BAILEY SPEAKS TO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BY MOLLIE S. WATERS

The Greenville Standard

 

The Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society (BCHGS) held its quarterly meeting on Sunday at the Greenville-Butler County Public Library.

The speaker for the meeting was Tom Bailey, author of “The Five Capitals of Alabama: The Story of Alabama’s Capital Cities from St. Stephens to Montgomery.”

The meeting was well attended.

“We were pleased,” said Barbara Middleton, who is the president of the BCHGS. “We had a very good turnout, and Mr. Bailey did a wonderful job with his program.”

Bailey spoke about the significance of each Alabama capital, why the location was moved several times before Montgomery was selected in 1846, and the people who lived in those places.

Following the program, which was made possible by an Alabama Humanities Recovery Grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Bailey had autographed copies of his book for purchase.

For anyone who was unable to attend the program, but may be interested in getting a copy of Bailey’s book, the BCHGS has a limited supply available. They are $20 each and they can be purchased in the BCHGS room at the library on Tuesdays.

Also announced during the program, Louise Ayer Stabler will be speaking about the Stabler family’s involvement in Butler County at the next meeting, which will be held on April 24.

Plus, Walter Parmer, program director for the BCHGS, announced that Greenville will host a tour of homes on Oct. 15.

There are six homes on the tour and Parmer noted all owners were enthusiastic their homes would be featured in the tour.

He mentioned his hopes that the tour would grow, and in the future be as big as the Wilcox Historic Tour of Homes which had over 1,400 people attend last year.

Parmer also mentioned that the City of Greenville and the Greenville Area of Chamber of Commerce will have a celebratory event honoring Greenville’s Bicentennial on that date.