Story by Leigh Pritchett
Photos By David Smith
Submitted photos from Margaret Green,
Beth Evans-Smith, Tammy Lowery
and Stephanie Evans.
Along the shores of Neely Henry Lake is an expanse that has been in one family eight generations.
Its history holds stories of ferry rides, steamboat races, a comic strip character and a message in a bottle.
It is also a story of drawing the past into the present
to preserve for the future. Six-year-old David Evans IV and five-year-old brother, Josiah, are that future and the eighth generation to live on land called “Greensport.”
The boys’ parents, David Evans III and wife, Stephanie, have mixed amenities with pieces of history and cradled them in family and tradition.
The couple assumed operations of the marina, park and campground in February 2020 and are undertaking many projects to make it a premier destination with a secure, family atmosphere.
With the assistance of developer Dale Owens, 90 to 100 RV spaces, with full hook-up and high-speed wireless internet, already have been created. In addition, the expanse features a beach, in-ground pool, vintage store, bath house, laundry facilities, playground and jumping pillow, volleyball court, cornhole, fire pits, golf-cart-friendly biking and walking trails, dog park, boat storage and fueling areas.
A large pavilion at the tip of a peninsula called “The Island” has become a popular setting for gatherings and weddings.
“There’s not a weekend we don’t have it rented out,” said Stephanie, a marketing specialist.
Day-use picnic pavilions line the shore where, in yesteryear, a ferry docked. Already, the pavilions are booked into summer 2021.
“We stay at 95 percent capacity during the week and that goes up to 100 percent on the weekend,” Stephanie said of the pavilions.
Campers from nearly all 50 states, British Columbia and the United Kingdom have stayed at the RV park, she said.
The couple have further plans for a restaurant right at the lake’s edge, an on-site food vendor, another pool, a 120-foot pier and additional RV spaces so that the park can accommodate up to 150 rigs. An original lake house is to be relocated and repurposed for a game room and laundry.
At the same time, the land retains its centuries-old agricultural legacy and has been named an Alabama Bicentennial Farm. “We raise our own line of cattle … (and) market our USDA-inspected beef in the (park) store,” said David III.
‘Steeped in history’
Those conversant with the history of the surrounding area say its name could have been “Green’s Port” at one time, eventually becoming “Greensport.” Or perhaps, it was always “Greensport.”
Regardless, there was a port and “Green’s Ferry was chartered by an act of the legislature with Jacob Green as the bonded ferryman,” notes the book, History of St. Clair County (Alabama), by Mattie Lou Teague Crow. “… The place became Greensport.”
Jacob Green was the first of the eight generations to be on the land.
Beth Evans-Smith, the sister of David III, said Jacob settled in the area sometime around 1818.
Jacob had fought in the Revolutionary War as a teenager and in the War of 1812, Beth and David III said. Beth said it is possible Jacob received the acres of “Beaver Valley” farmland as compensation for his military service.
A narrow Coosa River meandered through the farmland, Beth continued.
Greensport is “really steeped in a lot of history,” said Beth, who still lives on the family land. Soldiers during the War of 1812 and the Civil War crossed the Coosa River at Greensport. Native-American artifacts reveal that it held significance for them, too.
Margaret Green of Ashville, a distant cousin of Beth and David III, said Native-American fish weirs have been seen when the water was low. Beth added that David III has a corn-grinding stone one of their ancestors was given by a Native American who befriended them.
Farmers brought their cotton and other crops to the port to be transported to market upriver. Shoals made the river going southward unnavigable, Beth said.
Between 1879 and 1890, three locks were built in an attempt to open navigation south of Greensport. The locks were about .68 miles, 3.86 miles and 5.24 miles below Greensport, according to History of St. Clair County. “The dam for the fourth lock was completed by 1892, … 26 miles below Greensport. The locks for this dam were never (built).” Thus, the river was unnavigable beyond that. “… When the railroads gained a monopoly on freight, and Congress failed to appropriate sufficient funds to cover operational costs, the locks were no longer used.”
The first steamboat to travel the Coosa River sailed from Greensport in 1845. It was the U.S.M. Coosa and transported mail to Rome, Ga., notes History of St. Clair County.
“Throughout the 19th century, Greensport was an important port in the trade routes of the state,” the book continues. “… There were steamboats coming to Greensport every day.”
Periodic steamboat races drew excited crowds along the route, Crow writes.Margaret, who taught in Pell City schools, has three binders of photos and information on the area and probably “a picture of every steamboat that went through Greensport.”
As a port town, Greensport bustled with activity. “It was a big to-do,” Margaret said. “It wasn’t just a little, tiny nothing. It was a thriving community.”
The onboard happenings of one steamboat, the Leota, provided ideas for the character “Popeye.”
“Tom Sims, a cartoonist who wrote ‘Popeye the Sailor Man,’ drew inspiration from his own experiences on working on a
steamboat,” Justinn Overton, executive director of Coosa Riverkeeper, states on the website, coosariver.org. “… Tom lived in Ohatchee, Ala.,, and used the sites, the people, and his father’s steamboat, the Leota, as inspiration for the comic strip.”
The Greensport ferry garnered interest of its own.
An article from the Sept. 19, 1928, edition of The Anniston Star notes that using the ferry would cut 30 miles off a trip from Birmingham to Atlanta.The newspaper’s June 20, 1954, issue states the ferry was quite busy some football Saturdays. “They say that when Alabama used to play Georgia Tech, the cars would stack up for a mile waiting to get across the river,” David Evans Sr., the grandfather of Beth and David III, is quoted as saying. The ferry was also a Sunday destination, as people came just to ride it across and back.
David Sr. and son David Evans Jr. were the last two operators of the ferry, David III said.
The ferry was still in operation in 1957. Beth’s father, David Jr., piloted the ferry until he took a steel plant job. She said a man often brought his special needs child to ride the ferry, and her dad always helped the child embark and disembark. One time, her dad mentioned needing another job, and the child’s father suggested applying at Republic Steel in Gadsden. When her dad did apply, that man happened to be the interviewer, and David Jr. started work immediately.
David Sr. served as St. Clair County’s sheriff for a time, Beth and David III said.
Of the land that stretches in every direction from the store, David III said, “It’s been part of my life since the beginning.”
As young children, he and Beth lived in the home their grandfather had built. David III pointed to a place in the lake to show where the home sat.
In their youth, he and Beth raised heifers and horses. They learned to work, be responsible and deal with the public, Beth said. “We learned a lot.”
On weekends, people who knew their grandfather when he was in the coal mining business in Bibb County often camped on the property. Those, Beth said, were always fun times. “We had a great childhood.”
“Pop” Hoffman, a man known for killing and stuffing rattlesnakes, lived on the premises as well. “He took care of us during the day,” Beth said, referring to her and David III. “(Pop) was our babysitter. … Pop was a grand person. I didn’t know he wasn’t related to me when I was young.”
A prominent memory for her cousin, Margaret, is of her and Beth playing on the newly built piers before the lake appeared.
“We’d just run and jump (off the piers) like we were Superman,” Margaret said.
The marina and park hold a lot of memories as well for Allen Beavers of Attalla.
The 51-year-old said he has been going there since age 5.
As a teen, “(every) Saturday and Sunday during the summer, we were there,” Allen said.
He and wife Tina now vacation there three to four weeks a year, with future plans to stay for months at a time.
Following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis seven years ago, Allen vowed to go every weekend, rain or shine. The couple reserve a day-use picnic pavilion, enjoy the scenery and talk with other picnickers in a setting that Allen describes as “family.”
“I love the place so much,” he said. “… Even if I’m in a wheelchair, I want to be down there.”
Tammy Lowery can understand. She has fond, childhood memories of summer fun and family time on the land. “We would go there and swim for the day and barbecue with the family.”
After vacationing there in 2020, Tammy and husband Dale decided to sell their home in Attalla, buy a fifth-wheel rig, and become permanent residents of the RV park. Son Mason is at college, but son Brayden has an RV in the park as well.
Tammy and Dale now serve as camp hosts, assisting campers after hours.
“We just loved it so much, we never went back home,” Tammy said.
Finding a treasure
A bottle that was floating on the lake at Greensport RV Park was as ordinary as any other bottle floating on a lake.
But its contents and 34-year journey were not ordinary at all.
The bottle and the lives touched by it are highlighted by Fred Hunter of Birmingham’s WBRC-6 in an Aug. 24, 2020, post on wbrc.com.
The post reveals that, in 1986, Argin Hulsey wrote a message, put it in a bottle and prayed over it. Then, he tossed it into Nance’s Creek near Piedmont in Calhoun County – far upstream from Greensport RV Park. Argin trusted that God would put the message in the right hands at the right time.
When the Evanses’ friend, Brandi Rhoades of Springville, found the bottle in the summer of 2020 as she was helping to clean the river banks, she knew it was something special. She called Stephanie and David III to look at the contents, where they opened the message together.
According to the post, this is Argin’s message that traveled through time to reach the Evans family:
“God intended marriage to be a reflection of the unity of The Godhead, an earthly portrait of his Divine Image. Since there are no perfect people, the achievement of that unity requires a choice, a commitment and acceptance of responsibility to the mate and to the children who will be influenced in the family setting.”
