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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 164
which flows from east-to-west across the arsenal. Mullins Flat was to the north and Pond Beat extended southward to the Tennessee River. Church. Early's grandfather, James Lacy, was prominent in his community. He donated the land and materials for Cedar Grove Church, which originally stood on Cedar Grove Mountain, the hill just beyond the entrance to Test Area 2 off Patton Road. (It moved to E-235b.) Gin and Sorghum Mill. James Lacy operated a horse-drawn gin and sorghum mill “on the site where the Test Area 2 buildings are now” (as of July 1987). Henry Lacy, Early's father, lost his left hand in an accident at the gin when he was 12 years old. Henry was driving the team of six horses. Early remembers being told that his father “had to stop to clean the saws out because the cotton was wet and the horses started back up while he still had his hand in there.” The First in Pond Beat to Own a Tractor. Early thought that Frank Jacobs was the first one in Pond Beat to own a tractor. He said Frank Jacobs was well to do, and of sterling character: “Frank Jacobs did a lot to help poor people. He was a strong fellow... a good fellow who believed in helping everybody??"and he got beat aplenty.” The People and the Community. Frank Jacobs and Addie Jacobs had sharecroppers. So did the Hortons and the Barleys (D-173). The extensive land ownership of Frank Jacobs and Yancy, Sr. has been discussed in the Horton and Jacobs sections of this manuscript. Early said: Yancy Horton, money-wise, was the biggest man in Pond Beat, especially among the Colored but among most of the Whites, too. ‘T' (Everett T.) Horton was the big man in Mullins Flat. Early Lacy believed the large number of Black people in the area, particularly Black landowners, was a significant factor in the government's choice of the area for the location of a chemical manufacturing arsenal. The interviews conducted by the researcher in 2005 indicate this is a common belief. Most of the people interviewed were from Mullins Flat and Pond Beat. It was ascertained that the population of these areas was probably almost 95% Black, and Black land ownership was also predominant. It was speculated (based on limited interviewing of Elko and Hickory Grove community residents) that the proportion of White ownership was higher in the northern part of the arsenal; however, most of the White owners did not live on their land. Since Early generally was discussing the communities and people located in the southern half of the arsenal, a question arises as to whether he was referring to the entire area encompassed by RSA, or the communities south of Martin Road when he said 90 percent of the population and 75 percent of the land owners were Black. He stated: “You could might-near count the White landowners like this [finishing his sentence by displaying a hand]” then adding “and some of the Whites had come into possession by Black dispossession” [when mortgages were foreclosed] (p. 11). 164 - (4197)