Seale, Alabama, is an unincorporated residential community 15 miles southwest of Phenix City and Columbus, Georgia. Although Seale is technically in the Central Time Zone, most of the residents choose to live on Eastern, or "fast" time, because so many of us work in Columbus or Ft. Benning.

In the mid 1800's, the small trading town called Silver Run (after one of the many creeks in the area) was identified with the railroad station named for Colonel Arnold Seale--first as Seale's Station in 1856, and then simply as Seale. The county seat was moved from Crawford to Seale, the geographical center of Russell County, in 1868, and a two-story courthouse was built in the center of town. Soon, Seale had a hotel, a bank, a drugstore, a school, and several general mercantile stores, warehouses, mills, and churches.

In 1935, the county seat was again moved, this time to Phenix City. (Phenix City and Hurtsboro are now the only incorporated towns in Russell County.) The courthouse was abandoned as a branch judicial center in the 1940s. Used as a basketball court in the 1950s, the second-floor courtroom gradually became a home for hundreds of pigeons, and the building was left to deteriorate. The hotel, bank, drugstore, mercantile stores, warehouses, and mills also closed; most of these buildings have disappeared.

Today, Seale is the home of three large schools in the Russell County School System: Russell County High School, Russell County Middle School, and Oliver Elementary School. The secondary students are bussed from Ladonia, Dixie, Ft. Mitchell, Pittsview, Glenville, Uchee, Cottonton, Hatchechubbee, and Hurtsboro. We have approximately ten churches and several garages, filling stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. Our post office serves over 1500 mailboxes on four routes.

The old courthouse building was saved in 1975 by a committee of concerned citizens and was improved (new roof, electricity, air-conditioning) with proceeds from the Old Russell County Courthouse Fair on Labor Day, an annual event until 1999.  The courthouse is now used by the community for weddings, dances, reunions, and meetings.

In 1842, several families organized a congregation that met at a small meeting place located on the north side of the Federal Road, about 12 miles west of the Chattahoochee River,. This "preaching place," known as Glenn Chapel, was near what is now the home of Roy and Janie Greene. When the church was dismantled in 1866, the timbers of the church were sold and became part of the Brannon house. The congregation built a church in Seale near the railroad, on a site that is now the cemetery. The present church building was constructed around 1876.

We are proud of our church's historic role as a real-world classroom for student ministers. These students live in Atlanta during the week and attend classes in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. On the weekends and during holidays, they live in Seale and minister to the two congregations in this charge. And then they graduate, and leave us for a full-time ministry!