Photo courtesy Fairhope Museum of History
Over 100 years ago, Fairhope had its own celebrity in longtime area resident Ellen Hill. Hill was a freed slave, and fellow residents and tourists alike assigned her the affectionate nickname “Aunt Ellen.” She lived in a small cabin, where she is pictured in the photo at right, between Volanta and Sea Cliff. From the house was a picturesque view of the water, and locals would come over to enjoy it and the fruit from Ellen’s orchard, which they would purchase or sometimes receive for free. Along with selling fruit, Hill made a living charging passersby pennies to travel over the footbridge that spanned Fly Creek. According to a note on the photo, Hill was 98 years old at the time it was taken. However, her exact age thoughout her life was reportedly unknown, even by her own family. Local rumors popularized the idea that she was 104 when she died in 1920 after a “stroke of paralysis.”
“[Ellen Hill] has been a good worker, and even now, though over seventy, she often walks into Fairhope, does a ten hour day’s work in gardening and trudges home to Montrose, a good four miles, or more. Everybody has a good word for Aunt Ellen Hill.”
– an excerpt from an article in the June 1, 1901,
edition of The Fairhope Courier
By the numbers
1903
The year Frank Stewart came to Baldwin County. A photographer best known for his photos of Baldwin County landmarks, he was called “Frank Stewart, the Picture Man.” He took the above photo of Ellen Hill.
100
The population of Fairhope by the year 1900. Just six years earlier, 19 adults and nine children arrived to create the Fairhope Single Tax Colony. Before long, their numbers drastically increased.
$2
The tax freed slaves in the Fairhope area paid annually on their land. After the Civil War, freed slaves oftentimes settled on formerly unused land, and could stay there as long as they continued to pay the annual tax.
1910
The year Volanta, a Fairhope neighborhood, was first populated. Residents sold lots for homes and businesses. They planned to build a railroad to Pensacola, Bay Minette and Fort Morgan but it didn’t sell.
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