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Farming For A Better Future, page 437
Another farmer in this area is Robert Murphy, a former slave who stayed with his master through the Civil War and was granted land. He and his wife Harriett are enumerated on the census from 19001920 as farming landowners of Trinity.
The 1930s and 1940s appear to have been difficult for farmers in the area in general and particularly the African American farming community. The Great Depression, TVA land acquisition, and WWII most likely impacted the community negatively, leading to the drop in African American households from the 1920s.
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Union School*
The Union School is indicated on the 1936 topographic map, west of Valhermoso Springs, in the vicinity of the old Breeding Plantation. The land surrounding the school was owned by African Americans in the 1920s. Two nearby owners were Clifton Draper and Amos Russell, both were farmers who owned a significant amount of land around Somerville and were both named on at least one list of outstanding African American citizens of Morgan County during the Scottsboro Boys trail. Seeing as the community was often pivotal in the creation and
437 - MORGAN
(Above) Morgan County Land Book, 1920-1928, Township 6 South, Range 2 West, Section 23 (Morgan County Archives, Decatur, Alabama) (Below) 1936 USGS/TVA Topographic Map, Triana Quadrangle
maintenance of African American schools, particularly in the rural portions of the county, it is likely that these local landowners had a hand in creating, building, and supplying the schoolhouse.
(Above) 1912 Plat Map of Trinity (Morgan County Archives, Decatur, Alabama) (Far Left) 1924-1927 Plat Map of Trinity from Morgan County Lot Book (Part I) (Morgan County Archives, Decatur, Alabama) (Left) 1924-1927 Plat Maps of Trinity from Morgan County Lot Book (Part II) (Morgan County Archives, Decatur, Alabama) - (4965)