Williams Station Day - A History Lesson

Saturday was the Williams Station Day Festival in Atmore, Alabama. Atmore was named Williams Station, after William Larkin Williams prior to being named Atmore. The festival began in 1992 in to promote the community to a regional audience and to enhance Atmore's image.

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The History behind Williams Station, as taken from The Atmore Advance, Wednesday, October 24, 2007 edition, written by Adrienne McKenzie.

Before settlers came to the Atmore area, the Creek Indians were inhabitants of the land. The Indians wre located in villages in the forests that were down the creeks and rivers. After the Civil Ware, during the 1860s, the Mobile and Great Northern railroad expanded south to the Tensaw River. Farmland and timber was abundant in the Atmore area, which drew in the workers who laid the railroad tracks. In 1866, William Larkin Williams created a supply shop in the area for the Moble and Great Northern railroad. He also had a logging and cattle operation 10 miles away from Atmore in McDavid, Florida. As the railroad station advanced south toward Mobile, more settlers moved into the area. Within no time, because of the rich farmlands and virgin pine fields, the area was popular with settlers. THe supply shop became even more of a success and a settlement known as Williams Station, named after founder William Larkin Williams, was born. A sawmill built in 1876 by William Marshall Carney is what generated growth in the area. According to legend, Carney "hitched a mule to a flat bottom boat and set claim to most of the area." Carney contributed much to the growth of Williams Station and because of that, he is known as "the father of Atmore."The W.M. Carney Mill Company generated interest in workers who came from Wilcox and Monroe counties. The social life of Williams Station was focused on early churches in the community. In 1897 the name of Williams Station was changed to Atmore because many prominent residents believed Williams Station was not an appropriate name for a city with two hotels and a couple of stores. Many individuals would have liked for the name of the community to be Carney after William Marshall Carney. However, there was already a settlemetn by the name of Carney in Baldwin County. The name of Atmore came abut after Chalres Pawson Atmore, who was a general passenger agent for the Louisville adn Nashville Raliroad. During 1872-1900 while C.P. Atmore was employed, the L&N trademark was established. Charles Atmore was born in England in 1832. His family came to America and settled in Kentucky when he was 4 years old. He died in 1900 and was buried in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetary.

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The only train we saw while at the Festival was this train that Bella and I took a ride on (there was a model train show inside the YMCA, but we didn't make it inside to see it)! Bella was very excited to get to ride a "train"; however, the Engineer was a bit of a fast driver and she wanted off within a few minutes, but she did make it through the whole ride (it wasn't but about 5-7 minutes long)..I was even dizzy have riding it!