Some of these folks interred in this cemetery may have founded the home site where my parents Paul & Ruby Austin built in 1964. There was a 100 year old large Cedar tree there and Dad cleared around it leaving it standing. It was on its last leg of life and soon died anyway from having been shaded from the giant black oaks hovering over it. We also discovered old Chards of pottery plates and glass indicating someone had a home there before we did, but it was many years earlier. The trees and growth were at least 30 to 50 years, untouched when my Dad and my brothers arrived with our axes and brush cutting gear in the late summer of 1963. This place was sitting above the Shegog Creek, a cold water branch which ran thru the property below. It was a beautiful place with an ideal building site. Dad wasn't the only one to know that. The soil all around there was rich and grew large beautiful vegetables and fruits and even the trees grew fast. One could dig a post hole five feet down before the soil became unfertile and the water table was only about 40' from the top of the ground. Paul Austin built a home suitable for his 4 to 5 children remaining at home. That meant a home divided up into many bed rooms (which meant very small quarters for each child by today's' standards), but somehow we survived it without major disruptions.) Very soon Ernie went off to Auburn U. and Warren had earlier moved to West Tennessee to live with Uncle Jim and Aunt Lutie Austin Jones to finish High School & go to trade school there. That relived some of the space issues.

The Oscar Medley family lived across the street from the Old Brick church cemetery. They were members of the Ford City Church of Christ during their time living there. Oscar was a postal worker. They had two children Roy and Nadera. Roy married and later became a home construction manager for a Memphis based company so he moved there and spent several years & and died there. He was buried back in his native Coffee County, Tennessee. Nadera married and moved to Texarkana, Texas. Oscar was the founder of the Jackson Heights subdivision about 1968 in Muscle Shoals so to get that going he purchased the land and subdivided it then built his own home there getting the Jackson family to also build there. He  began to sell lots to others among which had been the Jackson family. The subdivision carries the Jackson's name. This was to become the first prominent subdivision of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. By 1968 the Medley's had moved there. Eventually home called to the Oscar and Ernestine Medley family and they sold out and moved back home to their birth place, Manchester Tennessee where they all eventually passed from this life into another.

 

Gerber was another prominent family that lived down River Road near Ford City. The earliest Gerber can be traced as German immigrants who came to this country in 1874. They were Fred & Mary M. Gerber and were found living in the old Brick community in 1930 census. Their home was believed to be established just back 1/4 mile from Ford City Al where Henry Ford attempted to build a city when the Wilson Dam was built. In the  Later generations of Gerber this is across the road (west side) a 1/2 mile further north of Shegog Creek toward Ford City. There is an old home there which is barely standing today which was a good home in their day. Fred & Mae J. Gerber were elderly when I was a teenager and they died in 1971 & 1966 respectively. One of the daughters of Fred married an Austin (no close relation to me, but thought to be from the Austin family of Florence Alabama) and they built a home next door to the Gerbers' and all are buried here in close proximity. One Gerber-Austin grandson Fredrick Austin was well thought of in school. He has an older brother named Franklin and a younger brother Robert. Frederic was born  about 1946 & went over seas sometime after graduation from Colbert Co. High in 1964. By the 1970s he was known to be handing out Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. As time progressed he was discovered elsewhere in the world in the same mission. Before many years his family ceased to hear from him and knew not what happened to him. I wonder if he met his fate against some of those radical Muslims who have grown to be a major threat to Christianity and world peace today. A big part of them are taught to either convert or kill anyone not of their religion and they are financed with oil money to carry out this ominous mission. However Chinese governments were very intolerant of Christianity.

Compiled & written by C. Wayne Austin 24 Feb 2011