MATHISTON — History was originally passed down through story telling. Beginning with cave drawings and reaching now into advanced technological realms, storytelling has bound humanity to its ancestors and roots.
“My grandfather Jim Wills lived in the Simpson community in Choctaw County. He was a walking encyclopedia of local history. He would tell all of us stories of growing up and of the Depression Era in Choctaw County. I found it particularly fascinating,” says Lavelle McAlpin.
“That oral storytelling is something I learned at his knee. In 1917-1918 he helped bury victims of Spanish flu. He worked in the Mississippi Delta hauling the huge trees out. He told us about walking from Simpson to Ackerman to a political rally.”
McAlpin teaches history at East Webster High School. During the COVID outbreak, someone suggested that East Webster’s students would enjoy hearing their history via podcast. It’s like history being broadcast on the radio.
“Students wanted learning to continue,” McAlpin said. “Enough stated an interest that we thought local history was the best idea.”
He says the goal is to replicate the old tradition of Southern storytelling — the type of thing once down around the kitchen table and passed down from generation to generation.
McAlpin grew up in Mathiston. His grandfather was a watermelon farmer in Smith County who had 13 children. As he aged he knew he didn’t want to continue in the melon business and saw a small farm listed in the Mississippi Market Bulletin. That brought the family to the Mathiston area about 1961.
McAlpin graduated from EWHS. He graduated from University of Mississippi in managerial finance and went to work at Wood College as a financial officer.
The first year he ran for alderman, he asked questions about Mr. Mathis, father of the town of Mathiston. No one seemed to know much about him, and that piqued McAlpin’s interest. He began searching for information and eventually was contacted by a member of Mathis’ family. The railroad had brought the family to town and the depot itself was named MathisTown, for Mathis. The town grew up around the depot and became Mathiston.
McAlpin’s been teaching at East Webster since 2003. He taught Chance Carden, who teaches Introduction to U.S. History and English at East Webster, and also co-hosts “The Grateful Historians Podcast” with him. The two are part of the new generation of public educators: teachers who are working hard to teach critical thinking skills along with content. Carden’s English skills and analytical approach provide a nice balance to McAlpin’s storytelling skills.
Nine episodes have been recorded; each lasts about 45 minutes.
“It’s the equivalent of listening to old-time radio but with state-of-the-art technology,” McAlpin explained.
McAlpin is also public address announcer for football and did this at EWHS before he started working there. His voice sounds like it was trained for radio, but it’s all-natural.
One of the upcoming podcasts will be about a book called “The Captured” by Scott Zesch.
“It’s about children who were taken captive on the Great Plains,” McAlpin said. “They lived with the Comanches for one to two years and were eventually reunited with their families but they never acclimated to the culture.”
McAlpin has been an alderman for the town of Mathiston since 2005.
“I think if people understand where they come from, they are a lot more likely to be engaged with the community and not do things like throw trash out on the road and be disrespectful,” he said. “They have a deeper understanding so they take care of the community.”
The podcast is carried by six major sites: ITunes, Spotify, anchor.fm, Google Podcasts, PocketCasts and RadioPublic. Go to any of those sites and search for “The Grateful Historians Podcast” and there will be an option to subscribe.
