Place:Hale, Alabama, United States

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Hale County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,760. Its county seat is Greensboro and it is part of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Hale County was established following the end of the American Civil War, on January 30, 1867. Located in the west-central section of the state, it was created from portions of Greene, Marengo, Perry, and Tuscaloosa counties. The vast majority came from Greene County. The first American settlers hailed from Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Carolinas.

Hale County is connected to three major twentieth century artists: Walker Evans photographed the area in 1936 while he collaborated with James Agee on the 1941 book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Since the 1960s, artist William Christenberry, born in Tuscaloosa, has been photographing various structures in Hale County as part of his multi-media artistic investigations. More recently, Hale County has become the home of the nationally-recognized Auburn University Rural Studio, an architectural outreach program founded by architect and artist Samuel Mockbee and D. K. Ruth.^[1] It is also the birthplace of Eugene Sawyer, the second African American mayor of Chicago.

Since the American Civil War, whites controlled economic and political power in Hale County. However, in 1997 after a highly contested mayoral election the City of Greensboro elected its first African American Mayor, John E. Owens Jr. At this time Greensboro appointed its first African American Police Chief, Claude E. Hamilton. In 2006, African American and white citizens joined together and elected Hale County's first African American Sheriff, Kenneth W. Ellis. Prior to being elected Sheriff, Ellis served as the Police Chief of the Town of Moundville, in north Hale County.

Timeline

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Research Tips

Erie, an early county seat on the southeast side of Martin Lake, is part of the Ghost Town USA's Guide to the Ghost Towns of Alabama, hosted on RootsWeb.