I believe I have the model for the character of "Reverend Agnew Huff" in Chapter 22 (page 234) of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. He is Reverend A.J. Dailey whose revival tent was burned down in Dothan in March of 1930. Reverend Dailey called himself the "Wildcat Evangelist" and a "reformed gambler." This was ten years after Buck Baker's death but Reverend Dailey was accusing Dothan's mayor and police department of corruption prior to the arson of his tent and the mayor of Dothan was Clem Ezell who had his tailor shop in the Hotel Martin for decades and was a part of the Baker Political Machine which controlled a lot of Dothan politics. I believe a photograph exists of the burned remains of Reverend Dailey's revival tent. (clippings from the January 27, 1930 DOTHAN EAGLE, the March 14, 1930 DOTHAN EAGLE, and the March 21, 1930 GENEVA COUNTY REAPER)

from page 236 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

"It's my duty to speak," the preacher said, mockingly.

Buck's eyelids trembled as he narrowed his eyes. He didn't speak.

"Unless," the preacher continued, slowly, with his eyes trying to hold Buck's, "we could be paid for not doing our night's work."

Buck held up his hand and stopped him.

"You're not a regular preacher, are you? Baptist or Methodist?"

"No, I'm not ordained, but I believe I'm qualified to do one thing." He paused and lowered his voice. "I can tell the good people of Aven just what kind of mayor they have as mayor."

"Now, by God," Buck said, harshly, "you're going to find out what kind of man I am, and I doubt if you'll be telling it." 

CHAPTER 4

Chapter 4 opens with Buck finishing off a glass of whiskey in Aven's only saloon, a "Jim Crow" enterprise with a double ended pine bar that separated the races by means of a thin partition across the middle of the bar and serving its Black customers through a curved slot cut into the flimsy wall which allowed the banjo music from their end of the bar to entertain the saloon's entire crowd.

No matter how intelligent 20 year-old Buck might have been, Aven's corn liquor was guaranteed to help him do something stupid so he had sense enough before beginning his drunken evening to deposit in the saloon's safe the $500 down payment he'd taken to Longshore's house for the mortgage negotiation.

Buck had a lot on his mind. Not only was he going to close on his first mortgage the next day but he was now haunted by his immediate attraction to Longshore's gorgeous blonde-headed daughter. There was no way Buck was accomplish anything listening to the saloon's banjo music and dreaming about the eye candy he'd just left at Longshore's house. 

Buck's barroom boredom could easily be eliminated with only a short walk from the saloon through Baptist Bottom to the place where Buck's payday loan customers spent the money they borrowed from him: Mabe's whorehouse. Buck's customers were also the customers of Mabe's girls and on this night Buck decided to get stupid just like of them and the seek satisfaction in the arms of one of Aven's lewd women. As Buck told the bartender before he left the saloon, " I'm a'goin' to Mabe's Place and kiss all the girls and run climb a tree an' wait for them to cut me down."

Like the moon on that night when Buck first walked into Aven sixteen months earlier, the moonlight on this foggy evening filled liquored-up Buck with a sense of the potential power he'd discovered which assured him that he would one day achieve his destiny and make a fortune from Aven's populace but the corn liquor guaranteed that fortune was not going to be made on this late night stroll. The only dream that Buck would have that night was a comical nightmare.

As he strolled through muddy Baptist Bottom, a stumbling, drunken Buck encountered a street corner preacher who was just ending the sermon he was preaching to a crowd gathered on the street in front of a honky tonk called the Puddin' House. Buck immediately requests that the reverend "Preach me some hell-fire and alligator teeth."

The Black preacher, an experienced salesman, immediately sizes Buck up and begins a series of questions, each one ending with the preacher calling Buck, apparently a total stranger, the "boss." By calling Buck "boss", the preacher was going through all the motions that showed him to be a "good, humble Negro" while at the same time setting Buck up to purchase "a pair o' fine billy goats, Boss, which'd make mighty pretty pets" for the whores Buck was about to meet at the brothel called Mabe's Place just beyond Baptist Bottom.

Possibly as an allusion to the strange Biblical story in Genesis of Judah paying for the services of the Bible's first prostitute with a goat, the author of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD has his protagonist enter a house of ill repute while tugging a pair of billy goats into the elaborately decorated den of iniquity. The destruction the charging goats' horns made of the bordello's mirrors and vases ends this chapter with the brothel owner telling Buck, "Even a whore has got feelin's and if a fellow can't earn the name of a gentleman in a whorehouse, he won't get it nowhere." 

Stung by the insult, Buck sobers up a little and makes a prophetic statement on this night before he was to sign his first mortgage with Longshore the following day, "There'll be a man out here tomorrow mornin' to fix your place back. I don't give a damn about bein' a gentleman, but, by God, I'll be payin' my debts, till I die."

 

 

The Year CATCH-2022: Mr. Brownlee cuttin' my hair back in the day before it went gray. (clipping from the February 14, 1977 DETROIT FREE PRESS describing Detroit Mayor Coleman Young's visit to Jones & Wright Barbershop, 2328 6th Street [formerly "Cotton Street"], where his father cut hair before 1921. Mayor Young was born in Tuscaloosa.)

 

2328 6th Street (Jones & Wright Barber Shop): c. 1910; One story brick building with limestone facing. The facade

contains three arched openings: a centrally located door and flanking windows. The interior is characteristic of

1910 construction featuring ceramic tile flooring. The parapet roof is capped by brick corbeled cornice. (C)

 

 

I have now annotated all of the notes that Eleanor Neely Buntin (1904-1989) wrote in the margins of her copy of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. I have added links and information concerning each of her comments. This work leaves NO DOUBT as to the correct answer for the recent question to the DOTHAN EAGLE Answer Man, "Is the novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD  about Dothan?" because I was able to find documentation for EVERY ONE OF MRS. BUNTIN'S COMMENTS!

Mrs. Buntin grew up in Montgomery and married T.E. Buntin (1896-1958) in 1926 so she never had the chance to meet many of the Dothan people who served as  models for characters in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD but she was well acquainted with many of Dothan's citizens whose lives were used by author Dougie Bailey to shape the characters in his fictional Southeast Alabama town of Aven. Her husband,  Thomas Eugene Buntin, was used as a model for the character of the small red headed boy on page 171 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. There are now 5 major posts on my blog. This is the link  which shows the work I did on Mrs. Buntin's comments. https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/2017/07/slave-labor-httpsarmyhistory.html

 Ole ROBERTOREG... 

 Robert Register, a Dothan native and Dauphin Island resident, spent his working career in the Tuscaloosa area, the first two decades teaching life sciences in Alabama's public schools and community colleges and the last decade working in property maintenance. At the end of his teaching career, he began writing articles about Alabama's formative years for OLD TUSCALOOSA MAGAZINE. This work lead to his publishing "Andrew Ellicott's Observations While Serving on the Southern Boundary Commission: 1796-1800" in the May 1997 Gulf Coast Historical Review, a journal focusing on the history of the coastal region from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana. This publication resulted in Mr. Register writing the text for the historic marker of the SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE U.S. 1795-1819 which is located beside U.S. Highway 231 South just above Campbellton as well as his writing the text for the plaque for Ellicott's Line in the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. Register discovered blogging in 2003 and he has used this internet tool daily since then to share his ideas under the Internet handle of ROBERTOREG. In 2005, Register assisted author Greg Haynes in doing the research for Hayne's book THE HEEEY BABY DAYS OF BEACH MUSIC. This work rekindled Register's interest in THE OLD DUTCH. After retirement in 2012, Register wrote several articles for PANAMA CITY LIVING magazine, including ROADHOUSE BLUES AT THE OLD DUTCH. In September of 2013, Mr. Register published an article entitled CENTENNIAL in CRIMSON MAGAZINE, the magazine of the Tide Nation. This article represented the magazine's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. In January 2018, Register partnered with retired University of Georgia professor James Hargrove on two articles concerning the War of 1812 in Northwest Florida which were published in the Apalachicola Times. In the future, Mr. Register looks forward to continuing his lifelong pursuit of knowledge of the natural and cultural origins of the Gulf South and he welcomes comments and inquiries from others who find themselves covering the same territory in their studies. He may be contacted at robertoreg@gmail.com

 Richard is now writing a "people's history" of the '72 Rolling Stones U.S. tour. My contribution is the first post on this blog. https://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/

 A group of us are going to try to get the song THE DAY BEAR BRYANT died performed in Bryant-Denny Stadium during either the 2022 or 2023 football season. We also are working to get a better video produced to go on YouTube. Any assistance you can lend will sure be appreciated. Please share the video with your BAMA family and tell them about our plans. (from the November 28, 1962 BIRMINGHAM NEWS) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZR-7G3ql8w

from Ellen Dawson:

"I neglected to give you my grandfathers name, Thomas Eugene Buntin. His mother was Eugenia Baker. Who married W.T. Buntin. Eugenia is Buck Bakers sister."

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35010217/eleanor-buntin


"As Requested, I have thumbed through the book my father has and has pulled excerpts written in the margins by my grandmother.

These are all the notes that Eleanor Neely Buntin (1904-1989) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35010217/eleanor-buntin

wrote in the margins of her copy of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. I have added links and information concerning each of her comments. Mrs. Buntin grew up in Montgomery and married T.E. Buntin (1896-1958) in 1926 so she never had the chance to meet many of the Dothan people who served as  models for characters in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD but she was well acquainted with many of Dothan's citizens whose lives were used by author Dougie Bailey to shape the characters in his fictional Southeast Alabama town of Aven. Her husband,  Thomas Eugene Buntin, was used as a model for the character of the
small red headed boy, Earnestine's oldest boy on page 171 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD.

page 11
third paragraph." 'His mother' is under lined and in the margin reads 'Jane Baker.' "

Model for the character of JANE MCPHERSON BANNON:

from the October 27, 1953 DOTHAN EAGLE

from the May 9, 1918 WIREGRASS FARMER (Headland)

JANE SANDERS BAKER (1849-1918) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762168/jane-baker

PAGE 13
last paragraph 'Coke" is underlined in in the margin is written:
"Uncle Coley (sic) whom I remember and gave me 1/2 stick of juicy fruit gum which he would cut with his pocket knife."

Model for the character of "Coke Bannon": 

from the September 24, 1937 DOTHAN EAGLE

COLIE BAKER (1886-1937) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762159/colie-baker

PAGE 14, 

5th paragraph, 3rd sentence: Jeff and Hearn
In the margin reads:"Uncle Dan and Doug Baker"

A "Silent Northern" Motor Car in front of the Hotel Martin

 (model for THE HARRISON HOUSE), 1909. From left: Joe

 "Buck" Baker (model for the character of BUCK BANNON) ; C.

 F. "Doug" Baker (model for the character of HEARN

 BANNON); Eugene Lauck, a drug salesman from Montgomery;

 Byron Trammell, Post Master; Ed Winters, US Deputy

Marshall; Dan W. Baker (model for the character of JEFF

 BANNON). Courtesy Frank Gaines 

C.F. "Doug" Baker  from the October 28, 1930 Montgomery Advertiser

HEARN BANNON ~  based upon C.F. "Dug" Baker, circa 1882-1930. (FINDAGRAVE misspells Doug's name. It should read CYRUS FIELDS BAKER.) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762160/cyrus-field-baker

JEFF BANNON ~ based upon Daniel William Baker 1879-1954 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25979489/daniel-william-baker

D.W. "Dan" Baker from the December 7, 1954 DOTHAN EAGLE

PAGE 14

7th paragraph: Joe Bannon
In the Margin: "Grandfather Joe Baker"

from the December 13, 1900 COLUMBIA BREEZE

The artist for the DOTHAN OPERA HOUSE MURAL mistakenly painted Joe Baker, Sr. instead of his son, Buck Baker.  

Joe Bannon (Joe Baker, Sr. 1836-1900, buried in the Baker plot of the Dothan City Cemetery)
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Baker&GSfn=Joe&GSby=1836&GSbyrel=in&GSdy=1900&GSdyrel=in&GSst=3&GScnty=60&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=31762170&df=all&
"The Joe Baker family came from near Abbeville. Mr. Buck Baker was a big stockholder in Houston National Bank. The Baker brothers built and operated the Martin Hotel, and dealt in real estate. Mr. Dan Baker, of the brothers is the only one living now." from Mrs. A.D. Whiddon's HISTORY OF DOTHAN published in 1945 in the DOTHAN EAGLE

PAGE 14

Last sentence:

You Kin see the McPherson stock...
Underlined McPherson and in the margin is written 'Sanders'

"McPherson" was character Jeanie Bannon's maiden name, "Sanders" was Jane Baker's maiden name. "McPherson" is also the name of the saloon below the room where Buck first plays poker on page 98 of Chapter 10. This may have been related to the Sanders family owning a saloon in old Dothan.

Page 50, last paragraph "Myrt and Nance,"
Written in the margin 'Maggie and Nanny?' There is a question mark after "Nanny."

This may refer to Maggie Baker and Nannie Baker or possibly Minnie Baker.  Minnie Baker Shadgett may be the model because in that passage of the novel, Buck was talking about his two older sisters and  Minnie was four years older than Maggie. 

Maggie Baker  Dowling (1874-1920)  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9451982/maggie-dowling

from the March 26, 1920 MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER

Findagrave link for Nannie E. Baker (1872-1917) Cheek  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762401/nannie-e.-cheek          )

from the January 20, 1917 DOTHAN EAGLE

Minnie Baker Shadgett (1870-1932)

from the September 9, 1932 DOTHAN EAGLE

Chapter 6, PAGE 59, 1st paragraph 4th line. "the block of land"
In the margin is written N. Foster, Newton, N St. Andrews, Powell

from the October 23, 1926 DOTHAN EAGLE

from the October 27, 1953 DOTHAN EAGLE

PAGE 64
8th paragraph, the whole paragraph is in parenthesis and it begins with "She's a schoolteacher," and beside it in the margin is written 'Music Teacher'

PAGE 73, right above the INTERLUDE is written: ' The teachers name was Ida and Ghastie was named Ida after her and christened later when she was 2 - 3, she was renamed Ghastie.
It is not until Chapter 16 that more is written in the margins.

from the July 28, 1898 COLUMBIA BREEZE  

"Ghastie" was Ghastie Baker Miller (1884-1944) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26015465/ghastie-miller

 who was the model for "Victoria Bannon." Victoria was renamed "Christina" on page 73 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD after the scandal with "Big Vic." Ghastie Baker was originally named "Ida Baker" after the "Ida Clark" scandal, she was renamed "Ghastie." Ida Clark had sued Ghastie's brother, Buck Baker, for breach of promise in 1898. 

Mrs. M.A. "Ghastie" Miller owned 504 North Foster, one of the three "gift houses" from page 173 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. Mrs. Willie Bailey, mother of the author of Devil Make A Third, owned 500 North Foster and her sister, Mrs. Vera Lane owned 502 North Foster.

PAGE 171 , this page is about Thomas Eugene Buntin Sr. (1896-1958), Buck's Nephew.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35010203/thomas-eugene-buntin)

3rd Paragraph -"He (Buck) was near the door when a small boy came slowly down the hall. Syrup dripped from a soggy hole in a biscuit held just above his mouth and the boy licked gravely at the bottom. He had bright red curly hair and his nose looked like all the Bannons."
In the Margins reads "Tom Sr."

Also on PAGE 171, next to the last paragraph, last sentence:

"then he reached out and knuckled the red head, hard," 

This is underlined and in the margin is written a single word. 'Tom.'

Chapter 19, Page 195

At the top of this page is written
'Tom was hired by Buck as "water boy" at 5 cents a week.'

PAGE 196
In the center of the page where the dialog reads:
"Had it Long?"
"Ten Years,"
In the margin is written "Martin Hotel"

images from HOUSTON COUNTY: The First 100 years

from the January 4, 1908 DOTHAN EAGLE

The Hotel Martin was the model for the "Harrison House" in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD.

PAGE 202

5th Paragraph
"Tobe? I didn't ...."
Tobe is underlined and written 'Dominque' over his name.
 The character of "Tobe Parody" is modeled after former Dothan police chief, Tobe Domingus (1860-1942) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762560/james-lewis_jefferson-domingus

from the October 27, 1953 DOTHAN EAGLE

"35 yards" should read 35 YEARS.

 

PAGE 204, last paragraph
"I'm Lota Kyle,"
In the margin reads:
'Lota was the name of one of Buck's nieces, Lota B. Cheek'

Lota B. Cheek was the daughter of Baker daughter, Nannie E. Baker Cheek (1872-1917).https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762401/nannie-e-cheek

 In 1922 she was awarded the title "AMERICA'S MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL" in a New York beauty contest and went on to work as a model and performed on stage and the movies. (from the June 9, 1922 WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL [Madison])

And Finally the last few written words.

Chapter 21, 4th paragraph,

"Laughing" Bell right in front...

Right over Bells name is written "Bush"

A "laughing Clem Bush" is mentioned in this June 13, 1913 DOTHAN EAGLE describing an excursion train from Dothan to Macon. 

from the May 15, 1929 DOTHAN EAGLE

Page 289, talks about the farm Buck bought his mother.
In the Margin in written 'Landmark'
Grandmother had underlined in the center of the page "I've got a thousand acres and a big white house ..."

In about 1981, acreage from the Baker Estate was donated to build the Landmark Park in Dothan. This property was the model for the property Buck buys his mother on Page 286 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD.
 

Also on this page in the first line is the name "Myrt", over it is written 'Maggie'.
Maggie Baker  Dowling (1874-1920)  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9451982/maggie-dowling

PAGE 299 1st full paragraph, half way down is the name "Carmen".
In the margin is written 'Aunt Jessie'.

And Last on page 300, at the bottom of the page is underlined "the boys".
In the Margin is written 'Tommy, Otis and Joe.' 

The death of Eugenia Baker Buntin https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762334/eugenia-buntin

 in 1898 and her husband's death in 1900 made her children orphans. They were adopted by the Baker family. In the novel, Eugenia Buntin is the model for "Ernestine" and her children are referred to as  "Carmen" and the boys. Carmen, the girl, was modeled after Jessie Buntin Morgan https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82029621/jessie-morgan

and "the boys" are modeled after her brothers, Tommy https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/35010203/thomas-eugene-buntin

Otis  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762338/otis-buntin

Joe  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31762336/joseph-j-buntin

 Archaeologists have speculated that the Dauphin Island shell mounds are "serpentine" in shape, suggesting that the shape might be a religious symbol. Something that may not have been considered in that speculation is the fact that the shape of the mounds could have been determined by the strip mining of the shell mounds for decades during the early 19th century as a source of lime for making mortar during the construction of fortifications on Dauphin Island and Mobile Point. from page LX of House Documents, Otherwise Published as Executive Documents, 13th Congress, 2d Session-49th Congress, 1st Session – 1834-35

"Proposals for supplying bricks and lime were advertised for at Mobile, in 1822, and Captain De Russey, in a letter written to the Engineer Department soon after the proposals were received, stated that 'lime at the kiln will be obtained at fifty cents per barrel;' and in a subsequent letter he represented that an arrangement for 4,000 barrels at that price, received at the kiln, had been entered into. With the accounts of the disbursing officers at Mobile, there are vouchers showing that 2,716 barrels were paid for at that price, and 619 barrels at 62 and one half cents; that the rate paid for the transportation of lime from the shell banks was 18 and three quarter cents per barrel ; and that, thereafter, shell lime was manufactured by the United States, and a compensation at the rate of 12 and one half cents per barrel, amounting to several thousand dollars, paid to L. De Vauberay for superintending the making of it. The contents of a barrel appear to have been about 2 and two third bushels, and at 50 cents per barrel, therefore, without any addition for transportation, the bushel would be 18 and three quarter cents; and Lieutenant Ogden's deposition, it will be seen, declares that it was valued at 20 cents. For the other ingredients, sand and water, the estimate in the proposed award makes no allowance, but, with regard to them, observes, that ' the testimony of Colonel Gadsden, Majors De Russey and Fisher, all state they were under foot, and therefore its cost is nothing.' Colonel Gadsden's answer is as follows : 'Sand and water were both on the spot : the digging of the former, and a well to be sunk (not exceeding 15 feet) for the latter, was the only expense to be incurred.' " https://books.google.com/books?id=_IkFAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA38&lpg=RA1-PA38&dq=%22de+vauberay%22+%22dauphin+island%22&source=bl&ots=xyveM67UBU&sig=BRl0W9hOnwJosNXuVLXjIzECCdE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifp5n5p6bcAhUjSN8KHeNVBi0Q6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=%22de%20vauberay%22%20%22dauphin%20island%22&f=false

 DEVIL MAKE A THIRD LINK http://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/2018/07/

 This post came from one of Faye Dunaway's cousins from the Dunaway side: "Daddy, Fletcher Dunaway (1936-2018), not to be confused with my great Uncle Fletcher, told me he was playing with the blue tick hounds under the porch when Faye was born. Back then, Moms birthed babies at home. And, I will add, Faye and I shared a Grandmother, her Daddy’s and my Daddy’s mother, Mama Ruby. Mama Ruby used to tell Faye she was 'putting on airs' as a young child, looking at herself in the vanity and practicing her acting skills."

This is her Grandpa Dunaway's obit from the December 7, 1952 DOTHAN EAGLE. Faye was about to turn 12 and was living in Germany because her father, J.M. Dunaway, Jr., was stationed there.

 

 https://www.findagrave.com/.../3276.../john-mcdowell-dunaway

 

 This is her grandfather on her mother's side. She spends two pages of her autobiography describing his death and burial. This was her first reckoning with death. (from the February 4, 1951 DOTHAN EAGLE)

 https://www.findagrave.com/.../32908832/simeon-luther-smith

These are the obituaries for both of Faye Dunaway's grandfathers. The first one is her Grandpa Dunaway's obit from the December 7, 1952 DOTHAN EAGLE. Faye was about to turn 12 and was living in Germany because her father, J.M. Dunaway, Jr., was stationed there. The second one is for her grandfather on her mother's side, S. L. Smith, and it's from the February 4, 1951 DOTHAN EAGLE. Faye was then living in Bascom. She spends two pages of her autobiography, LOOKING FOR GATSBY describing Mr. Smith's death and burial. This was her first reckoning with death. She called Mr. Smith "Olpa" in her book. from page 31 and 32: "I couldn't adjust to the fact that this man who had been the only consistent father figure in my life was gone. Death didn't seem to have the promise and hope that he had preached about for years. It seemed cold and harsh and unfair. I didn't want to go into the living room where my mother had placed his casket for viewing. I don't think I closed my eyes the entire night."

 

 This thread came from the OLD DOTHAN MEMORIES Facebook group. It is an exchange between myself and Dale Cox concerning the location of the house where Faye Dunaway was born near TWO EGG. 

Dale: "Faye was actually born in Two Egg. The Farms at Two Egg sits on her birthplace site today. It was a Bascom rural route back then. She attended school at Bascom Elementary."

Robertoreg: "Yeah, I guess she was born in a sharecropper's house on the Tipton place. The way she explains it in her book is that her parents were tired of living with the Dunaways so Faye's daddy got an offer to live on the Tipton place to do labor for them while he was able to farm four acres on his own."

Dale: " That's right. Her uncle Fletcher told me that he was under the house playing with the dogs when she was born. You can still see the little slight hill where it stood as you drive by. I dropped a pin on this map.

"By the way, the Williams family that owns The Farms at Two Egg on the site do all kinds of great things there from drive-in movie nights to Easter Egg hunts. I will suggest to them that they show Bonnie and Clyde some night."

 https://maps.app.goo.gl/m54Qd5MLwajgEm8r6

 "I flatter myself that whenever we are called into action that we will all prove ourselves worthy the love and esteem, of all our friends behind, God forbid that it will ever be saud the Ashville Blues, fell short of their duty in defending their country. We will never surrender nor retreat as long as we have one load of ammunition or power to charge bayonet." ~ James E. Banks

There's a Royal Family connection to Mobile's carronade. The commander of the HMS Carron which fought with the HMS Hermes at Fort Boyer was commanded by Captain the Honourable Sir Robert Cavendish Spencer, R.N., second son of the Second Earl Spencer. Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a Spencer and the daughter of the Eighth Earl so both Prince William and Prince Harry are collateral descendants(great nephews) of Captain Spencer.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermes_(1811)

 Captain Spencer commanded the HMS Carron during the 1st Battle of Ft. Bowyer, He commanded  the seamen landed during the 2nd Battle of Ft.Bowyer. He was the spy and scout who discovered the route from Lake Borgne to the Mississippi River for the British and he was in charge of taking the fugitive slaves from Dauphin Island and Apalachicola to the Bahamas, Nova Scotia and Trinidad.

In the chapel of the Spencer family in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Great Brington, Northampshire, England, there is a marble bust of Captain Spencer.

For a detailed description of Captain Spencer's activities during the British Expeditionary Force's Gulf Campaign, click on the following link. http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-spy-who-led-the-british-to-the-back-door-of-new-orleans-in-1814/

 Dougie Bailey took a line from a Shakespeare play and used it to name his novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. He could just as well used four similar words which were part of the vernacular of all the characters in his turn-of-the-19th-century novel. Those words would be DEVIL FOR US ALL as in the old expression, "Every man for himself and the devil for us all."  This colloquialism was the law of the streets in Bailey's fictional southeast Alabama town of Aven. Bailey's main character, Buck Bannon, rationalizes his treachery by claiming that he's always simply worked in the interest of his "family" but Buck is in reality an island to himself whose competitive spirit could be summed up as "Screw everybody else. Take care of yourself before they take care of you." Aven was a world with little spirit of cooperation and where grievances were often wiped out in blood as proven by Buck's last statement to his younger brother, Hearn,"Words won't help. I'd have killed any other man, maybe any other of my brothers. You'll just be lucky to walk out."

 from page 82 and 83 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

"Papa," he said,"it's like you know when to plant. It ain't just knowin', it's part feelin'. Well, I got that feelin'." He didn't talk long and when he finished it was like he had been interrupted, like there was something else that might be said. He sat down again, watching his father's lips move slowly and soundlessly with thought until the old man was ready to speak.

"Boy," he said, and his still-red beard stirred, "ain't we movin' a mite fast?"

Buck shook his head stubbornly.

"Watch the barbershops," he said, "they follow the money. There ain't a one left on our street."

from page 192 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

Buck sat down an leaned across the table.

"I've laid big plans for the three of us," he said, "me, you and Hearn. Bannon Brothers, a partnership. Sound different, huh?"

"A partnership sounds good," Jeff said. "But in what? What's the building for?"

Buck leaned back.

"A hotel," he said. "A hotel with a bathroom and a telephone in every room."

"What the hell!" Jeff said. "What makes you think a hotel'd pay here?"

"Drummers," Buck said, "they'll spend ten dollars of the company's money to make one for themselves. I found out in New York. Give 'em a good room, a pretty good boy to wait on 'em and a fast poker game every night, and you'll see it'll take 'em two weeks to work our territory." 

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 begins the second of the book's 13  segments sixteen months after Buck's arrival in boomtown Aven.  Aven hadn't progressed to the point of actually having a bank so negotiations for Buck's first business loan would occur on the front porch of Amos Longshore's big house. 

While working up the courage to ask the richest man in town for a loan, Buck reflected upon his new life as he stood on the street in front of the Longshore's house. Aven had grown from a row of wooden shacks across from a railroad depot. Fresh water from a spring a half mile away from the depot had led to the construction of a whiskey distillery and with it a new commercial district emerged to compete with the one by the depot where Buck worked. 

The hick from the sticks who'd probably never even seen a train a few months before now recognized each engineer's whistle. Buck had met many of the railroad men in town working the counter of Green's store by the depot and was now supplementing his income by pawning the railroad men's pocket watches whenever they needed cash between paydays so they could enjoy Aven's merchandise along with its liquor and girls. Buck felt a little guilty about charging 50 per cent interest every two weeks on his payday loans but he knew he was on the path to riches because he was "willin' to live like a hog in the back of Green's store, and stayin' lonesome because you can't make money by lendin' to friends."

  Longshore's gorgeous daughter answered Buck's knock at the front door and this resulted in Buck discovering he wanted a little more from Longshore than just his money. As he watched the pretty girl walk down the hall to go get her father, Buck craved what he saw, "like finding rock candy in the syrup bucket." 

Suddenly, Buck had 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 and seeing Buck's interest  in his daughter didn't help Buck's chances of getting a loan. 

Buck overcame 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 pointed out that he could easily use his own money to buy the bargain-priced property Buck desired rather than financing Buck's purchase, Buck pointed out that Longshore would rather have Buck's five hundred dollars than a bargain price on the property and Buck was correct. When Buck told the old man, "You want my five hundred," Longshore responded, "You're right and I think I'm going to get it. Come back tomorrow and I'll have the money and the papers ready."

Even though Longshore insulted Buck by calling him a thief for exploiting a tragedy, Buck walks off Longshore's porch and into Aven's night confident that his business plan had 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 page 347 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:  "Hey, Lord," Bass muttered, and flicked his cloth sharply at a large cockroach which had come out of the hidden shelves below the counter, "They're puttin' silk stockin's on a reg'lar whore of a town."

from the July 15, 1891 SOUTHERN STAR [Ozark]:     When the Midland was being built in '89, Dothan arose one fine morning, took a bath and arraying herself in purple and fine linen she gave one prolonged excitable whoop and told them to trot out their boom she was ready for 'em; and it came. She built up very rapidly and to-day has a population of between 2500 and 3000 souls within her corporate limits which is four square miles.