Grove Oak Rt 2 News 1909

From an October 1909 Fort Payne Journal

Crossville. Feb 1924

From the DeKalb County Herald. reports of smallpox in Crossville are untrue

The Strand 1936

January 1936  The Strand Theatre of the era welcome to both white and black patrons while the Dekalb theatre was white only.

James Bros Play at Chavies School

A play held March 1st 1924 at Chavies School.  From the DeKalb County Herald February 1924.

1909 Chavies Base Ball

1909 from the Fort Payne Journal.

1924 Henegar Moonshine Murder

Police informant shot down by moonshiners in 1924.  February 1924 DeKalb County Herald.

Whiskey And Pistols, Crossville 1909

A bicycle deal goes sour and ends in gunfire in 1909 Crossville.
From an October 1909 issue of The Fort Payne Journal.

Gilbert Murder in Tenbroek 1924

March 1924 issues Dekalb County Herald

The Peddling Truck

                         Former Peddling Truck of Mitchell Bros. Store in Antioch


In rural Alabama during the Depression, WW2 and immediate years afterward many families did not own their own transportation and would get their much needed supplies from the local Peddling Truck or "Rolling Store" which was a service furnished by many local General Stores of the era.

The Rolling Store began in the 1800's as horse drawn wagons loaded with flour, pans, sugar and materials for sewing but by the mid 20th Century ton and a half trucks and old buses had been converted to serve the purpose.

These old trucks were packed to the ceiling with foodstuffs, hardware, textiles and even toys for the children.
Many people would stand out by the road waiting for the arrival of the peddler because it was as close as they were going to get to a Shopping Spree.

I was born in 1970 after the Rolling Store was long passed into history but I knew about practice because my Grandparents (with whom I lived) had an old derelict Peddling Truck on their property which they used for storage.   Owned by Mitchell Bros. store in Antioch it was originally an old early thirties Dodge truck which had been hand built with pieces of a bus and hand fabricated sheet metal.   This particular Rolling Store ran the Sand Mountain portion of Jackson County and the Antioch and Greens Chapel areas of DeKalb County during the forties.   When you stepped inside the shelving was still intact and reached all the way to the ceiling.  there was even notes written in pencil on the walls of which customers had bought something on credit and how much they owed.

I could just imagine this very truck barrelling down dirt roads in 1945 in a trail of dust while kids awaited it's arrival and housewives waited to go through it's shelves to pick out the prettiest material to sew a new dress and farmers waiting for it to get their weekly supply of Beechnut Chewing Tobacco.

The Peddling Truck is a product of an almost forgotten area but it is still an important part of our past.  Think of it as a Bookmobile....without the books...or a mobile ebay with it's own schedule.      Something our Grandparents would be as familiar with as we are with Dollar General today.   

January 1936 F3 Tornado Fyffe/Greens Chapel

Just an F3 in January 1936 with one line on the NWS page. It was plenty more though. It killed two people in Fyffe and in Green's Chapel my Grandparents put their 3 kids under the kitchen table for protection. Their home was moved off the foundation but next door Rudolf Rowell's home was destroyed and his small daughter and his father were killed. Mr. Rowell's back was broken and he never walked again. Grandpa and other neighbors had to get the living and dead from under the rubble in the rain. Grandpa Potter was still talking about it 50 years later and I'm sure everyone else hit by it did the same.   

Peek's Corner News 1908

Feb 8th Fort Payne Journal

Attorney Arrested For Murder

Local attorney arrested for murder. January 1st 1908 Fort Payne Journal

Dawson News 1908

March 11th 1908 Fort Payne Journal

WW1 P08 Luger

World War 1 po8 Luger brought back from World War II but destroyed in a house fire.  This pistol hung for many years in Guy Johnson's pawn shop in Rainsville

Sousa In Ft Payne

Sousa at Ft Payne Opera House 1908. one of the most famous band leaders in history paid a visit to DeKalb County

Beware Cigarettes!!

A very paranoid propaganda piece from the temperance column of a February 1908 Fort Payne Journal. The author was firmly convinced that cigarettes were laced with opium.

George Bush Visits Rainsville

January 1980 Rainsville received a visit from presidential candidate George Bush. a visit by a presidential candidate was and is very uncommon in DeKalb County.

Fyffe News 1908

From March 11th 1908 Fort Payne Journal

Hammonds Bros Furniture

We uncovered this sign when the old Fyffe City Hall was torn down. this sign had been covered up since 1957 when the city hall building was built.  Hammond Brothers Furniture was a key business in town for many many years and was not only a furniture store but at one time in the 1950s also served as a restaurant with a very busy soda fountain. Sadly this sign was painted over by the owner of the building shortly after we discovered it. the Old Hammond Brothers building is now a church and the church sign has been painted over this piece of History. You will notice the person who painted the sign signed his name in the bottom corner.
Another piece of history now lost to the ages.

Fort Payne Journal

This is the front page from a 1909 issue of the Journal.
Much more news with less pictures than today. 
Community news took center stage.

Springfield Model 1842

This is the lock plate and Hammer from a model 1842 Springfield rifled musket which I acquired from a civil war relic collector in Virginia.
The model 1842 was a 69 caliber musket adopted by the United States Army in the mid 19th century and was the last smoothbore musket issued by the United States Army as well as the first weapon to use percussion caps rather than a Flintlock firing system.
The 1842 was standard issue during the Mexican War and was still in secondary usage by state militia units on both sides during the Civil War.

Sylvania News 1912

Sylvania news from the Feb 24th Fort Payne Journal

Fort Payne Spelling Bee 1912

Another Jewel from a February 1912 issue of the Fort Payne Journal.
The spelling bee at the Old Courthouse had been postponed due to weather and was rescheduled. The winner was to receive a homemade box of candy

Hank' Final Haircut

On December 31st 1952 Hank Williams made a brief stop in Fort Payne to have breakfast and get a haircut on his way to a concert in Canton Ohio. This is the chair that Hank sat in while Howard Simpson cut his hair. The chair is now on display in Beason's barber shop on Gault Ave.

1909 Local Telephone Story

From a 1909 issue of the Fort Payne Journal.  The beginning of local telephone service with independent lines which were to be connected to Southern Bell lines in Fort Payne. In the early days AT&T/Bell installed lines in the larger towns like Fort Payne while the rural communities would have to install their own telephone lines through local cooperatives. Early projects like this were the beginning of Farmers Telephone Coop. 

Fyffe News 1908

From The Fort Payne Journal and written by 'Black Eyes'.

Tenbroek 1912

Feb 12 issue of The Fort Payne Journal

Tales Of Matheny's Bridge

Over the years I have heard and collected some of the legends and folklore concerning Matheny's Bridge.

Matheny's sits at the Jackson and DeKalb County Line on the Fyffe to Macedonia Road, the current structure was built in the 1950s and this is the second bridge to carry the name with the first being an old steel and wood structure which was situated about a hundred yards upstream.

My first recollection of hearing tales of hauntings at Matheney's Bridge
Is when I was a child and two of my great-aunts, Zelma Moore and Vesta Lee Maness were talking about a coffin floating under the bridge on certain nights at midnight. Of course this caught my attention pretty fast.
When I was a teenager is when I first heard stories of the bridge being haunted by a baby which would reportedly take a bite out of a candy bar if you left the candy on the bridge and drove off for a few minutes and I don't know if I went to school with anyone who did not try this at least once.

A friend in high school spun a tantalizing tale in which he claimed his grandfather was in the woods near matheney's Bridge in his youth when he encountered a beast which was half man and half goat. my friend said that his grandfather was paralyzed by the creature which then proceeded to tell the future to the young man. Afterwards he was released but warned if he revealed any of the secrets which had been told to him the beast would seek revenge on he and his family. My friend claimed his grandfather was never surprised by anything for the rest of his life.

Rex Drain told me a story once of one of his relatives crossing the original bridge in a horse-drawn wagon. Rex said his relative heard a thump in the back of the wagon and turned around to see a Hairy Ape like creature along for the ride, he then gave the reins to his wife while he took a 2x4 and proceeded to pummel the creature until it fell out the back of his wagon.

One young man I went to High School with showed up in Grenoble Mill parking lot one night with scratches all over his head. he claimed he was driving his pickup across the bridge when something flew inside the cab and attacked him. Later some friends and I decided to go under the bridge and investigate but all I found was a bag of garbage and some soiled baby diapers which I slipped and landed in attempting to scale my way beneath the bridge on a dark night.

Matheny's Bridge may look like a utilitarian concrete crossing to the casual observer but to the people who grew up hearing tales of the many apparitions and unworldly creatures which call it home it is more than just a bridge it is a treasure of local folklore and a haunted attraction all rolled into one.

The DeKalb Hotel

The DeKalb Hotel was built in 1889 at the height of Fort Payne's boom period. The three-story Hotel had 125 room running water and electricity and was intended to house New England executives and their families who would be visiting the Fort Payne area. The park across the street from the hotel was named Union Park to make the northern visitors feel more at home. The Boom was short-lived and when the northern investors left town the hotel fell on Hard Tunes and eventually became low rent apartments. In February 1918 a fire started in one of the rooms and the Dekalb Hotel burned to the ground. Today nothing remains of the hotel except one of the French fountains which is displayed across the street in the park. The site of the hotel itself is now better known as the Salvation Army parking lot.

W.V Graves Store in Fyffe

W..V Graves Store opened in Fyffe Alabama around 1905 and was pretty much the center of the community being the general store and the post office. The store was located on the old road to Rainsville at the Crossing where the road met with what is now Church Street. I was allowed to do a small excavation there several years ago and recovered this gas light fixture some door hinges, nails Etc.

1923 Ford Model T

Believe it or not this pile of metal is All That Remains of a 1923 Ford touring car. The Ford Model T was the first American car built by assembly line for the 1909 model year and was produced with relatively few changes until the 1927 model year when it was discontinued. The Model T was produced in many different configurations with the Runabout and the touring car being the most popular because they were the most reasonably priced due to having a retractable canvas roof. In those days you had to pay extra if you wanted a metal roof over your head and doors with windows that rolled up. I located this car near Boaz Alabama and as you can see it has seen better days. I seriously doubt this car has been on the road in the past 70 years but even lying in somber repose its Majesty as an icon of American Automobile engineering is firmly intact.

Jimmie Rodgers at the Fort Payne Opera House 1932

Jimmie Rodgers was the biggest country music star in America in 1932. Since he signed to Victor Records in 1927 Rodgers had racked up one hit after another singing songs that the common working people could relate to. Songs about cheating songs about stealing songs about murder. Jimmie Rodgers set the template that country musicians would follow for decades. Jimmie Rodgers was also dying of tuberculosis. When Jimmy Rogers appeared at the Fort Payne Opera House in 1932 no one could have imagined the size of the crowds that showed up for the performance. the small Opera House could not hold the people. Many of whom had walked from Sand Mountain and Valley Head. Rodgers being a consummate Showman decided he wasn't going to let anyone down so he performed a complete performance and then emptied out the theater and filled it to capacity and performed the same show again. After hours of non-stop performing Jimmy Rogers collapsed on stage and had to be driven to the hospital in Chattanooga to recover. In depression-era DeKalb County seeing a major star like Jimmie Rodgers was a highlight event in many people's lives. Rodgers died the next year in New York City still recording music until his dying day.

Remembering Party Line Phones

In today's age of smartphones that do everything from making a phone call to playing video games and watching videos it is difficult to imagine that in some cases it wasn't that long ago that shared party line telephony was common.

I was born in 1970 and for the first ten years of my life my family was on a party-line system. In fact it wasn't until 1981 that every phone in the Rainsville Exchange had been converted to a single line system.

Like the internet today party line telephones in their life span became a way to spy on your neighbors and listening to other people's telephone calls became a local sport.

Most of the United States had converted to the single line system by the 1960s but here on Sand Mountain the old party line held sway for another generation or to put it in perspective my family was finally rid of the party line three years before the first cellular telephone network went online.

The next time you pick up your iPhone or Android put it into perspective and remember that not so long ago we were picking up the receiver of a Western Electric 500 and hoping that no one else was already on the line.

Pterotype

This machine is the pterotype invented by John Pratt of Centre Alabama in 1866. Pratt was a writer and the editor of the Gadsden Times. Due to economic hardships brought on by the Civil War Pratt was unable to find funding to market the device however Christopher Sholes would be inspired by the pterotype when he designed the first commercially successful typewriter which became the Remington Model 1 in 1873.