The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-03

Youngville later named Alexander City' | situated in the center of district un, surpassed in Alabama for It's mineral an1 agricultural resources, wherein nus, 0t late years, been evidenced great spirit of commercialism and advancement grew into a town of prosperity; SylacauBa anu Wetumpka, old Alabama business towns;
 Dadeville, the seat of Taliapoosa Coun.y' Camp Hill and Opelika, further away grew and the stalwart village Of Nixnurs, known to the warhorses of ancient times as one of the trading and exchange mar
 kets of the eos. fiourished. As this dem onstration of progress was made through- out Alabama. the Fish Pond festival be- came more of an annual event.
 The first Sunday in May began to mean
 more to the people Of that secuon,, p1bn tha | countrys Father or the celebration or the Declaration of Independence.
 Engaged in the occupation his mercan- | tile business afforded him, which he pur- sued for nearly thirty years after the l war between the States, Professor Holio-
 way taught until recent years classes m | music and singing. | During the first months of the year eacn | settlement or community would begin l to talk of the Fish Pond singing N | was the gossip of the town folk Of the | small towns thereabout, and or the coun- try folk in the country for miles around.
 Time brought gray hairs and wrinkles l to the veteran music teacher. but ms
 post az the leader was never deserIeo.
 Never was he too Ill to take a delight m
 singing the fa-sa-la hymns Of the Sacreo
 Harp, to sing the choruses in the olo
 Methodist revival hymn book. ana the
 first Sunday in May for ffty-four years
 has found him rising early with beam |, ing eye and with an eagerness 10 rap
 his bamboo stick across the church taDle
 as a signal for the commencement ot
 another epoch in the history of his lite
 Remarkable as 1t seems and is' duNne
 all these fifty-four years of reconstruc. ton, and peace, during which time a' least a hundred storms attended by | threatening winds and lightning nave blown down trees and buildings. torn ul i wrecked death along Its paths none has , in any way damaged the old Baptis f Church at Fish Pond and to this day no | in Fish Pond vicinity which to proven | the grey-haired professor from holding , the singing or to prevent hundreds of per
 sons from attending.
 1 Since the sixties peace has prevailed II a the vicinity where Professor Holloway 2 now in his seventies, has resided so long q and nothing save the occasional passini = from the earthly sphere of citizen
 the community has come to mar the occa i sion of the first May singing" - Time decayed the sills of the old churcl d they were rebuilt three years ago on tn d same plan. The church stands tooay - sacred house of worship and will stand d monument to the memory or it's oehe
 | factor.
 s Several years ago hundreds Of person e left Alabama to plant their fortunes | d the rugged, rolling soil of Texas and n have seen bodies of farmers and thei d families from thirty to fifty in num6e e leave for Texas on one train from tnl Q portion of Alabama. Today there ar' dare say, in Texas several hundre ,- persons whose homes are in Tallapoosf Ie Coosa and Fillmore Counties, large pei |. centage of whom make their yearly vls |. to their native State in May that the a- may be in the surging. but pious mass If people at the Fish Pond singing. Ir "a occasion brings back to them the thought ,e of childhood days. "a Ing Chestnut trees for many rods aroun ss ike church and sour old maids oK tE
 sighborhoodE Esdll tell you that eefsal