Sorted by date Results 126 - 133 of 133
Among the men who took on the dangerous job of rolling logs down the area rivers to the various saw mills was Coleman O'Guynn (or Coley O'Gwynn as Rev. Brooks spelled it in last week's article). As mentioned in last week's article, O'Guynn was among the best at his trade and this unique occupation spread out over a short period of just 20 years as the area forests were depleted of their precious supply of virgin long leaf pines. Coleman was born on March 1, 1845 at Mt. Pleasant, Alabama in...
History told from primary sources is always a fascinating way to learn about the way things were at an earlier time. I've always consumed history in a large quantity. A friend recently asked me if it took a lot of time to prepare articles for publication and I said no; but upon reconsidering; it does take a long time with research and all, but it doesn't feel like a great amount of time because it is so interesting. It is much like the quote from Albert Einstein. "Put your hand on a hot stove fo...
The Great War, also known as World War I, was a pivotal event in the lives of the generation which fought the war. No other war had been fought with such savagery and loss of life. Technology was ahead of the tactics used on the battlefield to such a degree that cavalry charges were often met with machine gun fire which viciously cut short the life of horse and rider. In the small hamlet of Canoe, Alabama, the war seemed distant to the residents. The small town was in its golden age and the flow...
In 2007 I was fortunate enough to have many residents and friends of Canoe help put together a history of the town and thereafter Canoe: History of a Southern Town was published. One of the more intriguing sections for me was the story of the Canoe bank, which according to many of those interviewed, never opened. Yet due to several developments in research, it has now come to this writer's attention that it did indeed open. Canoe's bank building would later be used as a school annex, and element...
Warlords, gun battles and dead Americans in Mexican border towns. The story may sound like a headline from the newspapers or cable news networks but it actually happened nearly 100 years ago during the Mexican Revolution which was endured by our neighbors south of the border. The spill over effect of the war brought the United States Army into northern Mexico and made Pancho Villa, Black Jack Pershing and George Patton household names. Francisco “Pancho” Villa, was born in 1877 in San Juan del Rio, State of Durango, Mexico. Villa was rep...
Along Highway 31, in the quite farming community at Wawbeek, sets a lonely red dirt road leading to Bowman Cemetery. History has long moved on from the days when the location marked a vibrant saw mill community, having left only a stone orchard of headstones to mark its passing. The people who lay beneath these stones each have a story; a story of the life of their time and inter-mixed with their earthly remains are the aspirations, ambitions, successes and failures from the days they walked...
As mentioned in earlier articles, R.W. Brooks was a prolific local writer who chronicled our area's history in a day and age when this region was only a generation removed from the pioneer settlers who laid the roads and railroad tracks through the long-leaf pines which blanketed the area. Yet R.W. Brooks was also a minister and was pastor at several local churches during his time. Brooks came to the area as the boy clerk of the Evansville sawmill near present day Bowman Cemetery in Wawbeek. In...
In the early days after the War Between the States religion became a source of comfort and peace for a generation which had grown tired of war and destruction. Local Baptist evangelists rapidly spread the Gospel throughout the region. James Lazarus Bryars was an early Baptist missionary who walked from community to community founding churches and preaching at turpentine stills and lumber camps. Among the many churches Bryars helped to found was Sardis Baptist Church in July 1865. Burgess Miles...
