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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 305
Cemetery. James Long did not know the name of the church or of the cemetery. In regard to the church, he knew only that “Black people went there.” Parcel F-289 borders the Bount and Fitcheard property to the south. At the time the Government took over the land, this was another parcel owned by the I. Schiffman & Company. According to James Long, this property had been taken over by the company during the Depression. [It has become apparent that Schiffman & Company, Inc. acquired a large amount of land during that period.] Schiffman & Company, Inc. probably once owned the land all the way to the river. The Woodwards, the Penlands, the Harris family, and everyone else who owned property along the river lost it in a mandated sale to the TVA in 1935. Since Robert Long was Schiffman & Company, Inc.'s land manager, he and his family lived in a large house on this parcel. James Long estimated about 29 sharecropper families also lived on the parcel. The House Where the Robert Long Family Lived (Parcel F-262) James Long said: If you were at the front door of our house, looking north, you could see a cemetery on a little hill. We were about 500 feet from the cemetery. We called it Owen Cemetery. There was a house between us and the cemetery. Will Rice lived in it. Then James King. He had the same kind of house as Will Rice. It was a plank house, and there was a smoke house and barn. Will had his own stock, smoke house, and barn. The house [the Longs lived in] had two stories and was built in 1855 by W. F. Owen, who owned it then. There was an engraving in a piece of glass that was up over the front door. Engraved in it was “W.F. Owen 1855.” His daughter married Darwin after Owen died, and moved in the house. Darwin didn't know anything about agriculture. He put in pear trees, peach trees, apples, and plums. He had a cannery down there. Daddy saw it and knowed it. Most of the cans were about a half-gallon. He went to Shipman and Goldsmith to pay off a debt. When the Depression came, in about 1930, they took over the land. They destroyed all the trees and put cotton in James described the house they lived in as he remembers it: The house had a big basement under it. It was a Colonial type house with round columns out front. The roof was tin. 305 - (4338)