from the August 24, 1910 TROY MESSENGER

 John Derbyshire https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Derbyshire?fbclid=IwAR3pvwHDZQ-9aJ7k9JHfACNqfCxMm6WpRICJG8xGm5yhV0riC9k2wMFKGlg

 After knocking on Longshore's front door, Buck discovers the existence of Longshore's daughter. Suddenly, Buck has more than business on his mind.  The brown paper bag in which Buck carried the down payment for the mortgage he was seeking along with his well-worn wardrobe had not enhanced Buck's first impression upon Longshore but seeing Buck's interest  in his daughter didn't help Buck's chances of getting a loan. Buck overcomes all of Longshore's suspicions simply by allowing the old man to have a glimpse of the inside of the paper sack filled with Buck's greenbacks. When Longshore points out that he could easily use his own money to buy the bargain-priced property Buck desires rather than financing Buck's purchase, Buck points out that Longshore would rather have Buck's five hundred dollars than a bargain price on the property and Buck was correct. Even though the two  part with Longshore insulting Buck by calling him a thief for exploiting a tragedy, Buck walks off Longshore's porch and into Aven's night knowing that his business plan has made a tremendous leap forward. Buck's last words to Longshore give a good description of Buck's strategy, "I ain't got time to stop and build bridges when I come to a creek. I've got to jump to stay on schedule."

from the August 19 and the August 12, 1933 DOTHAN EAGLE

 Chattel Mortgages

Even if your grandparents weren't raised in the Wiregrass, you might still be interested in this post if they were SHARECROPPERS. I'm working on a "CliffsNotes"-type study guide for DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. Right now, these are my first two sentences: "Chapter One introduces the reader to many important themes which will be repeated and will progress in subsequent chapters. Most important will be the life-long burning desire of the protaganist to escape and to never return to rural life."

So ya might ask yourself,"What's so bad about rural life?" Well, the rural life that the hero of this novel seeks to escape is

a life dominated by child labor, debt peonage and unrelenting, uncompensated labor.

The following album contains a clipping from the March 25, 1915 LEIGHTON NEWS and images of Alabama cotton chattel or crop lien mortgages from my collection (you'll notice rodent tooth marks on these documents. That's because ROBERTOREG saved them from the dumpster). Some of these debts incurred by these mortgages are to be paid off in money and if not, they're to be paid off in "all crops of all kinds grown by myself and my family" or even all your property. No money was involved in mortgages paid off by "one half entire crop made" or "pounds cotton due" or "750 pounds lint" "by sale 4 B/C" [by sale of four bales cotton] and look what the person who learned to sign their "X" to the contract promises: THE LABOR OF HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN in order to make the crop and IF THEY FAIL, he promises to pay for the extra labor needed to bring the crop in.

Many of your grandparents who were sharecroppers signed contracts worded like this:

“ I have purchased of Joe Blow & Co. the amount of eighty dollars, and have bargained for such other advances as I may need to make a crop during the year 1906, which sums advanced and to be advanced I owe to said Joe Blow & Co., and promise to pay them the first day of October, 1906. Now, in consideration of said purchase and in order to secure the payment of said amounts, I do hereby bargain, sell and convey unto the said Joe Blow & Co., heirs and assigns, the following property, to wit: my entire crop of cotton, corn, fodder, peas, and cottonseed, raised by MYSELF, MY FAMILY & MY TENANTS on my place in Houston County, State of Alabama, and I agree to deliver to Joe Blow & Co. my cotton as fast as picked out and ginned until all claims is paid. To have and to hold, with all appurtenances, to said Joe Blow & Co., their heirs and assigns forever." (all of this reminds me of an old shyster buddy of mine who used to finish up mortgage closings by tellin' the victim,"Now you look over that contract and if see anything in there that's TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, please tell us and we'll MAKE DAMN SURE to change it...")

On Thursday, September 12, 2019 I found a second Barbara Little letter dated July 22, 1861, the day after the first battle of Bull Run and the month previous to the date of the letter I found on Monday, September 9. I believe she wrote this to her son, John Little, Jr.

Tus. July 22nd/ 61

My dear John,

Dont you think that we have cause to praise God for all his past mercies, to us, what quiet times we have passed over, when, we compare the past with the present.

Mr. Fiquet went of in a great hast when he heard that there had been a battle at Fairfare.

Dr. Leland and Mr. Clemans went yesterday they thought their sons were in danger if spared they could not tell until they went Tomorrow we may hear more particulars no doubt it will Sad. Mrs. Allen says she will go it will depend upon what news may come Surely a sanctified use of all this, is to consider our latter end the danger we are in without an interest in Jesus and His Righteousness (ed. note: underlined) and that our safety is not in what we may possess of this worlds goods. You think you don't own much, but if you can say my Lord and my God you are rich, that is, if you can say it in Faith and truth (ed. note: underlined), which I hope you can or may soon (ed. note: double underlined), Father is well as usual in bed asleep Your father is sleeping sound George has just returned He is keeping James studying closely now. Sister Mary and James are gone to stay with Cousin to night she was not well today Mrs. Kirk came from Church and remained until this morning she says the Capt. is not well he speaks of going to N.O. this week.

Dr. W. preach'd from the text "We are witnesses" he spoke of the testimony Christians could hear Clay's dying testimony is more to be relied upon than Jackson's or Webster's

Dr. Barnard preached again in the morning but the very heavy rain prevented any preaching in the afternoon It has rained all day occasionally I went to prayer meeting in the Baptist Church few out Mr. Manly Dr. Whit and Mr. Blue were there.

Old Lady Maxwell is sick she fell down saturday night Mr. Thomas wife was very ill in England

I hope you are under the merceful care of Your Heavenly Father O that you may be touch by the Holy Spirit of God

Remember the Creator in the days of thy Youth.

His holiness, justice, truth, mercy and love may the love of God reign in your heart (ed. note: all underlined with "heart" underlined twice) is the chief desire of Your Mother. Rely upon the Lord and He will deliver and thou shalt glorify Him (ed. note: "Him" underlined three times)

 Apparently the BUCK CARRIAGE HOUSE was constructed about 1850 along with the main house by L.V. B. Martin about the time he married Susie Fitts. (from the October 13, 1912 TUSCALOOSA NEWS)

BUCK CARRIAGE HOUSE on the 1887 Tuscaloosa panoramic map

BUCK BOARDING HOUSE IN SNOW, 1816 BROAD STREET

https://tavm.omeka.net/items/show/515

from the October 13, 1921 TUSCALOOSA NEWS

Mr. J. H. Buck https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130252340/james-hall-buck

Mrs. J.H. Buck https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130252342/anne-furniss-buck

1899 Sanborn Fire Map http://cartweb.geography.ua.edu/lizardtech/iserv/calcrgn?cat=North%20America%20and%20United%20States&item=States/Alabama/Counties/tuscaloosa/Fire%20Insurance%20Maps/Tuscaloosa1899-7.sid&wid=500&hei=400&props=item(Name,Description),cat(Name,Description)&style=default/view.xsl&plugin=true

Raise your glass to the hard working people

Lets drink to the uncounted heads

Lets think of the wavering millions

Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Lets drink to the hard working people

Lets drink to the lowly of birth

Raise your glass to the good and the evil

Lets drink to the salt of the earth

(M. Jagger/ K. Richards) 

THE CIVIL WAR SALT MAKERS OF ST. ANDREWS BAY: THE SALT OF THE EARTH

The story of the Civil War in Florida is one long drawn out drama characterized by deprivation and tragedy. Less than a month after secession and two months before the war even started, the New York Times reported massive inflation in Florida and that the price of slaves had dropped by one half in the past six months. Small town businesses were already closing and poor people were going hungry. 

On Friday, April 19, 1861, only one week after the first shell was fired on Ft. Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a "Proclamation of Blockade Against Southern Ports". By June, the blockade had already begun at Apalachicola and September saw the first naval action of the Civil War occur in Pensacola harbor. From the very beginning of this awful war, anyone who thought they could sail out of St. Andrews Bay in their sloop or schooner in hopes of going fishing or engaging in the coastal trade was in for a rude awakening. The Civil War came to Northwest Florida coast right from the very get-go.

You know there's a lot of truth to that old expression,"You don't know what you got 'til it's gone."
How many times have you heard someone exclaim, "I can't imagine living down here in the summer without AC!" Well, imagine living down here without refrigeration as well. There was one main way to preserve food in 1861 and that was with salt and President Lincoln's naval blockade had an immediate impact on salt. The people of Florida at the time of the Civil War probably used more salt per capita than any group of people who have ever walked on the face of the earth. No one worried about extracting it from seawater. That was too much trouble. Hell, you could get a 200 pound sack for just about nothing on the docks at Apalach. It came over as ballast from the European ships loading cotton. You may not have been keeping up with the news in 1862 but suddenly you noticed something truly strange and unusual. There was no salt.

It got really, really bad in a world without salt. No one realized how valuable and vital salt was until it was gone.Salt served as preservative, disinfectant, seasoning and fertilizer. When it got to be hog killing time in the autumn of 1862, there was no reason to kill the hogs because you couldn't cure the meat. The Confederacy started making wooden soles for canvas shoes because without salt no one could tan leather. Livestock suffered. Without salt, the Confederate army couldn't make disinfectant to clean the wounds of the injured.

Suddenly a new industry designed to extract salt from sea water popped up on the shallow, secluded shores of St. Andrews Bay. By 1862, hundreds of salt works dotted the landscape from Phillips Inlet all the way to California Bayou in East Bay. The Confederate government exempted salt workers from conscription so St. Andrews Bay suddenly had a huge influx of draft dodgers and in a world at war even the draft dodger had to prove he was "worth his salt." The only way you could keep your draft exemption was to produce over 1000 pounds of salt a day. You had everything from "Mom and Pop" operations with a single kettle to huge factories over a hundred feet long with a hundred kettles boiling 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Pretty soon as many as 2500 men were out in the salt marsh digging brine wells, chopping wood, stoking fires, dipping boiling brine and making salt in the St. Andrews Bay area and 4000 wagons pulled by teams of mules and oxen were employed in moving the product north to Eufaula so the railroad could transport it to Montgomery and from there to a salt hungry Confederacy.

It didn't take long for the Gulf Blockading Squadron headquartered at Pensacola's Ft. Pickens to target this wartime industry for destruction. Many of these military missions are described in the official military records and the record reveals that St. Andrews Bay experienced repeated amphibious search and destroy missions from the U.S. Navy's sailors and marines from September of 1862 until February of 1865.  The blockading squadron made up mainly of gunboats constructed from sidewheel steamers and bark rigged clipper ships built their naval blockade station, barracks, wharf, refugee camp, prison and cemetery on Hurricane Island, the barrier island that once existed at the mouth of the channel entering St. Andrews Bay. John A. Burgess in his 1986 book, SAND IN MY SHOES, uses a  June 1985 Panama City News-Herald column by Marlene Womack and concludes from her information that by 1934 all traces of Hurricane Island disappeared underneath the waters of the Gulf but that during the Civil War the island existed "in the open channel approximately one mile east south-east of the present day land's end (the eastern tip of today's Sand Island)." In 2013, the former land's end of Shell Island would now be a portion of Tyndall Beach. 

The purpose of this article is not to chronicle the merciless and persistent destruction which the salt makers of St. Andrews Bay experienced from the U.S. Navy but to describe the industrial plants which the Union was unable to exterminate and which, like the mythical Phoenix, arose from the ashes as fast as the navy could demolish them.

Thanks to an aging matron from Tallahassee who decided to publish her Civil War diaries in 1925, we have a contemporary description of one of the small "Mom and Pop" operations which was built on Apalachee Bay east of St. Andrews. For our purposes this diary entry best captures life at a typical single syrup kettle Gulf Coast salt works. 

October 27th, 1863.—We went to the salt works today and, though I am tired and dirty and have no good place to write, I am going to try to tell you about it.

A year ago salt began to get scarce but the people only had to economize in its use, but soon there was no salt and then Father got Cousin Joe Bradford to come down from Georgia and take charge of some salt works he was having installed on the coast. He had plenty of hands from the plantation but they had to have an intelligent head and then, too, it is a rather dangerous place to work, for the Yankee gunboats can get very near the coast and they may try shelling the works.

Though they have been in operation quite awhile this is my first visit. Father brought us with him and we will stay three days, so he can see just how they are getting on. We are to sleep in a tent, on a ticking filled with pine straw. It will be a novel experience.

I am so interested in seeing the salt made from the water. The great big sugar kettles are filled full of water and fires made beneath the kettles. They are a long time heating up and then they boil merrily. Ben and Tup and Sam keep the fires going, for they must not cool down the least little bit. A white foam comes at first and then the dirtiest scum you ever saw bubbles and dances over the surface, as the water boils away it seems to get thicker and thicker, at last only a wet mass of what looks like sand remains. This they spread on smooth oaken planks to dry. In bright weather the sun does the rest of the work of evaporation, but if the weather is bad fires are made just outside of a long, low shelter, where the planks are placed on blocks of wood. The shelter keeps off the rain and the fires give out heat enough to carry on the evaporation. The salt finished in fair weather is much whiter and nicer in every way than that dried in bad weather, but this dark salt is used to salt meat or to pickle pork. I think it is fine of Father to do all this. It is very troublesome and it takes nine men to do the work, besides Cousin Joe’s time; and Father does not get any pay whatever for the salt he makes.

We expected to have a grand time swimming and fishing. We are both good swimmers, but Father and Cousin Joe will not allow us to go outside of this little cove. Yankee gun-boats have been sighted once lately and there is no knowing when the salt works may be attacked.

Even though we may not have a picture of the Confederate government salt works on St. Andrews Bay, the largest in the entire state of Florida, we do have a Harper’s Weekly engraving of a large salt works near Port St. Joe that was attacked by the U.S.S. Kingfisher in September of 1862. From this image along with descriptions of large salt works of the time, we may gain an idea of how what was called the salt block was constructed. Like an old time wood stove, the works had oven doors with a fi re box at one end and a chimney at the other. This created a draft that drew the fl ame, heat and smoke to the chimney and heated the double row of iron kettles, basins or tanks that rested on open- ings in the masonry foundation. Old steamboat and sawmill boilers, coastal channel buoys and anything else made of iron that could be split into reservoirs for brine along with syrup kettles were mounted in a double line along the brick and limestone rock foundation of the structure. A white saline vapor rose from the boilers and was professed to be a cure for respiratory diseases but this was dangerous work. Sleeping in tents located in a mosquito infested salt marsh, constant one hundred degree temperatures, boiling brine and blazing ovens have their hazards. Huge ladles were used to dip the crystallizing salt out of the cooling brine and it was placed in split oak or wicker baskets hung above the boilers to drain. The salt was then thrown onto oak boards on the fl oor of sheds built on both sides along the entire length of the furnace. The kettles boiled down about three times every 24 hours and work went on day and night for about a week when the entire operation had to be shut down for a clean out of the incrust- ed scale called pan stone that accumulated on the bottom of the pans and interfered with the transmission of heat. This was considered the worst job in the entire process.

The heart and soul of the operation was the reservoir of brine which fed the entire salt works. This is the part we know little about. The pumps, gutters, pipes and aqueducts used to supply the salt block are a mystery as well as the reservoir, basin or well that was the source of the brine. On the Bon Secour River in Alabama, brine wells were dug above the reach of the high tide. These 12 foot by 12 foot pits were about 10 feet deep and were built like inverted pyramids with the sides made of squared logs narrowing down to the bottom which prevented the pit from fi lling in with sand. The brine seeped in through the loosely placed timbers and, brine being heavier than the fresh water, it sank to the bottom of the pit. On St. Andrews Bay, basins may have been built where the brine was allowed to stand for a few days and concentrated before being pumped or dumped into the iron tanks of the salt block.

Ella Lonn, a Goucher College professor from Baltimore, who wrote the classic book, SALT AS A FACTOR IN THE CONFEDERACY, stated about St. Andrews Bay, “Nowhere perhaps was a greater persistence manifested than in St. Andrews Bay in rebuilding the works so continually destroyed by the Federal fleet. It is diffi cult to explain whence the Richmond authorities found the means and as- sembled the materials for this really remarkable feat.”

Professor Lonn also does a great job of describing how the scarcity of this commodity condensed into a microcosm all the frustrations of the Confederacy and gave rise to this early St. Andrews enterprise,” It is only when a prime necessity thrusts itself upon public attention by its absence that a person ceases to take it for granted. Only when he no longer has it, does he realize what an important ingredient for his palate and digestion is plain, ordinary salt, necessary alike for man and beast.”

 from page 232 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

Buck carefully set his glass down on the bar, and his eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Something wrong?"

"Aw, Buck, you know what was happening when you left. Preachers and deacons and sisters and Epworth Leagues. Like a bunch of wood lice eating at a tree, and you can't see them until the tree falls down."

"Is it getting worse?"

Tobe nodded and lifted his glass and drank quickly.

"Buck," he said, leaning on the bar and frowning, "they started the minute you left town, working to beat hell." He began to mimic the women. "Licensed the fancy women, taxed the gamblers, graft, ungodly, drinks too much, gambles all night, and a woman ain't safe with him. Hell-fire." Tobe suddenly spat on the floor.

Buck's face relaxed.

"Nothing new in that."

  from page 232 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

Buck carefully set his glass down on the bar, and his eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Something wrong?"

"Aw, Buck, you know what was happening when you left. Preachers and deacons and sisters and Epworth Leagues. Like a bunch of wood lice eating at a tree, and you can't see them until the tree falls down."

"Is it getting worse?"

Tobe nodded and lifted his glass and drank quickly.

"Buck," he said, leaning on the bar and frowning, "they started the minute you left town, working to beat hell." He began to mimic the women. "Licensed the fancy women, taxed the gamblers, graft, ungodly, drinks too much, gambles all night, and a woman ain't safe with him. Hell-fire." Tobe suddenly spat on the floor.

Buck's face relaxed.

"Nothing new in that."

clippings from the August 9, 1912 DOTHAN WEEKLY EAGLE:

reprinted from the Montgomery Advertiser:

"Now it develops, that Dothan stands forth as comforter to Montgomery and New York. As a report of the Houston County grand jury dealing with Dothan gamblers and blind tigers and the 'general state of lawlessness' in that town, the mayor has beheaded the chief of police and three patrolmen."

Report of the April 1912 HOUSTON COUNTY GRAND JURY:

"We regret to say that from our investigations it has been made clear to us that there is a disposition on the part of a great many of our citizens to openly defy the law. There are gambling houses and houses of ill-fame run openly above board in the City of Dothan and there has been no effort on the part of officials to interfere with the great evils which are bringing ruin to so many of our boys and young men."

MAYOR IS ACTING AS CHIEF AT THE PRESENT

Mayor Joe Baker is now acting as Chief of Police for the city of Dothan on account of the vacancy caused by the removal of ex-chief Domingus. No appointments have yet been made to fill the vacancies caused by the removal of the four policemen last week and the force is still short.

 I've decided to become a "JOHNNY APPLESEED OF TUSCALOOSA HERITAGE." Anyone who would like to reproduce the 1912 Woolsey Finnell map can get the BIG SCAN from me. I also have a couple of other big scans of local maps ya might be interested in. The scan contains almost 450,000 KB so you'll have to bring a flash drive with ya. The images in this album show the map detail possible with this scan. An example would be the TRIANGLE SYMBOL. This denotes each of TUSCALOOSA COUNTY'S 100 SCHOOL DISTRICTS, of which 36 districts have "colored" schools, making a total of 141 TUSCALOOSA COUNTY SCHOOLS  IN 1912. (I also included a couple of other maps of interest)  Message me on Facebook or email me robertoreg@gmail.com

 Folks, ya know that feelin' when it seems like ya just been touched by a FORCE FROM THE OUTER REALM...well, that's the feelin' I got yesterday when I picked this 1900 letter typed on the back of a Central of Georgia map. Less that 24 hours ago, I realized I held in my hands THE FIRST DOCUMENT I'VE EVER SEEN directly related to DEVIL MAKE A THIRD! (the address on this letter is incorrect. The construction superintendent, Captain Lawrence, had moved his office to Dothan from Columbia back in December. By May 1, Dothan had its SECOND RAILROAD!)

1900: The Birth of Downtown Dothan ( originally slated to cross West Main near South Alice,  the story goes that Buck Baker got inside information on the Central of Georgia change of route through Dothan with the rails crossing East Main near present-day College/South Appletree, bought up the right-of-way and made a fortune sellin' it back to the Central of Georgia) 

from page 86 and 87 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD

"I just left Ed Puckett," he said. "You know him. Used to be with the railroad here. Surveyor."

Joe Bannon nodded and crossed his legs.

"I thought I recognized a fellow gettin' off the train," Buck went on. "An' Ed told me about it. This fellow's from up North and he's the one came down to buy the land for the new spurs last year."

His father frowned and started to speak, but Buck kept talking.

"He ain't workin' for the same road no more." He leaned his head back and his lips hardly moved. His  eyes were hard and dark.

Joe Bannon's expression changed slowly and he eased himself down on the bench. He reached for his pocketknife and tobacco, but kept his eyes on Buck.

"Buyin' land?" he said, calmly.

Buck nodded and took one step nearer his father. He leaned over and spoke rapidly in a voice that he tried to hold low and tight to keep from shaking.

"This is what it is. He's hired Ed to do the surveyin' and he's goin' to start pickin' his route next week. He hasn't told Ed for sure which way he's headin', but the line's runnin' from Albany to join up with the road to Mobile. Naturally they'll hit Aven. Me and Ed figured everything and there ain't but one way for him to come."

He stopped and wiped his forehead, breathing deeply, and pushed his hair back.

"He'll cross Basin Street within two blocks of the store I wanted to buy. He'll build a depot, and a freight yard, and that section of town'll grow up crazy as a plum thicket."

Buck stopped and straightened up then with a half-smiling triumph in his eyes. Joe Bannon pulled his beard carefully out to the longest strand and looked at it curiously for a moment. He looked up and nodded.

"Buy it. I got the money."

"No, sir," Buck said quickly. "Let's go whole hog. I'll throw in my old store and the new one as collateral so I can buy it without help." He watched silently as his father nodded. "Then," he said, "you get out this afternoon and tomorrow morning and buy, quiet-like, all the ridge land you can northeast of town. They'll hunt ridges. Don't buy anything but poor land with a good stand of timber on it. We'll sell the timber first thing, then, by God, we'll have 'em hooked. They'll condemn at a price that'll give us a profit on the land deal, then we'll have the timber sale on top of it. Buy it right into Aven long as the price is right, they we'll sit tight and let 'em come to us."

Joe Bannon stared at his son for a moment and his eyes were puzzled, not with the business, but puzzled as if he were trying to place a stranger in his memory. He laughed low.

"I'll do it," he said, an slapped his knee. "It looks like a big gamblin', but I'll do it. But how come this afternoon?"

"I sent Ed off with a gallon of whiskey," Buck said. "Told him to take half of it out to Colt Peterman's place in the country, and he could have the rest. He'll be drunk for two days and won't have a chance to tell it in town. That'll give us a two-day jump on the rest." (clippings from the May 4, 1900 BIRMINGHAM NEWS, from the December 14, 1899 COLUMBIA BREEZE, from the May 20, 1900 MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER, from the May 31, 1900 GENEVA JOURNAL, from the July 19, 1917 DOTHAN EAGLE)

 I found this quote in a book about Tuscaloosa history but it also applies to Dothan's story. Buck Baker (1869-1920) is the model for the character of BUCK BANNON in the novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD and Dothan is the model for the town of Aven from the same novel. Most of the innovations which occurred in Tuscaloosa also occurred in Dothan (fictional Aven) but there was a big difference. In 1869 when the revolutionary changes began to arrive in Tuscaloosa, the town was 50 years old and had been Alabama's capital city for 20 years (1826-1846). When the Dothan post office was reactivated in 1872, the area around Dothan was a piney woods wilderness from which a modern city would emerge over a period of only 25 years. 

Here's the quote: "...Innovative new sources of heat, light, power, communications, and clean water would change forever the ideal of what a home should be. The horse would be abandoned as a series of new transportation devices-the trolley, the bicycle, and of course the automobile-took its place.

"This represented more than simply modernizing a city. The collective result of these small changes was a revolution. We often think of revolutions as violent overthrows of governments. But this revolution was more comprehensive, upending  the way people went about their ordinary affairs. Some revolutions can be stopped or reversed, but not this one. Revolutions frequently tend to be quick, but this revolution took a lifetime to complete; however, given its all-inclusive nature, that was a remarkably short time. From 1869 to 1939-threescore and ten years, the Psalmist's estimate of a man's lifespan- Tuscaloosan's lives were utterly transformed.

"Henry Adams-that great historian and man of letters who lived through this same revolution-was said to have concluded that the simpler America of his youth had been closer to the year 1 than to the age of electricity, telephones and automobiles of his maturity. Tuscaloosans would agree."

DEVIL MAKE A THIRD is the story of thirty years (1887-1917) of this revolution and of a solitary man's insatiable desire to exert his power and to control each new innovation that arrived in his adopted hometown.

Page 346 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: 

Aven was one of the little miracles of the past thirty years. "That's what it is," Bass Wooten muttered to himself, as he slowly rubbed with a damp cloth the circle a cup of coffee had left on the glassy white counter top in the B. and B. Cafe. "Durned little old chinquapin of a place growed up like a toadstool after a rainy spell."

I have identified 5 demolished buildings in this image. #1 is on in the left corner, Prince House #1(University Masonic Club) located where the Shell station now stands on the Strip; #2 is to right of it in the middle of the next block parallel to Huntsville Road, Prince House #2 which was located on 7th Street about half-way down the block west of 15th Avenue; #3 is the large red brick structure at the top right of the image, Verner High School. It was located just east of the intersection of 16th Avenue and Bryant Drive; #4 is Alonzo Hill's Female College near the middle of the image labeled "8" and to the right of the name "East Margin". It was located near the southeast corner of the intersection of Queen City and University; #5 is the Buck House, present-day 1818 University Boulevard, on the northeast corner of Broad Street (University Boulevard) and Bear Street(19th Avenue) . A dependency for this house still stands at the intersection of 19th Avenue and University Blvd. I have also identified 14 buildings in this image that are still standing.

The 14 buildings still standing in 2019 which are pictured on this 1887 image include #1. Ormond Little House (c. 1835) 325 Queen City. It can be seen as the brick building midway along the left border of the image just to the left of the street name "East Margin". #2 University Club (c. 1834) 421 Queen City is to the right of it. #3. Jones House (c. 1833), 1804 4th Street, on this image is across East Margin from Ormand Little and it was a two-story structure in 1887. #4. Buck Carriage House (c. 1854) 1818 University Boulevard is behind the Buck House in this image that once stood on the northeast corner of "Bear St." (19th Ave.) and "Broad" (Univ. Blvd.) #5. Guild-Verner House (c. 1822) 1901 University Boulevard is the red brick building across "Bear St." from the Buck House in this image. #6. Owen-Free House (c. 1826) 1817 3rd Street is a part of a complex of buildings on the right side of the square in this image occupied by #3~Jones House. #7. Moody-Warner House (1822) 1925 8th Street is toward the upper right corner of this image one block above the title "Union Street" (7th St.). #8. Jemison-Brandon-Waugh (c. 1840) 1005 17th Ave. is in the upper right corner of this image. #9. Marmaduke Williams House (c. 1835) 907 17th Ave. is to the left of #8. #10. Foster-Murfee-Caples House (c. 1838) 815 17th Avenue is the large house with the circular drive which is to the left of #9. You can see a line of tenant houses proceeding to the left of #10. To the right of this line of what were originally slave quarters is #11. McEachin-Little House (c. 1842) 709 Queen City. Across the street to the left of #11 is #12. Turner-McAlpin-Fellows House (c. 1840) 621 Queen City Avenue. #13. Jemison-Wilbourne House (c. 1870) 1904 7th Street appears to be on the corner of Bear St. (19th Ave.) and Union St. (7th St.) on this map. The same thing goes with #14. Palmer-Deal House (c. 1866) 1902 8th Street has not been identified on the image but should be among the structures pictured across the street from #7.Moody-Warner House on northwest corner with Bear St. (19th Ave.).

 Richard,

If you are interested in contacting Tuscaloosa people who may have seen the Stones show, I will send you the University of Alabama '73 yearbook which has all the members of the University Program Council identified. We have a Facebook group for those associated with UPC.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/216405808417345

The deal was that BAMA had a large venue and Birmingham didn't so big shows came to the "new" Memorial Coliseum on the University of Alabama. Hendrix performed in Tuscaloosa in '69 and he was booked by the Cotillion Club, a BAMA student organization. A BAMA student organization also booked the Stones in '72 but it had a different name: THE UNIVERSITY PROGRAM COUNCIL. I guess the difference was that the Cotillion Club was Frat-Rat and UPC was more Freak-Independent oriented but for all it's counter culture aspirations, UPC was just as snooty and clannish as Cotillion Club. I didn't belong to any student organization but from 1970 until 1972, my part-time job as a BAMA student was Union Building Maintenance Man and all student organizations had their offices in my building so I ran into most everybody and that's how I ended up working "security" for all the concerts plus I had master keys to every door on the University. UPC "Security" was trying to make folks behave and follow whatever the regulations were for a concert. An example was Jethro Tull where we closed seating on the floor as soon as all the chairs were full. I was in charge of that gate at Jethro Tull and that's how I met my first wife but I didn't marry her until 16 years later. Rolling Stones was different. It was festival seating all the way. 16,000 first come first serve so all we did was open the doors and let 'em pour in. I'll never forget that the late Bob Roberts was the first person on the floor. How he did it I'll never know but he had played football @ BAMA so he had practice running over people.

The folks who worked security that night got there in the afternoon and witnessed this incredible production take shape. It was a full Hollywood stage hand union outfit. Never seen that. They drove the speakers into the venue on carts and those carts had two pillars that extended somehow and raised the speakers above the stage. They suspended this huge milar mirror across the hall and all lighting was onstage. It was one or two rows of super trooper spotlights behind the band, each operated by a union member. The spots were reflected off the mirror so there was no need for security outside the stage. All lighting was on the stage behind the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esULRb7QMRg

Anyone connected with that stage crew would make a great source for your story.

At most gigs, we students got a free t-shirt with the band's name on it. I was 22 and had graduated in May. I was still on the UPC list so even though I was not enrolled so I still worked concerts during the summer and fall of '72. For the Stones there was no t-shirt. All we got was a name tag with the Stones lips and tongue on it. Looked like the head security guy for the band was a dark-skinned dude. Lots of celebrities. Almost certain I saw Jimmy Johnson from Muscle Shoals. David Hood might be a good source.

https://www.al.com/life/2021/08/swampers-bassist-david-hood-remembers-charlie-watts-rolling-stones-muscle-shoals-sessions.html

I saw this cat who looked just like Bobby Whitlock but he denied it. I still think it was Bobby Whitlock. Bianca was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Pretty sure she was wearing this white dress with a wide brim hat. Kind of a "down on the old plantation" costume. Pretty sure I saw Truman Capote. Truman's birth name was "Truman Persons" and his Daddy and Granddad had lived in Tuscaloosa so he'd been to T-town plenty of times. Somewhere in my stuff I've got that Life magazine with the cover story.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22mick+jagger%22+cover+of+life+magazine+1972&rlz=1CAXGER_enUS977&sxsrf=AOaemvL5NiyUFW8qHYH6kMd802WSLsg6bg:1635779176725&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFm4mmuPfzAhWSTDABHcr7DvMQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1366&bih=649&dpr=1

Chip Monck was the stage manager. My job was to make sure nobody got to him or messed with his cables or electronics so I was on the left side of the stage during the show. Not on stage but below. The stage was about 12 feet high so nobody could get up on it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Monck

The stage was covered in formica with two Donald Duck dragons painted over it. A stagehand came out and mopped it with 7-Up so Jagger wouldn't slip when he went to the edge of the stage. The gospel group wasn't about much but Stevie Wonder got us stoked. The show was amazing. Imagine this dark hall and a glowing STONES right in the center with spotlights hitting the mirror and reflecting down. No lighting coming from the arena. The impact of the Stones' music on me goes way back to growing up in Dothan. That's a whole different post but by Midnight Rambler the crowd was going wild. When they broke into Street Fightin' Man, the crowd started trying to jump onto stage from the upper levels and somebody sent me up to stand behind the rail and warn folks that they might get hurt. Some girl fell and started yelling at me so I quit the job. Tore my name tag off, walked into the crowd and enjoyed the rest of the show. I was bad about eating hash brownies before a big show like that but I wasn't too buzzed that night because I'd done too much at the Who in the fall of '71 and didn't wanna have a bad reaction at the Stones so I enjoyed the performance. There's a lot to learn about that tour. It was the biggest production I've ever seen before or since.