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Farming For A Better Future, page 370
children brought lunch from home or occasionally bought sweets from the Holding's Store next door. The Lodge meetings were held upstairs once a month and were attended only by men. Reverend Jones and other former residents remember the lodge being referred to as “Sisters and Brothers of Arnold.” There is also the grave marker for Jim Holding in the nearby Inman Cemetery that is inscribed with the Supreme Royal Circle of the Friends of the World, another fraternal society. According to Reverend Jones, the congregation of the church split after 1941. Some went just north to the town of Madison, and others went to Huntsville and established the current Union Hill church in 1947. Some archaeological work has been conducted on the former church and school. 70 ■ Wiggins Plantation* and Slave Cemetery James Wiggins of North Carolina established a plantation near the town of Madison prior to 1818. The original Wiggins Plantation was south of Martin Road and east of Wall-Triana Highway. Wiggins eventually owned over 1,200 acres before he passed away in 1831. Historian John P. Rankin described the former plantation lands as having several cemeteries. One cemetery has “no tombstones, but many grave depressions are quite evident. It may well be a cemetery used for slave burials during the plantation days. It is likewise known that there was another cemetery, known as the Wiggins Slave Cemetery, just east of Wall-Triana Highway and immediately south of Pentastar Drive. There [is] a Veterans Administration stone marks the grave of Corporal William Ward of the 15th U. S. Colored Troops.” 711 William Hooper Councill High School* The William Councill High School was located just south of downtown Huntsville next door to the current Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. The school began as the Councill School in 1893. Named for the founder and first president of Alabama A&M University, the school was dedicated to “developing in its students a sense of pride, school spirit, and aspiration for excellence” that would last well after the school closed its doors. (Above) Photograph of W. H. Councill High School, Circa 2000 (Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage Nomination (Right) Photograph of W. H. Councill High School, Date Unknown (Huntsville Revisited Facebook Page) The Councill School served grades 1 through 8 for its first years. Beginning in 1912, a year of high school was added each year until the school served children of all ages. The high school's first graduate was Ms. Minnie Scruggs in 1915. When integration of the school system took place, enrollment in the Councill School declined, and the number of grades served were reduced. The most recent building was built in 1927 and was expanded in the 1950s. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the school built a gymnasium, dining room, kitchen, library, and additional classrooms. It was closed in 1970 as part of the urban renewal redevelopment of downtown Huntsville. The school was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 2000. For years, the building served as the Madison County Probate Archives. Despite some jMjrVLl effort by alumni * IIHRm to preserve the building, it was * demolished in early 2019. 4 HOBl * Indicates a Historical - Non-Extant Resource - (4898)