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Farming For A Better Future, page 342
for a total of approximately 720 acres. Between 1815 and 1843, East collected six land patents within the Rainbow (Rainbolt) Mountain area.
William East appears on both the 1830 and 1840 census. In 1830, his household included six white members, presumably himself and his immediate family, and 10 slaves. By 1840, there were 10 white members of the East household and only one female slave.
According to William East's last will and testament, he owned about 618 acres of land and 18 slaves. Two slaves, Banister and Harriott, were bequeathed to East's daughter, Susanna W. East; another two slaves, George and Matilda, were bequeathed to his son, Yancy Thomas East.
(Below) Photograph of Elko Switch Cemetery
Memorial Marker by John P. Rankin, 2005
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Elko* and Elko Switch Cemetery
The history of the Elko Switch cemetery is not well understood. While performing construction on Rideout Road in 1965, the Alabama Highway Department inadvertently discovered several unmarked graves. In 1987, plans were made to redesign the interchange with I-565, which included a study of the cemetery. The subsequent archaeological report named the cemetery after the nearby switch for the Southern Railway, located near the community of Elko.
Upon further research, there was no written record of the cemetery. None of the elderly residents of the area who were interviewed recalled any knowledge of this particular cemetery. Overall, 56 graves were excavated, and the remains were studied. Dr. Kenneth Turner, an osteologist from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama concluded that:
“The Elko Switch Cemetery appears to be that of black freedmen and their descendants who earned their livelihood as tenant farmers and who lived a life not greatly improved from the days of slavery. The very real possibility of slave interments in the cemetery also exists with the expected socioeconomic structure evident. At any rate, these were poor black farmers in a rural setting enduring many hardships and encountering many obstacles.”
171
Farley School*
Located east of Pond Beat and north of Whitesburg, the community of Farley had two schools: the Farley School for white children and the Farley School for children of color. On the 1936 USGS/TVA topographic map, the school for children
(Above) Photograph of the Farley School “for Negro Children,” Date Unknown (Huntsville Revisited Facebook Page)
of color is located on the southeast corner of Green Cove Road and today's Memorial Parkway.
Cleophus Lacy, former resident of Pond Beat (interviewed in 2005), stated that he first attended Horton School, but once they moved off the Arsenal land, he then attended the Farley School. According to Lacy, the school was white-framed with two large rooms and served children from 1st to 8th grades with two teachers. Although the two Farley schools were across the intersection from each other, the white children were taken to and from school via a bus and the children of color had to walk about five miles to Pond Beat.
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Farmer's Capital School (Rosenwald)*
Farmer's Capital School or, simply, Farmer's School was one of nine Rosenwald Schools in Madison County. This one-teacher schoolhouse, approved in 1927, cost $1,650 to build. Most of the funds ($900) came from the local African American
community. Another $450 of public funds were used; the Rosenwald Fund provided $200; and the local white community gave $100. The school was insured for $1,160.
The two acres were donated by Garth and Bertha Humphrey, African American landowners in Sulphur Springs. Garth Humphrey and his neighbors, many of
(Below) Madison County Land Records
for Farmer's Capital School and Garth
& Eddie B. Humphrey, 1933-1944
(Index of Land Records, Madison
County, Alabama)
Indicates a Historical, Non-Extant Resource - (4870)