Way Back Wednesday in Calhoun County---June 6-12
Calhoun County has always supported the military and many of the early families were descended from Revolutionary War soldiers. Most of the early settlers had made their way to Calhoun County from the Carolinas via Georgia. The area around Alexandria and Ohatchee near the Coosa River was home to some of these pioneer families. Peaceburg, the large town, was established with other smaller communities including Shady Glen and Morrisville developed around the town.
Two brothers, John E. and James Blackwell Peace, from Granville, NC settled in the area due west of modern-day Anniston during the late 1840s. Their nephew Samuel T. Peace, a school teacher, followed in the late 1850s. By 1860, S. T. Peace was living next door to the Mynott (Minott) family from Knox County, TN. Samuel married the Mynott’s daughter, Susan, and continued to live in Alexandria area until around 1900 when he moved his family to East Lake in Jefferson County. By 1910 the family returned to Sylacauga to retire. He passed away in 1920 and was buried in Sylacauga but his name was attached to the Calhoun County town where he taught.
One of the small communities near Peaceburg was Shady Glen. Shady Glen had a mill, school, Baptist church, and numerous farms. The farmers in the area produced hogs, hominy, corn, peas, and cotton. During World War I, this community had worked their farms diligently to produce food for the war effort. The Shady Glen community was so concerned about war product that other traditional crops were not planted during the war years. The Shady Glen Lumber Mill was operated by Lewis Downing, a well-known county commission, and his family. Several generations of the Morris family had arrived in the county in by the 1840s and lent their name to the area.
To the west of Peaceburg, along Cane Creek, was the community of Morrisville. Several generations of the Morris family had arrived in the county in by the 1840s and lent their name to the area. Around the time of World War I, Judge J. J. Willett, chairman of the First National Bank, set up a recreation area known as Camp Willett. The recreation area included Lake Willett. The site hosted boy scout camps even after the military took over the area for maneuvers.
Most of Europe had been engaged in the Second World War starting in 1939 but the U.S. had remained neutral. Even though the U.S. was neutral, the military had ramped up preparation for what seemed like her inevitable entry into the war. The 27th Infantry Division of the New York National Guard was activated in October 1940 and sent to Fort McClellan to train. By early November, it was apparent that the training facilities were not adequate to train a fighting force preparing for overseas deployment. In the past, Anniston officials had not been able to secure additional land for the military post because many of the land owners were unwilling to sell their properties. The military made it clear it would be forced to close the military post without additional training areas. If the post closed it would be a blow to the Calhoun County economy which depended on the post.
In 1941, the U.S. War Department authorized over $600,000 for the acquisition of additional land in Calhoun County to use for training soldiers. The area chosen was a 16-mile hike to the west from the main military post. The 22,000-acre tract of land encompassed Morrisville, Peaceburg, and other communities to the west of Alexandria. The families who lived in the communities for generations were now uprooted by imminent domain. The military relocated over 200 families from the town of Peaceburg in addition to the farmers along the Cane Creek. Originally known as the Morrisville Maneuvering Area, the training site was later renamed Pelham Range, after the Pelham family whose farm was just across the highway from Gate 3.
The 27th Division used Morrisville Maneuvering Area for training with artillery, tank, and heavy mortar firing as well as an encampment. After the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the 27th Division was deployed to fight in the Pacific Theater. The following year Fort McClellan became the Branch Immaterial Training Center. By 1943, the mission of the post was to train Infantry replacements. The maneuvers area allowed the space to train for urban combat, live-fire artillery, and foxhole training with tanks which these soldiers would face in the European Theater.
The Pelham Range area trained combat soldiers for not only World War II but also Korea and Vietnam. The large forested areas of the range provided training areas that simulated the topography the soldiers would face in combat. When Fort McClellan closed in 1999, Pelham Range was transferred to the Alabama National Guard as a training site. The National Guard maintains the communities’ cemeteries and during Memorial Day weekend each year open the range for families to decorate the graves.
To learn more about the history of Calhoun County pick up a copy of Images of America: Calhoun County (ISBN 978-0738589985), Anniston (ISBN 978-0738506012), or Anniston Revisited (ISBN 978-1467114752) by Kimberly O’Dell.
This blog post is ©2018 by Kimberly O’Dell and may not be reprinted (in part or in whole) without written permission and approval of the author Kimberly O’Dell.
