Calhoun County AlArchives Obituaries.....Nixon, Herman Clarence, Dr. (PhD) August 10, 1967 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Valerie [ Johnson ] Freeman http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00009.html#0002248 June 12, 2009, 4:41 pm "The Anniston Star" Anniston, Calhoun Co., Alabama Saturday, August 12, 1967 pg. 1 Dr. Nixon Succumbs at Age 80 Dr. H. Clarence Nixon, Southern defender, student and historian is dead. The 80-year-old Calhoun County native died quietly at his Nashville home Thursday following a long decline. He was buried this morning in Henderson, Tenn. Dr. Nixon's colorful study of the economy, history and sociology of a small Calhoun County community is accepted as the standard work of its kind. "Possom Trot" is often quoted in works on the South. His reputation as a defender (See Nixon on Page 2 column 6) of the positive contributions of the South stems from his selection, along with novelist- historian Robert Penn Warren as a contributor to "I'll Take My Stand." Other books by Dr. Nixon include: "Forty Acres and Steel Mules,' co-author of the basic college text "Short History of the American People," author of "The American Federal Government" and co-author of "State and Local Government." He was former head of the history department at Vanderbilt University and had taught at Birmingham Southern, the University of Alabama, Emory University, Duke University, Tulane and the University of Kentucky. During World War I, Dr. Nixon served with the U. S. Army and was appointed to a post on President Wilson's staff at the historic peace conference of 1918-1919. He was born at Merrellton near Jacksonville, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Nixon and still has relatives living in the Jacksonville area. A son, John of Washington, D. C., is a former Anniston City attorney. He attended the old Jacksonville Normal School (now Jacksonville University) and Auburn University. He received his doctorate at the University of Chicago and also attended the University of Paris, France. Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Ann Trice Nixon, of Nashville, another son, Nicholas C. of Nashville; a brother, Dr. H. W. of Auburn; two sisters, Mrs. Jamie Bledsoe of Carrollton, Ga., and Miss Mamie Nixon of Atlanta, Ga.; and two grandchildren. Additional Comments: Son of William Dawson Nixon and Nancy Jane Green * Alabama Dept of Archives & History website: Activity 3: Point of View: Accounts of Former Slaveholders 1. Background Information for Teachers: Slavery is most often studied from the point-of-view of the slaveholder, since written records are numerous. This lesson studies slavery from the view of slaveholders. James A. Tait was a wealthy slaveholder in Wilcox County, Alabama. He recorded notes about his slaves, including births and family relationships, in a memorandum book. He also recorded his thoughts and advice to his children on the mangement of slaves and his plantation. We can also learn about slavery from the point-of-view of slaveholders through interviews done in the twentieth century. In 1912 Herman Clarence Nixon sent questionnaires to former slaveholders and their children as he was preparing a study on slavery in Alabama. The questionnaire solicited information on slaves' housing, clothing, food, employment, family life, education, entertainment, religion, morality, treatment by their owners, escapes, punishment, emancipation, and relationships and attitudes toward free Negroes and nonslaveholding whites. Nixon was born in 1886 in Calhoun County, Alabama and he died in 1967. Nixon was an author, educator and sociologist, who is best remembered as a member of the Vanderbilt (or Nashville) Agrarians and for his active role in Southern social politics of the 1930s and 1940s. For more information on Nixon see: Sarah Newman Shouse, Hillbilly Realist: Herman Clarence Nixon of Possum Trot. The University of Alabama Press, 1986. * World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 Name: Herman Clarence Nixon Res; Merrellton, Alabama Birth: December 29, 1886 Born: Merrellton, Ala Mil Exp: Member Reserve Officers Co 15, Fort Sheridan, Ill Single, white Med height, slender build brown eyes, black hair Reg: 5 June 1917 @ Pct 8, Calhoun Co., Alabama Roll: 1509363 * Social Security Death Index Name: Herman Nixon SSN: 414-50-3994 Last Residence: 37212 Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States of America Born: 29 Dec 1886 Died: Aug 1967 State (Year) SSN issued: Tennessee (Before 1951) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/calhoun/obits/n/nixonphd1584gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 4.9 Kb