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)