers who had classes in the church building.
• The name “Union Hill School” can reasonably be an abbreviated name for the school held at the Union Hill Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
• Given the evidence that only one “school” was present in that area, and it was “held” in the church, then the photograph held by the library is incorrectly labeled. The structure in the photograph is not the structure indicated on the church site by either archaeological evidence (obvious above ground feature??"a foundation) or by description of former school students.
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