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.