Friday, December 29, 2017

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Now that Dauphin Island has rightly claimed itself the "ISLE OF 7 FLAGS", it might be good to explain how D.I. became part of the REPUBLIC OF WEST FLORIDA which flew the first LONE STAR FLAG. The Republic of West Florida was the first sovereign nation in the New World to be claimed from Spain through rebellion. This "Tom Thumb Republic" only existed for 74 days in 1810 before being proclaimed to be a part of the United States as part of the 1803's Louisiana Purchase. West Florida insurgents threatened the Spanish authorities in Mobile but were defeated due to the influence of U.S. authorities at Fort Stoddard on the Mobile River.  Evidence of the republic's claim to all the land from the Mississippi to the Perdido comes when the U.S. took over the republic by proclamation in December of 1810 and made it part of the Territory of Orleans and named it FELICIANA COUNTY. St. Francisville, Louisiana was named the county seat and the county was divided into six parishes. Dauphin Island was a part of PASCAGOULA PARISH which had three eastern boundary lines: Bayou La Batrie, Bayou Perro (Dog River) and the Perdido River.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Dr. Alan Belsches in his introduction to the '89 University of Alabama edition of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD (that 28 year old paperback is now selling for $86 a pop on Ebay) states that the Baker Estate built gift houses for Baker daughters on Crawford Street. Thanks to the work of Ray Hutto, it appears that three gift houses were also built on the Baker Block between North Foster and North St. Andrews near Dixie. The clipping that's a part of this post is the obit for a Baker daughter who lived on Crawford. http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/dothan_progress/landmark-park-hosts-heritage-forums-in-july/article_bdc2427e-8bb5-512f-ab72-7617a878708c.html

The price of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD paperbacks is crashing and I suspect a large number of copies of the 1989 edition of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD have come on the market since I talked to CERTAIN PEOPLE before Christmas.  https://www.ebay.com/p/Library-of-Alabama-Classics-Devil-Make-a-Third-by-Douglas-F-Bailey-1989-Paperback-Reprint/1279499

Saturday, December 23, 2017

My initial "dissection" of the novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD is now complete. This detailed analysis of this great work was finished today after a lot of work over the past five months but my intense interest in this subject has been a personal passion for over thirty years. Please look over each of the three parts of my analysis. After a brief introduction, the blog linked below is broken into three sections: 1) identification of all the characters along with speculation as to the actual people they may be based upon (189 characters) ; 2) all the locations for scenes in the novel (114 locations)  and 3) the antiquated terms and colloquialisms from each of the 33 chapters. I can't let this milestone pass without thanking the OLD DOTHAN AL MEMORIES Facebook group for all of your contributions. Please look over the blog and message me with your suggestions. We have definitely gotten the attention of THE POWERS THAT BE and the first steps toward the printing of a new ANNOTATED edition of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD began within the past week.  https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Today is THE day. Thirty years ago today, Monday, December 21, 1987, the late Dart Hayward declared during Happy Hour @ THE CHUKKER that it would be nice if we had a "BEST PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE CHUKKER" contest & THE CHUKKER ARCHIVES were born! https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Chukker+Archives%22&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHncr-2prYAhWE6iYKHeyJAVoQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1940&bih=1178
Today is THE DAY! Thirty years ago TODAY @ Happy Hour, on Monday, December 21, 1987, the late Dart Hayward declared that he thought it would be nice if we started a "Best Personal History of The Chukker" contest & THE CHUKKER ARCHIVES were born! https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Devil+Make+A+Third%22+robertoreg&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQjvfY1prYAhVNgiYKHYBSA8EQ_AUICygC&biw=1940&bih=1178

Monday, December 18, 2017

Here are a couple of more DEVIL MAKE A THIRD links that may help you.
Here's the latest availability on ABEBOOKS of your 1989 paperback edition which is selling for as high as $141 each.
 https://www.abebooks.com/9780817304201/Devil-Third-Library-Alabama-Classics-0817304207/plp

Here it is on EBAY for $85.95  https://www.ebay.com/p/Library-of-Alabama-Classics-Devil-Make-a-Third-by-Douglas-F-Bailey-1989-Paperback-Reprint/1279499

There is a Facebook group dedicated to DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. https://www.facebook.com/groups/112136555108/

Much of the activity on the OLD DOTHAN AL MEMORIES Facebook group is dedicated to DEVIL MAKE A THIRD and it's time period in Dothan history.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/188827854506083/

Looking forward to your responses as progress toward a new edition continues.

Best,
r



Friday, December 15, 2017

Monday, December 11, 2017

With only 37 pages of the book left to work on in my first "dissection" of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, the progress toward the goal of producing an annotated edition of this important book is amazing. This morning I have identified my second candidate (my first was U.S. Representative H.D. Clayton from Clayton) for the identity of an individual who may have been a model for the character of Alabama Governor Thrasher in the book. This second man is Alabama Governor William D. Jelks of Eufaula
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Jelks

https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Henry_De_Lamar_Clayton,_Jr.

We are now up to almost 20,000 views of the blog and are averaging over 1000 views each month. Many of the speculations on this DEVIL MAKE A THIRD blog have come from members of the OLD DOTHAN MEMORIES Facebook group. THANK ALL OF YOU SO MUCH! Please check out our progress @ https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 08, 2017

Matt Wake, a rock journalist out of Huntsville, wrote an AL.com article this week entitled

AN ALABAMA GUITAR HERO'S GUITAR HEROES: 15 ESSENTIAL TRACKS. It's a list of tunes put together by Damon Johnson who Wake calls "perhaps Alabama's greatest hard rock export." #2 on his list is : SKY HIGH by ARS & of course, BARRY BAILEY is one the guitar hero's guitar heroes. From the article: 'Sky High' Atlanta Rhythm Section

Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Here's a 1983 document which will help ANYONE begin to appreciate MIRACULOUS DOWNTOWN DOTHAN, a place that went from being little more than a country crossroads with a couple of stores and about 350 folks in 1898 to having almost 10,000 people in the area eleven years later. Many of Downtown's buildings date from Dothan's boomtown years at the turn-of-the-century.(If a more accurate or more recent document containing similar information has been written during the past 35 years about Downtown Dothan, please let me know about it.)  https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fd3391ae-00a4-4aa7-8b05-6efc123afd98/
A DESCRIPTION OF PORT ST. JOE IN 1909 (For some reason the writer of this article, H.T. Graves of Compass Lake, had the idea that Port St. Joe had been built by the Spanish) from the July 2, 1909 DOTHAN EAGLE: The MANTEO arrived at her destination in due time carrying a launch to transfer the passengers on the shore of Old St. Jo. Twas a beautiful sight indeed. The crowd soon scattered in different directions looking for places of interest. We found the old Spanish town are ruins, indeed most of the brick carried away, and very little left of anything to tell the history of Old St. Jo. We succeeded in finding a guide to direct us to the old cemetery where we hoped to procure dates and other items of interest but sorry to say we failed to find the desired spot and were recalled by the whistle from the MANTEO telling us to hurry or be left over there with the bears. (clipping from the June 18, 1909 DOTHAN EAGLE)

Tuesday, December 05, 2017

In the early 1900s, the 190 foot steamship MANTEO was one of the first deep-water (9 foot draft) to service Northwest Florida ports. The ship began a weekly schedule out of Mobile or New Orleans to Pensacola, Panama City, Apalachicola, Carrabelle and Tampa. In 1908, the ship was purchased by the Bay Line Railroad and began to offer ocean voyage excursions originating at the train depot in Dothan. In 1906, the MANTEO was involved in the rescue of the crew and passengers of the steamship GUSSIE when it dragged anchor and was beached on Little Dauphin Island on September 27. (from the October 4, 1906 TAMPA WEEKLY TRIBUNE)

Monday, December 04, 2017

In 1908, the Bay Line bought a 190 foot steamship, drawing 9 feet of water, called the MANTEO. They extended the railway dock in Panama City 200 feet to accommodate it and began to ship naval stores out of St. Andrews Bay. After harbor improvements in 1908, the Manteo was the first deep draft steamship to enter Apalachicola Bay and for about four years the ship made a regular route from New Orleans and Mobile to Northwest Florida ports and Tampa. It was retired in 1912 but in the next year it was supposedly outfitted in Panama City by Venezuelan strong man Cipriano Castro for a Central American revolution. After that, the steamship was renamed the VAN and in 1925 it was taken into custody off Boston by Prohibition agents after attempting to bring 3000 cases of liquor into the country. This was one of the largest liquor busts in Prohibition history. In 1930, FDR had it sunk offshore from Boston Harbor in a government program to dispose of derelict ships in the Boston area. (from the August 28, 1909 DOTHAN EAGLE)



 http://bostondeepwrecks.com/wrecks/Van.html

Saturday, December 02, 2017