During recent trips through Macon County along Interstate 85, I drove many county roads around Shorter for the required stops at local cemeteries to check for headstones that might give me a clue or two. I drove around looking for a road sign with Cross Keys on it. So far, no luck. Perhaps it's one of many "ghost towns" across Alabama?
My notes show grandmother Bama was born in Cross Keys in the late 1870's. The 1880 census shows here living there, with no 1890 census available (it burned in an unfortunate storage facility fire). She does not appear in the 1900 census in Cross Keys, Macon County, one part enumerated by her father! She had moved on by then. More importantly, in 1901 in Atlanta she marries a young man from NW Georgia, and they settle a few years later in Birmingham. They have four children (including my mom!) and Bama lived out her life in Birmingham.
A few family letters survived that show Bama stayed in touch with relatives in Union Springs, Bullock County (south of Macon County) and Mt. Meigs, Montgomery County (west of Macon County). A few of the letters allude to difficulties the family experienced in the last decades of the 19th century and were on-going in the first decades of the 20th. Interestingly, none of the difficulties are very specific; clearly the recipient knew the details. Is this why Bama wanted to get away?
The journey takes me to La Place, Hardaway, Shorter (not the gaming center but the small village) and several nearby churches with cemeteries. Along the way, while reading early Alabama history, I learned of the importance of Line Creek and the Battle of Calabee Creek. I then stumble across another exotic Indian place-name, this one in a family note- Cupiahatchee or Cubahatchie.
I sensed something interesting is there that I need to discover. The journey contines..,