Chuck Lett describes what remains of Brownville, which is located a little north west of Northport and accessible from highways 82 and 171. Now a ghost of its former self, Brownville was once a rather sizeable company town. Currently, only three of more than 40 modest wood frame dwellings that provided homes for some 250 people are inhabited.
A group school picture from Brownville
The Boys of Woodcraft group in Brownville.
Brownville began in 1925, when W. P. Brown started a wood preserving plant in what was then Red Valley. With the building of the plant, which has produced millions of creosote utility poles, the community began to grow and grow and grow. It became a boom town in the late 1920's and the company built white and colored schools and community buildings and helped operate them for the Brownville residents and their children.
Sipsey logs from the swamp in Brownville.
Reporter Robert DeWitt describes nostalgic memories of its early inhabitants:
It didn't take a holiday to bring the community together. Woodmen of the World, a fraternal organization, had fish fries and invited the community. Baseball went on all summer long. And folks would gather just to jaw. But it was the children who kept the busiest social calendar.
Sue Miller remembers candy-making parties, "tacky" parties (where kids wore their worst clothes), weenie roasts, cake walks and games of spin the bottle.
Courting couples could go to the movies on Saturday night in the community building. Afterwards, they walked the quiet streets.
Not everybody had a radio. Those who did shared with their neighbors. As daylight faded on Saturdays, people gathered on their porches and radios tuned to the Grand Ole Opry.
Aubrey Lake describes the process involved in creating and shipping the special wood poles and fence pieces in Brownville around 1961. By 1965, reporter Delbert Reed found the town diminished:
The town was much larger then, than it is today, since modern machinery has reduced the number of workers at the plant, which still operates at least two shifts per day, five days per week, with 100 employees.
Within a few years of the Brown business' end, loblolly pine trees, Japanese honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, Kudzu (of course), and a small army of weeds and grasses promptly moved in. They have claimed all the remaining deserted houses.
A 53-inch annual rainfall, average for the area, aids in the slow natural decay of Brownville. Soon nothing will remain of a once-thriving town except for the three occupied houses. There is, of course, the busy lumber treatment plant off to the side, an unconcerned witness, going about its business under new ownership.
While Brownville lived, its community life reflected the fortunes of the Brown Wood Preserving Plant. Its pressure treated poles and lumber were used throughout the country for utility lines, barn construction and fence posts.
Today the plant employs only a fraction of the labor force it once required. All but four of the employees commute. Even so, production is actually up, officials say, due to new methods.
These new methods, however, triggered the death of the town. In 1923 J. Graham Brown, an entrepreneur from Kentucky , and his brother bought several thousand acres of timberland and built a preserving plant on the site. The remote location meant that housing had to be provided to accommodate employees and their families. More than forty modest frame residences were constructed along dirt roads laid out in the wooded area near the Brown's plant. For the use of these homes, families paid $1 per room each month.
Built in the mid to late 20s, the homes were without indoor plumbing. But they housed a largely contented and productive population.
The Browns, who owned extensive timber interests in several southern states, established a railroad, which they playfully named using the initials of the brother's first names: the M and G line. It served a steam skidder and log train connecting Brownville and Buhl, some twelve miles away.
In 2008 the Brown Wood Preserving Company, Inc. invested in a significant expansion at the Kennedy, AL CCA treating plant. Contiguous property was acquired and the Brownville treating plant was shut down and consolidated into the new facility. Today the company is being lead by Mr. Stanley’s son David S. Stanley and has the most modern and efficient plant facilities available. They still specialize in treated wood poles.
The Rainer-Lewis home in Union Springs, Alabama. Built in 1904.
