Archives and Videos Record
Metadata
Object ID |
FSTC-V0037 |
Object Name |
Video, Digital |
Description |
This video has two oral histories: First is Ruth E. Rockwell and starting at 1 hour, 31 minutes and 57 seconds is Philip McCarthy. Note: Search terms listed below this entry include terms from both videos and are not able to be cataloged separately due to original format. INTERVIEW of Ruth E. Rockwell dated May 12, 1994. Mrs. Rockwell's family moved from Iowa to Fairhope in 1913 after learning about the community from other family members. The family helped build the Quaker shoolhouse in 1914, where Ruth attended school. She graduated from Olney Friends Boarding School in Ohio and returned to Fairhope. She married R. Lucier Rockwell in 1938 and had three children: Kenneth Rockwell, Ruth Anne Rockwell Zweidinger and Paula Rockwell Moore. They operated a dairy farm. Mrs. Rockwell discusses the relocation of several members of the Fairhope Friends community to Costa Rica in the 1950s because of their pacifist stance to war. Mrs. Rockwell discusses her family's long affiliation with the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation, including her time as cashier and bookkeeper, and her terms as secretary from 1972-1978. She discusses Single Tax theory, the Somers System, rents and other topics about the FSTC. INTERVIEW of Philip McCarthy dated June 3, 1994. This video starts at the 1:31:57 mark. Mr. McCarthy moved to Fairhope in 1941 at age 7; his mother was a first class welder and riveter at the ship yards in Mobile during WWII. Mr. McCarthy talks about a happy boyhood growing up in Fairhope with details like sifting sand under the pier for money, July 4th celebrations, movie theater, lifeguarding at the Grand Hotel, and the Soda Garden sandwich shop and ice cream parlor, which is where he met his future wife, Lois Niemeyer, daughter of the proprietor Brad Niemeyer. He talks of memories like working clean-up at the Fairhope Casino, attending the Square Dance Club and other activities as a married couple in the community. He mentions other Fairhopers in his interview. Mr. McCarthy owned a hotel in Iowa and Memory Gardens in Fairhope at the time of this interview. From the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Archives. |
Date |
1994 |
PDF link |
|
People |
Rockwell, Ruth Rockwell, Lucier Zweidinger, Ruth Anne Rockwell Moore, Paula Rockwell Rockwell, Reuben Lucier Gaston, Cornelius A., Dr. (1891-1981) McCarthy Philip McCarthy, Lois Niemeyer Niemeyer, Brad Niemeyer, Mike Gaston, Arthur Fairhope "Spider" (1896-1997) |
Search Terms |
Interviews Videos Oral Histories Quakers Fairhope Friends Meeting House Costa Rica Somers System Valuation of land Soda Garden Casino Fairhope Memory Gardens |
Title |
Interview/Oral History of Ruth E. Rockwell and Philip McCarthy |