It's pretty despicable when somebody puts themselves up as some kind of "professional historian" and then acts like a human xerox machine and simply copies what they read somewhere without ANY CONFIRMATION by way of original documentation and then TAKES MONEY for the lies they ROUTINELY share with the reading public. Such is the case with much of what passes in THE PRESENT DAY as DOTHAN HISTORY. Consider these words written in the 21st century and published by an Alabama HYSTERIAN. He be a true PROFESSIONIST. "In 1885, residents of Poplar Head met and decided to incorporate their community. Since there was already a town named Poplar Head, a new name was in order. A local minister suggested they name the town Dothan, in honor of the biblical town located along the trade route between Syria and Egypt." According to the HISTORICAL ATLAS OF ALABAMA only one place in Alabama has EVER been named "Poplar Head" and that's the one associated with present-day Houston County. "Dothan" was not a new name. It had been the name of the closest post office to Poplar Head SINCE 1858. Unfortunately, it was discontinued in 1866 and when reestablished in 1871, the application for a post office was misspelled "Dothen". When the town of DOTHAN was incorporated in 1885, they took the name of the original post office and spelled the name correctly on the application for incorporation but the town was saddled with a post office named "Dothen" and a town named "Dothan" and it took until 1897 for the jokers in U.S. Post Office to finally clean up its act. The dismissive comment made by the HYTHERIAN about "the biblical town located along the trade between Syria and Egypt" fails to communicate that Dothan is location of the FIRST SALE OF A SLAVE in ALL biblical history and that slave was the great prophet of the book of GENESIS, Joseph. (from the January 22, 1910 DOTHAN EAGLE) 

STARSHIP AMAZON PRIME (that old-time DRUID religion or Camelliacrucianism) :

Applicant: FROM HERE TO WHERE?

Questioner: WHERE STONE WHICH LAY ON MOTHER EARTH NOW POINTS ANOTHER WAY TO BIRTH.

  The applicant naturally inquires where, and is told to seek a Stone which once lay supine on earth, but has now been raised by human efforts until it points to higher levels of Life altogether.

This makes sound sense. The Stone is a Symbol of Man's first serious attempts to lift himself up from this Earth and point himself in what he believed was the right direction to Divinity of a Cosmic condition of Maximum Manhood. It is no mere accident that the Stone indicates the stars. From far-off stellar space came the seed of human Life to this earth, and sooner or later we have to go home again. Raising that Stone was a gesture of acknowledgement and Inner recognition towards this beginning and end of Earthlife. It was not only a wave of farewell, but a hailing sign of future fulfillment, too. Now, we might stand another such Symbol beside it in the shape of a space rocket or a launching pad. This is the equivalent of our Standing Stone in this century, and it will be surpassed by its offspring in the next, however, if it were possible to see both these symbols side by side, it would be obvious that if the first had not been set up so long ago, the second could not have lifted itself today. In addition to that, the same fundamental faith lies behind both Stone and Starship. As we look at them together, we are seeing a combined example of Man's confidence in Cosmos and his own spiritual status therein.

The Standing stone still speaks very clearly to Mankind. It has always the same message, which sounds something like, "Stop lying to yourself. Get up, stand on the basis of your best beliefs and look Life in the face. Be unshakably firm, but do not be moved to hurt anyone. Endure. Be strong, patient, and acknowledge nothing above you except Heaven." The stone has a lot more to tell those who listen carefully. It might also quote, "everything comes to he who waits." That very Stone has stood there for Centuries waiting for a Starship to take its place. It may yet be standing when whatever replaces the rocketship lifts the last Man on earth finally to the stars forever. The same Stone which saw the start of our civilization may witness the end of it here also. If we survive the Stone, we shall have reached the farthest starts. We may even reach Divinity Itself. That is the story which the Stone has to tell us in our time. 

~W.G. Gray

 page 38 and 39 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: 

He stumbled now and then. The liquor and something else was boiling inside him and throwing off powerful  big bubbles that wanted to come out in long yells. He felt good and loose-ankled and full of the devil and he needed to undo his collar.

It was shoving him when he reached Baptist Bottom.

Baptist Bottom lay between him and Mabe's Place. It crouched at night under a sullen fog, a few clapboard shacks, shrinking in the sun and swelling in the rain. Mist rose from stagnant water that drained off the higher ground of the white folks and ponded in the bottom. The fog held too long the odors of frying fish, onions and hush puppies. It rose and dulled sights and sounds.

Even the sudden high-pitched yells from the Puddin' House were muted and sounded farther away than they really were. They always yelled in the Puddin' House. It was the only place for colored folks alone. A scuffle and a giggling laugh in the bushes near the narrow street came to Buck like an echo that had no beginning. And the preaching. There was always preaching in the Bottom and now a voice rode low through the mist, hardly mumbling beyond the crowd.

Buck was passing the preaching, just outside the Puddin' House, when the sudden bawl of the preacher caught him.

"An' this is the last word," it came, grumbling low but strong. Buck stepped closer and saw the huge figure gather itself as if to lunge at the crowd, and in the light of a kerosene lamp on a goods box he saw the muscles in the thick black throat strain for volume.

The preacher thrust his big head straight forward and glared at the crowd, holding his voice. Then he blasted out the last word.

"You got to walk the muddy streets of Aven 'fore you kin walk the golden streets of Heaven." (when you search newspapers-dot-com for "BAPTIST BOTTOM" DOTHAN, you get 227 matches and ever' one of 'em is pretty interesting~ first five images from the August 9, 1944 DOTHAN EAGLE; sixth image from the November 3, 1944 DOTHAN EAGLE)

Marine Col. Jack Hawkins broke silence in an article in the Dec. 31, 1996, edition of National Review:
. . . "The crucial point at issue was air support. Throughout my participation in the Cuba project I frequently emphasized both orally and in formal correspondence the absolute necessity for complete destruction of the opposing air force at the outset of the operation. In another memorandum in early 1961 I stated flatly that if Castro's air force were not all destroyed before the troop transports arrived at the landing beaches, a military disaster would occur.... [Secretary of State Dean] Rusk did not seem to grasp the point ... so when the recommendations from the State Department conflicted with those of the CIA, the President usually adopted Mr. Rusk's position.... President Kennedy's cancelling of the invasion bombing of the remains of Castro's air force doomed Brigade 2506.... The Brigade fought hard and well for three days and was not overrun or driven from its position.... The troops eventually ran out of ammunition and had to surrender. Before the surrender ... [Admiral Arleigh] Burke requested permission from the President to have carrier aircraft eliminate the rest of Castro's air force and fly cover and support for the Brigade, and use naval landing craft to evacuate troops from the beach. The president refused

FROM THE BOOK, WINGS OF DENIAL:


For the first time during the invasion Alabama Air National Guard pilots
were at the controls of warplanes taking part in the fray. Prior to April
19th the Alabama guardsmen were not allowed to fly combat missions in
support of the brigade. The White House feared that an American pilot might
be shot down and expose the U.S. Government's role in the covert affair.
President John F. Kennedy, newly inaugurated and concerned about the
political fallout from the invasion, was adamant that operations be carried
out in such a way that the U.S. Government could plausibly deny any
involvement. Unfortunately, the concern for "plausible deniability" within
the decision-making process took precedence over military requirements.
Pre-invasion air strikes against Cuban airfields were held to a minimum to
mask U.S. involvement. This was done on direct orders from the President.
Remnants of Fidel Castro's air forces, including two British-built Sea Fury
prop fighters and two Lockheed T-33 jet trainers with fighter capability,
survived the attacks to strike back against the invasion forces and their
limited air support. The fighters attacked the landing forces at will, sank
their ammunition and supplies coming in from the sea, and wreaked havoc on
the B-26s coming to their aid. The denial of U.S. fighter cover from the
carrier Essex steaming offshore yielded command of the air to Castro's few
surviving planes. The minimal bombing strikes two days before the landing on
April 17 not only failed to destroy all of Castro's planes, but alerted the
Cuban dictator that the landing forces were on the way. On the morning of
the 17th Castro's planes sank two of the brigade's ships, the Houston and
the Rio Escondido, loaded with war supplies. Five of the liberation air
force's 16 B-26s and their crews were lost on the day of the landing. Flying
one and sometimes two missions a day-each mission six and one-half hours
over open water without navigational aids-the Cuban pilots were physically
and emotionally exhausted by the third day of the invasion. Air Guard
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph L. Shannon recalled that the Cuban pilots were in
no shape to fly on the 19th, but some flew anyway.

Faced with exhausted aircrews and a desperate situation on the ground in
Cuba, the CIA authorized Alabama guardsmen to fly missions on the 19th. Four
Guard pilots and four crewmen stepped forward. The lead formation on the
19th was commanded by Billy "Dodo" Goodwin, a major in the Air Guard, and
Gonzalo Herrera, a fearless Cuban pilot known as "El Tigre" by his
compatriots. The other Alabama Guard pilots were Joe Shannon, Riley
Shamburger, and Thomas Willard "Pete" Ray. Crew members from Alabama
included Leo Francis Baker, Wade Gray, Carl "Nick" Sudano, and James Vaughn.
A second exiled Cuban pilot, Mario Zuniga, and his observer rounded out the
strike force.

At the last minute the B-26s were promised air cover from the Essex, but in
a tragic mix-up the jet fighters did not show until the bombers were leaving
the target area. The Navy pilots had orders not to fire unless fired upon.
When the unprotected bombers arrived over the beachhead at sunrise, the
Cuban fighters were waiting for them. The two lead B-26s piloted by Goodwin
and Herrera sustained hits but delivered their ordnance and were returning
to Puerto Cabezas when the other bombers arrived in the target area. Two of
the B-26s came under attack as they approached the beachhead. Joe Shannon
was able to outmaneuver the T-33s, but his wingman Riley Shamburger was hit.
Shamburger and his observer Wade Gray went down with their plane. Further
inland, a Cuban fighter brought down Pete Ray's bomber as he pressed the
attack against heavily defended targets. Ray and Leo Francis Baker, a flight
engineer, survived the crash only to be killed in a shootout with Cuban
soldiers.

That afternoon the beachhead collapsed and the Cuban exiles, having
exhausted their supplies and ammunition, surrendered to Castro's army. It
had taken just seventy-two hours to crush the invasion. Some survivors were
rescued by U.S. ships, but the brigade took heavy casualties including 114
men who died and 1,189 who were taken prisoner. Fidel Castro held the
prisoners until December 1963 when he ransomed them to the United States for
$53 million worth of food and drugs. A humiliating defeat for the U.S.
Government, the Bay of Pigs was a tragedy from which the Cuban exiles and
their liberation movement would never recover.

No one shared the loss more than their U.S. comrades. Joe Shannon recalled
that he and the other Alabama guardsmen had flown the final mission on 19
April because they "were closely associated with the Cuban aircrews, and . .
. felt a strong dedication to their cause." Captain Edward B. Ferrer, a
pilot in the liberation air force, wrote a book on the air battle at the Bay
of Pigs and declared that the U.S. crews who volunteered to fly with them in
combat were no longer advisers, but brothers. Despite the swirl of
controversy surrounding the Bay of Pigs fiasco and their strong feelings
about the constraints placed on air power, Shannon and the other air
guardsmen kept their silence for decades. They had been sworn to secrecy,
and they honored that commitment. They did not even tell their wives.
For the families of the four heroic guardsmen who gave their lives on the
final day's mission, theirs was a compelling story. The families mourned
their loss, but went years without knowing what happened to their loved
ones. How could they relate the deaths to the Bay of Pigs if the government
denied they were ever there? Some family members refused to give up. In a
poignant twist to the Bay of Pigs tragedy the family of Pete Ray learned in
1978 that for 17 years his body had been refrigerated in Cuba on Castro's
orders. The Castro regime kept the slain U.S. pilot's body as a propaganda
trophy and as evidence that the U.S. government was behind the Bay of Pigs
invasion.

Thomas Ray, Jr., (a San Francisco attorney) and his sister Janet (the wife
of an Air Force colonel and F-16 pilot) were small children when their
father was killed. Although the family learned that he had died while
supporting the invasion, officially he was never there. While growing up the
son and daughter relentlessly pursued the truth about their father's death
and what had happened to his body. The family's persistence persuaded the
Cuban government to return Thomas Ray's body to Alabama for burial in
December 1979. The U.S. Government finally admitted in May 1999, nearly four
decades after the event, that Ray and three other Alabama guardsmen were
shot down on April 19, 1961, flying combat over Cuba's Bahia de Cochinos.
Over the past 40 years the daring B-26 mission on the final day of the
invasion-resulting in the untimely death of four intrepid guardsmen-has
become a symbol of the Alabama Air National Guard's role in the Bay of Pigs
invasion. That role had its start when a large contingent of Alabama
guardsmen, joined by other volunteers from Arkansas units and the civil
aviation sector, deployed on a secret mission to Guatemala in late 1960.
They served there as advisers to Cuban exiles who were preparing to liberate
their homeland under the auspices of the CIA. No one else, not even their
families, knew where they were. The failure at the Bay of Pigs had
far-reaching implications for the U.S. Government and its Cold War policies.
It led directly to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and may have propagated
the political indecision and myopia leading to our more tragic failure in
the Vietnam War. For the Alabama Air National Guard there were no Bay of
Pigs service medals or campaign streamers, but the experience has become a
distinctive part of Air Guard history. For the guardsmen who were part of
that history, their silence was a badge of honor.

 If any of your kinfolks were ever sharecroppers, you'll learn something from this post. In DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, 18 year-old Buck decided on his first morning in Aven that he wasn't going to take a "tool job." He wanted nothing to do with a life in town where he made a living using tools similar to the ones he grew up using on the farm. By getting his first job at Green's General Merchandise, Buck learned a new game that used some other tools: the store's ledger sheet that tallied credit purchases and the crop lien mortgages that gave the farmers their credit in Green's store.  The crop lien mortgages and other documents in this album are not from Houston County but they are from Alabama and are similar to the legal forms that Buck Bannon used to make his fortune.

 

from page 53 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: 

"Look," he said, "pore farmers have got to be furnished and somebody's got to furnish them."

She sniffed. "We never needed no furnishin'."

"I know," Buck said, impatiently. "You'd rather starve, but there's a lot of  'em wouldn't. See here, the man that does the makes mor'n the farmer. You know that. Rent him his land, sell him his tools, seeds, guano, anything he wants. He'll owe you and he won't like you. He'll cuss you, but you'll have to take it. He may kick you, but take it. Then, by God, if makes a crop, take it."

His mother closed her eyes and Buck could see her face stiffen. She tried to rock, but it wasn't a rocking chair. "That ain't our way," she said, shortly.

Buck laughed, bitterly, and it was ugly even to his ears.

"Them that furnishes live a long time," he said. "The land don't break them."

 

(Buck is about to make his first big business deal with his future father-in-law, AMOS LONGSHORE, whose character may have been based upon Dothan's Captain G.Y. Malone) 

from page 31 and 32 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: 

He closed his lips tightly, remembering, and trying not to remember, as he faced around to the big white house up the precise gravel walkway that parted two squares of green lawn. "No time to drag around," he muttered, and took two steps toward Amos Longshore's home. Then, he stopped again, staring in a puzzled frown at the lawn. "More and more folks here lettin' grass grow in their yards." He shrugged slightly. "Mother wouldn't have it."

newspaper clipping from the August 16, 1899 DOTHAN HOME JOURNAL ~ 

G.H. Malone was also one of Captain Malone's sons and one of Ed Malone's brothers. He along with T.M. Espy are considered to be the two main political forces behind the formation of Houston County in 1903. Mr. T. F. Espy was Collier Espy's great grandfather. T.M. Espy was Collier's grandfather. 

"Mrs. J. M. Shepherd" should read Mrs. G.M. Shepherd. She was my great-grandmother. My Grandma Register was one of her 12 children. Not long after this article was printed the Shepherds moved by way of covered wagons from their farm in Cotton Hill just north of Coleman  to a farm near Hartford. Mrs. G.M. Shepherd's parents, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Peacock, lived near Beulah Church and were Dothan area pioneers. They were my great-great grandparents. Four of Mrs. G.M. Shepherd's daughters married Dothan men so I have a lot of distant kinfolks around Dothan.

 

 

 

 

 

 Monday, August 23, 2021 will mark the 200th anniversary of President James Monroe ordering the Monday, October 29, 1821 public auction of 511 lots which made up the present original city of Tuscaloosa (Queen City to 15th Street to MLK, Jr. to the river). 23rd Avenue was originally named after President Monroe as well as was the beautiful house on the south end of 23rd which we now call the DRISH HOUSE. Prior to this auction, nobody owned land in Tuscaloosa. The only landowners were folks living in New Town. Everybody else was a squatter. Probably no two individual bought more lots than did business partners Edward Sims and David Scott.  (clippings from the January 21, 1904 TUSCALOOSA NEWS, the October 20, 1821 NATCHEZ GAZETTE, the image from the 1887 panoramic map shows the E.N.C. Snow house on 8th Street which Sims help build for the education of Methodist girls)

Page 142 of DEVIL MAKE THIRD: "One of you hide 'n seek heroes ain't got the guts to do his own dirt. If he'll step out o' line, I'll pay double what he claims he lost. Why, the yellow hound gets the rest o' you to whip a woman for him, but I can't hire him to take a beatin' himself. If there's a man the crowd, I'm servin' warnin' through him right now that the Bannons will whip their own women in they need it but they damned shore won't ask for help. And there won't never be another Bannon to join a bunch o' sons-o'-bitches that have to herd up to strip a whore." https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/

 from MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE OLIVER POOL (Brina J. Agranat, 1992) :

In the early 1940s both Baker Towboat and Parker Towing operated from Riverview, although Baker apparently kept an office at River Hill, at the foot of Greensboro Avenue, near the present site of Parker Towing (Editor note: behind the present-day Amphitheater). Baker added another towboat to his fleet, the sternwheel steamer CYPRESS, at this time as well. The CYPRESS was built in St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1915 as the F. HILDA BURDIN. She measured 105.3 feet in length, 24.3 feet in beam, and 3.5 feet in depth. She was rebuilt in 1925, renamed, and sold by her owners, the Wis Paterson Lumber Company to Captain Owen F. Burke of Mobile, Alabama in 1930. After a single trip to Selma, Alabama on the Alabama River, Burke sold the CYPRESS to John C. Webb of Demopolis. The CYPRESS was a "push or pull" boat, mounting towing knees forward and a towing rig up aft. 

 

  from MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE OLIVER POOL (Brina J. Agranat, 1992)

WRECK 1 consists of the lower hull of an iron-fastened wooden vessel 105.5 feet in length with a surviving beam of 24 feet. Dimensions are consistent with the Baker towboat CYPRESS. Structure shows evidence of engine mount locations. Double floors are present at the 22nd through 26th, and 28th frames aft. Frames are 4 inches sided and 5.5 inches moulded. Room and space is 18 inches. Outer hull planking measures 11.5 inches wide and 2.75 inches thick. Outer hull is sheathed with three-quarter inch wood sheathing.

CYPRESS -Baker Towboat;  wood, steam, sternwheel towboat 102 tons, built St. Martinville, Louisiana, 1915. Rebuilt 1925. Dismantled Tuscaloosa, 1947.  105.3 X 24.3 X 3.5

"like a scope of timber" "like a colored woman with a bundle on her head" "like findin' rock candy in a syrup bucket"

 I'd really appreciate any feedback on this post. Last night I sat down at my usual spot where I feed the fish on the Warrior each evening and I thought to myself, "I wonder what I'm gonna see tonight!" As I looked up above me I saw what appeared to be a full-winged adult wild-type muscovy duck sitting in the top of the willow. After the third flash from my camera and me trying to balance walking out on the willow trunk, the duck flew upriver and turned into the University Branch slough. I'd never seen a duck

that big fly before. It looked like a goose. FROM WIKIPEDIA: "Small wild and feral breeding populations have established themselves in the United States, particularly in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, the Big Island of Hawaii, as well as in many other parts of North America, including southern Canada."

 ONLY TRASH LITTERS knows he needs the exercise but yesterday's haul of shredded foam rubber was WAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH EXERCISE. This bag full don't look like much but that's little bitty pieces that were all collected in the short distance from the Tuscaloosa News building to the Amphitheater. There's a whole lot of satisfaction in tryin' to keep T-town clean but I swear THROBBIN' THURSDAY'S weekly delivery of clouds of broken pieces of styrofoam, insulation, foam rubber, etc. off the trucks haulin' it off Hugh Thomas Bridge and Lurleen South NEEDS TO STOP and the only way will be THE POLICE! These cats strowing this trash need to be held accountable!