Photo courtesy of Tony Nivens
Chelsea Historical Society Board Members (clockwise from back left) Cody Sumners, city council liason; Gus Speary; Tony Nivens, Jenny Barlet and Shireen Coleman.
Genealogists, history lovers, church preservationists and residents turned out for the second installment in the "A Walking Tour Through Chelsea History" tour on Sept. 24. The tours, sponsored by the Chelsea AL Historical Society, continued on a hot Sunday afternoon at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church and Cemetery. Society historian, Jenny Bartlett, unfolded the personal stories behind the community’s earliest settlers in the surrounding areas of Mt. Calvary, Lester’s Chapel, East Saginaw and Mountain Chapel.
At the recent event that started inside the 161-year-old church, costumed actors staged a reproduction of fire and brimstone preaching and the singing of hymns popular in the mid-1850s. Several locals, direct descendants of the area’s early settlers, shared their photographs, records, and stories. The walking tour through the adjoining cemetery included more background stories from the founding families such as the Farrell, Mooney, Minor, Moore, Seale and Kendrick families.
According to genealogist Carolyn Rasbury, a board member of the group, ”Researching one’s ancestry is like solving the quintessential question, ‘Where did I come from?’”
Local novelist and historian, Gladys Hodge Sherrer added, “...at the quaint Mt. Calvary on Highway 74 in Chelsea, Jenny Bartlett, Tony Nivens and others shared true stories of the hardships, struggles, miracles and faith of these people (the area early settlers). I left with a sense of bonding, a spiritual kinship with these original Chelseanians, and felt that we truly honored our forefathers.”
The Chelsea Historical Society, founded this spring after the historic Weldon Store in the middle of town was removed, seeks to enhance, protect and share Chelsea history. The Walking Tour of Chelsea History series will continue to highlight the communities that fed into Chelsea history to help make it what it is today. For more information, contact Jenny Bartlett at ChelseaAlHistoricalSociety@gmail.com.
-Submitted by Tony Nivens
