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Accession 19-045: Family Papers and Accretions to materials in previous accessions, 1922-2019

 Accession
Identifier: 19-045

Scope and Contents

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

  • 1922-2019

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This accession is open for research.

Biographical / Historical

Oma Parish Alsobrook (1899-1969) was the paternal grandmother of David Ernest Alsobrook. The only child of Thomas Malaki "Mallie" Parish (1874-1945) and Jessie Estelle Gillis (1869-1939), she married Ernest Milton Alsobrook (1899-1921) in 1918, and they had two children: Jessie Lee Alsobrook (1918-1922) and Thomas Neville Alsobrook (1920-1996). Oma Alsobrook worked for over forty years in the cotton mills of Eufaula, Alabama. According to the donor, during the late 1920s or early 1930s she burned most of her earlier family papers.

Thomas Neville Alsobrook, son of Oma Parish Alsobrook and father of David Ernest Alsobrook, was born on September 14, 1920, in Eufaula, Alabama. He played football at Eufaula High School, and attended Perkinston Junior College on a football scholarship from 1940 to 1941. From 1941 to 1942 he attended the Gadsden School of Trades in Gadsden, Alabama, where he completed a Machinist Training Course sponsored by the National Youth Administration. In 1942, he moved to Mobile, Alabama, and on July 27 married Frances Joy Starnes (1919-2008). During World War II, he served with the U.S. Navy in Hawaii. Following his discharge in 1945, Thomas attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) under the G.I. Bill and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Building Construction in August 1948. He worked for J.F. Pate Construction in Mobile from 1948 until his retirement in 1983. Thomas Alsobrook died September 29, 1996.

Extent

2.8 Cubic Feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

This accession is arranged into series and sub-series. Series I, Family Papers, maintains the donor's original order; Series II, which consists of accretions to prior accessions, has been arranged to reflect the existing arrangement of those materials.

Series I: Family Papers, circa 1922-2017

  1. Subject file, generally arranged alphabetically by topic or folder title and thereunder chronologically.
  2. Correspondence file, arranged by name of recipient of the letters and thereunder chronologically.

Series II: Additions to Series in Previous Accessions

  1. Accrual to Accession 17-053, Series III-B: Papers, Publications, and Presentations
  2. Accrual to Accession 17-053, Series III-C: Reviews and Referees of Books and Manuscripts
  3. Accrual to Accession 17-074, Series II: Subject File
  4. Accrual to Accession 17-074, Series III: Teaching File

Physical Description

The materials in this accession are in good condition. Some items are fragile.

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