Wilton

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Town of Wilton
Wilton logo.jpg
Incorporated 1918
Population 690
Mayor Joe Fancher
School district Shelby County Schools
Government

Wilton Town Council
Wilton Fire Department
Wilton Police Department

Web site wiltonalabama.com
Wilton locator map.png
Locate with Google Maps

Wilton (incorporated April 30, 1918) is a town of 690 people on 0.8 square miles in extreme southwestern Shelby County along Alabama State Highway 25 and sharing a border with Montevallo to the northeast. The community, originally known as Woodsborough, or simply Woods, grew up near the Alabama & Tennessee River Railroad, whose tracks first reached the area in 1853. A local forge is thought to have made the first iron in Shelby County, and the town's freight depot handled the coal shipped from Aldrich, adding connections to the Selma, Rome & Dalton Railroad and the Brierfield, Blocton & Birmingham Railroad. By 1890 the town was known as Birmingham Junction or Junction, and then Bismarck or Bismark before World War I. In the mid-1910s the town was called Catoosa, but was incorporated under its present name, taken from the English railroad center of Wilton, Wiltshire, in 1918.

The community's post office was established on May 26, 1892. The founding town council of Wilton included L. McMillen, L. W. Irwin, O. H. Bice, John Westley Little, Sam Vest, L. Cochran and O. L. Hitchcock. The first Wilton Town Hall burned down, destroying most of the early town records.

Wilton's second Town Hall was built by the Civil Works Administration in 1934. L. Cochran was then serving as Mayor, with O. T. Gay, E. W. Moreland, J. E. Milstead, B. B. Curry and A. L. Milstead serving on the town council.

Wilton was also the site of a Works Progress Administration pump house with a 100,000 gallon storage tank, completed in 1937, and the town continues to maintain its own water system, which also sells water to Shelby County, Chilton County and Bibb County. Wilton also operates its own natural gas utility with four miles of distribution pipe. The former Wilton Depot was moved to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera in 1983.

The Mayor of Wilton is Joe Fancher. The Wilton Town Council meets on the first Tuesday evening of each month at the Wilton Community Center. The council's five members are Bryan Gandy, Alicia Harris, Jessica Smitherman Martin, Carol Wisor and Deborah Hudson. The town is served by the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and the Montevallo Fire Department. Students from Wilton attend Shelby County Schools.

Former Wilton town clerk April Price Romero was convicted of embezzling $8,752 from the town in December 2017.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 580 people, 222 households, and 166 families residing in the town. The population density was 697.1/mi². There were 253 housing units at an average density of 304.1/mi². The racial makeup of the town was 73% White, 24% Black or African American, and 2% from two or more races. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 222 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.0% were married couples living together, 14.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.8% were non-families. 21.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the town the population was spread out with 24.8% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 102.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $33,750, and the median income for a family was $40,833. Males had a median income of $30,893 versus $20,500 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,056. About 9.4% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.5% of those under age 18 and 10.9% of those age 65 or over.

References

  • Wilton, Alabama (May 7, 2007) Wikipedia - accessed May 24, 2007
  • Maloney, Christopher (April 24, 201) "Wilton." Encyclopedia of Alabama online - accessed June 14, 2015
  • Hrynkiw, Ivana (December 7, 2017) "Former town clerk sentenced for embezzlement, ordered to pay over $17,000 in restitution." The Birmingham News
Shelby County seal.jpg Shelby County
Topics

Communities | County Commission | Schools | Sheriff

Cities

Alabaster | Calera | Chelsea | Columbiana (seat) | Harpersville | Helena | Indian Springs Village | Montevallo | Pelham | Vincent | Westover | Wilsonville | Wilton