Calhoun County AlArchives News.....Newspaper abstracts for JAN., FEB., MARCH, APRIL 1885 1885 ************************************************ 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: C Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net September 30, 2006, 3:36 pm The Jacksonville Republican 1885 NEWSPAPER ABSTRACTS FROM "THE JACKSONVILLE REPUBLICAN", Jacksonville, Calhoun County, Alabama for JANUARY 1885, FEBRUARY 1885, MARCH 1885, APRIL 1885 NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, JANUARY 3, 1885 LOCAL News Mr. John Crouch of Beat 8, a well known citizen of this county, died on pneumonia on Thursday. But a few days ago he was in Jacksonville in apparently perfect health. --- MARRIED, at the residence of the bride's mother on Dec. 28, 1884 by Rev. A.T. Blackwell, Mr. Charles P. Nunnelly of Ohatchee in this county and Miss Annie E. Rountree of Maysville, Ala. The happy couple left immediately for Birmingham where they spent a day with Mrs. Brown, the bride's sister. Returning to the home of the groom they stopped over Wednesday in Anniston and received the congratulations of friends. They arrived in Jacksonville Wednesday night and left next morning for Ohatchee where they will make their future home. --- DEATH OF MRS. J.H. PRIVETT Mrs. Privett, wife of Mr. J.H. Privett, living two miles south of Jacksonville, died at the residence of her husband, surruounded by her children, last Thursday. The Sunday before she was in Jacksonville visiting a daughter-in- law. Although her health ahd not been good for years, her last illness was very sudden and the annoucement of her death came with a painful shock to our entire community. She, like Mrs. Hayden who died a few days before, was one of the oldest residents of Jacksonville. Here she lived a long life and reared a large family of children and saw grandchildren grow up around her. With her death, disappears another of the links that connect the long ago with the present. Mrs. Privett was a gentle, kind hearted and deeply pious woman and her consistent, beautiful life has left an influence of good that neither time nor circumstances can destroy. She was the soul of hospitality and loving kindness, and none came within the sphere of her gentle influence who did not love her. She is deeply mourned by a large circle of friends. ---- DEATH OF MRS. HAYDEN Mrs. Hayden died at her residence in this place last Sunday evening. Had she lived but a few weeks longer she would have attained her seventy-fifth year. Mrs. Hayden was at the time of her death one of the few of the earliest settlers of Jacksonville that time has left. She is associated with the very first recollections of the writer as a lady of peculiarly pleasing manner and gentle, christian kindness. During her long residence in this place we do not suppose she ever made an enemy. On the contrary, she was universally beloved and respected. When the messenger of death came to summons her to rest, the whole town testified a sincere respect and sorrow by attendance at her funeral. Her influence for good will be long felt in the community from which she has gone and her memory will remain to witness the beautiful perfection to which human character may be shaped under the divine influence of the teachings of the Redeemer. ---- IN MEMORIAM OF MRS. FANNIE ACRE HAMMOND "We die, alas; how soon we die.! " In the town of Jacksonville, Alabama on the 12th day of December 1884, at the family residence in the presence of her loved ones, Mrs. Fannie Acre Hammond, calmly closed her eyes in the sleep of death. Mrs. Hammond was the daugahter of William J. and Narcissa Whisesnant and was born on the 13th day of January 1842. At an early age she was placed at school in Jacksonville; completed her studies at the seiminary in Huntsville; and was married to Capt. J.D. Hammond in the county of Calhoun on the 18th day of May 1858. As a child she was gentle, kind, trusting and in womanhood these virtues ripened. As a member of society, her quiet, unobtrusive bearing was conspicuously beautiful, and as wife and mother, her devotion to husband and children knew no bounds; their comfort and happiness was the "ocean to the river of her thoughts." As a member of the Methodist Episcopal church to which she attached herself in May 1869, she was undemonstrataive to the world, but it was a pleasure to the writer of this tribute to hear her beloved minister, as he stood over the bier of the departed sister, speak in glowing terms of her open hearted hospitality, her christian benevolence, her submisssion to the Will of the Father, her strong and sublime faith. Her gentle resignation under the afflicting rod of disease, illustrated her christian faith, and the soft and almost inaudible utterance of undying love for husband and little ones, shed a beautiful halo along the horizon of a life fast ebbing away. Fannie Hammond has gone! Husband and children may realize that the light of the household has gone out, may feel the piercing pang, the burning tear; but they must not mourn; hers is a better life, in a brighter, better world beyond. True, it may seem to mortal eyes that the Master has called too soon for the wife and mother who had not yet reached the zenith of womanhood; but "death approaches with an equal step and knocks indiscriminately at the door of the cottage and the portals of the palace" and claims in all seasons, all ages for his own. To His inexorable demand, we all must bow, and can only exclaim, "We die, alas!, how soon we die." ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, JANUARY 10, 1885 LOCAL News MARRIED, at the residence of the bride's father on Dec. 25, 1884, by Rev. F.M. Treadaway, Mr. Joseph M. McReynolds of Calhoun county and Miss Mattie A. Hutts of Talladega county. ---- DEATH OF CAPT. FRY Capt. R.M. Fry, living near Germania, two miles above Jacksonville, died after a short illness Monday morning last. He was a man of great energy and a gentle man of genial and agreeable manner. Capt. Fry worked quite an extensive plantation of leased land for several years with hired labor and demonstrated the fact that farming, even under these conditions, can be made to pay, where intelligent method and energy are brought to bear. ---- LOCAL News Mr. Jacob Gottleib who keeps the local butcher shop here, while out hunting Thursday, was accidentally shot by a gun in the hands of a friend. The shot was small and penetrated the right leg almost its entire length. No bones were broken and the wound, while painful, is not thought to be dangerous. The gentleman who held the gun that was discharged greatly regrets the occurrence. --- DEATH OF CAPT. J.C. FRANCIS Capt. J.C. Francis, son of Dr. J.C. Francis of this place, died at Augusta, Ga., the night of the 4th inst. He was a gallant member of the immortal Fourth Alabama Regiment and was wounded at the battle of Manassas in the early part of the war. After the war he married in Augusta, Ga. and was quite successful in business, and his life was one of bright promise until he was overtaken with the excruciating and painful disease which pursued him for life and rendered it a burden to him. He spent largely of his means in the vain search for health, but only with brief intervals found release from suffering, until death came to his relief. He was of genial and kind disposition and had hosts of friends wherever he was known. Here where he was born and raised, he was greatly beloved, and his sad death has cast a profound gloom over the entire community. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, JANUARY 17, 1885 ALABAMA News From "The Selma Times" newspaper - - - - Old Aunt Priscilla Campbell, colored, died in this city Sunday night and was buried last afternoon. It is said by those who are naturally presumed to know that the poor old woman was one hundred and twelve years old on the 25th of last December, Christmas Day. Long years ago, she was the slave and property of the Walker family who lived in the country beyond the river. During the past twelve or fifteen years she has resided in Selma, living in the house with old Uncle Peter, the aged colored individual employed by Capt. R.J. Fowler about the city wharf. Uncle Peter was a son-in-law of the old lady and claims that he is ninety years of age himself. In her extreme old age, Aunt Priscilla became very childish and lost her strength and power of speech. In it said by those who were intimately associated with her that when the weather was very cold she would crawl from bed at night and begin the most pitious moaning and jabbering, but for long months she was unable to utter an intelligent word. Children who lived in the neighborhood were very friendly toward the old lady and say that in her latter years she was so old and shrunken in features she scarcely appeared as a human being. She was buried decently last afternoon, having died from the wear and tear of so many long years. ---- LOCAL News Anniston, Ala., January 10th A cyclone has again passed through this section of the state. It alighted on the farm of J.C. Griffin, about five miles from this place. Several buildings were destroyed and Mr. John Huff, a tenant on the place, was severely injured by falling timbers of a barn that blew away. After demolishing the place, the storm arose, leaving the earth and passed for half a mile in a northeast course, it then dropped suddenly and carried everything, fences, trees, and buildings before it, leaving a clean path about one hundred yards wide. --- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, JANUARY 24, 1885 LOCAL News Alfred Forney, a worthy colored man, who has accumulated a snug property here since the war, died at his home near this place some days ago. --- MARRIED, at the residence of the bride in this county on the 14th inst., Mr. Joe Whisenant and Mrs. B. Hoke. --- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, JANUARY 31, 1885 LOCAL News Mad dogs have been doing much damage near White Plains. Some valuable stock of Mr. Ashley's near that place was bitten. --- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, FEBRUARY 21, 1885 LOCAL News The counsel of Jno. A. DeArman moved for a new trial last Saturday and Mr. Geo. W. Parsons supported the motion in a very able speech, but Judge Box denied the motion and DeArman was sent to the Etowah county jail. The case will be taken again to the Supreme Court. --- DEATH OF MR. SPARTAN ALLEN The death of Mr. Spartan Allen last week, removes another of Calhoun's oldest landmarks. He came to this county before the removal of the Indians and remained here, an honored and respected citizen until the time of his death. He has represented Calhoun, then Benton county, in the lower house of the Legislature and for many years had been county surveyor. He had many fine traits which evoked the admiration of men, while his genial, considerate and courtesous bearing toward all drew to him the hearts of men as the magnet attracts the needle. We doubt if he had an enemy in the world, while his friends were numerous. News of his death will be received with universal regret throughout the county. ---- DEATH OF CAPT. EDWARD J. DEAN Capt. Edward J. Dean died in Rome, Ga., the 12th inst., where he had gone for treatment at the hands of Dr. Beatty for Bright's disease. For some years, Capt. Dean resided in Alexandria Valley in this county and was very highly esteemed. A few years ago he removed to Talladega county and was a citizen of that county at the time of his death. He was a brother of Mr. Hosea Dean of this county who now resides in Alexandria. Capt. Dean was born in Spartanburg. S.C. on January 1, 1842. His father was a man of distinguished position in that state. His mother was a resident of Washington city at the time of her marriage and was a lady of the very highest culture and fine social position. The parents of Mr. Dean were possessed of wealth and he, consequently had the very best advantages in his early life. He was a student at St. James College, Maryland at the outbreak of the war, but at once left college and joined the first company that enlisted from his native state. During the war he became Captain of Co. C, 22nd S.C. Volunteers and commanded his troops with marked courage and ability until he was captured at the battle of the "Crater" in front of Petersburg, that notable encounter that members of the 10th Alabama now living can so easily recall. Being carried to prison, he was urged to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and become a free man, but, although he had relatives of wealth and then living in Washington city and while such a course would have procured for him a life of ease and even luxury, he preferred to suffer affliction with those whom he had cast his lot and share the hardships of prison life, and he steadily refused such overturese and remained a prisoner until the close of the war. This incident serves to show the character of the man he was, and it tells at the same time the secret of the strong hold which he took upon the esteem and affections of those with whom he came in contact. As one who knew him best has said to us, " he was a patriot, a loyal friend and a man full of warm impulses and generous affections." The Talladega Mountain Home newspaper, in the course of a warm eulogy thus alludes to the religious side of his life: " Captain Dean was a most efficient deacon of the Baptist church in Talladega, and one whose labors will be seriously missed by his church and pastor. He was a highly social and genial man, active and earnest in whatever claimed his attention, frank and outspoken to a fault; there was never any doubt as to which side of any questions had his cooperation. He was in the truest sense, a gentleman. He approached death in rational possession of mind, in perfect comfort and composure and with the joyous prospects of a dying Christian. " ----- LOCAL News While in Montgomery recently, Mr. A.A. Mabson told us that he had received a letter from a federal officer saying that he had the company roll of Capt. R.C. Ragan's Company, known as the Alexandria Rifles, Tenth Alabama Regiment, and would be glad to send the same to the relatives of Capt. Ragan, if he could get their address. Capt. Ragan was wounded and died from the effects of the wound, at Richmond. His relatives in this county can get these historic papers by writing to Mr. A.A. Mabson in Montgomery, Ala., who will take pleasure in looking further after the matter for them. ---- MARRIED, at the residence of Rev. F.M. Treadaway, the officiating clergyman, on the 19th inst., Mr. Jno. W. Gidley and Miss Lou Glover, all of this county. --- DEATH OF MAJ. FULLENWIDER Major Jno. W. Fullenwider, a long time resident of Jacksonville until recent months, died at the home of Mrs. Loyd, a sister, Sunday last, after a very long illness. For more than a year past he had been confined to his bed, previous to his death. Mr. Fullenwider was for many years Depot agent at this place and in that position he displayed much fidelity to the interests of the railroad he served and proved himself a most efficient business man. Ill health compelled him to resign this place some years ago and he never engaged in business afterward until the time of his death. He leaves a wife, but no children to mourn his loss. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, FEBRUARY 28, 1885 LOCAL News George Royer, a white man, was murdered near Ramagnano & Henderson's Still house in Cleburne county, near the northwestern line of this county last Saturday. J.R. Davis was one of the men charged with the crime and he was arrested and on preliminary examination bound over to answer the charge. Col. Ellis went from here to defend the prisoner. We learn from him that the character of evidence that connects Davis with the crime was purely circumstantial. ---- OXFORD News Mrs. Jno. U. Whiteside, a very old lady, is dangerously ill at Mrs. Easley's. --- Died, at the residence of her husband in this place on the 19th inst., of pulmonary disease, Mrs. T.T. McAdams, a daughter of Maj. Spartan Allen, a prominent citizen of this county who died recently. ---- LOCAL News MARRIED, in Oxford, at the residence of Mr. Joe A. Jones, a brother of the bride, on Tuesday the 24th inst., by Rev. J.M. McLean, Mr. S.H. Lester and Miss Mattie Jones, both of Jacksonville. --- DIED, at the residence of Peter Acker, near Sulphur Springs, in Calhoun county, on the 4th of February 1885, an orphan boy raised by Mr. I.N. Wilman, Willie Carroll, aged about 21 or 25 years. He was a member of the Sulphur Springs Baptist church and a consistent and exemplary member. He possessed a warm and benevolent heart and was ever ready unto every good word and work. So perfectly strict was he in his walk and conversation that he was a light to all around him and a pattern of true piety. He suffered long and intensely but he murmured not a word. His friends talked with him about dying; he was perfectly resigned to the will of God. He leaves no relation in his part of the country but many friends to mourn his loss. While we do weep, Willie has gone to realms of joy. E.F.A. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, MARCH 7, 1885 LOCAL News DEATH OF MR. L.A. WEAVER Mr. L.A. Weaver died at his home in this place on Monday the 2nd inst., after a long illness. He had, at the time of his death, been a citizen of this place between thirty and forty years and stood deservedly high for uprightness of character, energy in business and all other good qualities that go to make up the good man and citizen. He was an active member of the Presbyterian church at this place and held official position in it until failing health disqualified him for the discharge of the duties of the position. About three years ago he contracted a cold which settled on his lungs and developed into something like Consumption. All medical treatment failed to reach his case and he gradually grew weaker and weaker, under the insidious attacks of the disease, until death came to relieve him of suffering and transport him to a better and brighter land. He leaves a wife and children to mourn his loss. It may be truthfully said of him that he was a most useful citizen, a kind husband and father and a pious and humble christian. ---- LETTER FROM TEXAS, from N.F. Bryant The following letter was received by us some weeks ago. People who think of leaving Calhoun county for Texas would do well to read it before finally making up their minds: Cone Switch, Milam County, Texas Feb. 8, 1885 Editor of Republican: Will you be so kind as to allow me a little space in your valuable paper, through which I wish to tell my many friends of old Calhun county, my views of the great Lone Star State: Well, having resided in old Calhoun for thirty years up to last Fall, I decided to try my fortune in the far west, and thereupon set out for Texas, for the purpose of getting a shake at the great western tree of wealth. I have traveled a thousand miles in search of the "Fritter Tree" and yet it is just a little farther west. There are a good many old Calhoun county people in Milam county who have been shaking this fabulous tree for several long years. Some of them have been very successful. B.R. Griffin has shaken off a fine farm and Wm. Morgan is still able to shake, and shakes out a great deal of cotton; he also owns a good farm. I find that men who farm in Texas work harder than any people I ever saw; therefore I would not advise anyone having a living in Calhoun county to give it away for the purpose of coming west. Taking all things into consideration, there is but little difference between this country and that. The soil here is very fine, I will admit, but while we have advantages in some respects, we have disadvantages in others. A great many people are breaking themselves up moving about trying to find a better place. But for me and my home, we will be content when he have returned to our little home in old Calhoun county. Well, I will give you the prices of groceries and farm products: Corn is worth 50 cents per bushel; oats 50 cents; flour from $2.75 to $3.00 per hundred; coffee 12 to 15 cents per pound; sugar from 5 to 8 cents per pound; calico from 5 to 8 cents per yard. A good cow and calf is worth $20. Good will to old Calhoun. N.F. Bryant, Milam county, Texas ----- ALABAMA News NOT GUILTY VERDICT OF TIME AND DEATH DOES JUSTICE TO AN INNOCENT PRISONER Selma, Alabama, from "The Selma Times" newspaper: The following item was clipped from the "New Beria, Louisiana Enterprise" newspaper and will be read with interest by many of our readers: " W.W. Beasley, convicted four years ago of manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary, has been pardoned by the Governor." Mr. Beasley is a native Alabamian, and at one time was a resident of this city (Selma, Ala.) He is remembered by many of our people as an upright, genial gentleman and was esteemed as such by all who knew him. He was a brave member of Company A of the Fourth Alabama Regiment and went from this city to the Confederate Army with the Governor's Guards and under command of Col. Thos. Goldsby. In the war, Mr. Beasley distinguished himself as a soldier of true courage and won a record of which he may feel justly proud. His wife was one of Alabama's loveliest women, a daughter of Judge Faulker of Montgomery. She was accidentally shot and killed by a discharge of a shotgun in the hands of Col. May, a brother-in-law of Mr. Beasley, in Montgomery, Ala., a few years ago. When convicted of manslaughter in New Orleans four years ago, Mr. Beasley was a defenseless victim to circumstantial evidence. Col. P.D. Bowles of Evergreen, a prominent lawyer and the last Colonel the Fourth Alabama had, was a warm personal friend of Mr. Beasley. He went with Col. J.S. Stearns, also of Evergreen, to New Orleans when their unfortunate comrade was on trial and used every effort to secure his release; but all to no avail. The prisoner was charged with having thrown a woman from a balcony in New Orleans, causing her immediate death. He earnestly protested his innocence, but the evidence was against him and the awful sentence of the Judge and jury fell upon him. The tears and sympathies of family could not secure a reprieve and the poor man was sent to the penitentiary to serve his term of sentence. Here the matter has rested until quite recently, when one witness who testifed against the prisoner during the trial died, and made a deathbed statement to the effect that the dead woman committed suicide, and the that the prisoner was wholly innocent of the crime with which he was charged and under which he was convicted and sentenced. Since this new revelation, the Governor of Louisiana has granted a pardon and liberated the victim of unjust law. A prominent citizen of this county who served in the same Company with Mr. Beasley during the war, in a conversation with a Selma Times reporter yesterday, related an incident in which the latter gentleman took a leading part. It is as follows: At the first battle of Manassas, Mr. Beasley captured twenty-one Yankee soldiers who had taken refuge from battle in the basement of a stone building. He forced them to march out one by one, surrender and lay down their guns; then he took them all into the Confederate camp. When asked how he managed to capture the "whole bunch" the good soldier smiled just a little and replied " I surrounded them." The information that he has been pardoned and released, even at this late day, will be received gladly by the many friends of the unfortuate gentleman in this section. We might add, in conclusion, that Mr. Beasley was well known in Alabama journalism for a number of years. He was publisher of "The Southern Plantation", an agricultural paper published in Montgomery since the war and also proprietor of "The Conecuh Banner" at Evergreen. -------- LOCAL News As we go to press, we learn of the death of Mrs. Nannie Reese, which occurred at White Plains on Wednesday evening last. She was 36 years of age at the time of her death. She was a most estimable lady. Her death will be mourned by a very large circle of friends and relatives. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, MARCH 14, 1885 LOCAL News News was received here Thursday that Mr. Whitely of Rome, Ga., dropped dead on the street in Montgomery on that day. --- We have heard a rumor that Mrs. Seiber, wife of Mr. D. Seiber, one of the oldest citizen of Calhoun county, dropped dead near her home some eight miles above this place on Tuesday. She was a most excellent lady and we sincerely hope the rumor may prove untrue. --- Judge. Thos. A. Walker went to step from the front porch of his house a few night ago, but missed the step, and fell several feet and sustained painful but not dangerous injuries. He is at present doing well. ---- The Probate Judge of this county now has the neccesary blanks and is prepared to receive applications for relief under the act of the last Legislature, appropriating $25,000. to Confederate Soldiers who lost their sight or received disabling wounds in the service of the Confederate government. ---- DEATH OF AN EXCELLENT COLORED MAN, ALFRED GRANT DIED, at his home in Jacksonville, Wednesday morning, the 11th inst., Alfred Grant, a colored man, aged about 68 years. Alfred was brought to this county as a slave from North Carolina by Mr. Jacob Forney, in the early settlement of the country. He was purchased by Mr. J.F. Grant over forty years ago and served him faithfully and well until long after he was made free by the result of the war. During the war, he followed the editor of this newspaper (L.W. Grant) for four long years, as servant, and in this capacity, testified his devotion in a hundred ways, more than once exposing himself to imminent danger to be of service to him. During that period he was a thorough Confederate both in sympathy and act, though he was intelligent enough to know what the result of the war meant to him. When the war terminated disastrously to the cause of the South and brought him freedom and the ballot, he remained the same devoted and respectful man he had ever been, and when his race went off almost as one to the Radical Party, under the teachings of the carpet baggers, he remained with the Democrats; and perhaps no man in Calhoun county more keenly enjoyed the success of the National Democracy in the election of Cleveland than did he. He was by no means indifferent to the interests of his race, but he looked at the situation with a fuller comprehension of it, and he was a Democrat because he had a profound faith in the justice of the Southern people. He used to say that he did not want to hurt the interests of the white people of the South by the employment of his ballot against them, and he was sure that they would not use power to hurt him or his race. He was one of the few black men of this section who had the courage to vote his convictions and yet who escaped the ostracism of his race. While they differed from him most widely politically, they respected him at the same time. He also enjoyed both the respect and confident of the white people to a remarkable degree. He was honest; he possessed courage; he was respectful to superiors without a touch of servility; he was humble yet bearing himself as if conscious of his own worth. When the State Normal School was established here he was unanimously elected Janitor by the Board of Trustees and won the regard of the teachers and the affection of the pupils; and when he died, the entire faculty and all the pupils attended his funeral in a body to testify their respect for his memory. The funeral procession thus formed was joined on the way to the cemetery by a large number of white people from every walk and avocation of life. It was a sight never witnessed before in this community, and proves that a life, however humbly lived, if it carries with it integrity and conduct, loyalty to friends and devotion to the interests of the community in which it is spent, will secure the respect of mankind without regard to race or station. ----- HEBRON Community News Capt. J.P. Gore has erected him a nice cottage near the Baptist church and intends to make Hebron his home in the future. We heartily welcome him and lady to our midst. --- Our young and handsome merchant Mr. E.W. Powers has to go home every Sunday lately. It looks as if some of the Valley belles have enchanted him, but he says not, and we have to take his word. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, MARCH 21, 1885 ALABAMA News Mr. James T. Golden, late sheriff of Cleburne county, died nearly two weeks ago, but there were no active applications until yesterday, when the Governor appointed William A. Stephens to the position of sheriff. He is an energetic and capable young man who had filled the position of deputy sheriff. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, MARCH 28, 1885 ALABAMA News Zach Bass of Bullock county was shot three times by unknown parties a few days ago. Bass was reportedly in the habit of beating his wife until she separated from him, but on his promise to do better in the future, she returned to him. He did not keep his promise, and the shooting is supposed to be a reminder that the people of that section do not approve of wife beating. He was not seriously hurt and has since left the county. ---- WAR TIMES From "The Valdosta, Georgia Times" newspaper M.M. Folsom of Americus, Georgia contributed the following to the last issue of the Valdosa Times: " The days of my childhood were spent amidst stirring scenes and troublous times. Southern ports were blockaded by Federal gunboats and frontiers beleagured by Northern Armies. Did you ever see a "Georgia button" ? Those shirt buttons were queer looking things. With their own hands our industrious mothers spun the thread, and needles were needles in those days. Provided with needle and thread they selected the site for the proposed button and began sewing in and out and round and round. By a simple operation the button was made and sewed on fast. The button was made altogether of thread and possessed a decided advantage, it never coming off. It lasted just as long as the button hole. Home made tumblers were an ingenious contrivance. A round bottle, white if it could be obtained, was selected and a stout cord was wrapped around it. One per son held one end of the cord, another held the other and moved the bottle, quite rapidly, until the glass became hot, when it was plunged into cold water, which caused the bottle to break in two quite smoothly. Queer tumblers they were, with their sharp edges, but they did splendid service. Out in the interior, one may still find an old fashioned spinning wheel. Ah, me! How sweet was the hum of the old wheel as the old shadow crept slowly eastward and the "swish, swish, swish" of the cards kept time to the dreamy music. And the old "Georgia loom", with its queer looking beams and well worn treadle. The "clock" of the shuttle and muffled "bang" of the beam, have lulled me to sleep many a time as my dear old mother worked with untiring energy to furnish "copperas and checked" for my little breeches. In the manufacture of hats there was a wide field for the exercise of their inventive minds. The tender shoots of the saw palmetto, planted in round, square or "notchedy" strips, was most frequently brought into requisition. But then there were cloth hats made of some of that same home spun by cutting conical pieces of cloth, sometimes of different colors, and sewing them together, the joints meeting at the top of the crown and the brim made separately. These funny hats were worn by some of the war conscripts and gave them the name "flop eared militia". Shoemakers were exempt and they showed wonderful skill in the manufacture of shoes. The hides were tanned with oak bark and the shoes were made for use and not for show. When anyone was so fastidious as to desure black shoes, the shoemaker employed a solution of vineagar and rusty nails to blacken the leather. Soap was made from the ashes of oak and hickory. Negroes and boys were sent to the woods where they found and piled great heaps of oak and fired them, guarding the ashes carefully from the rain until cool, when they were taken home, thrown into a hopper and leached, the lye being used for soap making and for "setting" the dye in coloring the homemade cloth. Going to "Deadman's Bay" and other points for salt was a picnic for the boys. They dug pits in the sandy beach, boiled down the brine which arose in them and then returned after having made a sufficient quantity to supply the neighborhood. But sometimes the salt gave out and they hadn't time to go to the coast, so they just scraped off the soil of the dirt floored smoke houses and boiled that down. True, it was rather dark, but it was salty. There was one thing we could never find a useful substitute for; that was coffee. We tried corn, wheat, rice, bran and other things. Okra seed made the best imitation coffee but it was a poor substitute. It is amazing to think of these clumsy efforts and curious contrivances but there is a pathetic side of the question. ----- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, APRIL 4, 1885 DEATH OF MR. W.P. CROOK The manuscript notice of the death of Mr. W.P. Crook, who died in this place Saturday the 21st ult. was overlooked last week and hence the Republican of the 28th contained no notice of it. Mr. Crook's death occurred at his home in this place on the day mentioned and was very sudden indeed. He arose the morning of his death, apparently as well as usual, and was reading the Republican, while breakfast was being prepared. But a very short while before his death his wife was in the room and he had called her attention to something in the paper that had attracted his notice as she was passing out of the room. Very soon, a servant reported to her that something unusual was the matter with Mr. Crook. She hurried to his side and found him dying. He lived but a few moments after she reached him and never spoke. His death was doubtless the result of heart disease. He had been in bad health for years. Mr. Crook was one of the oldest citizens of Calhoun at the time of his death. He moved to Jacksonville some years ago from Alexandria valley to take a position of Circuit Court clerk to which he had been elected. During his incumbency of the office he discharged the duties of it with fidelity to the public. He was a most quiet and unobtrusive man indeed, never interfering witht he affairs of others and it was such a course of conduct during his long residence here that made him friends among all classes. His remains were taken to the family burying ground in Alexandria valley and interred the day following his death. ---- LOCAL News On Saturday, Mr. Joe H. Privett started to Gadsden with the team of spotted ponies from the stable of Crook & Privett, in company with a gentleman named Bassett. It rained hard that day, but not enough, so they thought, to render the stream impassable. Just this side of the 11 mile post, they drove into what is ordinarily a dry branch in summer and which looked to them as if only a pond in the road. Instantly, the undertow swept the horses from their feet and into deep water, and in a moment, driver, passenger and horses were struggling for dear life against the fearful current. The team was carried several hundred yards and finally drowned, despite all efforts to save them. Both Mr. Bassett and Mr. Privett had very narrow escapes. When the horses drowned, the two gentleman sought shelter in a neighboring farm house until after the storm. Returning to the spot an hour or two later they found the little stream that had so lately been a torrent, not sufficiently deep to cover the bodies of the prostrate ponies. The ponies were beauties and their loss is to be regretted. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, APRIL 11, 1885 LOCAL News The Cross Plains news tells of the finding of ore on the place of Mr. John H. Price, living between Cross Plains and Jacksonville, which the United States mint pronounces worth one hundred and thirty-two dollars in gold and twenty dollars and twenty cents in silver to the ton of rock taken from the mine. This is a remarkably rich find. Colorado miners who have been prospecting in this county believe firmly in the existence of precious metals here. They say the find of silver ore in Cleburne is as fine as the ore from the Colorado silver mines. ---- DEATH OF B.H. DENMAN Sr. One by one, the old landmarks pass from time to eternity, leaving fragrant memories and severing the ties which bind us to the far past. On Wednesday morning, April 8th, this aged man breathed his last after a painful illness of some length and a gradual decline over a twelve month period. Mr. Denman was a good citizen, an honest and hard working man, and one who had accumulated a nice property by frugal industry. He leaves several children, all settled in life, to mourn his loss. May his worn and wearied form be glorified and enwrapt in the beauteous robes of the blest. A friend. ---- CROSS PLAINS News Am sorry to announce the critical illness of Dr. J.B. Cowden, one of our oldest and most useful citizens. His sickness brought to his bedside, his children, Mrs. Claude Woolf of Knoxville and Mr. David Cowden of Stanton, Ala. ---- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, APRIL 18, 1885 CROSS PLAINS News It pains me to announce the death of Dr. J.B. Cowden, which sad event occurred last Saturday. He was a good citizen and a skillful physician and his loss will be keenly felt, particulary by the poor whom he befriended at all times. His death has cast a gloom over the entire community. --- NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, APRIL 25, 1885 LOCAL News DIED, on Sunday the 20th inst., Miss Williamson, a very old lady, who until very recently was an inmate of the county asylum for the poor. At the time of her death she was in Jacksonville at the home of Mrs. Earle. --- DIED, at this place, Monday the 13th inst., of pulmonary disease, Miss Betsy McFarlane, after a long illness. The deceased was a lady of great piety and worth and was universally esteemed by all who knew her. ---- DEATH OF MRS. SPREWELL Mrs. Sprewell died at her home in this place, Wednesday morning, the 21st inst., at an advanced age. For years she has been an invalid and death came to her as a relief. She was one of the oldest citizens of Jacksonville and was the mother of Col. James B. Martin who was killed at the battle of Drainsville, Virginia. She was a lady of rare christian virtues and was universally beloved and esteemed. Her death is greatly mourned by this community and her children and grandchildren have the sympathy of our people in their deep affliction. A more fitting tribute to the memory of this excellent lady will appear in a future issue of The Republican. ---- DEATH OF PROF. JAMES G. RYALS DIED, in Jacksonville, Ala., at 3:54 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, 1885, James Gazaway Ryals Jr., President of the State Normal School at Jacksonville, aged 30 years, 10 days. Last week, was the annoucement of the dangerous illness of Prof. Ryals and it is with inexpressible sadness that we this week record his death. Out of the school of 200 pupils, there was not one but who loved him. During a stay here of over eighteen months he won the high esteem and love of every citizen of Jacksonville. His great learning inspired respect; his high christian character, his gentle and engaging manners, his unobtrusive bearing inspired love. No one could not know him but to admire and love him. When the community realized that he must die, the manifestation of grief was general and unmistakable. Friends crowded about the bedside of the dying man and tears flowed unbidden from many an eye unused to weeping. At the services preceding the removal of his body to Macon for interment, the attendance was universal and the scene touching. He came into our life here and went out to leave a great void and an unutterable regret. Mr. Ryals was born on the 26th day of March 1855. He was reared on a farm in Bartow county, four miles west of Cartersville and received his early education at home under the tuition of his father Dr. James G. Ryals. At the age of eighteen he professed religion and joined the Raccoon Creek Baptist church near Stilesboro. In 1875 he entered Mercer University and graduated with distinguished honors after a two year course. He was, in this institution, the recognized leader of a class of unusual size and brilliancy, and was the easy winner of the first honor. Returning home in 1877, he farmed for one year and then taught his father's school for one year. He entered the University of Virginia in the fall of 1879 where he spent four years, taking a Master of Arts course and also a course in mixed mathematics; this latter course having been made by only six other men in the whole history of that celebrated university.... The Cartersville American, speaking of his death, says: " He was without doubt the best educated man of his age south of Mason's and Dixon's line and perhaps in the United States. On his return from the University of Virginia, he was elected President of the faculty of the State Normal School of Alabama, which grew, under his management, from an experiment to one of the most flourishing and successful institutions of learning in the state. He filled this position to the time of his death... Intellectually, he was a great man; but more unusual than the strength of his intellect, more beautiful than the perfection of his mind, more extraordinary than the scope of his learning, was the purity of his life. Chaste in language, honest in purpose, pure in thought, brave in the defense of right, and fearless in the discharge of duty, he was indeed a model worthy of imitation. On his tomb will be inscribed, at his own request, the simple words "He did what he could." And how much he did! ---- File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/calhoun/newspapers/newspape1125gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 42.8 Kb