The first Heritage Day Festival is scheduled to take place Saturday in Eldridge.
The event is to celebrate the town’s 200th birthday. The day will start with a meet and greet at 9:30 and opening ceremony at 10. Vendors and entertainment will continue until late afternoon.
Eldridge is the smallest municipality in Walker County with only 136 residents as of the 2020 Census. That number is up from 130 in 2010, but down significantly from 184 in 2000. The town officially incorporated in 1972.
The welcome ceremony will be followed by Skip Tucker, a longtime newsman in Walker County, who will be the town orator, telling different stories from Eldridge’s history.
Musical performances throughout the day include Harley Houge, Walt Ackerman and Backdraft.
There will also be an old fashioned cake walk, and many door prizes will be given away.
Emily McGowen Hicks, author of “Proud Heritage: The Story of Eldridge, Alabama 1819-1983,” will be on hand to meet visitors. The book is out of print, but orders for a new print run will be taken during the festival.
According to the town’s Wikipedia page, a unit of Gen. James H. Wilson‘s cavalry corps, under the command of Brig.-Gen. Edward M. McCook, passed through Eldridge while en route to Jasper and Selma, during the War of the States in March of 1865. Upon hearing of the advance of the Union forces, residents in Eldridge were obliged to conceal their home valuables by burying them in the ground.
According to the online encyclopedia of Alabama, Eldridge was originally called Camp Springs because travelers in the area often stopped to replenish their water supplies from the natural springs in the area.
The first state road from northwest Alabama to Tuscaloosa passed through Eldridge; it was completed in 1822. The town took its name from Eldridge Mallard, reportedly the first tollgate keeper on the new road. The town’s first post office opened in 1857, and the first Baptist church was established around 1870. The Frisco Railroad completed a line through Eldridge in 1887, bringing new residents and businesses, including a depot and an inn.
The first school, the Eldridge Baptist Academy, was built in 1890, and the Eldridge Normal School opened in 1897. The town prospered until the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. The Eldridge Baptist Academy became a junior college in an attempt to remain open but eventually failed. Eldridge incorporated in 1972.
For more information on Heritage Day, visit the Town of Eldridge Facebook page.
