Public & Civic Club Talks
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT CITATION AWARD
[Talk prepared by John E. Enslen to be read by Wetumpka Chamber of Commerce president Darrin Chatham at an annual membership meeting of the Chamber. The Chamber presented the “Community Involvement Citation Award” to Judge Edward W. Enslen in recognition of his long time service to the people of the area. The award was presented on January 3, 2001.]
It is my honor tonight to say a few words about this year’s recipient.
He is a fourth generation Wetumpkian born February 10,1927. His great-grandfather (John Jacob Enslen) immigrated to America from Germany as a teenager and was the original pioneer settler of 1,200 acres in the Trotters Trail and Balk Knob area in the early 1830’s, raising 11 children to adulthood.
His grandfather served as a city councilman, a county commissioner, and as City Marshall of Wetumpka in the 1880’s and 1890’s when there were seven saloons in town.
His father was a farmer and cotton ginner, the gin being located where now lies the city parking lot next to the Cypress Inn Restaurant. His father also had a dairy on the outskirts of town near where AmSouth Bank is now located, and a sawmill across from where the new CVS Pharmacy is now located.
Our recipient was two-years-old when the great stock market crash of 1929 occurred, and he and his older brother grew up during the poverty of the depression. But since everyone was poor, no one thought of themselves as being poor.
His introduction into the paid workforce was as a delivery boy at age 12, riding “shotgun” on Vic Welden’s rolling store. He assisted Carl Leonard and Gilford Dudley on the weekend route through the hot dusty, or cold muddy, dirt roads of the rural and desolate Redland area.
Next came his high school job as the bus ticket clerk at Little’s Drug Store where he regularly shouted: (yell this) “Wallsboro, Buyck, Levins Store, Speed, Rockford, Hanover, Sylacauga, Sycamore, Winterboro, Talladega, Munford, Oxford, and Anniston-change for all points!”
His last summer job was as a laborer in a Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard during the early stages of World War II.
He was educated in the public schools of Wetumpka by truly outstanding educators, beginning with Mrs. Oakley Melton in the first grade of Hohenburg Memorial and progressing until he graduated under the principalship of a young O.M. Bratton. In high school he played right tackle on the football team, the same position that his uncle, who gave Auburn University the “War Eagle” yell, had played a generation earlier. Members of that 1944 team included Billy Skinner, Louis Estes, Buddy Reeves, Gary Weldon, Gene Ray, Guledge Baker, Jack Russell, Tom Parks, Donald Byrd, and others. It was that 1944 team that ended Tallassee’s phenomenal, national-record-breaking winning streak by playing them to a hard fought 0 to 0 tie. Players shared the great news with their former older teammates then serving in the military, bragging over the phone, “We beat Tallassee, nothin’ to nothin’!”
Under an official high school program that allowed for early graduation for young men who signed up for military service, he graduated a semester early from WHS in December of 1944. Although only 17 years old at the time, he immediately volunteered for the war effort and became part of what posterity would later refer to as the “Great Generation.” Because he had been blinded in his right eye at age five in a push scooter accident, he was not combat qualified. Therefore, he joined the United States Merchant Marines. At that time the Merchant Marines had the highest percentage of fatalities of all the branches of the military in World War II. This was due primarily to the sinking of merchant marine cargo ships by German U-Boats.
During basic training in St. Petersburg, Florida, this young Wetumpkian was featured in the post newspaper for having won more weekend passes than he could possibly use. At one point in time he had accumulated weekend passes for best grade in his class, rowboat racing, cleanest quarters, boxing, and good conduct. Eight months later, on August 15,1944, as the war was concluding, he was Second Cook and Baker aboard the USS Edward Janeway, a Liberty Ship, which had traveled unescorted to the Philippine Islands to deliver war material to McArthur’s forces. He had previously completed successful cargo delivery missions to Columbia, South America, and Cuba, before hitchhiking alone in his uniform all the way from Wetumpka, Alabama, to the Pacific Ocean in San Pedro, California, to catch his ship assignment to the Philippines. By the way, the cooking skills he developed on ship have been used throughout his life to feed his family members and his golfing buddies during their annual out-of-town excursions.
Returning to Wetumpka in 1945 after the war, he courted a cute little cheerleader who graduated from WHS in December of that year. He and his 17-year-old bride were married on February 8, 1946, at the bride’s home on North Bridge Street by Reverend Everett Calvert of the First Baptist Church of Wetumpka. Nine months and four days later, their first of three children were born. [Back then, couples had the wedding, and then they had the children!]
Our recipient has had a long career in public service. It began on the day that he, in an act of kindness characteristic of him, crawled under an older gentleman’s vehicle and dislodged a stick that had become wedged in the undercarriage. At the time he was working as the service station attendant at the Nash Car Dealership located next to the post office and managed by Bernard Collier. The older gentleman he assisted was George Bernard Smith, the Tax Assessor of Elmore County. Mr. Smith, on the spot, offered the young gas attendant a job as a clerk in the Tax Assessor’s Office for the duration of the fall tag-selling season. It sounded much better than pumping gas, so he gladly accepted the offer.
He later became an Elmore County Deputy Sheriff working for Sheriff Lester Holley. After one and a half years of catching bootleggers and other notorious criminals, he returned to the Tax Assessor’s Office, this time as a full time clerk for E.O. Waites.
In 1956, he took a job as an insurance agent for Liberty National Life Insurance Company, collecting premiums at the homes of the rural people of Elmore County for the next two years. He was successful in his work and won a trip to Miami, Florida one year and a trip to New Orleans the next year. (As a Liberty National agent he enjoyed working with friends and fellow agents Milton Stoudemire, Bubba Haynes, Wilbur Collier, Bobby Lyerly, and Billy Skinner.)
When E.O. Waites retired in 1958 with two years remaining in his term of office as Tax Assessor of Elmore County, Sheriff Lester Holley helped him to seek from Governor Big Jim Folsom the appointment to the vacancy. Typical of his penchant for brutal honesty, he answered “No” when asked in an interview whether or not he voted for Big Jim in his last governor’s race. This frank answer caused Sheriff Holly much anxiety and embarrassment, but Big Jim appointed him to the position of Tax Assessor anyway. By now most of you have realized that our honoree this year is Judge Edward W. Enslen.
In the election of I960, Edward Enslen offered himself as a candidate for Tax Assessor, and he won in a contest against a formidable opponent. During his first six-year term he made full use of a natural talent he had for drawing maps and plats, and he produced by hand perhaps the best set of tax parcel maps of any county in the state. As a service to the citizens and voters, he provided free of charge countless boundary drawings of their property. While serving as Tax Assessor he earned a law degree by correspondence from the Blackstone School of Law. During his first term in office, Edward Enslen’s counterpart in the Tax Collector’s office was a remarkable, totally blind man named Carson Dennison, by trade an amazing electrician and plumber. There was only one good eye between Edward and Carson in the Tax Assessor’s and Tax Collector’s Offices.
Edward was re-elected to a second six-year term in 1966, unopposed.
When Judge Willie Cousins decided to retire in 1970, Edward Enslen ran for election that year to the Office of Judge of Probate. His opponent was his very good friend, Jack Johnston, the Tax Collector. They, and their respective wives, had worked side-by-side in adjoining offices for four years preceding the election. In an extremely close election, Edward Enslen prevailed. Their political campaign was without rancor, and Jack was a gracious looser. Their two sons, John and Parker, would become law partners in the 1980’s. Wetumpka Police Chief Franklin Holt was appointed to fill the vacancy in the Tax Assessor’s Office.
Edward would eventually be re-elected as Probate Judge three more times, 1976, 1982 and 1988. In his final election in 1988, he became the first and only Probate Judge in the history of the State of Alabama to win an election against viable competition without putting up a single political sign. Against those five opponents, Wetumpka Councilman Bob Whaley, former Montgomery County Commissioner Cliff Evans, Elmore County Commissioner Leroy Coker, Warren Aaron of Eclectic, and Wayne Smith of Eclectic, he won the Democratic nomination in a runoff with Cliff Evans before defeating Republican challenger Wayne Smith in the November 1988 general election.
As Probate Judge for 24 years and Chairman of the County Commission for 22 years, Judge Enslen was a great promoter of a fast-growing Elmore County and its marvelous resources. His advertised office slogan was: “Elmore County-A Proud Heritage And A Promising Future.” He was instrumental in keeping the county on a sound financial basis throughout the 22 years he served as Chairman of the County Commission. It was his support of a unit system back in 1988 that caused certain commissioners to recruit some of the five opponents in his last election.
Judge Enslen retired undefeated from the political arena and public service in 1994 at age 67, having been elected to six consecutive six-year terms of public office. He was a wise steward of the taxpayer’s money, and worked harmoniously with 14 different county commissioners: E. J. Adams, Leroy Coker, Melvin Curlee, Larry Dozier, Hubert Farmer, John Harrington, Jack Holley, Felix Macon, Elzie Mehearg, Earl Reeves, Morris Sanders, Wilbur Spigener, Jimmy Stubbs, and Melvin Taylor. A great deal could be said about his outstanding governmental service, such as modernizing the probate office with the use of microfilm, spearheading the establishment of a nationally- recognized county bridge department, the formation of public water authorities throughout the county, the founding of the vocational trade school, the construction of a new health department building, a new agricultural center with a livestock exhibition area, a new jail and judicial complex, new offices for the Auburn Extension Service, the purchase of state-of-the-art voting machines, and county-wide garbage pickup. But I wish to mention some of the many services he voluntarily rendered and for which he was not paid, at least monetarily.
Because of his special interest in eyesight, in 1947 he joined the Wetumpka Lions Club and was there introduced to the fine culinary art of cooking BBQ, and marketing light bulbs, brooms, and mops. Through the years there were countless other fund-raising projects to benefit the blind and partially blind. During his 53 years as a Lion, he served as President, Vice- President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Tailtwister. His courthouse office served as a major collection point for discarded eyeglasses that were refitted for more use by others who needed them.
Upon returning to Wetumpka after the war, Edward Enslen became active in Post 4572 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Post 7 of the American Legion, holding important positions in both organizations. When he served as Quartermaster of the VFW in the early 1950’s, he led the effort of his post to raise the necessary funds to send the entire Elmore County Band, under the direction of George Truman Welch, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they admirably performed at the National VFW Convention.
In the mid-1950’s, Edward was part of the first effort to establish a Wetumpka Chamber of Commerce. He served on the original Board ofDdirectors of the Chamber in 1953. The president was Ellis Austin and other officers and board members those first two years were Frank Moon, J.D. Grady, Jr., Emmett Chapman, Mac Freeman, “Bubba” Weldon, Truman Reneau, John Loyd Law, Howard Weldon, Vic Welden, Heflin Nolen, W.L. Holt, Merrill Wall, Arris Turner, Jud Landrum, Sr., Silas Martin, Sr., Tom McDow, Ed Sanford, Jasper Barrett, W.H. Cook, Kendall Smith, and the only woman, Beth Austin. Although the Chamber was replaced after just a few years with the Wetumpka Merchants Association, it was a forerunner to our present day Chamber.
In 1966 and 1967, Edward Enslen served as President of the Wetumpka Quarterback Club. Under his leadership and suggestion, the club constructed and paid for the concrete bleachers on the west side of Hohenberg Memorial Field, causing a change of the “home” side from East to West. Later that year, 1967, he helped to establish Edgewood Academy and served on its Board of Directors for over two decades.
In the mid and late 1970’s, Edward Enslen was a major force, along with Bill Gray, Al Harris, T. Sanford, Jack Walker, Morris Sanders, Mason Lanier, Kyle Whitaker, and Mike Ray, in the establishment and construction of a local country club where golfers could enjoy their addictive pastime without having to travel to Montgomery. Edward served as the first President of Quail Walk Country Club in 1974 and followed that year with another year as President in 1975.
In 1978, Judge Enslen was elected by his peers throughout the State of Alabama to serve as President of the Probate Judges Association of Alabama. He served many years as a member of the Central Alabama Regional Planning Commission.
In the early 1980’s, he served a term as President of the Elmore County Children’s Organization which began construction, during his term, of the children’s home on the hill near the YMCA.
For many years Judge Enslen served on the Board of Directors of the Montgomery Area United Way. He also served on multiple occasions as the County Chairman of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society. Through his 24 years as Probate Judge he officiated without pay for literally hundreds and hundreds of weddings.
Edward, along with John Brooks, was instrumental in the initial development of Fort Toulouse. He helped Jimmy Collier raise funds for the construction of the YMCA building, and was a major supporter of the Humane Shelter. In 1999, he was the “hanging judge” that helped raise money for the Leukemia Society.
As one who is very jealous of his reputation for honesty, he once slapped a man seated next to him in a barber chair when the man accused him of stealing public money. Edward was arrested and acquitted based on provocation in a trial before a special judge appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to hear the case.
His friendly, personable manner has gained him countless friends, and he has likely served as a pall-bearer at more funerals than any man in the history of our county.
More could be said, but suffice it to say that Judge Edward W. Enslen was in the vanguard and forefront of the development of this county throughout the past five decades—half a century. Between 1965 and 1995, there was hardly a Wetumpka Herald published that did not have his name or picture in it somewhere, promoting the quality of life in Elmore County.
Edward and Louise, his devoted wife of 55 years, have raised three children in this community, and now have ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren with many more likely to come. Edward Enslen has enjoyed all the bounteous blessings that this special part of mother earth provides—hunting, fishing, boating, water skiing, golfing, domino playing, raising cattle, farming soybeans, Alabama football Bear Bryant style, and other personal pursuits, and he has during that same time, returned to his fellow man a meaningful portion of his precious mortal time.
Please join me in saluting Judge Edward W. Enslen as this year’s recipient of the “Community Involvement Citation Award.”