Dale County AlArchives News.....Some Old History June 22 1914
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 18, 2004, 5:12 pm

Southern Star
Southern Star
July 22, 1914

SOME OLD HISTORY

 Recently I walked out along the new public highway west across Claybank creek 
to look round a little.  It always does me good to go over the foot prints of 
day agone, and this trip was no exception to the rule.  My father built his 
home a little beyond CHARLEY BYRD's and on north side of the road in what is 
now a field, in 1849.  In 1850 he brought the place where I was reared and 
moved to it.
   CHARLEY BYRD is a chip off the old block and despite the discouragements of
serious affliction in his family, is doing well.  He has plenty of everything 
about him and to spare.  This year's crop is quite promising and he will have 
bread for the next twelve months.  And let me say, he has one of the smartest 
little girls in Dale County.  She is only thirteen now, and for several years 
has done most of the cooking for the family.  When I was out there the other 
morning she was preparing to get dinner, and so far as I could see, was doing 
so with as much good judgment and alacrity as a well matured woman.  By the way 
Charley is one of the cleverest as well as one of the most successful citizens.
  We walked out to an old fashioned horse power gin house which was carried to 
a point near where the roads fork east of the house a little ways by JOE PARKER 
some thirty years ago.  About 1838 PHIL RENFRO built a gin house on the 
identical spot now occupied by the residence of M.M. HOLMAN on Daleville street 
in Ozark.  Some time afterwards he sold the gin to MOSES MATTHEWS and he ran it 
up to about the time of the civil war.  
  THOMAS G. BLACKMAN come to Dale from Russell county about 1854, and soon 
after built a gin about where H.A.W. MARTIN's residence stands at the head of 
North Union Avenue.  This gin was sold to JOE PARKER and he first moved it on 
the west side of North Merrick Avenue beyond the present residence of R.Y. 
DOWLING.  When he moved it across the creek to the point above described.  I 
have had some curiosity to ascertain whether, or not his is the same old gin 
house built by RENFRO, and on the occasion of my visit I closely scanned the 
inside walls and girders throughout to see if I could find some mark to 
indicate its builder, or owner in former days.  But I failed to find it. 
Inquiry reveals some facts of interest in this connection.  
  JOHN N. SANSBURY bought the running gear, the gin heads, scales and other 
parts of the old Renfroe gin and put them into his gin after the war where 
WINSTON BYRD now lives.  But he did not buy the logs that composed its walls 
because he let the rafters come down to plates just above the floor in his 
gin.  It is of some interest to note that GEORGE C. SANSBURY of Daleville had 
the old cotton scales used by MOSES MATTHEWS and probably by RENFRO while he 
owned the gin.
 But going a little further into the history of the old gin house across the 
creek we find it connected with one of the bitterest tragedies enacted in the 
closing scenes of the war.  The failing fortunes of the South had encouraged 
those who had failed to come to her rescue in the time of her need, and they 
became quite bold.   LENT SPEARS had been assassinated and ALEX SPELLER shot 
near NOEL DOWLING's in October, 1864.  DOC PRIM had been captured a little 
later in what we know as the Baptist bottom in Ozark.  About the same time, AUS 
BLACKMAN, belonging to T. G. BLACKMAN and another colored man who yet lives in 
Ozark, were holding counsel with the Yankees and their allies and had planned 
to leave the country with them.  When PRIM was brought to THOMAS G. BLACKMAN's 
on one Monday morning in November and was hung on Tuesday morning following by 
Brear's Home Guards, attention was turned to AUS and the other man.  AUS was 
taken under this same old gin house when it stood near BLACKMAN's residence and 
there stripped and buckled across one of the levers of the King post and given 
a severe flogging in an effort to get out of him what he know about the plans 
of the Yankees.  He told them all he knew and probably a little more to save 
his back of the promised stripes in case he should fail.

  

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