Southside: Eufaula's Cotton Mill Village and its People, 1890-1945

by David E Alsobrook

Overview

SOUTHSIDE relates the stories of the cotton mill workers and their families who lived and worked in Eufaula, Alabama, a small town on the Chattahoochee River, from the 1890s through 1945. Utilizing previously unpublished family records, oral histories, and other primary sources, author David Alsobrook relates the stories of the lives of these ordinary mill families-their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies. Readers will discover that many Southsiders closely resemble their own families. The Cowikee Mill Community House, established in 1918, provided a variety of recreational and educational programs for Southsiders-bands, baseball teams, a kindergarten, Scout troops, and social clubs. The Community House and the two "mission" churches became the centers of social life in Southside. After the 1920s on, the popularity of Community House programs throughout Eufaula expedited the eradication of the barriers of caste and class between textile families and other residents. The book also provides an in-depth historical examination of Eufaula's race relations, racial violence, and the impact of the Civil War and the Myth of the Lost Cause on the town's future evolution. Readers who are interested in the Great Depression and World War II will find much detail about these eras, how they dramatically altered the lives of everyone in this small town, and abolished the antiquated system of ostracism of mill families. Many of the photographs that appear in Southside are from personal family collections and have never been seen previously. Alsobrook's chapter on legendary mill owner Donald Comer presents a fresh assessment of this remarkably enlightened corporate executive and his own particular brand of paternalism, which differed significantly from the philosophy of many of his contemporaries in the Southern textile industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780881466089
Publisher:	Mercer University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2021
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

David Ernest Alsobrook was born in Eufaula, Alabama, and grew up in Mobile. He completed his formal education at Auburn University (PhD) and West Virginia University (MA). His primary historical research interests are Southern politics, social life, and race relations. Alsobrook served as an archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, supervisory archivist at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, and as the first director of the George H.W. Bush, and William J. Clinton Presidential Libraries. He currently lives in Mobile, Alabama.

Table of Contents

Author's Note: "Miss Oma" ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Prologue: "The Man with His Backside to Southside" 1

1 Confluence: History, Myth, and Memory in Eufaula 17

2 "Phoenix" Rising on the Chattahoochee: Eufaula's Rebirth as a Cotton Mill Town 47

3 Like Threads in a Skein: Southside's Families and Friends 67

4 "Mr. Donald" and His Mill Workers 95

5 Bands, Kindergarten, and Baseball: The Creation and Evolution of Eufaula's Cowikee Community House 118

6 The Walls Come Down: The Great Depression and World War II 152

Epilogue: Images of Southside 192

Bibliography 197

Index 209