Dr. Marty Olliff's monthly column focuses on the evolution of the railroad industry in the Wiregrass.
A resident of Headland, Alabama, from his birth in 1915 until his death in 1988, Thomas W. (Tom) Solomon had a love affair with railroads. He worked as a draftsman for the Atlantic Coast Line then with the Florida East Coast Railroad, but his real passion was photographing and painting railroad machinery and other scenes…
Dr. Marty Olliff's monthly column turns its attention to Alabama's upcoming bicentennial and how current residents can preserve their history.
Alabama will celebrate the bicentennial of its admission to the Union on Dec. 14, 2019. Such anniversary celebrations often lead to an uptick in interest in history.
This happened at the national level in 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with many states funding historians to travel to colonial archives to copy…
Dr. Marty Olliff's monthly series continues with a look at a thriving industry in the Wiregrass in the early 20th century.
Although the Wiregrass is known for commercial-scale peanut and cotton agriculture, those were late comers to the region’s economic life. Hunting and bottom-land gardening fed the original Native American inhabitants, and white settlers merely added droving of rangy cattle and hogs to the mix.
Eventually, naval stores and small-scale logging supplemented the new inhabitants’ incomes,…
Dr. Marty Olliff continues his series by spotlighting an American Independence Day celebration by troops in World War I-era France.
One hundred years ago, American doughboys were on the Western Front in World War I. From April 6, 1917, until the Senate passed a resolution formally ending hostilities in 1921, the U.S. was officially at war with Germany. U.S. troops, however, were only in France in significant numbers from the Spring of 1918 until Fall…
