Flowing to Florence

Old homestead

Eons ago I had an 8^th grade student whose mother’s name was Florence. She was a lovely lady and each time I drive south on I-35 I think of her and her daughter when I see the exit to the town of that name. I hope they are doing quite well. Of course I am always curious about small towns, so we decided to stop and take a look.






Florence, once called Brooksville, was settled in the early 1850s; it was renamed seven years later when it got its first post office. The big mystery is the origin of the town’s name.  Some of the theories are that it was

First Baptist Church, Florence

named for Florence, Alabama, the first postmaster’s home; or it could be for Florence Brooks, the daughter a successful merchant. In any case, Florence was the center of a successful cattle industry around the Civil War period; cotton and wheat were also significant crops at about this same time. With this industry came a bank, a cheese factory, churches, doctors, hotels, lodges, mills, photographers, retail stores, schools, and a stone quarry. A few years later Florence College opened, offering a small variety of classes for about eight years. The population continued a slow, steady growth until just after World War II when Florence experience the same population drop as did other nearby, small towns. Now that driving to work venues has become easier, the town is growing again; they had 1,262 residents in 2017.

Monument to Kindness

Out in one of the parks we found one of Matthew Johnson’s works of art. His Monument to Kindness stands in an open field reminding us to be kind to one another with the words ‘It’s Chaos, Be Kind’. It’s a lovely monolith set in a surprising place. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a stop. A bit farther on down the road we ran across the Willingham Springs Baptist Church. This place of worship was organized with the help of the pastor of Prairie Dell Methodist Church in 1911 on property donated by Wilson Willingham. Farmers got together to build the structure, completing it by 1914. It has served not only as a church but also as a school.  Because of population fluctuations, the church has opened and closed several times.

Willingham Springs Baptist Church

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