Greenville celebrates Alabama
BRANUM BRANUM/THE GREENVILLE STANDARD
On Friday March 3, Greenville residents and officials met to celebrate the Bi-Centennial of Alabama officially becoming a territory.
The event was hosted by the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Director Francine Wasden put together a balloon release in honor of the historical moment and said, “Throughout the next three years we will celebrate this great milestone and other historical moments in Alabama’s great history.”
Wasden invited Walter Palmer, a 1956 graduate of Greenville High School, to speak at the balloon release. Palmer served as a captain in U.S. Army and remains active in Veterans’ groups and is a former Commander of American Legion Post 24. He currently serves as District Commander of American Legion District 34.
Palmer is also a member of Greenville’s First United Methodist Church, and a descendant of some of Butler County’s earliest settlers. His family name is well-known locally by the names of the “W. O. Parmer School” and “W. O. Parmer Scholarship.”
Parmer said, “200 years ago our pioneer ancestors began to move into what it now Butler County.” He went to on to speak of the settlement of early Butler County by inhabitants from Georgia and South Carolina who used the Old Federal Road and noticed the virgin forests and potential crop lands. Many of those early pioneers had fought in the war of 1812 and used the Federal Road to travel.
