Moving Lydia's Remains

My great-great maternal grandfather Reverend James Wilson Shores [1828-1918] was born in Putnam County, Georgia, on October 6, 1828. He moved to what is now Elmore County in 1842 and joined the Methodist Church in May 1845. He was a minister for more than five decades, having been licensed to preach in 1850. He died on March 21, 1918, in his home at 24 North Hull Street in Montgomery. Funeral services were held in Dexter Avenue Church, and he is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery. 

The state archives has a manuscript of his, "Record of Work, 1851-1861" which can be viewed online or downloaded and includes this description:

"Reminiscences of James Wilson Shores, a circuit preacher for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Alabama and Mississippi.  Shores changed circuits every year or two, covering the following counties from 1851 to 1861: Autauga, Barbour, Clarke, Dallas, Fayette, Greene, Lowndes, Marengo, Marion, Perry, Russell, and Sumter Counties in Alabama; and Lowndes and Monroe Counties in Mississippi. When writing about preaching appointments, he lists the dates, locations, and sermon texts for each. In his year-end summaries, he records the number of sermons and classes presented, total distance traveled, number of persons converted and visited, amount of money collected, and topics of personal study. Of particular note in this manuscript are his notes from 1851 and 1853, which include lists of enslaved people preached to and lists of "promiscuous places preached at" (Shores uses "promiscuous" to mean "irregular"; that is, locations not on his regular circuit)."

His future wife Lydia Ann Edwards was born on January 25, 1833, in her father's home near Montgomery. They were married in Prattville on March 16, 1852 and had twelve children together. She died in Orville, age 47 on November 2, 1879. She was buried in Liberty Cemetery midway between Orville and the old state capitol Cahawba. Her tombstone notes she was "A True Wife, A Devoted Mother, A Consistent Christian". James Wilson Shores did not marry again, even though he outlived her by nearly 40 years.  

I am directly descended from Sterling Soule Shores, the sixth child of James and Lydia. He was born on November 22, 1861, in Suggsville in Clarke County. On November 3, 1887, he married Julia Peterson McMillan in Rehoboth in Wilcox County. One of their children was John Miller Shores, my maternal grandfather. John Miller was also a long-time Methodist minister, serving in north Alabama for more than 50 years. 

Lydia's gravesite eventually disappeared from family memory. After a search of many years, Frank Parquette, a great-grandson of James Wilson Shores, located the gravesite in Liberty Cemetery, on the property of Oxford Smith. Frank, his son and brother-in-law got permission to visit the cemetery in January 1995 and found it totally neglected and overgrown. Discussion among family members led to a decision to disinter the remains and move them to a Shores plot in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jasper. 

The actual exhumation took place on July 24, 1999. Among those in attendance were Frank Parquette, my dad Amos, brother Richard and his sons Ashley and Miller and yours truly. Cary Oakley, then director of the Office of Archaeological Research at Moundville and a friend of dad's, also participated and made sure state requirements for movement of a burial were fulfilled. Richard had once worked with Carey at OAR. As the attorney in the family, Richard contacted local officials about the disinterment.  

Liberty Cemetery is located near the junction where Dallas County Road 952 joins County Road 948. The place was indeed overgrown in many areas, including Lydia's grave. We spent much of that day there in the summer heat digging, sifting, and teasing what was left of Lydia's coffin and remains from the sandy soil. The effort and results can be seen below in the various photos. 

Also present that day was Sam Shelton of the Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home in Trussville and his wife. Mr. Shelton provided the hearse and new coffin and transported Lydia's remains to Jasper's Oak Hill Cemetery. She was reburied there the next day, a Sunday, next to her grandson John Miller Shores. Attending were  Amos J. Wright, Jr., Frank Parquette, Mr. and Mrs. Shelton and others. Dad offered a brief prayer at the ceremony. 

I am indebted to the late Virginia Nancarrow's 2003 book, Rev. James Wilson Shores: His Ancestors and Descendants, for some of the information in this post.  

Much of the cemetery looked like this area in the photo. Many prominent gravestones and fenced gravesites were caught in a veritable central Alabama jungle.

Brother Richard in his element. Clearly visible are the pieces of the coffin's glass viewing plate. 

The process of searching through the dirt was tedious, just like an archaeological dig.

Not much survived the acidic, sandy soil. Seen in this photo are pieces of the large viewing glass, metal handles, two six-inch pieces of leg bones & other bone fragments and a six-inch piece of Lydia's skull, seen in the upper right. The three small items above and the two below are the viewing plate thumbscrews that held the glass on the wooden coffin. 

Also found were wood fragments from the casket, bits of hair on the skull and glass pieces, some horseshoe nails, and a thin fragment of the metal coffin plate. That would have included an inscription and been attached below the glass.  

Lydia's Montgomery family had enough wealth to pay for a coffin featuring the glass plate and the iron handles. 

Lydia Shores was reinterred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jasper in a section where many of my other Shores relatives are also buried. 

These two photographs can be found in Virginia Nancarrow's book, cited above.

Hopefully Lydia would have been pleased with the presence of her Shores descendants and the care taken with her remains. 

The Empty Project: Alabama (2)

In January 2020 I posted "The Empty Project: Alabama (1)", so here we are with part two in this series. My introduction to that one:

"I can't live without empty chairs."
-Karl Kraus

For some time now I've been photographing scenes without people inside the "built environment", as they say. Make of these photos what you will.

What is emptiness, anyway??

More information/comments are below the photos. 

Branch Books 2 in Cullman
December 5, 2024

Fayette Art Museum
July 19, 2024

Back porch, Huntsville, Alabama
September 23, 2024

Townley Rest Area
I've written here about this legendary spot in rural Alabama.
July 19, 2024

Tornado or root shelter
County Road 35 in Pelham
June 20, 2024

This lot is very close to our house and it was being cleared for a new construction. This structure was about the last thing to go; a log cabin sat on the property when we moved to our current house in 1995. An article about tornado shelters, root cellars and such in north Alabama by Abraham Rowe can be found in the annual publication of the Alabama Folklife Association, Tributaries #18, 2024. 

Former site of a Pizza Hut, with a Travelodge being demolished in the background
Pelham, Alabama
September 30, 2024

The first Travelodge opened in San Diego in 1940 and the firm became one of the earliest motel chains in the United States. 

Center for Vein Restoration
Valleydale Road, Birmingham
September 18, 2024

TVs running in empty waiting rooms would seem to say something about American culture, but I'm not sure what. 

UAB Highlands Hospital waiting room
August 7, 2019

State of Alabama Postcard

As a Wikipedia article tells us, Alabama has 41 official state symbols. The postcard below only had room for six: the state flag, adopted in 1923; the state flower, the camellia, in 1959; the state bird, the yellowhammer, in 1933; the state tree, the long leaf pine, listed in Wikipedia as the Southern longleaf pine, 1997; coat of arms, 1939; state fish, the Atlantic tarpon, 1955. As you'll see on Wikipedia's inventory, the state now has a freshwater fish symbol, a horse, a game bird, a nut, a reptile and many others added since this postcard was issued.

The back of the card tells us that Alabama's nicknames are Cotton State and the Heart of Dixie, but there apparently is no formal nickname for the state. 

So, when was the card printed? In the middle of the back we read "Alabama Post Card Co." in Bessemer and a ZIP Code. Use of those U.S. Postal Service codes began on July 1, 1963, so this card was printed after that date. The company also issued a USS Alabama card with the same ZIP code. Another card from the company featured Holy Family Hospital in Birmingham and gave an address of 111 Livingston Court, but no ZIP. I also found a card from the company with a launch of a Jupiter-C rocket at Redstone Arsenal probably from the "late 1950s" according to the dealer. Back of the card is not shown.  

I checked some telephone white and yellow pages for Bessemer in the first half of the 1960s and did not find the company listed, so I have no idea how long they operated. A quick Google search only turned up the three other cards mentioned. 

Source: Troy University Libraries Digital Collections

A Visit to Unclaimed Baggage

In August 2019 my brother Richard and I made a trip to Scottsboro and visited among other places Unclaimed Baggage. Their web site will tell you the store's history and how the business works. You can read my two-part report of that visit to Scottsboro here and here. This past December 26, Dianne, my son Amos and daughter-in-law Kim made the trip to the popular attraction. Amos had also visited long ago, but the ladies had never been. So on a gray, drizzly day we traveled north from Pelham. 

By the time we arrived everybody was hungry, so the first thing we did was find a place to eat. Payne's Soda Fountain and Sandwich Shop on the courthouse square was open, and we stopped in there. The popular place was busy, but we were seated quickly. We all enjoyed our meals; Kim and I had their BLTs and some fruit. Strangely, they don't do fries. Dianne and I had some delicious ice cream, too!

Unclaimed Baggage was next, and we stayed for maybe 90 minutes. Kim and Amos found a few t-shirts, and Amos bought a book. Dianne purchased a couple of small pieces of jewelry; she said most of what they had was overpriced. I bought three books. All-in-all the visit was a disappointment. Naturally the place was packed the day after Christmas, and I had no interest in the clothes, hats, jewelry, sunglasses, electronic geegaws, etc. 

However, since the time Richard and I visited an Unclaimed Baggage Museum has been opened within the store, and that was pretty interesting. Comments are below some of the photos.

We parked at the side entrance, which is not far from the museum gallery. 

The "oddities and treasures" range from shrunken heads to a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. On the cover of the pamphlet is Hoggle, a life-size Jim Henson puppet that appeared with David Bowie in the 1986 film Labyrinth.

Even medieval armor has found its way to Scottsboro.

The Gucci suitcase carried Egyptian artifacts dating back to 1500 BC that included a burial mask and ancient coins. Who leaves this kind of stuff unclaimed?

That violin dates to 1770.

I had to laugh when I came across this 2008 novel by Lawrence Block featuring Keller, his lonely hit man character. Someone shelving this book must have assumed it was about baseball.

The courthouse gazebo was decorated for Christmas and holiday music played all over the square. The building was the scene of various trials of the nine Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. I wrote about that and the Scottsboro Boys Museum in the previous posts linked in the first paragraph of this one.

Payne's Soda Fountain and Cafe celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019. The business has been located on the courthouse square since February 1891.

Here's a totally random photo I took on the way home as we drove from Scottsboro to I-59. I have a fond memory of  Attalla. When we were young sprouts, my brother and I used to separately visit our grandparents in Gadsden in the summer for a week at a time. On one of those visits my grandmother Rosa Mae Wright took me to a theater in Attalla to see Sink the Bismarck!, a 1960 British film. We saw the movie in the afternoon, before picking up my grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., at his job as yard foreman for the L&N railroad.

What's Coming to the Blog in 2025?

Since 2015 I have begun each year with a post outlining some of the pieces I'd like to write in the coming year. These posts have become a history of futility on this blog. I list some topics I'd like to cover, and in the coming year I might get one or two of them done. So many topics, so little time, so many new topics popping up all the time. If you have the inclination, you can read all about it: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. 

For instance, last year's listing included the item, "Five Points South in Birmingham in 1987"; I have a neat map to use with it. I also had on my dance card "Louisa Shepard, MD". She was the first southern woman to be awarded a medical degree from a southern institution. She graduated from the Graefenberg Medical Institute operated in Dadeville by her father, Dr. Philip Madison Shepard, from 1852 until 1861. Then there were R.G. Armstrong and Henry Walthall, two Alabama natives who became incredibly busy actors. You might recognize Armstrong, who was born in Pleasant Grove; he appeared in so many films and tv shows before his death in 2012. Walthall never appeared on television; he died in 1936. Born on a cotton plantation in Shelby County, he made dozens of silent and sound films from 1909 until his death. Finally, one topic I mentioned for the 2024 list was Livingston Press, an independent publisher based at the University of West Alabama that since the 1970s has issued numerous works of fiction and other genres.

Perhaps in 2025 I'll get to one or all of these posts. What others would I like to write? Well, there's part 2 of "Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame". I only managed the first half of the alphabet in part 1. Speaking of women doctors in the state, there's the sad tale of Laura Burton and Irene Bullard, two physicians who established a joint practice in Birmingham before World War I. Unfortunately, Burton was murdered by her second husband and Bullard left the state. It's quite a tale.

Earlier this year I wrote about a portion of my ticket stubs collection, the ones for concerts. Next I'd like to do one on the stubs I have for sporting events. Finally, I hope to get around to a post on the visit son Amos and I made in January 2023 to the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa. I've already completed one on another place we visited on that trip, the Capitol and Old Tavern.

I thought about doing an inventory from all these "What's Coming" posts of ideas I listed but have yet to write about. That thought quickly gave me a headache. Well, I guess I'll be back in January 2026 to see how all this speculation for 2025 turned out.

Alabama on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2)

I've written posts about Wilson here, here and here. She's one of many with state connections who will be featured in part 2.

Laura Evelyn Compton and first husband Captain Chesley Thomas Bartee on their wedding day 25 November 1893, Nanafalia, Alabama.

Compton later divorced her steamship captain husband, went to medical school and married fellow student Allen Burton. They moved to Birmingham, and Laura set up a practice with Irene Bullard. They had an office in the original Watts building. Laura was later murdered by her husband, and Irene left the state to practice elsewhere. See this site for more information.

Some Birmingham Barons ticket stubs in my collection. My son and I attended a Barons game this past August, and the only "stub" I have is a printout of the confirmation email I received. Pathetic. I ask you, what kind of world is it without colorful, meaningful ticket stubs?

I'm an Auburn fan, but I will try to do justice to this topic. War Eagle!

Paul W. Bryant Museum

Joe Louis on Tour during World War II

Professional heavyweight boxer Joe Louis is one of the most famous sports figures native to Alabama, and one of the first African-Americans to become a national hero. Louis was born near Lafayette in Chambers County on May 13, 1914. In 1926 his family moved to Detroit where his stepfather found work in the auto industry. Louis discovered boxing in a local gym and by 1934 had a 50-4 amateur record. On July 4 of that year he entered his first professional fight, which lasted less than two minutes. Within two years Louis won 27 fights, many against well-known opponents. He lost his first professional bout in June 1936 against Nazi Germany's Max Schmeling. In the June 1938 rematch Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round, and instantly became a hero in both white and black America. 

The Encyclopedia of Alabama article linked above, by Jim Lewis, describes Louis' military service during the Second World War:

"Louis's boxing career was interrupted in 1942 when he enlisted in the Army after the United States had officially entered World War II the previous year. During his military service, Louis participated in 96 boxing exhibitions to raise money for Armed Services relief funds as well as to boost morale. Louis's high profile also advanced the cause of desegregating the armed forces. Louis was able to use his status to help future baseball great Jackie Robinson and several other African American soldiers gain admittance to Officer Candidate School."

Thus we come to "Louis on Tour", an article that appeared in the September 13, 1943 issue of Life magazine. I came across this item as my brother Richard and I continue to go through our parents' house in Huntsville. Dad kept a big stack of issues from his Gadsden parents' subscription; most are from the 1940s during World War II.

The brief text and photos describe his activities at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1943, as he begins "a 100-day boxing and physical-fitness tour under auspices of the Army's Special Services Division....Affable and at home on his feet, he gives a gracious and fluent  talk on physical fitness and how to be a good soldier." Those 100 days would include both daily boxing matches and public appearances. "[M]any find a quiet parable in racial good will...hundreds of white soldiers, officers and men, are proud to shake his hand."

Other activities depicted in this photo essay include signing autographs at the base hospital for wounded from North Africa, greeting the post commander, attending a service club dance, and inspecting a marching formation of nurses. 

Joe Louis died on April 12, 1981. In 2010 a statue of him was placed in Lafayette near the Chambers County Courthouse. 

I've written some other pieces on this blog related to Louis. One told the story of Coley Wallace, who played Louis in the movies. Another described The Phynx, a very strange 1970 film in which Louis appeared. I also posted about Joseph E. Pullum, an Anniston native who in 1935 recorded "Joe Louis is the Man", the first of more than 40 songs about the boxer written and recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. 

The cover story examined that strange new item of women's fashion, leotards. 

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Issued June 22, 1993

First US stamp to honor a professional boxer

Issued on 55th anniversary of Louis's most famous match (and victory) against Nazi Germany's Max Schmeling

Part of the Sport Series of US stamps

Stamp Category:  Commemorative

Set:  Sports Series

Value:  29¢, First Class Mail Rate

Source: Mystic Stamp Company

See link for more information about the stamp's design, the artist. etc.