Hanceville’s historian: For 15 years, Norman Boone has salvaged pieces of the past in one of Cullman County’s oldest communities
Published 5:00 am Sunday, October 16, 2022
- Hanceville mayor Kenneth Nail, center, presents the official city certificate commemorating local historian Norman Boone and his long-running efforts to document the history of one of Cullman County’s oldest communities. Pictured from left are Margie Burkart and Pam Reid, both members of the city’s Historical Preservation Commission; Nail; Boone; and Hanceville council member and mayor pro-tem Jimmy Sawyer.
Norman Boone isn’t a card-carrying historian, but few folks know their Hanceville history like he does. For the past 15 years, digging up pieces of the city’s past and ensuring the historic community’s memory stays intact has been a passionate project of his.
“I may not do it the way other historians do,” said Boone. “But I’m pretty proud of it. My mother’s family is from this area, which is kind of what got me started. I’m running out of room in my [extra] bedroom to put all the stuff that I’ve found. I’ve tried to find the oldest information about Hanceville that I can, dating back to the late 1800s, because about 95 percent of the people in Hanceville now have ties to the people who were here then.”
No one asked Boone to start tracing Hanceville’s roots to their deepest depths all those years ago: He’s just treated his local sleuthing as an educational hobby. “I just enjoy doing it,” he said.
But on Thursday, Oct. 13, the city officially commemorated Boone’s efforts, presenting him with a certificate of recognition as thanks for countless hours of research to keep aflame the local memories that otherwise might be extinguished.
Given by the Hanceville City Council, along with the city’s Historical Preservation Commission, the recognition honors Boone for assembling a trove of information about Hanceville’s history, as well as the families, businesses and institutions that have shaped the city for more than 150 years.
A 1969 Hanceville High School graduate, Boone said he never anticipated someday being both teacher and pupil for a self-guided local history tour.
“When I was in school all those years ago, you didn’t really learn all this stuff,” he said. “You’d just get what [information] you would get. But once I started doing this, I found out that one person after another around here was kin to me this whole time!”
Now, though, Boone’s an officially recognized local scholar — no matter how he started down the path.
He’s “completed extensive research on the history of Hanceville and gone to great lengths to preserve and promote” its history, the city’s certificate reads, “helping to preserve the tangible aspects of the heritage that has shaped us as a people.”
