09/11/2026
What a great photo, Wilcox Historical Society! Can anyone help identify these teenagers waiting on the train at the Pine Apple Depot? 🚂
🚂 One Afternoon Before Train Time — Pine Apple, c. 1929
Sometimes an old photograph captures more than faces; it captures a whole afternoon.
This wonderful snapshot was taken by Nettie Till, born in 1912 and a student at Moore Academy, graduating with the Class of 1931. Nettie would have been about 17 years old when she picked up her camera and captured this close-knit group of friends at the Pine Apple Depot around 1929.
Written right on the photograph are the words “Pine Apple Depot” and, along the bottom and side, “One afternoon before train time.”
Several of these teenagers traveled by train from McWilliams to Pine Apple to attend Moore Academy. The two-story brick Moore Academy building had been completed only a few years earlier, in 1923. Imagine taking the train to school each day!
And take a closer look at that wonderful late-1920s small-town fashion: the girls in their drop-waist dresses, bobbed hair, stockings, canvas sneakers, and Mary Janes. Even better is how easily they crowd together, arms around one another, simply passing the time. You can almost hear the conversation and laughter while they waited for the train.
We know who is in the photograph, but we don't know who is who!
Those pictured are Evelyn Brown (born 1915); her brother, Page Brown (born 1913); Caroline Burdette (born 1913); Dorothy Sadler; Sybil Hicks; and John Curry Jr.
The dates give us a few clues: Evelyn would have been about 14, while Page and Caroline would have been about 16.
What makes this photograph especially appealing is that an adult didn't document these young people. A teenager photographed her own friends and schoolmates. In those days, taking casual snapshots was often called “kodaking.” Nearly a century later, Nettie's afternoon of kodaking gives us a wonderfully personal glimpse into their lives.
🔎 Now we need your help! Can you match any of these names to the faces? Do you recognize a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or perhaps a family resemblance that has carried down through the generations?
Please comment, tag someone who might know, and share this photograph, especially with families connected to Pine Apple, McWilliams, and Moore Academy. Maybe together we can identify all six!
📷 Photograph by Nettie Till, Moore Academy Class of 1931. Courtesy of her daughter, Lucy Feagin Tracy.
If you enjoy discovering Wilcox County through photographs and stories like this one, follow the Wilcox Historical Society and invite a friend to follow us, too. Sometimes our followers are the very people who help us match names with faces.
Moore Academy Alumni Association, Inc.
