That Time Mom Saw George Washington Carver in Camp Hill

George Washington Carver in March 1942
Photograph by Arthur Rothstein

When my mother was six and seven years old, she and the family were living in the small town of Camp Hill in Tallapoosa County.  Her father John Miller Shores was minister at the Methodist church. Mom was the youngest of four children; the older siblings were Heth, John and Marjorie. My grandmother Tempe completed the family.

Mom tells the story of the time they went to hear a talk by George Washington Carver while they lived in Camp Hill. Since she was born in 1929, that would have been in 1935 or 1936. The event took place in the town's largest auditorium at the Southern Industrial School, which is now Lyman Ward Military Academy. Mom remembers him as an older black man with snow-white hair. Carver was about 70 at the time. The trip from Tuskegee would have been a drive north of less than 40 miles.

The auditorium was crowded. Mom was lifted into one of the deep windowsills to watch beside other children. She remembers being afraid she might fall from her perch. She doesn't recall any of Carver's speech, just the size of the crowd. Both whites and blacks were in attendance. She suspects the blacks were segregated in some way, but doesn't remember specifics. Perhaps the auditorium had a balcony.

The Lyman Ward web site notes that one of the school's two gyms was constructed in the 1930's. You can see a panoramic video of the interior of Tallapoosa Hall here. I've shown this video to mom and the high windows are the way she remembers them in the auditorium. 

Mom does remember something very specific about the event. The family brought home a booklet which she read and kept for some years. The item described Carver's many achievements; she doesn't remember if the pamphlet was sold or given away at the event. 

Carver's appearance is interesting in light of events in Camp Hill just a few years earlier. In July 1931 a meeting of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union in a church was attacked by a band of white men. A shootout resulted in at least one death and 30 arrests. Four other individuals were later lynched, but the 30 were eventually released. The all-black Union, affiliated with the Communist Party USA, operated in the state from 1931 until 1936.

On a brighter note, Chicago White Sox outfielder Bill Higdon was born in Camp Hill in 1924. He died in 1986.

Rev. John Miller Shores 

My grandmother Tempe, Aunt Heth standing on the left, Uncle John on the right. The two squirts are Aunt Marjorie and mom--she's the one with the pensive look. 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (28): The Morris Hotel in 1908

In the previous post in this series I made some comments on the city's Hillman Hotel and included a photo from the Views of Birmingham published in 1908 that included so many photographs of local landmarks at that time. Below is another hotel photo from the book, this time featuring the Morris Hotel at the corner of 1st Avenue North and 19th Street. 

The Morris was constructed in 1891 as an office building and a 125-room hotel. The building lasted until 1957 when it was demolished for a three-story parking deck. You can read much more about the Morris at its BhamWiki entry. A few more photos can be seen at the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections. 

Image of the newspaper article taken from the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections

Pondering Alabama Maps (5): An 1867 Railroad Map

 

The wordy title of this map is "Map showing the line of the Alabama & Tennessee River Rail Road and its proposed extensions; exhibiting also the contiguous mineral deposits and zone of production". The dark blue line indicates the existing railroad; the dark green lines are proposed extensions.

The company had incorporated in March 1848 under an act of the Alabama legislature. By 1862 about 135 miles of the line ran from Selma to Blue Mountain and toward Dalton, Georgia. By February 1867, after acts of both the Alabama and Georgia legislatures, the line was merged with one in Georgia to become the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad. By 1894 the road had become part of the Southern Railroad Company.

Digital versions of this map in various sizes/formats can be found at the Library of Congress web site.

A very good history is Wayne Cline's book Alabama Railroads. 

WAPI-TV Ads from the 1950's & 1960's

For some time I have been mining the Lantern Media History digital collection for material related to Alabama. The site offers full text of numerous trade and popular magazines related to film, television and radio. The publication dates range from the early twentieth century into the 1960's.

The advertisements below all come from the site; I have linked to the specific Lantern pages for each one so you can look at the full magazine issue. I've posted numerous images from the site on my @AJWright31 Twitter feed and will be using many in future posts on this blog. 

 These five advertisements are taken from various media trade journals between 1955 and 1964. All five feature WAPI-TV, Channel 13, the longtime NBC affiliate in Birmingham. Today the station is known as WVTM or NBC13. Alabama's first television station went on the air in July 1949 with different call letters, WAFM, and network affiliations. New owners changed the call letters to WABT and finally WAPI in 1958. The WAPI in the first ad refers to one of Alabama's oldest radio stations. 


The second ad lists the fall 1962 network programming on the station. Boy, do I remember many of those shows with fondness. We must have watched a lot of NBC in those days; the only show I don't remember at all is Saints and Sinners. 

The third ad comes from a period when the station carried both NBC and CBS programming. Note the tiny listings for weekly programs featuring "Bear" Bryant and "Shug" Jordan. No doubt a much larger font would have been used if that ad ran today!

The final two ads are simply touting the brand. I wonder who that outstanding young woman with the beehive hairdo was.

Broadcasting 1956

Broadcasting 1962

Sponsor 1964 

Broadcasting 1962

Sponsor 1962 Also appeared in Broadcasting

Movies with Alabama Connections (1): The Lawless Breed [1953]

John Wesely Hardin is a rather unusual figure in the history of the American West. Yes, he was a Texas gunfighter and outlaw who claimed to have killed 42 men, including one for snoring. Yes, he was involved in the famous Sutton-Taylor Feud. Yes, he became a fugitive from justice, hiding from the Texas Rangers for several years in Florida and Alabama. His capture in Pensacola in August 1877 was a spectacular event. Back in Texas he was tried for murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In February 1894 he was released and soon pardoned. He obtained a law degree, but in August 1895 was shot dead in an El Paso saloon. Hardin was 42.

One thing that makes him unusual is the written legacy he left behind. The year after his death his autobiography "from the original manuscript" was published. Some of it is true. While he was in prison his beloved wife Jane had died, but Hardin had written many letters to her included in a 2001 published edition of his correspondence. 

Hardin has also left a significant trail in popular culture including novels, movies, and episodes of western television shows. The title song of Bob Dylan's 1967 album John Wesley Harding features the outlaw despite the variant spelling. And thus we come to our topic, the 1953 film The Lawless Breed. 

Released in the U.S. by Universal on January 3 of that year, the film featured the up-and-coming star Rock Hudson as Hardin and Mary Castle as his wife Jane "Brown"; her real maiden name was Bowen. Other well known actors include Julie Adams ["Julia" here], John McIntire, Hugh O'Brien, Dennis Weaver and Lee Van Cleef. For another Alabama connection, two years later McIntire played assassination victim Albert Patterson in the Phenix City Story. The Lawless Breed is one of many films directed by actor and director Raoul Walsh.   

I watched a DVD release of this movie, and the included trailer gives us a taste of what's to come. The film is the "true story of the greatest gunfighter of them all...from his own original manuscript" and follows the "preacher's son with a deck of cards in one hand and a gun that never missed in the other. Here it is--the life he lived, women he loved, lives he took" with the "brilliant and romantic stars Rock Hudson and Julia Adams." After that billing, the film itself might seem anticlimactic. Hudson had appeared in 18 previous movies but this one may be the first in which he is the primary male lead.

The film opens as Hardin is released from Huntsville Penitentiary in Texas. Much of the action is flashback. Wife Jane is killed, and after some action in Texas friend Rosie McCoy gets Hardin out of the state when he is injured. He appears in Kansas City as John Swain, a variant of the pseudonym the real Hardin used in Florida and Alabama. 

Soon Hardin appears in "Polland" Alabama running a horse farm, and marries Rosie. They have a son named John. When Hardin goes to Pensacola for a horse auction, the Rangers arrest him. After 16 years in prison, he returns to his horse farm "Green Stables". The movie ends with Hardin being shot in the back trying to his keep his son out of a fight. Unlike the real Hardin, this one survives his saloon altercation. They all leave town as son John drives the wagon with his father and mother aboard. 

The writers on The Lawless Breed freely adapted the events of the real Hardin's life. Hardin did indeed have a second wife, Callie Lewis, a fifteen-year-old he married not long before he died. Hardin and first wife Jane had three children, two daughters and a son named John. The saloon shooting resulted in Hardin's death. John Selman, Sr., shot Hardin in the head from behind after Hardin had a dispute with Selman's son earlier in the day. Many other differences between the real and film Hardins can be found.

"Polland" is actually Pollard, Alabama, where he was based for some time while on the run from the Rangers. Jane had relatives in the area. The town in Escambia County survives today; a 2013 estimate put the population at 137. Some claim part of the movie was filmed in Pollard. Alabama's Rube Burrow robbed a train near the town in 1890. 

While in Alabama Hardin did not operate a horse farm; he worked in the area's lumber industry. He also spent time gambling; Hardin and a friend were arrested in Mobile after a card game went sour. Since they didn't know who they had, authorities quickly released him. 

If you like "classic" i.e., fantasy, westerns, you might enjoy this one, although it falls far short of the greats in the genre. The action and dialog rarely rise above the mundane. I enjoy most westerns, and the Alabama connection made this one special. The film's colors are gorgeous; the Technicolor greenery of "Polland" really pops from the screen. Rosie's green, red and blue dresses also stand out. 

Much has been written about Hardin over the years. I've published a couple of articles on his Southern years myself; the citations are below. The articles are similar, but the 1982 one has extensive references. Unfortunately, they are not available online. 

Wright AJ. John Wesley Hardin's 'Missing' Years. Old West 1981 Fall; 18(1):6-11

Wright AJ. A Gunfighter's Southern Vacation. Quarterly of the National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History, 1982 Autumn; 7(3):12-18

Archelus H. Mitchell & His 1916 Anesthesia Machine

On July 21, 1916, Archelus H. Mitchell [1892-1986] of Selma submitted an application to the U.S. Patent Office for an "anesthetizing and resuscitation apparatus." At that time such applications typically included drawings, a detailed description and the inventor's claims to uniqueness. Witnesses to his application were listed as N. Wann and F.C. Meyer. You can see his application below.

In his description Mitchell noted the machine included two mixing chambers, wash bottles, control valves for air, oxygen, and whatever anesthetic gas would be used--primarily ether or nitrous oxide at that time in the U.S. The machine also included a mercury manometer to measure pressure. He made five specific claims of uniqueness for his machine related to the specific parts and operations of the device.

On August 14, 1917, Mitchell was granted patent number 1,236,591. Anesthesia machines first began to appear in the late 19th century and offered greater control over administration of gases, oxygen and air for general anesthesia. You can learn more about the history of anesthesia via the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology which is located near Chicago.

Whether Michell's machine was ever manufactured is currently unknown. In fact I have so far learned very little about Mitchell. The dates given above are taken from an entry in the Social Security Death Index; I assume it is the same person, since the dates and location fit. There his birthday is given as September 1, 1892 and his death as January 1986.

The listing for Mitchell's household in Selma in the 1930 U.S. Census shows four people in addition to Mitchell himself. His sister Addie lived with him, as well as three boarders, two female and one male. His occupation is listed as "proprietor" and his industry as "farm implement." Thus we can probably conclude he owned a store specializing in farm equipment.

In 1932 Mitchell filed one more patent application, for a "motor vehicle". He was granted patent number 1,924,787 for that truck. The patent has been cited by several others between 1948 and 2008. What he did in Selma for the rest of his long life is currently unknown.

Text and illustrations for patents can be found easily in two places: Google Patents and the European Patent Office The latter site offers access to more than 80 million worldwide patents since 1830, including U.S. patents, and printing as PDF files. The Google site is U.S. only. Happy hunting!

You can learn about more Alabama inventors at the Birmingham Public Library's "Alabama Inventors" digital collection. Those include Mary Anderson, who invented the windshield wiper, and Miller Reese Hutchinson, who held 1,000 patents.

A Brief History of Pelham High School Football

SEE updates at the end of this post.

            Supporters of football at Pelham High School were no doubt disappointed by the team’s 3-7 finish in the 2014 season. Yet that record has an historical connection; the school’s very first team also finished 3-7.

           Pelham High School opened in September 1974 and fielded its first football team two years later. The first game was played at Shelby County on Saturday, August 28. The schedule that year included several teams each from divisions 3A, 2A and 1A. Pelham’s three wins all came against 1A opponents: Maplesville, Thorsby and Verbena. The losses included a 35-6 one to a 1A team, Isabella. Pelham’s other lopsided losses that season were all to 3A teams: Shelby County, Childersburg and B.B. Comer.

            David Bailey was the head coach of that first team, and he coached three more seasons. His 1979 team finished 5-5, thus becoming Pelham High’s first team with a non-losing season. In his one year in 1980, head coach Steve Rivers’ team also went 5-5. Pelham did not have a winning season until a 6-4 campaign in 1986 in Billy Tohill’s fourth season as head coach.

            The school’s most successful coach has been Rick Rhoades from the 1996 through the 2000 seasons. He posted a 41-19 record and playoff appearances each year.

                Details of all Pelham High School football teams and many others around the state can be found on the Alabama High School Football Historical Society web site . A history of Pelham football through the 2022 season by David Parker is available on Amazon. 

UPDATE December 12, 2017: Pelham High School football team finished the 2017 regular season 5-5 and lost 49-14 to Spanish Fort in the first round of the AHSAA Class 6A playoff. Nevertheless, the team improved greatly in coach Tim Causey's third year. In 2015 the team went 1-9 and 2-8 in 2016. Pelham football's all-time record through 2017 is 203-239-0.

UPDATE December 4, 2018: Improvement continued this season as the team finished the regular season 7-3. The Panthers did lose to Hartselle 35-7 in the first round of the playoffs. The season was the first winning one since 2013 and their first seven win season since 2013. 

UPDATE August 30, 2019: At a game against Bibb County Pelham honored 1988 graduate and head football coach at Clemson Dabo Swinney. 

UPDATE November 1, 2019: Pelham finished the season at 3-7, but managed to win three of its last four games. 

UPDATE November 12, 2020: Pelham finished the season with a final record of 8-3. The season ended with the team at 8-2 with losses to Oak Mountain by seven points and Homewood by two points. The team was 6-0 in region play and won the region title for the first time since 2006 and only the third in school history. In the first round of the state playoffs Pelham lost 23-21 to Lee-Montgomery. In the final regular season standings Pelham was ranked #11, just six points behind Eufaula. 

UPDATE November 8, 2021:  Pelham finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, which included a final game win over Homewood 10-7. Pelham won it's last four games,  and that last win on October 28 was the first one over Homewood in eight years. Pelham lost in the first round of the state playoffs, 20-6 to McGill-Toolen.

UPDATE February 20, 2022: On February 11 Head Coach Tom Causey, who had coached the Panthers for seven seasons and was a head coach in Alabama since 2000, announced his retirement. Details are here. 

UPDATE February 20, 2023: Pelham made the 6A playoffs in the 2022 season and won its first round game over Northridge 44-14. That was Pelham's first playoff win since 2006. The team lost in the second round to St. Pauls, 38-7. Pelham had finished the regular season with a 5-5 record under first year coach Mike Vickery.