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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 309
put them in the garage. In 1929 the boll weevil came, and the price fell out. Huntsville was a big mill town, so a lot of people went to town and got a job, but the mills didn't pay anything. Elmer Paris was one of the first to lose his job when the mill shut down. “Just let me move in the house, eat roasting ears, and pick peas, and I'll work for nothing,” he said to my Daddy. “No, I'll pay you,” Daddy said. He and his wife would be paid. Outsiders came in and started to form a union. They ran every mill out of Huntsville but one, Merrimack Mills. It later became Huntsville Manufacturing. Labor got too high. The union got their way, and people lost their jobs; there was violence, strikes. The Veterinary James Long said, “The vet, Dr. Steele, would come out to grind the mules teeth so they could eat better. The older they got [the mules], the longer their teeth, and they couldn't bite good.” Hired Help James Long said when it came time to pick the cotton, Robert Long would send someone to the mill village to get people to pick. They were paid so much a hundred pounds. They were taken back home at night. People who worked for Sam Harris, Sr. would be furnished so much to make a crop on. When they weren't making a crop during the winter, Harris would pay for work they did during the day. Ferry Landing James Long stated: “A ferry landing was at Whitesburg Bridge. Old man Holt ran a ferry on this boat there.” Lehman's Ferry was on the river to the east of the Schiffman & Company property. Long recalled going there to get fertilizer: The fertilizer came in on the barge in 200 pound sacks. People had to be there to pick it up. Rousters marched around and came out to where the wagons were, with bags on their shoulders, singing a song. From Charlotte and Nashville you'd get lime and most agricultural products. When the researcher questioned, Long said the rousters were Black people and White people as well. 309 - (4342)