Old Alabama Stuff: University of Alabama Centennial Bulletin

In 1931 the University of Alabama held an elaborate celebration for its centennial year. The new state's legislature had chartered the school on December 18, 1820. However, the location in Tuscaloosa was not chosen until December 29, 1827. The university finally opened on a thousand acres a mile from the city on April 18, 1831.

The 1931 celebration lasted for three days, May 10-12. Afterward a 152-page proceedings volume was published; many images from that publication can be seen below. So what happened on those spring days 100 years after the opening of the university?

The centennial book indicates the amount of planning involved in this event. Below you can see a two-page list of the committees set up to plan the celebration. These groups included a general oversight committee, plus more specific ones such as History and Research, Book, Publicity, Program, Dance and Music. And, of course, there was a Barbeque Committee, since a BBQ picnic was among the events. A photo can be seen below. 

Two of the nation's oldest universities, Yale (1701) and Princeton (1746) were invited to send representatives. From January 22 until May 7 the "University of Alabama Centennial Radio Hour" was broadcast on Birmingham's WAPI. The program was actually half an hour long, on Thursday afternoons from four to four-thirty. The schedule of topics is below. The centennial "orator" was Claude Bowers. A bust of university President George Denny was unveiled in the Union Building. 

The main event was the centennial pageant, written and directed by Theodore Viehman. and presented in Denny Stadium. Nine episodes and a similar number of interludes portrayed state history from the time of Native Americans until the arrival of "the first white men in Alabama" as well as the history of the university. 

Claude Bowers and Theodore Viehman had no special connections to the university or even the state of Alabama but were well known at the time. Bowers [1878-1958] worked as a newspaper writer and editor and wrote several best-selling history books. He also served as ambassador to Spain and Chile from 1933 until 1953. Bowers was widely known as an "orator" based on his frequent public speaking. 

Theodore Viehman [1889-1970], the author and director of the pageant, spent his career as a drama coach and director. His work ranged from summer theater productions at colleges to plays on Broadway. Viehman directed community theater in various cities, including the Tulsa Little Theater from 1942 until 1961. He wrote other pageants for cities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere; he had written and directed one for Tuscaloosa in 1916. 

Based on the photograph of the picnic, this event seems to have been well attended. 

Helen Oliver, "Suspicious Person" in 1915

Well, in New Orleans, anyway. 

My son Amos alerted me to this item, which he found on Reddit, whatever that is.

Of course, I immediately began searching for more information. This item does appear in the New Orleans City Archives Police Department Mugshots Collection. 

We learn several things about Helen from this arrest card. She had a known alias, Eveline Smith. She was "taken", presumably arrested, on New Year's Eve, 1915. She claimed to be a manicurist. Her "criminal occupation" was "suspicious person", which may have meant she was a young woman alone on the streets at night--a possible prostitute.

She apparently gave her birthplace as Illinois and age as 21, so she was born in 1894. Her residence was in Birmingham, Alabama. She was a bit over 5 feet tall, weighed 117 and slim of build. Her complexion was fair, eyes brown, hair black and had freckles on her arms and a few on her face. The last names of the arresting detectives are also given on the card. 

On Ancestry.com I found the New Orleans Police Department Arrest Books 1881-1931. And there was Helen Oliver, in the First Precinct record for December 30-31, 1915. This resource gives us more information. Oliver's alias is spelled "Evelyn" Smith. She lived at 135 South Rampart and occupation is listed here as "none". Oliver was single and could read and write. She was arrested at her residence and charged with 1436 D & S [whatever those were], "pending investigation".

But wait, there's more. Also listed in that same page is George Smith, age 19, a single white male working as a clerk. He could also read and write. And guess what? His residence is also given as 135 South Rampart.

Smith was arrested at the St. Charles Hotel and given the same charges, pending investigation. The arresting officers for Helen Oliver and George Smith were the same--Det. Gregson and Ford Bitz [as best I can read the record]. A third officer was involved in the Smith arrest.

So far, the trail of Helen Oliver, "suspicious person" ends here. Was her residence really in Birmingham, and she was only in New Orleans temporarily? Were she and Smith some sort of couple in crime or romance or both? We may never know, but I'm sure there's more to the story.

I located a Helen B. Oliver in Birmingham city directories [via Ancestry] for 1914 and 1915, but she's probably not the same person. Helen B. was married to Robert E. Oliver and in 1914 they lived at 1227 Iroquois and 126 North 60th Street in 1915. I found nothing else about them. 

A portion of Oliver's entry in the New Orleans Police arrest book

A portion of Smith's entry in the New Orleans Police arrest book

Who Was Don Downs?

Recently Dianne and I had an enjoyable meal at Ragtime Cafe on Valleydale Road. The restaurant has been operating in Hoover for over three decades. The inside walls are decorated with lots of sports images, much of it related to the University of Alabama, sad to say. Yet I did notice the painting below of an Auburn football player. So who was Don Downs??

As it turns out, Don Downs played wide receiver during the 1960, 1961, and 1962 seasons under Auburn coach Shug Jordan. The Sports Reference site lists him with 21 receptions as a senior, ranked 9th in the SEC. His 13.4 years per catch ranked 7th. Football rosters at Auburn University note that in 1962 he wore number 88, weighed 205 lbs. and was 6-1. His hometown was Birmingham, and he graduated from Ensley High School.

Downs' obituary at al.com has a death date of December 3, 2019. That piece also tells us that he was the first Auburn football player to earn a degree in Forest Management. After graduation Downs worked as a distribution consultant, which allowed him to travel. 

The artist for this painting, which is dated 1959, is Warren Pratt. I have been unable to find anything about him except for a few more paintings similar to this one. One ink and watercolor from 1955 depicts Sonny Humphreys in his University of Tennessee playing days. I also found a pastel Pratt painted of Oakland Athletics pitcher Rollie Fingers and one of Baltimore Orioles player Andy Atchebarren from 1971.  

If you know any more about Don Downs or Warren Pratt, let us know in the comments!

Oh, and if Downs played at Auburn 1960-62, why are the dates on the painting 1958 and 1959??

 

Anne Royall Describes Alabama Doctors in 1821

Anne Royall

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Anne Royall took on many roles during her lifetime: wife, widow, traveler, author, newspaper editor, and prolific letter writer. She was also convicted in 1829 of being a "common scold", a sort of public nuisance, after her encounters with some evangelical Presbyterians in Washington, D.C. Royall was fined $10, which was paid by two local newspaper editors. Details can be found in her Encyclopedia of Alabama and Wikipedia entries. 

Between 1826 and 1831 Royall published several volumes about her travels, primarily in the South. Her most famous is probably her second, Letters from Alabama on Various Subjects that appeared in 1830. The first 14 letters actually describe her journey from Virginia through Lexington and Bowling Green in Kentucky and Nashville and Fayetteville in Tennessee. Once she arrived in Alabama, she visited Huntsville, Melton's Bluff, Courtland, Moulton and Florence. The first letter was dated November 8, 1817; the last, from Huntsville on June 8, 1822. The letters were addressed to "Matt" Dunbar, a young lawyer friend in Virginia.

Thus Royall visited Alabama during its territorial and early statehood periods. In all of her travel books she wrote in a lively style and with a sharp wit. She details the landscapes she saw, the people famous and common she met and how they lived. In one of the Alabama letters she describes a meeting at Melton's Bluff in January 1818 with General Andrew Jackson, whom she greatly admired. She noted that he was nursing members of the Mitchell family, white and black, who were suffering from fever.

Royall was born on June 11, 1769, near Baltimore. In 1797 she married Major William Royall, a wealthy Revolutionary War veteran. He died in 1812 and since they had no children, Anne inherited his 7000 acres and seven slaves. She sold the land and four of the slaves and began her travels in the South. The will was overturned in 1819, and she was left without income. By 1826 she had become one of the many authors of popular travel books in the United States. 

In 1831 she settled permanently in Washington, D.C., and published two newspapers that focused her caustic wit on politicians and fraud and waste in government. Royal died October 1, 1854, and is buried in Congressional Cemetery. 

Anne Newport Royall's travel books have left us an important record of the areas through which she traveled, including Alabama. In those early years people were pouring into the new territory and then state seeking opportunities in a frontier with vast available lands and few restrictions from weak local and state governments. The letter excerpted below was written from Florence on July 15, 1821, and displays her wit about the "unaccountable" number of physicians that "flock to this country."

Of course, these doctors were coming to seek new opportunities just like everyone else. Many had probably left towns or communities with too many doctors; after all, regulation of medical practice at this time was almost non-existent. Toward the end of this part, she notes, "Many of these physicians, however, are becoming planters, by which they will doubtless make their bread."

And indeed some doctors did. Dr. Joshua Sanford Wilson--also a politician-- developed a plantation in Clarke County and built its mansion between 1846 and 1851. The structure is known today as the Wilson-Finlay House. Another physician-planter-politician in Alabama was Alexander Williams Mitchell who began construction of Belle Mont in the 1820s. His plantation of more than 1700 acres was located in what is now Colbert County. 

Written from Florence on July 15, 1821 [p. 148 of the Letters]