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Fruithurst Cleburne County, Alabama |
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FRUITHURST - U.S. 78; 1894; an agricultural and sociological experiment, this 3,000 acre colony was settled by Scandinavian vineyardists; the grape culture and wineries failed after the advent of Prohibition and a freeze in 1903. VOSS (G. C.) GROCERY - Fruithurst; c. 1888; originally called the New York Store by colonists, the one story frame grocery store is no longer in use, but is maintained by the family of the former owners and is the only original Fruithurst structure. Note: On the 2000 Census, there were 12 Germans reported residing in Fruithurst. Silverhill was first developed in 1896 and Swedes from Fruithurst and Thorsby were loosely linked with the Swedes in Baldwin County. Cleburne County Map: http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/counties/cleburne.jpg |
This book belongs to Ruth Holder |
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More Facts & Finds about Fruithurst
POPE, VIRGINIA VOSS
Teacher. Born: August 26, 1934, Fruithurst. Parents: Chester P. and Margaret (Branham) Voss. Married: Robert Russell Pope, Jr., December 21, 1957. Children: Three. Education: Jacksonville State University, B.A., 1955; M.S., 1972; University of Grenoble, 1956. Taught school in Heflin. Member and active in the Wesleyan Guild, Mothers March of Dimes, P.T.A., Cleburne County Arts and Crafts League, and Delta Kappa Gamma. Selected as Cleburne County Woman of the Year, 1966; Outstanding Young Woman of Heflin, 1971.
Source: Who's Who of American Women, 1977.
Author: Fruithurst: Alabama's Vineyard Village. Albertville, Ala.: Thompson Printing Co., 1971.SMITH, LARRY J., 1942-
Journalist, college administrator. Born: May 27, 1942 in Albertville, Ala. Parents: Howard J. and Jo Lee Smith. Married: Brenda Jackson on July 30, 1962. Children: One. Education: Jacksonville State University, B.S. Associate editor Sand Mountain Reporter, 1963-1967; financial aid director at Jacksonville State University after 1971; president of Marshall Co. Archaelogical Society and Alabama Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
Source: Larry J. Smith, Jacksonville, Ala.
Joint Author: The History of Marshall County, Alabama, Vol. 1: Pre-History to 1939. Albertville, Ala.: Thompson Printing Co., 1969.
Editor: Fruithurst, Alabama's Vineyard Village. Albertville, Ala.: Thompson Printing Co., 1971.
Guntersville Remembered. Albertsville, Ala.: Creative Printers, 1989.
Alabama's wine history seems to have begun around 1817 in the west central part of the state by a group of Napoleonic exiles at the time of the French Revolution. The United States government had given them 91,000 acres of land on the Tombigbee River to produce olives and grapes for wines and oils. Founding the Town of Demopolis, the exiles' venture failed. The vinifera grapevines they planted did not survive Alabama's heat and humidity. Hence, the French Army officers and government officials proved themselves as aristocrats, not farmers. Then, in the late 1800's until Prohibition, there were two other well-known vineyard and winery ventures in Alabama. Fruithurst, near the Alabama-Georgia state line, was specifically established as a fruit and wine community: eight wineries, restaurants, a resort hotel and 1000's of acres of grapes and other orchards.
However, Prohibition wiped out the local economy and today, Fruithurst's wine country no longer exists. Wineries in Baldwin County -- settled by Germans -- were also affected by Prohibition. Of the three, Bartels survived by exporting the wines to Germany for sale via the Port of Pensacola only to later be booted out of Alabama by officials at the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Today, a handful of wineries and vineyards remain in the state, one of them being Alabama's first bonded winery and the source of this wonderful historical backdrop.
Perdido Vineyards, 22100 County Road 47, Peridido, Alabama - Baldwin County.
Elberta May Wine in Elberta, Alabama was founded by the Baldwin County Colonization, Company in 1905. Elberta was settled mostly by Germans who established businesses and farms to include vineyards and wineries. The Bartels Winery in Lillian and the Hagendorfer Winery in Elberta were best known. Bartels Winery later operated in Pensacola, FL, from 1937-78. Bartels became the mentor of Perdido Vineyards and Winery established in 1979.
Wine America, the National Association of American Wineries!