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Rose Hill Farm, Jemison, Alabama

Rose Hill Farm is a 70-acre estate in northwest Chilton County, Alabama, on County Road 121.

One of its notable features is a small lake built in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for the property owners, brothers Walter Preston (Mr. Press)Cofer and John M. Cofer. They were large landowners in that part of Chilton County, and rented out many parcels to sharecroppers. John (b. February 3, 1887, d. December 21, 1950) lived 1/2 mile away from what would become Rose Hill Farm, with his young wife, Vera (b. September 6, 1912, d. April 5, 2003)

John and Vera's home place included a very large year-round spring. John built a trough out of 6-inch heart pine boards nailed into a "V" shape, and used it to carry running water down the hill to their home. The water ran into one end of the house, and out the other end, constantly flowing. At the time, they were the only county residents with running water. Until her death, Miss Vera, as she came to be known, still used water from that spring, although in later years it was connected to a faucet at the kitchen sink.

In 1925, John purchased 41.5 acres of nearby land from Miss M. E. Gothard. This was the beginning of Rose Hill Farm. Many members of the Gothard family lived in the area, which was known as Gothard's Knob.

The land was planted in corn and cotton. It was very productive, due to the many springs that kept the crops irrigated. By the 1930s, cotton prices dropped to an average of 8 cents a pound, down from pre-1929 prices of 16 cents to 20 cents a pound. Corn dropped from an average of $1.04 per bushel, to as low as 45 cents a bushel. Even in the historically poor South, the Great Depression was hitting hard, and many men were out of work.

John applied to the WPA for assistance in building a lake on the farm. Men working with mules and wooden skids felled trees and built a stockade-type wall with many of them. They then massed local clay against the wall to create a dam to hold the water from the dozen or more springs located on the adjacent three acres. The resulting body of water drained a large amount of swamp land, making it available for agriculture. John then built a system of ditches and small stone dams all round the lake, to prevent agricultural chemicals from running into it. Because of the purity of the water, and the cold spots from the many springs, the lake became a popular swimming and fishing spot for many of the local residents. VErnell Cofer Smitherman (1926-2011) remembered swimming in the lake as a child, as did Grady Lewis "Buck" Poe (1928-1996). Buck Poe had been given his mother's wedding ring, and constantly wore it on his finger, even though it was too large. While swimming in the lake, the ring slipped off his finger, and was never found.

Edna Gothard, daughter of a neighboring landowner, used to pick cotton on the property. She later married Buck Poe, and continued to live on land previously owned by her father.

The dam contained a drainage pipe and a spillway. As was customary for the era, the horizontal drainage pipe was capped with a large glass jug. Water pressure kept it in place. If there was a need to drain the lake, someone would shoot into the other end, shatter the glass, and allow the water to run freely.

Overflow from the spillway created Possum Branch Creek, which flowed northward to join Mahan Creek, and eventually empty into the Little Cahaba River in Shelby County. Possum Branch Creek provided valuable irrigation for farms along its banks, a distance of slightly over 3 miles. Today, Possum Branch Creek is considered one of the top birding sites in Alabama.

When John died in 1950, his widow began experiencing problems keeping up the farm. John and Vera had no children. Vera's brother, Charles Ray, lived nearby, but his assistance was not sufficient to keep up the farm. The land went fallow, and grew up in pine trees and hardwoods.

Then, in September 1961, Vera sold the 41.5 acres to Fannie St. John, for $550. Fannie and her husband Clarence B. "CB" St John sold 40 acres of the land to their son, Albert A. St John and Kenneth W. Murphree, for $964. Each family built an A-frame type cabin on the property, facing the lake, and used them for weekends and vacations. The cabins had galvanized metal roofs, a homemade septic system, and a sleeping loft accessible via ladder. The breezes off the lake allowed for pleasant living conditions, even in the worst part of the summer. The land continued to grow up in timber, and yielded a wide variety of flora and fauna.

On April 27, 1962, Fannie St. John purchased an additional 8.5 acres from neighbors Irby and Ida Gothard, parents of Edna Poe. Mrs. St. John paid only $100 for the land. Local stories say that Irby had a drinking and gambling problem. Albert St. John would take him down to Mobile to party, with Irby returning in debt and needing cash. He started a practice of selling his land to meet his gambling debts. In 1964, they bought an additional 4 acres from Irby for $100.

Then, on June 11, 1968, the St. Johns and the Murprhees sold their entire, accumulated, 54 acres to Francis E. Thomas and his wife, Betty, for $16,500. The Thomas were from Bessemer. Francis worked in a brick yard, and Betty was a secretary for a steel company. The property was to be a vacation spot for them. They purchased on old pre-WWII house in Bessemer, and had it transported to the farm, placing it on the site of one of the cabins, which was too dilapidated to use by that time.

Francis transported brick in the trunk of his car each weekend, hoping to accumulate enough to replace the home's wood siding with brick. He was never able to do that, and later owners of the property gave the brick away to neighbors.

Francis and Betty divorced, but Betty kept the property until 1991, when she sold it to someone the neighbors called "The Bird Man" and held the financing. He started limited demolition work on the house, removing the dark wood paneling and old carpeting, plus closing in space for a master bathroom. He also felled a large number of trees between the house and the lake, but then ran out of money and could not proceed. Betty Thomas foreclosed on him, and offered the property for sale, again.

In 1993 she sold it to former Chilton County native Osmond W. "Bill" Evans, and his wife Denise, for $99,000. At that time the lake was inaccessible because of trees and undergrowth, and the stream was a mere trickle. The Evans purchased additional land from the Gothards, plus a 50-foot strip from Pete and Essie Land, to provide a roadway outlet to County Road 50. Later, they purchased 3 acres from Bill Englebert, rounding out the current 70-acre estate.

Beginning in 1995, the Evans drained the lake, cleared the bed of all the old trees and trunks, and rebuilt the dam with a modern standpipe and industrial valve, and reestablished Possum Branch as a water way. They also enlarged and remodeled the home, and converted the remaining cabin into a workshop. During the late 1990's, the Evans cleared all the property lines, built interior roads, and turned 40 acres of the land into horse pasture, with sprigged Bermuda. They planted an orchard with apples, pears, peaches and cherries, plus Kiowa blackberries, and several varieties of muscadines and blueberries. The property also supports two large pecan trees and a fig tree.