Skip to main content

Oma Alsobrook Correspondence, February 1946-Sept 1961

 File — Box: 2, Folder: 3
Identifier: 19-045

Scope and Contents

From the Accession:

This accession contains family papers produced and maintained by David Alsobrook and his parents, Thomas and Frances, and his paternal grandmother Oma. It also contains additions to previous accessions, including publications, subject files, and teaching files.

Family papers include family history research, correspondence, telegrams, sympathy, Christmas, and other greeting cards, scrapbooks, diplomas, a junior college yearbook, household records, insurance records, voting registration certificates, poll tax receipts, income tax records, photographs and clippings. Files from this series were used by David Alsobrook while researching his book, Southside: Eufaula's Cotton Mill Village and Its People, 1890–1945.

Overall, the family papers document daily life in the "Southside" mill village in Eufaula, Alabama, between the mid-1920s and the early 1950s, including the impact of World War II upon Southside families—the deployment of the local National Guard artillery battery in 1941, the rationing of food and other commodities, women's changing roles in society, and combat casualties.

Correspondence and records related to Thomas Alsobrook (1920-1996) document his academic and athletic activities and Perkinston Junior College in Mississippi, 1940-1941; duties as a machinist trainee at the Alabama School of Trades in Gadsden, Alabama, and Brookley Field in Mobile, circa 1941-1942; and his service as a US Navy "Seabee" in Hawaii, 1943-1945. Records of his time as a student at API from 1945-1948 include his diploma, a copy of his thesis, and a notebook from an engineering or architecture class. Correspondence of Thomas Alsobrook’s wife, Frances Starnes Alsobrook, includes details about her experience at Alabama College (now University of Montevallo) in 1940-1941 and serving as a social worker in Vernon, Alabama, in 1941-1942. This accession also includes a file of textile equipment patents from her brother, Earl W. Starnes (1915-2002), who earned a degree in electrical engineering at API in the mid-1930s and was employed as an engineer for many years with Avondale and Russell Mills in Alexander City, Uniontown, and Selma, Alabama.

Dates

  • February 1946-Sept 1961

Conditions Governing Access

This accession is open for research.

Extent

From the Accession: 2.8 Cubic Feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Auburn University Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Auburn University
Ralph Brown Draughon Library
231 Mell Street
Auburn Alabama 36849
334-844-1732