Cleburne County AlArchives News.....Newspaper Notices for JANUARY 1892 January 23 1892 ************************************************ 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: Candace Gravelle tealtree@comcast.net September 29, 2004, 2:10 pm The Cleburne New Era NEWSPAPER NOTICES FROM " THE CLEBURNE NEW ERA" for JANUARY 1892 NEWSPAPER Issue of Thursday, January 7, 1892 J.R. Caldwell has been sick for several days. __ The name of the Edmondson Hotel has been changed to the "Central Hotel". __ D.C. Thompson left Monday for a visit to his prents at Ashville, Ala. He will be absent about a week. __ W.A. Birkhead was in the city last week. He left here about six years ago and this is the first we have heard of him since. He carried two of his children back with him, leaving his wife and other children behind. __ NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, January 16, 1892 For several reasons we have decided to change our publication to Saturday. __ CEDAR CREEK Correspondence John Beason will leave for Texas soon. __ ANTICS OF A METEOR Early Saturday night many residents of Heflin were started by what appeared to be an earthquake shock accompanied by a heavy dull report. There was no after clap and nothing more was thought of the matter until reports were received from other parts of northern Alabama. The general belief was not an earthquake had occurred or a magazine had exploded. The true cause was established by Job Burgess and Tom Jones who were hunting near Gadsden. They say about 8 o'clock the heavens were illuminated by a bright and ghastly light and looking up they saw a large ball of fire up in the air approaching them at a swift space. It seemed about twice as large as a man's head and at asmost a white heat. As it passed within a few yards of them it made a loud, whizzing noise and they felt the heat from it very sensibly. It approached nearer and nearer the ground until it passed out of sight. In a few seconds they heard the tremendous report which shook the whole country for miles around and created great consternation among the people. They were too badly frightened to follow it up Saturday night but early Sunday morning they went to the place where they last saw it and soon found where the meteor had struck the earth and plowed a fullow about as large as a flour barrel and three or four feet deep, and then came out of the ground and struck a large pine tree squarely about six feet from the ground, shivering the tree when it exploded, scattering its fragments in all directions, cutting down the small growth and tearing up the ground. A few pieces of the matter they found did not look like anything they had ever seen, and smelt strongly of burning sulphur. The explosion was dinstinctly heard for over 75 miles in all directions, and people were badly frightened. The houses shook and rocked as if by an earthquake. Tableware and bric-a-brac were thrown down and broken. The superstitious negroes were so badly frightened and demoralized that they held meetings and sang and prayed declaring that the judgement day was coming. __ Mr. Stewart Wier left for Anniston last night, being called there by a telegram that said all the folks are sick. His parents live there. __ When the store of J.R. Caldwell was burned last November, three tons of coal were stored in the cellar. It has been burning ever since, and the smoke constantly arising from the ruins has caused much comment. __ DIED - -On January 6th while everything was quite and peaceable about the home of Harrison Brown, he procured a rope and went to Muscadine campground and committed the last act, that of taking his life. Mr. Brown is a member of that campground and had so often worshipped there. __ The continuous rain during the latter part of last week did considerable damage throughout the county and caused an almost complete suspension of travel for three days. Rain fell in torrents Monday night, Tuesday and Tuesday night. As the ground had been thoroughly soaked during the preceeding days the water all ran off and the river and creeks full from the previous rain, were forced from their banks and spread over all the low grounds. The Tallapoosa river south of Heflin extended from hill to hill and was a raging, surging torrent. All the creeks were high in proportion. Muscadine Creek assumed proportions it had not reached since the big flood of 1884. Near Muscadine it was backed up by the roadbed of the Georgia Pacific railroad which had been weakened by a hard freeze and subsequent thaw. The waters of the river like creek on Wednesday forced their way through the embankment, washing away it and the track for some distance to a depth of four or five feet. The water stood about the same distance above the level of the track and completely shut off all traffic for more than thirty-six hours. _____ Deputy U.S. Marshall J.W. Baker, deputy collectors W.B. Griggs and A.H. Draper of Oxford, made a successful raid on the moonshiners' outfits near Oak Level this county, Saturday night. THey found and destroyed one said to have belonged to Henry Sert. It was late at night when they arrived on the scene and they would have captured the distillers at work had not an old man named Garner fired off his gun and warned the men that an enemy was approaching. Garner lived about 300 yards from the still house and the report of his gun gave the men time to escape to the brush. When the officers got to the still everything was fired up and in running order. The officers hitched their horses in the bushes and went in to destroy the still when the moonshiners crawled up to where the horses were and began to take off the saddles and cut the bridles. They were driven away before they had finished the job. The still was a new copper one and evidently had been run only a short time. After the officers had completed their work of destruction they went back to the old man Garner's house and put him under arrest on the charge of aiding illicit distillers to escape. Tuesday, Deputy U.S. Marshall W.W. Colquitt and Deputy Revenue Collector B.W. Briggs broke up a still of 75 gallons belonging to Mike Mullady on the line of Cleburne and Clay counties. In crossing Snow's creek the officers had a narrow escape from drowning as the creek was so high that their buggy floated and carried them downstream before they could land. The buggy was lost. Mr. Briggs is confined to his bed in consequence of his cold bath. __ The store of Kitchens Bros. had a narrow escape from destruction by fire Wednesday night. Mr. Stuart Wier was passing when he saw smoke issuing from under the door. He broke it open and found that the ceiling had caught fire from a hanging lamp and that oil from the latter, which had sprung a leak, was running in a blazing strem on to some shoe boxes. With considerable difficulty he extinguished the flames and then in a pure spirit of devilment sounded an alarm. __ NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, January 23, 1892 DIED - -J.T. Butler who lived at the Phillips place, six miles west of Carrollton, was drowned while crossing Taylor's creek near Spring Hill. No one was with him and it is supposed that his horse got in quicksand. He leaves a wife and several children, two of whom are deaf and dumb. His body was recovered. __ R.H. Fletcher and Miss Eula Smith, near Carrollton, married recently. __ Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Johnson have at their home a baby girl. Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Brown also have one more in the family, a girl. __ John Beason of Beason's Mills has gone to Texas. __ J.J. Perry, late of this county, has settled near Llano, Texas. __ J.G. Landers was married Wednesday evening to Miss S.T. Dunn at the residence of the bride's father. An excellent supper was served afterward. __ MORE WILD CAT STILLS DESTROYED The revenue officers are busy at present raiding moonshine stills and they have been very successful. General deputy collector Colquitt and collector Briggs seized and destroyed the still of Charles Benefield and others, located five miles southeast of Abernathy in this county. The distillery consisted of 100 gallons copper still, cap and worm, ten large fermenting vats, 2,500 gallons of beer and mash, 90 gallons of singlings, 1 barrel of whiskey, heaters, doublers, barrels, tools an the like. Aggregate cost of still, $225. In his report, Collector Colquitt states that when they neared the still they saw four men at work inside. Efforts were made by the posse to capture the operators but the former were discovered on approach and the moonshiners immediately disappeared. It required some time to destroy the still. When the posse had done so they returned to their vehicle. At tis juncture the moonshiners slipped upon them and let fly several shots, which however missed the mark. Collector Colquitt says they were in a "tough position" and got out of the way in a hurry. Another still was destroyed by Deputy collectors Hanlin and Coker about twelve miles northeast of Delmar post office, Winston County. It belonged to John Conway and Naude Garrison and cost about $150. No arrests were made. Over sixty stills have been destroyed in this county within the past two years, and the number broken up in the surrounding counties in the same time reaches over one hundred and fifty. ______ File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/cleburne/newspapers/gnw123newspape.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 9.8 Kb