Archives and Videos Record
Metadata
Object ID |
FSTC-V0035 |
Object Name |
Video, Digital |
Description |
Video interview (26 minutes) with Bonnie Holt dated February 2, 1995 in her home in Fairhope, Alabama. Bonnie is a fourth generation member of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation. Her great grandfather, Shuah Strait Mann, was a member of the Fairhope Industrial Association; he and James Bellangee were the two-man locating committee that toured five states in the summer of 1894 searching for the site to establish the Fairhope Single Tax Colony. Bonne read a section of a book (History of Tama County Iowa, 1883) describing Shuah Mann as an anti-monopolist who was nonimated for state representative by the National Greenback Convention in 1877. Bonnie read a letter from Mann to his son T.E. Mann (also a member of the Fairhope Industrial Association) about ideas for industry in Fairhope including raising sheet or cashmere and angora goats. Bonnie read letters from her grandfather T.E. Mann describing Fairhope's beautiful scenery and climate, as well as a letter from him to his father Shuah advising Shuah to sell his property to the Colony. (This was 2,200 acres purchased by Shuah S. Mann in 1897, sold to Joseph Fels in 1903 and given to the Fairhope Single tax Colony as a gift from Fels). Bonnie read from her mother, Floy Mann Schermerhorn's diary from the late 1920's and early 1930's while in Fairhope about the many activities including community luncheons, folk dances, etc. Bonnie's mother was an actress and performed in a production of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice in Fairhope in 1927. Bonnie mentions that her grandfather, T.E. Mann, owned a newspaper in Iowa and invented the Mann Cylinder Press on which the Fairhope Courier and also a paper in Bay Minette were printed in early years. Bonnie and Ruth Rockwell (one of the interviewers) discuss the history of Bonnie Holt's home built in 1904 by Jeremiah Mogg which she and her husband Alan Holt purchased in 1972. The house, on Bayview Street, is sometimes referred to as The Columns; pictures are available by searching "Columns" on the main search page. The interview concludes with Bonnie Holt showing four framed Fairhope Single Tax Corporation membership certificates which are hanging on her wall and comments that she hopes her daughter Alison Holt Knight will also become a member. From the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives. |
Date |
1995/02/02 |
PDF link |
|
People |
Holt, Bonnie Schermerhorn Mann, Shuah Strait (1829-1918) Bellangee, James (1844-1915) Mann, Thomas Erly (1855-1946) Schermerhorn, Floy Mann Mogg, J. J. Fels, Joseph (1853-1914) Rockwell, Ruth Holt, Alan Knight, Alison Holt |
Search Terms |
Interviews Videos Oral Histories Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Location committee Anti-monopolist Greenback Party Keifer pears Luncheons Entertainment Folk Dancing Dance Fairhope Courier Fairhope Industrial Association, membership certificate Fairhope Single Tax Corporation, membership certificate |
Title |
Interview: Bonnie Holt |