During the reconstruction period following the Civil War, many of the freed slaves homestead government land were given land by their former masters. Not all the slaves left their masters because of the security they had by staying on and working, not as a slave, but as a freed laborer.
A few of the freed slaves who were living in this area settled land in the Arkadelphia area and established their own community now and known as the Colony.
Today, these are the only colored people that live in this county. Some work in the city in various homes, but for the most part, the Negroes of Cullman County either farm in their community or work in coal mines in Cullman, Walker, and Jefferson Counties.
Amony the 359 residents of the Colony, there is one who can still recall slave days. She is 104-year old Kizzy Leeth who lives with a son in the eastrn part of the Colony. There seems to be no permanent record on her birth but she does remember being sold to the Leeth family of Cullman County at Blountsville. She also recalls when she received her freedom.
According to “Aunt Kiz”, as she is popularly known to most of the folks, both white and colored, her father was a slave a t Blountsville, belonging to the Montgomery family. Most who know h e r say, "Aunt Kiz has delivered more babies in her lifetime than any doctor of the county. For many years, she has been licensed to deliver babies and people from far and n e a r have come to her for this service. She has delivered both white and colored.
The story of this Colony dates back to the year 1869. It was in this year that the first two settlers, Dave Rodgers and Tom Sapp, homesteaded 80 acres each from the government. From then on, Negroes from all parts of the state began settling in the Colony area. The population had grown to approximately 500 by 1939.
Early settlers in the Colony built their log cabins and set in to farming the land they had accumulated through homesteading and gifts from their masters. Problems of these freed slaves were numerous because they had always worked for someone else and were having a hard time getting started or[sic] themselves.
With a new community born and growing rapidly, there became a need for religion. The first church established in the Colony was the Methodist-Episcopal Church. Rev. Walter Drennen, a white minister from Arkadelphia, was the first Pastor of the colored church. At first, services were held in the open under the trees and later, a small log hut was built to keep off the weather.
Today, there are two church groups in the Colony. They are the Methodist and Baptist Churches. The Baptist Church was organized in 1893 by Rev. Enoch Garrett, one of the original settlers of the Colony.
A few years before the turn of the century, the Negroes of the Colony began to see a need for educating their children. They established the Colony school and Benjamin Fields, one of the early settlers, was selected to be the school master. Classes were first held in the Methodist Church which did not even have a floor. The class was very small and there were no school books.
In the Colony today, the children can get a complete grade and high school education without leaving their own community. In the history of the high school, there have been 40 graduated and nine out of the 40 graduates have gone to college.
The Colony School is in the Cullman County School system. There are 83 children in the elementary school and the same number of students in the high school. For the twelve grades at the Colony School, there were 6 rooms and 6 teachers. The oldest teacher at the school is Mrs. Bessie Lyles who has been teaching there for 22 years. She teaches the first and second grades.
Friday’s are special days for the citizens of the Colony. During the afternoon, the students get to see movies and the adults visit the school on Friday nights for a regular feature length movie and the adults visit the school on Friday nights for a regular feature length movie.
Their school is average to the ordinary country school in Cullman County. Like all other schools, they are lacking in many facilities but manage to get by with what they have. The school principal, Mr. Lorenzo Wyatt, is continuously striving toward a better education for the pupils of his school. He works closely with the local PTA and the (Continued On Page Four)
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