Y'all can't believe the number of times I've seen this photo of Buck Baker and, until yesterday,  NOT ONCE did I EVER notice he was wearing his watch fob with the Masonic emblem.

"He felt it now and leaned far back in the round-backed wooden chair to free his watch from his pocket without breaking off the small gold Masonic emblem that was the facing for his black silk fob. He held the watch aslant towards the two casement windows that opened onto the railroad tracks back of the hotel, then he yawned and shook his head and shoulders as a wet dog shakes off water." ~ page 268 DEVIL MAKE A THIRD
(clipping from the January 8, 1910 DOTHAN EAGLE) 

"Timothy Leary; Theta Chi : Springfield, Mass.; Arts and Sciences" is pictured on page 117 of the '43 Corolla. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/04/17/transmissions-timothy-leary-self-annotated-papers

Tim got in BIG TROUBLE @ BAMA over nothing by today's standards. https://books.google.com/books?id=of4J2dbKvMoC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=%22Timothy+Leary%22+%22University+of+Alabama%22+1942&source=bl&ots=EODrnFFk95&sig=ACfU3U3Ed--oMgNr8luGxO_ld-2DVbYs0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjf-byp9vHnAhUqTt8KHUaXCU4Q6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Timothy%20Leary%22%20%22University%20of%20Alabama%22%201942&f=false

This story about Betty in Tutwiler Dorm in '42 reminds me a story an old WWII vet told me about Tuscaloosa during the war. He was visiting campus. (About 2500 students on campus then, over 1500 of them girls) This gal in Tut had him climb up the trellis that ivy grew on and came in through the window. She had mounted a huge COMMUNITY CHEST poster over her bed. The original slogan on the poster was "Give 'Till it Hurts!". The co-ed had changed the lettering to read, "Give, Baby. It Won't Hurt!"

Ten buildings described in the 1983 National Register of Historic Places Inventory on the south side of East Main between South Foster and Appletree

Blumberg's (100 to 110 E. Main Street): part before 1893*; five, varied, two story, brick commercial structures were consolidated into the old Blumberg's Department Store; one, the Baker Building, was torn down c. 1954 during expansion; others reportedly remain somewhat intact under large sheet aluminum facade covering; first floor altered with aluminum and large glass display windows.

E. R. Porter Hardware Building (112 E. Main Street): c. 1890, c. 1907; two story, yellow brick; one story, brick structure built c. 1890 was reportedly raised into present two story structure with present facade in 1907; pressed metal, bracketed cornice; three windows with limestone lintels and sills on second floor; metal cornice over first floor storefront; structure retains most original interior and exterior fabric; oldest continuously operating business in same building in Dothan.

Building (114 E. Main Street): before 1893*; one story, brick; upper facade covered with smooth stucco; storefront altered and covered with carrarra glass and new plate glass windows.

Byrd and Carter Attorneys (116 E. Main Street): before 1893*; one story, brick; facade completely covered with a new brick facade.

Main Street Grill (118 E. Main Street): before 1903*; one story, brick; small brick cornice and two recessed panels in upper facade; storefront has been altered with new aluminum and glass.

Charles D. Peters, Consulting Engineer (120 E. Main Street): before 1903*; one story, brick; facade completely covered with a new brick facade.

Ellison Drug Building (126 E. Main Street): before 1893*, c. 1907; two story, light colored brick; original facade believed to have been placed over original red brick facade c. 1907. Four 1 over 1 windows in second floor front facade and six along left side facade (facing S. St. Andrews Street); first floor storefront has been altered with wood, brick and glass; two limestone belts and heavy, bracketed limestone cornice extend around entire facade.

Young Building (200-202 E. Main Street): 1914; five story, white enamelled brick office building; built by J. R. Young, Mayor of Dothan for four separate two year terms; detailed limestone cornice on front and right side (facing S. St. Andrews St.) facades; decorative blue tiles in upper front facade; original windows on upper four floors have been replaced with single sheets of plate glass with aluminum trim; storefront on first floor front has been replaced with new aluminum and plate glass; marble apron around bottom of facade.

Building (204 E. Main Street): before 1920*; two story, brown brick; brick cornice; three stone bands across facade; three 1 over 1 windows in second floor facade; retains original wood and glass storefront.

Building (206 E. Main Street): before 1903*; one story, brick; brick cornice and recessed, rectangular brick panel in upper facade; storefront has been altered with aluminum and plate glass.

This was my Grandma Register who lived @ 203 Jeff Street's mother. My Great Grandma Shepherd had three sisters, a brother and two daughters living in Dothan. Her Daddy was a Peacock and her mother a Burdeshaw from the Beulah Church area toward Headland. (from the March 31, 1933 GENEVA COUNTY REAPER)

Businesses and buildings on the north side of East Main between North St. Andrews and College Street in 1935:

201 East Main: (1935) Houston National Bank building
(offices in the Houston National Bank building had a 102 North St. Andrews address.)
offices occupied in 1935 were Houston National Bank Receiver
J.T. Jackson, lawyer
Thomas Insurance Agency
(1983)  Dothan Bank And Trust~ before 1907*; DOTHAN'S FIRST LIMESTONE BUILDING
c. 1972; two story bank; original limestone facade has been completely covered with new brick, aluminum and glass; most of interior marble detailing has been retained.


203 East Main: (1935) Mose Saliba Billiards building
(1983)  Bender's (203 E. Main Street): before 1903*; one story, brick; brick cornice; storefront has been altered with carrarra glass and new plate glass.

205 East Main: (1935)  L.B. Norton, restaurant owner
       Norton Ready-To-Wear
(1983) Building (205 E. Main Street): before 1903*; one story, brick; brick cornice; storefront has been covered over and altered with sheet aluminum and glass.

207 East Main: (1935)  City Barber Shop

209-215 Collins Baking Company

217 Liddon Furniture Company

219 Mrs. Gussie Trotter, restaurant owner

221-223 Davis Moring, used general merchandise Segrest-Canady Building (223-229 E. Main Street): 1910; large, two story, brick; brick cornice and decorative patterned brickwork in upper facade; seventeen equally spaced window openings in second floor facade have been boarded up; five, various sized commercial storefront bays on first floor level; aluminum has been used to cover central portion of facade, between first and second floors.

225 E.T. Moody, plumber

227 Vacant Segrest-Canady Building (223-229 E. Main Street): 1910; large, two story, brick; brick cornice and decorative patterned brickwork in upper facade; seventeen equally spaced window openings in second floor facade have been boarded up; five, various sized commercial storefront bays on first floor level; aluminum has been used to cover central portion of facade, between first and second floors.

227 1/2  Samuel Brown, barber
rear Dothan Warehouse, cotton storage

229-231 Consolidated Produce Company
231 1/2  Vacant

233 R.L. Cox, grocer

235 Walden Motor Company, refrigerators

237-239 Central Market, grocers
Central Service Station

COLLEGE STREET begins

BUILDINGS AND BUSINESSES ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF EAST MAIN FROM ST. ANDREWS TO APPLETREE IN 1935:

200 Young Drug Co.
offices inside the Young Building
(the Young Building offices have an address of 103 South St. Andrews)
201-03 Dr. R.D. Crawford, physician
             Dr. E. F. Moody, physician
204-206 Dr. H.B. Burdeshaw, physician
301-303 Dr. J.T. Ellis, physician
304-306 Dr. Arthur Mazyck, physician
401-402 Dr. B.W. Miller, physician
403-406 Dr. D.C. Haisten, physician
501 Dr. J.A. Campbell, physician

204 Crystal Barber Shop
204 1/2 Dothan Broadcasting Co.
             WAGF Radio Station

206 Burdeshaw Pressing Shop
       Jeff Orr's Shoe Shop

208 City Market, groceries and meats

210 Vacant

212-214 HOTEL MARTIN (addresses 216-222 East Main are for businesses located in the Hotel Martin building's first floor.)
216 I.C. Ezell, tailor
218 W.W. Gregory, merchandise broker
220 National Re-Employment Service
222 E.C. Cumbie, bicycle repair
( 222 1/2 was vacant but it may have been located in a small garage across the tracks from the Hotel Martin. I need to see the fire insurance maps for 1935 in order to confirm the location Monarch Cleaners)
224 Monarch Dry Cleaning

The Central of Georgia(Hartford and Slocomb) tracks cross just east of the Hotel Martin.

226 Barnes Motorcycle Co. (I believe this was located in an old tin shop set back from East Main beside the east side of the Central of Georgia tracks)

228 East Main Service Station
      rear: Dothan Warehouse, cotton storage

232 Marvin Holman's Stables

234 Seaborn Grocery Company 

Businesses on the south side of East Main to St. Andrews in 1935 (image of area from a 1920 fire insurance map) :

100-102 Blumberg's and Sons Department Store
104 J.B. Adams~ restaurant
106 Stephenson Drug Co.
106 1/2  F. M. Gaines, lawyer
108 Rogers Inc. grocer; Foremost Auto Store; Singer Sewing Machine, Co.
108 1/2  J.A. Keyton, physician
110 Dothan Furniture Co.
112 E.R. Hardware Co.
114 Famous Store
116 E.T. Whitaker, restaurant; Herman Behrman Department Store
118 Star Barber Shop
120 Ritz Billiard Parlor
122 Abe's Restaurant ,A. T. Saliba, confectioner
124 Strand Theatre
126 The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, grocer

Timothy Leary made headlines nationwide in August '67 when he told an audience @ the University of Maryland that taking acid "is playing Russian roulette with the nervous system but worth the gamble." Leary was speaking before a convention of the National Student Association and Jack Drake was there representing BAMA. Drake wrote about Leary in the first issue of FARRAGO in December '67 (the article contains a picture of Leary with the caption "Local boy makes good- Timothy Leary: the Flower Power man who attended the University of Alabama- not cuts the "grass" out on the farm.") :

...Everyone knows Leary- the ex-Harvard professor, graduate of the University of Alabama, who has recently become the high priest of the psychedelic mysticism. Leary is a fine showman with a better than average sense of the dramatic. When first introduced, Leary himself did not come onto the stage. Instead a Negro man, dressed in white sari and barefooted, came out and said, "Well, you've heard about the effect of LSD upon people's genes- well, look what it did to me." Leary then came out to speak, dressed in the same manner as Chuck, his Negro friend.

While Leary spoke, Chuck listened to the Beatle's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" through earphones and would occasionally burst into song, often repeating the words, "You've got to realize that it's all within yourself, one one else can make you change."

Leary advised the audience to turn on, tune in and drop out- meaning that everyone should take LSD or smoke pot and then drop out of society.

"Take out a year from school, learn to play a musical instrument or go to Europe. Don't give colleges any of your money- just leave, they can't run without you. And don't buy any of America's goods; then maybe they'll listen to you," the prophet of flowerdom said.

 A T-TOWN CHURCH:
"Then there was her eulogy at Cooper’s funeral last Saturday in Tuscaloosa. To those who don’t know her, Leanna Harris’ comment that she wouldn’t bring her son back, even if she could, seemed suspicious.
“He’s in the most peaceful, wonderful place there is, ” Leanna Harris said.

 “Junior high and senior high — they weren’t the happiest times (for me),” she said, listing heartbreaks her son would be spared. “He won’t have to suffer through the death of his (grandparents). He won’t have to suffer through the death of me and Ross.”

" So far, Leanna Harris has remained loyal to her husband of seven years. At Cooper’s funeral, she said she holds no anger towards him."

 "But the 250 or so mourners who gathered at University Church of Christ gave her two rounds of applause, and Harris’ statement is not unusual among the deeply religious who believe the afterlife is God’s greatest gift."
 https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/focus-shifts-mother-cobb-toddler-investigation-continues/5a9DWI7K1Oq7GtI33Y6rOK/ 

 LIBERATION EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
"Although critical pedagogy has its roots in Marxist critiques of schooling and society, during the last decade SOME RESEARCHERS have written more explicitly and specifically about RACE as a major dimension of critical pedagogy."

https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5SRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22EQUITY+CURRICULUM%22+Marx&source=bl&ots=Bkeqvwfl_q&sig=ACfU3U2nEVdPugSk957IdYUCf2R0G4LMhg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV8d3w28nnAhXDUt8KHRQxAXgQ6AEwAXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22EQUITY%20CURRICULUM%22%20Marx&f=false

The SNAKEATORIUM was a model for the fictional Spanish Moss Dairy in my novel SNAKE DOCTOR. "Two miles below Cowpen’s Dam lay the Queen City on the bluff, Tustennuggee, Alabama. Laid out around an old federal armory, the town proved to be an enigma to most outsiders. The convoluted actions of Tustennuggee government and business created by over a century of secrecy seemed to defy all explanation. Yet just underneath the surface of the arbitrary and illogical appearance of each transaction was a spirit of love. Yes, old—fashioned Southern family love. And in the words of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, ‘How do you spell love? M—O—N-E-Y!’" https://snakedoctor.blogspot.com/

Fredrick Kenneth (Fred) Coons
Born February 17, 1938
Died 11 September 2019

He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and graduated from Tuscaloosa High School in 1956. Freddie was an excellent musician, played string bass & cornet. He played coronet in the Tuscaloosa High Schoo Black Bear Band. He graduated from University of Alabama in 1988.
He joined the US Navy 1956 - 1960.
He was a pilot, and flew crop dusters.
He is survived by his long-time friend and companion Susan Jecker and his granddaughter Xemenia. Proceeded in death by his daughter Renee, his brother William and his parents William and Hortense.
He devoted his life to helping others recover from alcoholism.
Memorial service will be announced at a later date.

During the condemnation of all the property on the 2100 block and 2200 block of 6 Street back in 2005, I decided to write a text for a historical marker concerning the 1821 Tuscaloosa town plat. I thought a good place to put it would be that little triangular block in front of the old location of Sam Jackson's @ the intersection of 21st Avenue and Queen City. :

THE TOWN PLAT OF TUSCALOOSA, 1821

 On October 4, 1816, the Choctaw Indians extinguished their title to this property when they signed a treaty which ceded all of their remaining land east of the Tombigbee River to the United States. On March 3, 1817,the U.S. Congress reserved from public land sale this Fractional Section 22 of Township 21 South, Range 10 West(Huntsville Meridian). Queen City Avenue runs north to south along the eastern margin line of this land section.

Monday,  May 11, 2020 will mark a significant TUSCALOOSA BICENTENNIAL anniversary. On that day in 1820, President Monroe ordered that a federal land office be established in Tuscaloosa to sell all the public land that had been surveyed in this district. It will have been 200 years this October of 2020 since SOME of the land on which Tuscaloosa now exists finally was owned by the American citizens who founded the town over four years earlier. Prior to 1820, every one of the "6 to 800 souls" who lived around the south bank of the Falls of Black Warrior was a squatter.  The owners of Newtown kicked off THE TUSCALOOSA LAND RUSH when they placed ads in the Nashville and Knoxville papers in December of 1820. (from the December 12, 1820 KNOXVILLE REGISTER)

The Feds @ the Tuscaloosa Land Office piddled around for another year before they laid out THE ORIGINAL CITY (a fractional section of a township bounded by the river on the north; present-day Queen City on the East; present-day MLK, Jr. on the west and present-day 15th Street on the south). President Monroe ordered 511 lots (each city block was cut into four equal lots. On most downtown blocks, you can see this property line when you walk the sidewalk halfway between the corners of the block)  be put up for sale at a Tuscaloosa auction on Monday, October 29, 1821, with a minimum bid of $6 per acre. We in the present-day continue to live our lives within this almost two centuries old grid of city streets and blocks. (from the October 20, 1821 NATCHEZ GAZETTE)

There are no dates in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. The passage of time over the course of 40 chapters and "Interludes" is indicated by the various technological innovations introduced in each chapter. In the Interlude which follows Chapter 18, a drunken Jake has a problem ringing Aven's telephone operator so in his rage he pulls the wooden telephone box off the wall of Dean's Livery Stable (modeled after Holman Mule Company) , takes the remains down to Aven Telephone Company located over a downtown building, tosses the box and receiver through the switchboard office door and yells @ the operator, "Miss Edie, here's number twenty-five." This Interlude follows the chapter where Buck explains his plan to build the Harrison House (modeled after Hotel Martin, 1907).

Dothan got it's first telephone exchange in 1897 but it was not until 1906 that modern telephone equipment described in the Interlude following Chapter 18 was introduced. From 1896 until 1906, Dothan's telephone exchange was @ 106-108 West Main.  After 1906 it was relocated to 130 North Foster when the exchange was acquired by Standard Telephone and Telegraph out of Troy (what was said to be Dothan's first telephone pole was cut down in front of this office in 1940). Standard Telephone connected Dothan to a nationwide long distance network but Dothan's first long distance line between Dothan and Hartford was established by P.M. Metcalf in 1899. I believe this was a fence wire telephone line that ran along steel fence wire from Hartford to Dothan. In 1904 W. M. Lanier put up telephone poles and built a modern telephone line from Dothan to Hartford and then connected it to the telephone exchanges he had established earlier in Graceville, Samson and Geneva. Lanier's Hartford telephone company was very successful and eventually had 400 subscribers before Lanier sold it in 1928.

Both of the endings Dougie Bailey wrote for DEVIL MAKE A THIRD feature Buck Bannon's heroic efforts to save his friend Virgil who had been trapped out on an upper ledge of the new Aven Opera House by a catastrophic fire. After reaching the ledge on the ladder, Buck backed himself against the wall along the ledge toward Virgil and as he did, his hands touched the damp mortar and he realized he should have used Buck Baker's contractor, J.W. Baughman, to build his opera house:

from page 375, "Too damned much sand in this mortar. That Georgia crook must have slipped in it in when I was asleep. It won't hold long in this heat. Move on, Virgil, around the corner, and jump over on top of the city hall. Hell, it ain't but about 8 feet and a good-sized man can fall halfway. Any idiot can jump eight feet." (from the January 7, 1951 DOTHAN EAGLE)

Reverend J.F. Register's father, Reverend J.Y. Register, was tax collector for Coffee County at the beginning of the Civil War. According to this 1926 newspaper article virtually every cent of taxes paid to the Confederate government of Coffee County was spent on the poor. Indigent families were provided with coffins, salt, corn and a poor house.

My great-great uncle, Reverend John Forsyth Register (1845-1928), was the second sheriff of Geneva County. The link on this post tells the story of his Confederate unit, Clanton's Brigade, which was organized after the Yankees stole the steamboat BLOOMER @ Geneva around Christmas of 1862. My uncle was in Company K, 6th Alabama Cavalry. Even though it was named "Alabama Cavalry", it is also considered a Florida unit because so many of its men were from the Panhandle. (Leonia, Florida is named after my uncle's first wife, Leonia Register) http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/santarosa/military/6alcoi.txt

At the same time he decides to purchase a new store on Basin Street (Main Street), DEVIL MAKE A THIRD'S Buck Bannon discovers that a new railroad is coming to Aven and that he knows an assistant to the chief surveyor named Ed Puckett who knows the new route. Buck gets his father to finance the speculative purchase of land along the route. In order to eliminate the possibility of the assistant surveyor beginning more rumors, Buck gives Ed a gallon of whiskey with orders to take half of it to a friend in the country and he can keep the other half. Because Buck is aware of the assistant surveyor Ed Puckett's vices, the half-gallon of whiskey insured that Ed would "be drunk for two days and won't have a chance to tell the town. That'll give us a two-day jump on the rest."

 The decision to speculate on this land ensured that Buck Bannon would become rich by all Aven standards. I believe the model Dougie Bailey used for Ed Puckett was Columbia's Charles W. Brown. Brown's family moved to Dothan after he'd left home to go work for the railroad. (from the October 20, 1949 DOTHAN EAGLE)