ELSANOR, Ala. — When Jeanette Dyess was born, Highway 59 wasn’t called that. U.S. 90 had just been opened.

Jeanette Dyess Ryan (to use her married name) was born in Rosinton in 1934, on land her great-grandfather and great-grandmother, Winfield Scott Dyess and Eliza Jane Hobbs Dyess had homesteaded shortly after 1890.

The elder Dyesses got to Baldwin County by following a “three trail road,” a road made when a horse or mule-drawn wagon with cattle following would pass. Sometimes called “pig trail roads,” these were the only way besides the rivers, of moving goods between the early settlements of Baldwin County.

Ryan, author of the “Community Neighborhood News” column in The Independent, has been an avid chronicler of local history for years. She’s put together some of the stories she’s researched into a celebration of early Baldwin history, called “Pig Trails and Open Roads: Stories of Central Baldwin County, Alabama.” At some 274 pages, the book chronicles the growth of central Baldwin County from the late 1800s to the present.

“It truly has been a labor of love,” Ryan said of the book, seated in the comfortable Elsanor home she shares with her husband, John.

The book is available at Lee Drug Store and Ard’s Printing in Robertsdale and also can be purchased for $18.95 from online bookstores such as Amazon.com, Target.com or BN.com (Barnes and Noble).

“I really did not start out to write the story of Baldwin County,” said Ryan. “I heard about the bicentennial and wanted to contribute something historical that would be of lasting value to the bicentennial, but this does not compete with the bicentennial book. It is additional information to the bicentennial book. This is a little more about the history of Central Baldwin. I decided that these stories were important to preserve.”

Ryan chronicles the day-to-day accomplishments of area doctors, mayors, teachers and businessmen, and records the founding and rise of area communities such as Robertsdale, Elsanor, Seminole, Rosinton, Silverhill, Summerdale, and Loxley.

An entire chapter is devoted to excerpts from the journals of Dana Sargent Wilcox from Chicago, who settled in the Styx River area. Observant readers will connect the Wilcox name and the “Wilcox Exit” on Interstate 10. Yes, there is a connection — the Interstate runs through what was Wilcox land.

Ryan began chronicling the early days of Baldwin County by talking to her older relatives and friends.

And like many amateur historians who start digging into their local history, Ryan has one complaint: “I just wished I asked lots more questions. Not many are still living.”

Still, Ryan began writing stories with the information she had, and others, seeing her interest, started to share their stories and tidbits of information.

“Other relatives began bringing me stories,” Ryan said.

Ryan didn’t set out to be a historian.

“I was shy, and didn’t have a lot of self-esteem,” said Ryan.

She went to work as a school secretary at the age of 43 and began to discover her knack for putting history together.

“I would do newsletters,” said Ryan, adding that occasionally she’d write something for a school history class.

“I’d come home and do those stories,” said Ryan. “I found out the parents sort of liked them.’

Ryan then got involved with helping to write the history of her church, Bethel Baptist Church in Elsanor

“I got interested in writing history then,” said Ryan.

Fibromyalgia and other conditions forced Ryan, now in her 70s, to retire from the Baldwin County schools in 1993.

“I started putting photos together,” said Ryan. “I had four scrapbooks of pictures and articles about Elsanor School.”

One of Ryan’s former teachers, Virgil Buck, who grew up in Elsanor, began sharing stories with her concerning how things were when he was young, so she dedicated the book to him. However, Buck passed away a month before the book was published.

Ryan also began penning a history column for The Independent, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Writing was not one of the things Ryan envisioned for herself as a young woman.

“I only have a 12th-grade education,” said Ryan. “Anything I write is from God-given talent.”

And like any writer, she has to carve time out to write.

“I can’t write until the TV is off and my husband is asleep,” said Ryan.

She also had to learn to use the modern writer’s tool, the computer.

I had to teach myself to use the computer,” said Ryan. “I had to ask my grandchildren. They know a lot about computers.”

Her husband John is happy the writing is over for now.

“I am glad it’s over,” he said “There was a lot of midnight oil burned on that computer.”

But, it’s not over.

Ryan is planning to work on a second book, focusing on her family stories.

“There are lots of funny stories about my brothers swimming in local creeks,” said Ryan with a chuckle. “It will be a lot more personal.”

Ryan will have two book signings in Robertsdale over the next few weeks.

Saturday, Feb. 21 at Lee Drugs, 18530 Florida St., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Wednesday, March 4 at the George P. Thames Senior Citizens Center, 22651 E. Chicago St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.