MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

Butler

We knew that Alabama was not going to be a permanent location for us so we rented a 3-bedroom house in Butler. Butler was a small town of about 2,000 people and the county seat for Choctaw County. The county was totally dry, no beer or liquor sales were allowed. In fact, we were told that no alcoholic beverages were permitted to be in your possession, except for a half pint for medicinal purposes. The nearest town of any size was Meridian, Mississippi, 40 miles to the northwest.

The paper mill was located 17 miles east of Butler at a place called Naheola. The mill was located on the Tombigbee river. There was an interesting bridge that spanned the river and the swampy area on the eastern side, it was a combination railroad, car traffic, and draw bridge. The cars and trains travelled in the same single lane. A traffic light at each end of the bridge warned you if a car or a train from the other direction were on the bridge. Fortunately, the town of Butler was on the west side of the river so I didn’t have to cross the bridge on a daily basis like those that lived in Linden on the east side of the river.

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