Alabama History & Culture News: January 30 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Dr. Wayne Flynt talks Harper Lee during library speaker's series - Valley Times-News Valley Times-News Monroeville, Alabama was the place she was born, grew up and died. ... the place where she became famous for her bestselling book and where she ...

Central Baptist in Phenix City celebrates 100th anniversary - The Alabama Baptist The Alabama Baptist Calvin Milford of the Alabama Baptist Historical Commission presented a certificate, and Mayor Eddie Lowe presented a proclamation. “We're excited to ...

Sequoyah's words, and a very rare snail, live harmoniously in an Alabama cave | Culture Cherokee Phoenix Caves are, by nature, mysterious subterranean portals to another world. Manitou Cave – a historical gem, a cultural phenom, a conservational ...

Alabama officials: New I-10 project means less toll avoidance through historic Africatown AL.com A Welcome Center, across from the Old Plateau Cemetery – where many of the survivors of the Clotilda, and their descendants are buried – is also ...

NewSouth Books: Prattville to Honor Randall Williams and Suzanne La Rosa at Dinner March 4 Elmore-Autauga News Suzanne, NewSouth's publisher, relocated to Alabama in 1997 from New York. Suzanne's early career included editorial positions at Good ...

Alabama State comic book artist doing “super” things - WSFA WSFA Alabama State comic book artist doing “super” things. Alabama State University sophomore Ronald Martin taking his passion for art to a superhero.

12 Quirky Facts About Alabama That Sound Made Up, But Are 100% Accurate Only In Your State 6. Cherokee, Alabama is home to the Coon Dog Cemetery, which was established in 1937. There's no other cemetery in the world like it.

Selma Cemetery Department gives update on repairing tornado-damaged cemeteries Selma Sun Cemetery Director Reginald Wells has released an update on the Old and New Live Oak cemeteries after they were damaged in the Jan. 12 tornado.

'Huey' helicopter to soar above Alabama veterans park as permanent display Stars and Stripes Cullman's Veterans Memorial Park will soon be home to the first new piece of full-scale military memorabilia it has added in nearly a decade: A ...

'My Selma' tells kids what it was like to grow up Black in 1960's South | Here & Now - WBUR WBUR Willie Mae Brown at a book launch event for "My Selma." (Luana Maria Şeu). When Selma, Alabama, was recently torn apart by that tornado, it was ...

Hazel Green girls on brink of AHSAA history after 85th straight victory - AL.com AL.com The Hazel Green girls' basketball team is one victory away from Alabama High School Athletic Association history after beating Bob Jones 48-36 at ...

The Way It Was: Skipper's New Book Tells Story of Integration of Alabama's Football Team Over the Mountain Journal The next season, Jackson and Mitchell, a defensive end and junior college transfer, became the first black players in Alabama football history and ...

13 artists who came to Alabama to record at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - CBS 42 CBS 42 News 19 has compiled a list of several artists who spent time spinning some tracks and making history in Sheffield. R.B. Greaves, “Take a Letter Maria ...

How a group of Cuban immigrants took over a prison in Alabama : White Lies - NPR

NPR

A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. ... News/Donated by Alabama Media Group /Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Damage assessments ongoing in Selma's historic district - WSFA WSFA Selma has the largest contiguous historic district on the national register in the state of Alabama. You can visit historicselma.org to donate.

Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat on a segregated bus

history.com

... before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, ... https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/claudette-colvin-refuses-to ...

Living history crew drill at Battleship Memorial Park brings history to life - WPMI WPMI Interact with historical WWII re-enactors aboard the USS ALABAMA and the USS DRUM. These historical re-enactors, dressed in WWII period Navy ...

Black History Month: The History Lowry House | | waaytv.com WAAY-TV Huntsville Historian and Storyteller, Bobby Hayden and Jane Tippett sat down with Anchor Nakell Williams to tell the story of the Historic Lowry House ...

Report: 11 Alabama institutions hold Native American remains - Montgomery Advertiser Montgomery Advertiser The Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday July. "Repatriation of Native American Ancestors, their burial ...

Last Streetcar Run in Gadsden in 1934

Once upon a time many cities of any size ran a form of transportation called street cars, also known as trolleys or as trams in Europe. You may have heard of them. Once ubiquitous, street cars have largely disappeared from North America. Toronto still operates its extensive line, and a few other cities operate smaller ones or lines meant largely for tourists. The only one I've ever ridden is the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans, which opened in 1835 and is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world. 

I was roaming through Samford University's digital collections recently and came across the photograph below documenting the last streetcar run in Gadsden. A little more research turned up two newspaper articles giving some details here and here and written by local historians Danny Crownover and Mike Goodson. 

Crownover's piece notes that electric streetcars had begun in the Gadsden area in the 1890s; in an earlier article he traced the history of horse-drawn and steam locomotive lines. The photograph below was taken on the final run along the Cansler Avenue line from the Republic Steel plant, stopping at Fourth and Broad Streets. The date was January 23, 1934; the article includes the names of the last crew and passengers.

That same car had made the final streetcar runs earlier on lines in Tuscumbia, Florence and Sheffield. The next morning, Crescent Motors, Inc., began operating five buses in the Gadsden and Atalla area. 

Source: Samford University Library, Special Collection

Alabama History & Culture News: January 22 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Saturn 1B, a landmark welcoming all to Alabama, will soon be history - WZDX WZDX The iconic Saturn 1B rocket, which has stood over the Alabama Welcome Center in ... Soon, it will come down, and pass into Alabama history.

Alabama's Hank Williams trail stops at singer's greatest hits - St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis Post-Dispatch (According to Tee Tot's gravestone, in Lincoln Cemetery in Montgomery, Lillie “fed him in exchange for guitar lessons” for her son.).

Alabama Historical Association to Hold 75th Annual Meeting in Prattville, April 13-15 Elmore-Autauga News FROM THE ALABAMA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION The Alabama Historical Association will hold its 75th Annual Meeting in Prattville on April 13-15, ...

Actress Octavia Spencer says LA is more racist than her Alabama hometown - KATV KATV Maron then drilled in further on the racist history of Alabama, citing a history of racial events that have taken place there in the past.

Archeological dig on Redstone Arsenal unearths history - WHNT.com WHNT.com Isham J. Fennell was one of the wealthiest planters in Madison County. He owned thousands of acres throughout Alabama, and bought the plantation in ...

Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church one of 34 historic Black churches receiving ... CBS 42 Administrators of a trust fund established to preserve historic Black ... includes 16th Street Baptist Church Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama, ...

Alston Fitts III - The Selma Times‑Journal The Selma Times‑Journal He received a B.A. in English literature at the University of Alabama, ... His years of Saturdays poring over microfiche, letters and cemetery ...

Spirit of Alabama: Historian helps families find long-buried details - WVUA 23 WVUA 23 When you walk through any of the four cemeteries in which Bryce Hospital once buried its dead, you won't see many graves.

Alabama Has Connections to Most Iconic Moments in NFL Playoffs - Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Former Crimson Tide players are remembered for their time at Alabama, but a few had some big ... if not the best, playoff moment in NFL history.

'Building Birmingham: The Sloss Story' to premiere on Alabama Public Television

Alabama NewsCenter

James Withers Sloss helped move the railroad to a fledgling Alabama ... Setting the stage: what made 1963 a pivotal year in Birmingham's history.

From mystic societies to costume trains, here's a look at Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama WWNO Mobile, Alabama has long claimed to be the site of the first American Mardi Gras, but what's the story behind this historic carnival – and what ...

Plans Created for Historic Giddens Cemetery | Alabama River Heritage Spot On Alabama COM OPELIKA - Following a string of disputes and resolutions last year, the George and Addie Giddens Cemetery now has plans to be preserved and ...

Biggest snowfalls recorded in Alabama history | State | selmasun.com Selma Sun Stacker compiled a list of the biggest 1-day snowfalls in Alabama using data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Famed Tuskegee Airman Harold Brown 'takes final flight' - The Beacon | Port Clinton The Beacon | Port Clinton Young Harold Brown graduated from the segregated pilot training program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1944 and was commissioned an officer ...

"No Stone Unturned: Preserving Slave Cemeteries in Alabama." An APR news series Alabama Public Radio Len Strozier, of Omega Mapping Services, scans the Old Prewett Slave Cemetery in Northport, Alabama. Part 1 — "The 40 unmarked graves"

Two Alabama Doctors in Trouble

In one of my recent wanderings through the Internet Archive Scholar database, I happened to come across the two notices below about a pair of Alabama physicians. Let's investigate. 

The 1913 item describes the shooting death of Dr. Frank Walton on August 18 at the hands of Gid Weaver, an electrician working for the Woodward Iron Company. "Domestic trouble is said to be the cause" of the killing, which took place in Weaver's home in Mulga in front of his wife. I've written about a similar case in Birmingham in 1901 in which a doctor named John Payne was murdered by James Cook, presumably a jealous husband. 

Walton was a 38 year old Virginia native who worked as a mining company physician, possibly also for Woodward, a huge supplier of pig iron from 1881 until 1971. In 1899 he graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville and was licensed by the Alabama state medical board. At the time of his death he was a member of the American Medical Association. 

As the two brief newspaper articles note, Weaver was arrested, made bond, and in October was indicted for second degree murder. I did not find the results of a presumed trial. Weaver lived until 1943 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. I was unable to find more information on Walton.

See below for something about the second physician, Dr. G.R. Norman.

,

Source: Southern Medical Journal 1913, vol. 6, no. 10, page 701

Birmingham Age-Herald 24 August 1913

Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America

Source: Birmingham Age-Herald 10 October 1913

Library of Congress, Chronicling America

According to the Alabama Deaths and Burials Index, 1881-1974 via Ancestry.com, Weaver was a grocer living in Homewood at the time of his death. His wife's name was Iva. 

Source: Find-A-Grave 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

This second note concerns Dr. G.R. Norman and his accomplice Kelly Adams, once a janitor at the State Capitol. The pair was accused in 1915 of stealing medical examination papers from the office of the State Health Officer, Dr. W.H. Sanders, in Montgomery and selling them to medical students to substitute during the annual examinations. 

A sting operation conducted by Dr. W. A. Avery, working for Sanders, paid Adams $25 to substitute correct exams for the originals. Adams originally wanted $100, but Avery talked the price down. Norman and Kelly had apparently worked a widespread fraud scheme at recent exam sessions.

As the first Age-Herald article below notes, nine "prominent" doctors from Birmingham and Montgomery were called by the prosecution to testify. These included William H. Sanders, prominent in medical education and public health in the state at this time. Two other physicians working in the state health department were also included. 

Norman and Adams were both found guilty. Norman was sentenced to six years imprisonment and Adams two. According to Alabama convict records, Norman's sentence took place June 8, 1915 & he was paroled April 23, 1918. He also received 30 and 60 day paroles in 1916 and 1917. I did not find Adams in those records. Sentences would have been to the Wetumpka State Penitentiary, which served the state until the original Kilby Prison opened in 1923

According to his Find-A-Grave listing, George R. Norman was born in Alabama on January 10, 1886. He attended Birmingham Medical College and graduated in 1911. His class photo can be seen here. Norman took the medical certification exam in Montgomery and passed. The Transactions of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama [p. 582], has him listed in 1913 as practicing in Arley, Winston County. That volume also notes he had moved that year to Jefferson County. 

I found George R. Norman in the U.S. Census for 1920 and Norman, his wife Helen and their two children in the 1930, and 1940 listings. In that first one Norman was living on Blackwells Island in Manhattan; the city hospital was located there and perhaps that was his place of work. The census notes that both his father and mother were born in Alabama. Norman was apparently living in a boarding house; the household had nine people of different last names. 

By 1930 his circumstances had changed. He was married to Helen, more than a decade younger, and they lived in a house they owned at 2529 Admiral Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Norman worked as a "material" doctor in private practice. Others in the household were children George R. Jr. and Charles A. Norman. A niece, Docia Stricklin, also lived with them. By the 1940 census Helen was listed as a registered nurse. 

The Normans remained in Tulsa, and he died on January 21, 1942, at the age of 56. He is buried in Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa; his gravestone can be seen below. Helen died in 1963 and is also buried there, as is Charles who died in 2017 at age 83. I did not investigate George R. Jr. 

Other than the gravestone seen below, I have found nothing else on Kelly Adams. 

Source: Southern Medical Journal 1915, vol. 8, no. 4, page 337

Birmingham Age-Herald 4 March 1915

Library of Congress, Chronicling America

Columbia (Tenn.) Herald 12 March 1915

Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America

Alabama Convict Records 1886-1952 via Ancestry.com

That symbol is a Masonic one. His wife Helen's marker shows the symbol of the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic group open to both men and women. 

Source: Find-A-Grave

This marker may be that of Kelly Adams and his wife. The stone is located in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery.

Source: Find-A-Grave

Alabama History & Culture News: January 18 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind a paywall. Enjoy!

Greenville welcomes Creek Confederacy Historian

The Greenville Advocate

Alabama historian Dr. Alex Colvin will serve as guest speaker at the Butler County HIstorical and Genealogical Society's quarterly meeting to be ...

Top 5 stories this week including renovation plans for historic Sloss Quarters + reopening of ... Bham Now “Sloss Furnaces is an important chapter in the story of Birmingham—in fact, there will be a documentary of the history on Alabama Public ...

Deadly Alabama tornado travelled a 77-mile path, one of the longest in state history - al.com AL.com With top winds of 150 mph, the storm held together from Mississippi all the way across Alabama and into Georgia.

Film explores descendants of last known U.S. slave ship - Axios Axios State of play: Alabama is one of many states where Republicans are seeking to ... They walk around the cemetery where family members are buried.

Answer Man: Did Lane cake originate in Alabama? - Dothan Eagle Dothan Eagle According to an Encyclopedia of Alabama article, the recipe was first printed ... Wesley Chapel cemetery inducted into Alabama historic registry.

Historical marker honors the fight for voting rights in Pike County - The Troy Messenger

The Troy Messenger

In 1965, African Americans that wanted to register to vote had to pass a literacy test – that was infamously difficult to pass – and pay a “poll tax.” ...

Berman Museum's refocused collection in Alabama showcases more than just historic weaponry Alabama NewsCenter Visitors to the Berman Museum in Anniston are seeing new exhibits, with an expanded view and perspective on world history.

Setting the stage: what made 1963 a pivotal year in Birmingham's history - Alabama NewsCenter

Alabama NewsCenter

As the historic events of 1963 prepared to unfold, the stage had been set to ... through his Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), ...

Did historic Selma's homes, monuments withstand possible tornado? Photos, video of damage AL.com The potential tornado drove through the historic Alabama town from west to east and appears to have done at least some damage to many homes in the ...

Historical society unearths Fort Tombecbe at January event | Community | newsaegis.com St. Clair News-Aegis The Pell City Historical Society will host a noted Alabama archeologist in mid-January. Ashley Dumas is an associate professor at University of ...

Glenn Wills author of "Forgotten Alabama" set to give presentation in Helena

Shelby County Reporter

Glenn Wills, author of “Forgotten Alabama” will feature as a guest speaker of the Helena Historic Preservation and Helena Public Library on ...

Research Rundown: Using the Alabama Media Group Collection - YouTube

YouTube

Digital Assets Coordinator Meredith McDonough will present “Using the Alabama Media Group Collection” to show how to access and use the historical ...

'The Mighty A' — Reliving History Aboard the USS Alabama - Coffee or Die Magazine Coffee or Die Magazine The USS Alabama is the nuclear submarine famously featured in the 1995 Cold War action-thriller Crimson Tide. Starring Denzel Washington and Gene ...

Report: Alabama institutions haven't returned remains of 3,641 Native Americans - CBS 42 CBS 42 In August 2022, the Alabama Department of Archives and History announced it had removed from display some Native funerary items and would return them ...

USACE helps preserve history in Mobile - DVIDS DVIDS Since 2018, the Mobile District Regulatory Division has been working with the Alabama Historical Commission and other stakeholders in its search ...

Jessica Maddox | at The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

... is an assistant professor of digital media at the University of Alabama. Her first book The Internet is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape our ...