Major local events, disasters, celebrations, turning points.
Original 1876 land lottery ticket from the founding of St. Florian, Alabama. Saint Florian was established in the 1870’s when the Homestead Society of Cincinnati, Ohio strived to develop a Catholic presence in northwest Alabama. Reverend J.H. Hueser, director of…
Gravelly Springs, Alabama near Waterloo is the spot where the largest cavalry force in the Western Hemisphere was ever assembled! Major General James Harrison Wilson brought together 22,000 people and camped between this spot and Waterloo during the spring of…
Originally printed in the Florence Gazette, Feb 19, 1853. Reprinted here without edits or commentary. Something over three years ago, a young man, apparently about 25 or 30 years of age, stopped at Bainbridge, a noted landing, situated at the foot of…
Florence Ice & Coal Company opened in early 1903 and was located on Aetna Street in East Florence near Sweetwater Creek and Huntsville Road. In 1922, an unusual thing happened: their night watchman was stolen! Let me break the story…
R.W. Drane, a prominent local merchant and the proprietor of a cigar store and pool room, and Mr. George (Will) Young, a prominent furniture merchant, were thrust into a harrowing drama that played out in downtown Florence on East Tennessee…