Randolph County AlArchives News.....Newspaper Abstracts for MAY 1903 May 1903 ************************************************ 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 June 22, 2005, 4:10 pm The Roanoke Leader May 1903 NEWSPAPER ABSTRACTS FROM "THE ROANOKE LEADER", Roanoke, Randolph County, Alabama for MAY 1903 NEWSPAPER Issue of Wednesday, May 6, 1903 WEHADKEE News M.P. Pittman and wife of near Roanoke have been spending several days at this place with their daughter Mrs. Dr. Wood. __ HAPPY LAND News Mrs. Mary Brown who has been under the doctor's care for some time is improving. __ LOCAL News James Edwards, wife and child of LaGrange, spent Sunday with their relatives Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Fleeth. __ Hon. W.A. Handley and wife went to Livingston, Ala., yesterday to spend a month for the benefit of the captain's health which continues quite feeble. Livingston has a fine artesian well with mineral properties. __ Rev. Geo. L. Bell of Jackson's Gap, Tallapoosa County, arrived in Roanoke Monday morning in time to attend the funeral of his half brother, J.C. Shaffer. He returned home yesterday. __ At 9 o'clock Sunday morning occurred the marriage in Lowell of Wm. C. Wallace of West Point to Miss Lizzie Catton. Rev. G.W. Cox officiated. The couple will make their home in West Point. __ Mrs. W.L. Hill came to Roanoke Sunday to attend the funeral of her brother. She was accompanied by her son, Shaffer Hill. __ Rev. J.L. Gregory came to Roanoke Sunday to take part in the funeral services Monday of Rev. Curry Shaffer. __ G.R. Shaffer came over from Dadeville Sunday, being called here by the death of his brother. __ Mrs. W.A. Ware of Franklin is spending the week with the family of S.G.Carter. __ Mrs. T.B. Turner and child of Alexander City spent the latter part of last week with Mr. and Mrs. Neal. __ Albert E. Barnes was married last Sunday to Miss Myrtie Will Taylor, daughter of Tib Taylor. All parties live north of town. __ J.C. Taylor, the former editor of the Wedowee paper and former school teacher of this county, has gone to Texas. We regret to give him up. The Wedowee Star __ Miss Laura Waits was called to her home in Coosa County today by the serious illness of her mother and brother. __ The marriage of Mr. C. Stroud Hanners of Columbus to Miss Mittie Ray at the latter's home in this place last Saturday was a surprize to most people. Mr. Hanners, who formerly lived here, came in on the evening train and departed with his bride the following morning. Rev. R.W. Anderson was the officiating clergyman. Our best wishes attend the couple. __ NEWSPAPER issue of Wednesday, May 13, 1903 TWO VETERANS WRITE OF MEMORIAL DAY Mr. Editor, We are praising God for sparing us one more blessed opportunity of meeting our cherished and beloved Confederate comrades in camp once again. We all enjoyed it as no one can find vocabulary to correctly express. From all indications and such information as we could possess, Aiken-Smith Camp is the banner camp of the state outside the large cities. And Captain Handley, Captain Weathers and Captain Driver are the banner comrades of this camp. How we do love and admire these brave old heroes! How indeed, could we do without them? Our prayer to God is to spare them till we meet again. It revived us to see old comrades meet and hug and to note the refreshing tears flow. We did witness just such an overflow. Eight failed to answer roll call and were reported to have died since the call one year ago. Peace to their ashes! We will remember them! We shook hands with more than one tottering and feeble comrade and distinctly recognized the shadow of the death messenger hovering near. Then the swelling of the heart choked utterance and heart went out to heart in a handgrasp and silent tear, and that was all. The exercises at the college were all elaborate and highly cherished. Captain Falkner's address was indeed, a solace to our decrepit old bodies as well as enervating to our souls. One of the most remarkable features of the exercises, to one vet, at least, was the memorial ebulitons as they so copiously flowed from the eloquent lips of sweet little misses Vickery and Scheussler. Praises from such loving innocence is a boon second only from cherubs themselves. And those entrancing strains of Dixie, which were so ably rendered! That rebel yell! Oh, how they quickened the circulation in our wrinkled veins afresh and once again made us to quaff at youth's fountain! Yes, today our respiration is normal and our appetites good, thanks to last Saturday's memorial, supervised by God above. G.O. Hill, Napoleon, Ala., May 4, 1903 -- Mr. Editor, It was my good fortune to be among your old veterans the second of May and break bread with them. I was in their meeting and saw it all through. Now, I want to thank all those good people for their courtesies to me while there. I saw goodness and kindness everywhere. Your beautiful young ladies and noble young men were an exception. I saw them shaking hands with the old gray headed vets, which made the blood tingle through their wrinkled hands and suffering bodies. It gladdens their hearts to know that they are not forgotten. If those young ladies could only know how much good their kind words and handshakes did they would feel richly paid for all they said and did. I marched to the college with the veterans to the old familiar tune of Dixie, played by one of the old war veterans. We were seated near the rostrum where we would hear and see everything. I want to speak of that little angel without wings that spoke about Grandpa's grave. It was so realistic. God bless that little girl. She will shine forever in my heart. They tell me her name was Josephine Vickery. And then another little angel came out and spoke the Reveille and imitated the reveille sound, "rat-tat, tat, tat". And God bless that little girl whose name I was told was Bernice Schuessler. And all the others rendered their parts well. That young man who seemed to be the master of ceremonies immortalized himself. His speech was purely grand from beginning to end. Surely the mantle of our immortal Ben Hill is upon him. There is greatness before him. I was told that his name was R.C. Little. Well, I must say that Miss Davis played well. She and others played Dixie so well. It filled my very soul. Forty years rolled back in a moment of time. I am fearful that I behaved badly. I forgot my pains. The old war yell was in me and it had to come out. If I did wrong pardon me. I would say more but space forbids. Levi N. Gauntt, Co. G 37th Ala. Vol. Hamilton, Harris County, Georgia. ___ WELSH News John Veazy and family went to Lanett yesterday to visit relatives. __ Mrs. Martha Robertson visited her sister Mrs. Cole on Thursday. __ Mr. Richmond Arnett is suffering very much with cancer on his hand. __ Mrs. C.H. Cole was thrown from a buggy last Sunday and her elbow is badly dislocated but she is improving. __ LOCAL News Upon his return from Birmingham last week, F.P. Nichols reported that Fred Vernon is very low with rheumatism and will be taken to Hot Springs. __ Mrs. J.H. Allen arrived from Shelman, Georgia on Sunday. Her brother Pope Kirk who has been spending some time at the home of the former, accompanied her. __ Miss Mary Patterson of Mt. Airy, N.C. came Monday with the family of her brother C.D. Patterson to spend several weeks with them. __ Mrs. T.E. Calhoun and children are visiting the former's father, Rev. R.B. Hester. __ Mrs. J.H. Brooks is convalescing after a serious illness. __ G.W. Littlefield, a prominent Mason of Stroud, died yesterday and will be buried at 11 o'clock this morning. __ John T. Heflin has received a telegram stating that Tom Gunn, formerly of this county, was killed in Texas on Friday. __ J.J. Perry, a citizen in the factory community, died Monday afternoon. He was buried yesterday at Wild Cat church in this county. An autopsy was held on the body. __ J.A. Walden and family returned Tuesday of last week from a visit to relatives in north Randolph. The Thursday following their visit, their relative Mrs. W.R. Cole, died at her home at Kaylor, after a long illness. __ CARD OF THANKS We wish to return heartfelt thanks to our friends for the many kindnesses extended to us during the illness and death of our dear son and for their increased attention and sympathy to us in our deep bereavement in the hour of his death. May the lord bless all of you and may he bless Dr. Hooper, who stood by us as if he had been one of our children. Affectionately, Jno. P. Shaffer, M.E. Shaffer ___ NEWSPAPER issue of Wednesday, May 20, 1903 CORBIN News Luke Huey is dangerously ill at this writing. __ VIOLA News As this is a new post office located in one of the best settlements in Randolph county, will write a few items so the public may know its whereabouts. It is located eight miles west of Roanoke. We have two stores and a post office. J.F. Cardwell is postmaster. We have the prettiest and best cared for grave yard in the county, known as the old Concord grave yard. __ Mrs. J.A. Radney and children are visiting the former's parents near Almond. __ WEHADKEE News (by S.D. Lewis, correspondent) The writer went over to Walnut Hill, Ga., last Saturday to witness the raising of several members of the lodge at that place to higher degrees in Masonry. Mrs. Lewis accompanied us, visiting her sisters, Mrs. Etheridge and Mrs. Hill. __ John Bolan, the noted blacksmith, died at his place last Thursday night after a short illness of chronic diarrhea. He moved to this place from LaGrange just a few days ago. He leaves a wife and four children. __ NAPOLEON News The neighbors met last Saturday at the Napoleon graveyard and did a good deal of cleaning and decorating of the graves. __ The Rocky Branch community will meet next Saturday. Their exercises will be elaborate consisting of preaching, several speeches, and a sumptuous dinner, in connection with the cleaning and decoration of graves. This is the oldest and most extensive cemetery in this part of the county. It is amazingly remarkable the transformation that takes place at a burying ground after a few hours of work with the shovel, hoe and rake by the willing hands of the male force and afterward artistically embellished by deft fingers of the gentler sex in their preparation of the floral offerings. Where is a bouquet more fragrant and resplendent than when fittingly placed upon the sod above the resting place our departed loved ones? What memento of "not forgotten" is more fitting? __ Sanford Shiflet's second wife whom he married a year ago has left his home and board and gone to live with her uncle, Buck Spears. __ LOCAL News Mrs. T.W. Harris came up from LaFayette on Saturday to visit her sister Mrs. R.L. Schuessler. __ Prof. J.N. Word and two daughters of Sewell and J.E. B. Yates and daughter of Peace were the guests of J.M. Yates and family on Monday. __ Capt. Swann, a grand old man of Randolph County, Ala., and father of Mrs. W.A. Ridley of Ridley, Ga., attended the singing at Walnut Hill ast Sunday. Capt. Swann was one of the pioneers of Randolph County had has always been a power in that county. The Franklin News & Banner __ Further details of the death of Tom Gunn in Texas are to the effect that he became involved in a difficulty with a man about politics and the latter shot him through the head and heart. __ Mr. Eugene Thompson of Harris County, Ga., and Miss Lillie Belle Ellington of Gold Hill will be married at 10 o'clock the morning at the latter place and will leave at 11 o'clock for the home of the former. The bride-to-be is a sister of Mrs. W.Z. East of this place and has quite a number of friends here which her amiable disposition won for her on visits in the past few years. __ NEWSPAPER issue of Wednesday, May 27, 1903 NAPOLEON News Mrs. Mollie Barton has returned from a visit to her daughter at Langdale. __ Mrs. P.G. Bailey has gone to see her daughter Mrs. Sam Canady at Langdale who is dangerously ill. __ "Uncle" Tommy Yates who recently died in Lamar beat, was one of our oldest and exemplary citizens. A wife and numerous family of sons and two daughters survive him. He had been entirely deaf for the last ten or twelve years prior to his death. __ LETTER FROM J.F. BARRON FROM TEXARKANA, TEXAS Mr. Editor, After some delay I will try, by your permission, to fill my promise to a great many of my friends. There comes no paper to our home that is so highly appreciated as The Leader. All of us read it. We look for the local news the first thing to see what has taken place. We certainly enjoy its coming. As I was working today a man started to pass and turned and came in and who should it be but Sam Dunkin, and I was glad to see him. The only person I have met since I have been here except one, whom I had ever seen before. He was looking well and I expect Drew is proud of his boy. Not all our boys are pushing to the top. Sam has gone from a clerkship with a moderate salary to a partnership in a large wholesale house. I am proud of a young man or young lady who tries to make something of themselves. There is so much room at the top while the base is crowded. Well, this is quite a large little try, if such a term can be applied. Go any way you will and you will see improvements going on. When I came here I saw the mule car street car driven by two little mules but they are gone now. Clang, clang, every few minutes you hear the electric car go by. Had a street fair. Killed one man the day it started and I guess had all the attending evils. Elijah Satterwhite ought to come here instead of going to Dog Island to catch fish, and then I could bear testimony to the amount he caught. The mosquitos are here too. Some people go fishing and report great success. Mrs. Barron sprained her ankle and has been hobbling for some time but is improving. With best wishes for the Leader and the force who run it, I will desist. J.F. Barron, May 22, 1903 ___ WEDOWEE News May 27th On yesterday morning early, George Slay, a white man, was lodged in jail at this place on a charge of abusive, insulting language in the presence of hearing of a female. Later on in the morning another warrant was issued charging him with assault. It is said that about seven weeks ago Slay went to the home of E.C. Parker, who lives about four miles above town and overpowered Mrs. Parker and afterwards threatened to kill her and her husband if she revealed the occurrence to him or anyone else. From that time on she was afraid for her husband to get out of her sight, and she has almost lost her reason. She is also in critical condition, being now the mother of a child only a few days old. When Sheriff Kent and Deputy Fuller went to arrest Slay yesterday morning, he was found at the home of W.H. Parker, father-in-law of his victim. Immediately upon the arrest of Slay it is said that he drew a large "hawk bill" knife and would have killed Sheriff Kent, thereby adding murder to his other crimes, but for the timely interference of Deputy Fuller, who caught the arm of Slay and took the weapon from him. Sheriff Kent said that his deputy J.W. Fuller will do to depend on in time of need. Mrs. Parker is extensively connected in this county and the Sheriff is keeping a close lookout for anything that may be projected in the way of a "lynching bee." __ LOCAL News Mrs. John Sutherlin, the venerable mother of John Terry and other well known members of the Terry family, died in Georgia last Friday and was buried at Standing Rock on Saturday. Rev. W.W. Turner conducted the funeral services. __ Mrs. J.C. Jackson sustained severe injuries from a fall last Sunday. __ File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/randolph/newspapers/newspape619gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 16.4 Kb