I live in Elba, AL "Small town, Big heart". Elba spelled backwards is Able, which is one of our town's mottos.
http://www.elbaalabama.net/
Our town originated in the 1830s & was called Bridgeville. In 1850, the name was changed to Bentonville to honor, Col. Thomas Hart Benton, a Missouri senator who had served in Alabama. A drawing was held in 1851 to rename the town, & citizens wrote down suggestions on paper & put them in a hat. John Simmons had been reading a biography of Napoleon, so his suggestion was "Elba", & that was the one that was chosen.
We're the city of flowing wells. Elba is located beside the Pea River, & has flooded numerous times. In fact, almost every generation has a flood story. Three of those have been during my life, 1990, 1994, & 1998. 1990 was the worst of all of Elba's floods. The town was almost destroyed, & was under water for 4 days. Our house had 6 feet of water in it. After the water receded the schools were unusable, so the school board put mobile homes on land across from the airport & that's where we went to school until the 1992-1993 school year (which is when the new schools were finally completed). The '90 flood:
"Big Jim" Folsom, a former governor of Alabama was from Elba. Alberta Martin (she was one of the last surviving Civil War widows) lived in Elba for the latter years of her life. Her son, William Oren Martin, lived a couple of houses behind us. I remember, when we were growing up, my cousin & I would visit him almost everyday in the summer just to hear his stories.
