Alexander City

Alexander City
128 Pages
ISBN 13 978-0-7385-8804-9

In pictures and captions, Walls and co-author Laura Dykes Oliver trace the beginning of the cotton mill industry in Alexander City through the last years of the twentieth century, when the Russell Mfc. and Avondale Mills were downsizing and closing their operations. The story of Alexander City is repeated many times in other small, southern towns, where mills sustained the economy and supported local institutions of schools, hospitals and churches.

Peggy Jackson Walls

About Peggy Jackson Walls (Auburn, Alabama Author)

Peggy Jackson Walls

Peggy Jackson Walls is a local author, whose recently published book Alabama Gold, a history of the South's Last Motherlode remains a best seller in state and regional history, in mining and prospecting. In Alabama Gold, Walls sketches the period of time when the Old Southwest was an exciting frontier with all of the features of the wild west that was to follow. The first major gold discoveries in America took place in the Southern Piedmont states of North Carolina and Georgia. Gold discovery in 1830 in Old Autauga County was followed by two gold rushes, the first, at Arbacoochee in Cleburne County, 1835 and the second, at Goldville in Tallapoosa County. With the discovery of gold in California (1848), followed by the Gold Rush of 1849, Alabama gold diggers pulled up stakes and headed west, where they were experts in gold mining.
Peggy is the co-author of Alexander City, the pictorial history of a small, mill town. The story of Alexander City is repeated many times in other small, southern towns, where mills sustained the economy and supported local institutions of schools, hospitals and churches. Walls's research has been published in history journals, such as the Alabama Review, "Gold Mining at Hog Mountain in the 1930's" and in history books such as Alabama, The History of a Deep South State. In writing Alabama Gold, she interviewed miners and community members of mining communities in addition to researching the work of geologists, engineers and historians. In completing a documentary on Alexander City, she interviewed business owners and private citizens about the history of Alexander City, from pioneer days through mid-1990's. Ms. Walls is available for lectures and book signings. More information can be found on the following websites and Facebook pages: The history of old Alexander City; Alabama Gold; and website, http://alabamagoldyes.com/

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