MARION COUNTY COURT HOUSE BURNS

On a Wednesday night in late March, 1887 at about 1:30 a.m. the Courthouse
in Hamilton was discovered on fire. Before any possible effort could be
made to save anything in the courthouse, it was a solid mass of flames, and
it took hard fighting to keep the fire from spreading to the adjacent
building.

All records dating back to the time when the county was established were
lost in this fire.

The courthouse, a wooden structure, cost the county a remarkable low
amount, only about four thousand dollars. The County Library, said to have
been one of the best and most complete in the State at the time was worth
about fifteen hundred dollars on account of several of the books were
almost out of print and valuable on account of their scarcity. The
indictment record, and all the books, papers, etc. belonging to the offices
of the Circuit Clerk, Sheriff, Tax Collector and Assessor and all the bonds
and notes taken by Mr. LODEN as County Administrator were destroyed. In
fact no books or records belonging to any of the offices were saved except
those of the County Superintendent and the County Treasurer.

Nothing was known as to how the fire started and nothing but theories and
conjectures were advanced.

The Journal-Record - Bicentennial Edition
Thursday, July 1, 1976
Section B, Page 7

COURT ADJOURNS AT PIKEVILLE

According to the memory of William Randolph WHITE, the youngest member of
the Jury and Postmaster at Toll Gate, Alabama (now Hamilton), the following
is a list of officials including the Judge, Sheriff, Lawyers and Jury,
present at the last court held at Pikeville, Alabama the last week in
October 1882.

Circuit Judge - H. C. SPEAK of Huntsville, Alabama, Sheriff - Bob HUGHES,
Pikeville, Alabama, Jury - I. B. ARNOLD, Bexar, Alabama, William CARNES,
Toll Gate, Mack HALL, Buttachatchee, Meade CANTRELL, Pikeville, John r.
PHILLIPS, Bear Creek, William Parker SHOTTS, Bexar, John McCarty SHOTTS,
Shottsville, John SPEARMAN, Bexar, Unknown first name, TIDWELL, Bear Creek
and William R. WHITE, Toll Gate. The lawyers were:
Thomas B. NeSMITH of Lamar County, M. A. SMITH, Fayette County, Francis
JUSTICE, Marion County, and J. D. McCLUSKEY, Lamar County.

Mr. WHITE also remembered that on the first day of court William KING was
shot by Ira STANFORD on a store front across the road from the courthouse
and died. The Judge recessed the court for an inquest in the case. They
were supposed to have been friends before the altercation.
 
 

The Journal-Record - Bicentennial Edition
Thursday, July 1, 1976
Section B, Page 7

PEARCE'S BEGIN BUSINESS IN GUIN

Agnes MONTS and Largus PEARCE were married, March 20, 1888, in the home of
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac MONTS in Lee County, Mississippi, and came
to Guin, from Tupelo, Mississippi, on the Frisco Railroad. They went from
Guin to Pearce's Mills where Mr. PEARCE had a job with his uncle, Jim
PEARCE.

Remaining at Pearce's Mills until the following October, Jim and L. PEARCE
decided to go into the mercantile business in Guin, and L. PEARCE came a
few days ahead of his wife to open the business, expecting her to join him
shortly. After failing to get a ride by buggy, Mrs. PEARCE had to ride the
sixteen-mile distance by horse back on a horse named Pine Springs. She
followed two wagons filled with bales of cotton and drawn by six-horse
teams that had to stop quite often for rest and water, make the trip take
most of the day for travel. The drivers of the teams were Rosco REEL and
Dan LINLEY.

She recalled the few places of business in Guin as PEARCE and Company,
located on the corner north of the Depot; CLARK and WHITE, BROCK, JONES and
one saloon. There was a rooming house operated by Mrs. KIRK, where they had
living quarters until they built a two-room house, and they had meals at a
boarding house operated by a Mr. HARRISON.

Some of the families included Dr. Jerry GUIN, J. D. WESTBROOKS, section
foreman; Dr. Emmett MORTON, Forbus COLLINS, Dr. Will COLLINS, and Bill
WRIGHT. There were no schools or churches at the time, Mrs. PEARCE said,
but the PEARCES and the HUGHES, who lived nearby, began the organization of
the Methodist Church in 1890, with fourteen members. Mrs. L. PEARCE was the
last living charter member of the fourteen.

Mrs. PEARCE and her late husband were the parents of nine children.

The Journal-Record - Bicentennial Edition
Thursday, July 1, 1976
Section B, Page 8

B. HARRIS OBTAINED FIRST LAND GRANT FOR GUIN IN 1820, STARTING A
GROWING CITY

Whether there were any settlers in the area of Guin, earlier than 1820, is
not definitely known, but according to the abstract title of the property
owned by Mr. and Mrs. W. A. COLLINS, who aided greatly in obtaining history
of Guin, B. HARRIS obtained the first land grant from the United States
Government, February 2, 1820.

Evidently HARRIS kept the land until selling to Allen HALEY, who ran a
Stage Coach line sometime in Guin, before 1870, as HALEY and his wife
Lavina, sold the land to John T. MEADOR in 1870, according to the Abstract.
Then in 1873, MEADOR sold the land to Dr. Jerry GUIN, who gave a great part
of the land for the town of Guin, the right of way for the railroad, and
the land for the Guin Cemetery. Dr. GUIN was the person for whom the town
was named.

After the land was donated, by Dr. GUIN, for the M & B R.R. in 1886, and
the railroad was built, the land began to be purchased by many other early
settlers including the BURLESONS, HULSEYS, BAIRDS, LITTLETONS, WEEKS,
INGLES, LOGANS, CASHIONS and COLLINS and others also, but only the above
names were listed in this particular abstract.

According to Flint FRAZIER, his ancestors, the parents of Mr. M. FRAZIER
moved from North Carolina to Columbus, in 1843, in a wagon, when Mr. Flint
FRAZIER'S father was a mere infant. They moved, them, from Columbus to old
Pikeville in 1859. M. M. FRAZIER was fourteen then, and when he was older
he fought in the Civil War under Stonewalll(sic) JACKSON when the Yankees
captured Gettysburg. He was put in the Yankee Prison for two years.

Returning to Pikeville in 1868-9, he went into business with his Uncle J.
T. MEADOR, then moved to Hamilton, where he served as County Sheriff and
Tax Collector, then the same office but changed after his term of office.
He was Sheriff at the time of the notorious outlaw, Rube BURROW, who was
killed in Linden in 1890 for Robbery by the Burrow Gang. Mr. FRAZIER said
that Rube BURROW, who was buried in Lamar County, had three different tombs
that had been erected. Mr. FRAZIER said that his father did not come to
Guin to live until 1894.

Unable to get any history on B. HARRIS and his years in Guin, after his
land grant in 1820, Mr. FRAZIER said that he sold to Allen HALEY who
operated possibly a stage coachline and "HALEY's Stand," and that people
traveling through the section near Guin, stopped over there for the night.
HALEY had space for housing horses, cows, swine and other animals being
transported by the people who stopped at his "stand". he also said that
HALEY sold to his uncle J. T. MEADOR and that MEADOR sold to Dr. Jerry
GUIN.(sic) who moved to Guin, January 26, 1873. MEADOR, a stepson of Judge
TERRELL of Pikeville, had built a store in the area where Guin now stands,
near the present residence of John HOLLOWAY, and Dr. GUIN operated the
store along with his medical practice after buying MEADOR'(sic) interests
in '73.

In July of 1887, the day that the K.C.M. & B. Railroad was linked with the
other branch, proved to be quite a memorable day at(sic) Pvt. John ALLEN of
Tupelo made a big speech at the special ceremony linking the railroad which
is now known as the Frisco, and a gold spike was driven as the last spike,
near the tool house in Guin. Dr. GUIN had already had the agreement with
the railroad that if he gave the right of way, a flagstop would be put in
Guin.

It was the [in] 1888 that the settlers began to move into Guin, after the
town was officially started. W. A. COLLINS said that after Dr. GUIN'S
coming, his father J. F. COLLINS and Jim KIRK wee the next two settlers,
but he wasn't sure which came first. The COLLINS family lived where Claud
GANN is living at the present time, his father having purchased forty acres
of land, giving ten to the town space and keeping the remaining thirty. He
said that Henry CLARK was Representative when guin was incorporated in 1888.

FIRST STORE AFTER RAILROAD
Mr. COLLINS thinks that Clark WHITE had the first store after the railroad
was built and that the first business was located where the old Cotton
Building stood. Mr. COLLIN's uncle Dr. J. W. COLLINS, also an early doctor,
built the first hotel in Guin, Known as the Wall Hotel and operated by A.
A. WALL. The FRAZIERS bought the hotel and continued to operated(sic) the
hotel for many years.

FIRST NEWSPAPER IN 1889
Jim CLEMENTS opened and operated the fist newspaper in Guin, know as The
Guin Eagle, from 1889, where Mrs. HOLLOWAY'S residence stands today. As far
as it [is] known, Guin had only one other newspaper, the one known as the
Guin News printed at the Marion County News Office in Hamilton, for a short
period by Frank McKENZIE, aided by the Rev. R. E. PATE. Guin has been and
is still being covered by the Journal-Record the newspaper of Marion County.

SALOONS IN 1887
Three SIDES brothers, Chris, Dock and Lee SIDES of Mississippi, had one of
the first saloons in Guin, in 1887, near the turn of the century, when
saloons were quite legal in this section, and they continued to [be]
operated until in the 1890's when they were ruled illegal because of a
famous shooting scrape near the saloon. However, reports were that during
the days of the open saloons that Dee JONES, the first known police of
Guin, came from Birmingham to "keep law and order" but that things became
so quiet that he quit his post and returned to Birmingham, quite a contrast
to the shooting scrape that ended the open saloons legality.
 
 

EARLIEST TRAINS
According to several of the early settlers, there were two passenger trains
through guin, each day, and two local freights as well as some
through-freights during the early years of the railroad.

According to Mr. W. A. COLLINS, Will McDOUGALL was the first Railroad Agent
in Guin. John WESTBROOKS, father of Mrs. Oscar GREEN of Boston, was the
first Section Foreman. A complete list of the Railroad agents were not
available but Glen McWHIRTER was known to have been the Agent in 1894, and
Pete INGLE served for a time as did a Mr. RUSSENBACK and J. W. KELLEY was
agent in 1905.

KIRK, FIRST POSTMASTER
Tom KIRK was the first Postmaster of Guin, according to W. A. COLLINS. He
served in 1891, when he got killed during that year. It is not known
exactly whether or not Merdith(sic) AKERS followed KIRK but he was
remembered as serving in the year of 1894. James TIDWELL followed AKERS and
White ANTHONY followed TIDWELL. Next in line were L. B. McWHIRTER and John
W. HOLLOWAY. The present postmaster is Max BURLESON, and there may have
been others who served during those years but only the above mentioned were
listed by the people who aided in the early facts of Guin.

White ANTHONY was also the first agent for Standard Oil in Guin, followed
by Jim POLLARD. W. A. COLLINS was next agent and remembers driving a team
of mules to carry the oil to the different places, even as far as Boston.
In 1917, COLLINS bought the chassis of a Model T and put an oil tank on it,
then in the fall of that year he purchased the first truck in Guin, A
Republic truck, to carry his oil. This truck had solid rubber tires.

WRIGHT TO WRIGHT, MAYOR STORY OF GUIN HISTORY
According to W. A. COLLINS, the Mayorship of Guin, began with a Bill
WRIGHT, the father of MRS. J. J. POPE, when the town was incorporated in
1888, and at the present time another WRIGHT, Mayor Rex WRIGHT, serves the
town of Guin.

Mr. COLLINS remembered J. A. SHAW as following Bill WRIGHT as the second
Mayor and M. A. SPRINGFIELD held the position when the COLLINS left Guin,
in 1893. During the years from 1893-1912, when the COLLINS returned, Mr.
COLLINS did not know who served. The Journal Staff requested an official
list which was not received, thus making the list a bit unofficial. Mat
WESLEY is said to have served from 1925-1928 as Major of Guin. He was also
a noted teacher in the early years having taught at any number of places
including the Brilliant Schools. Mr. COLLINS, who was elected Mayor in
1932, said that Lloyd CAUDLE preceded him and White ANTHONY had served
before Mr. CAUDLE. After Mr. COLLINS (W. A.) served as Mayor for twelve
years, J. C. MATTOX followed, then Max BURLESON. Rex WRIGHT, in the
beautiful new City Hall built during his administration. The modern City
Hall also housed the Guin Water Works Office (headed by Ad ESTILL) and a
modern City Jail. It had a large Council Room.

GUIN HAD TOWN WELL
Guin, also, had a town well in the middle of its first street, that
furnished the early citizens with water until the City Water System was
installed in the 1930's during the administration of W. A. COLLINS.
 

EARLY BUSINESSES OF GUIN
According to W. A. COLLINS, Mr steve CAUDLE had a water-powered sawmill in
the Guin vicinity before the Railroad was built. Ed KNIGHT and Henry GUIN
in 1894, also slasher-type mills located south of Guin of Purgatory Creek,
near the spot now owned by the Hightower Box and Tank Company.

There were two tan yards in the early years, one near the present Dennis
Lumber Company, and one near the present location of GANN's TV and Radio
Repair Shop. A negro, Old man Joe ENNIS had a shoe shop and served as a
cobbler.

Bill WRIGHT had the first Blacksmith shop in 1890, and O. C. LING also had
a shop in those early years, as did Jim HARRIS.

Clark WHITE, already listed, was believed to have had the first store after
the railroad, but Dock WRIGHT stated that J. J. POPE also had one of the
early stores. R. R. WRIGHT who came to Guin in 1905, said that the business
houses there at that time, included: FRAZIER Hotel, PEARCE Hotel, R. F.
BRADLEY, L. D. LITTLETON, Jim PEARCE and Company, S. J. BAIRD and company,
N. W. HULSEY and Company, L. PEARCE, D. D. WRIGHT and Bros., Jim
SPRINGFIELD, who owned and operated a Livery Stable, and FRAZIER and
SHELTON Company.

GUIN HAD FIRST BANK 1905
Guin had the first Bank in Marion County, first known as Bank of Guin,
(organized by a Mr. BROWN of Ohio according to the GUINS) in 1905. R. R.
WRIGHT opened the bank as Chasier(sic) and served by himself in the bank
for ten years. The first directors of the bank, later known as the Marion
County Banking Company, were Jim PEARCE, President; L. D. LITTLETON,
vice-president; Judge Mack PEARCE and John ALLMAN, directors. It was also
the first brick and stone structure in Guin, and is now housed by a
handsome modern brick building erected only a few years ago. The Marion
County Banking ompany(sic) now has a bank in both Guin and Hamilton. State
Representative Rankin FITE currently serves as president of the banking
company and J. L. HOLLOWAY is Cashier for the Guin Branch of the company.

Also among the first brick buildings of Guin, were J. PEARCE and Company
and the L. D. LITTLETON Company, both general merchantile(sic) businesses,
and both were built the year that the bank building as erected. W. A.
COLLINS believes that the PEARCE building was first erected.

FIRST AUTO AGENCY
R. R. WRIGHT opened the Ford Agency and Garage in 1913, and ran it and bank
until his leaving the bank in 1915, the business known as Wright Motor
Company, which he closed in 1933, going into his present business then. He
remembers selling his Model T. in 1913 to Ivy THOMPSON, mail carrier of the
Star Route from guin to Hamilton. Mr. WRIGHT also purchased one for himself
at that time, but the title of the owner of the first car in Guin,
accordiing(sic) to Mr. Wright, goes to a fellow named Gus HALLMARK, who had
bought one in Birmingham, just one month before Mr. WRIGHT opened his
business in Guin.

OTHER FIRSTS IN GUIN
Joel Woods GUIN was the first graduate of the Marion County High School in
Guin, in 1912, the only one to graduate that first year. He died in
California, where he had been a resident according to Paul GUIN, W. A.
COLLINS and R. R. WRIGHT.

Will STOKES was president (now called Captain) of the first football team,
according to R. R. WRIGHT.

Mrs. Forbus COLLINS, mother of W. A. COLLINS was the first person to be
buried in the Gin Cemetery (land donated by Dr. Jerry GUIN). Mr.s COLLINS
died in 1889  Mr. Bill WRIGHT, then Mayor, said he thought the town of Guin
should start a cemetery and Dr. GUIN agreed to give the land, and it
happened that Mrs. Forbus COLLINS was the first citizens(sic) to expire
after the land was donated.

Paul GUIN, who accompanied Will FORD of Hamilton on his tour of the county
in the years that Mr. FORD was compiling his Marion County History, stated
that in the early years, cotton didn't sell for over a nicle(sic) per pound.

Guin's first water supply was a central town well, however in the years
before the water system was installed in the 1930's a number of people had
wells and pumps of their own.

W. A. COLLINS said that he believed he was the first to install a Delco
system in Guin, before the days of electricity and the present electrical
power serving Guin. He installed his system i the 1920s and the plant
served his home and furnished power for the Methodist Church.

The Journal-Record - Bicentennial Edition
Thursday, July 1, 1976
Section C, Page 5

MANY WINFIELD PEOPLE SERVED IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMIES COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN
JOHN BANKHEAD OF SULLIGENT, ALABAMA

The area around Winfield furnished quite a number of troops to the
Confederate Army. Captain John BANKHEAD, who lived then near Sulligent,
commanded the troops from this section. They performed heroic service as
soldiers in the Confederate Army, not only in those two great battles of
Shiloh and Chattanooga, but other engagements of the War Between The
States. Several families from this section of the state sent
representatives to the great Shiloh battlefield north of Corinth,
Missippi(sic), and one hundred and fifty miles to our northwest, seeking
their dead and wounded in the second bloodiest battle fought on American
soil.

A roving band of Tories near the end of the War thought Dr. James Moody
WHITLEY, who lived on the place today owned by Jim CLARK in East Winfield,
had a good deal of money about the place. Several times they strung him up
to the limb of a large tree in the yard, trying to get information from him
as to the whereabouts of his money, but to no avail as the doctor refused
to reveal the hiding place, and they finally left, allowing him to live
after this violent threat of death.

Water holes, springs and wells have played a great part in the early
history of surrounding settlements and Winfield. Such was the case of the
spring in Winfield. Such was the case of the spring in Winfield. In Civil
War days, there was a road along approximately what is today Tenth Street
in downtown Winfield. On a slope near this road, there was a spring (This
spring was and is under the former building housing the Citizens Bank and
can be verified by Bank officials who can tell quite a story of the trouble
they have had piping the water from the basement, running the water into
the city sewage system).

Mustering the Confederate Soldiers out from service at the end of the Civil
War was a sad yet important occasion for the Confederacy. Each section or
community had its own ceremony. The boys from this vicinity were mustered
out by their Commanding Officer, Capt. John BANKHEAD, on the spot by this
spring which now runs under the bank. For these soldiers and heroes, this
famous spring held memories to their dying days, memories of leaving their
troop and returning to civilian life in land made desolate by war and the
leaving of dead comrades on distant battlefields.

After the store building was built over the old spring late in the last
century, the pride of the town, from a watering standpoint, was a well with
a pump, located in the center of the street. If you walk across the street
today, you will notice the mark of a manhole. This manhole is directly over
the location of the old well which furnished many people with water during
the 1890-1920 era, quite a contrast to the modern filter plant which
supplies the water needs of the city today.

This old well figured in a great celebration upon one momentous occasion.
On Armistice night, November 11, 1918, a huge throng gathered in town after
sundown to celebrate the end of World War I. The people out on the farms
came into town in wagons, buggies, horseback, and very few in Ford
"flivvers" to join with the townspeople to sing patriotic songs and hear
speeches. By the old well, Kaiser Bill was hung in effigy as Winfield
people jubilantly celebrated the War to end all wars. However, we who
attended this celebration have since, several times, witnessed many broken
hearts watch their sons get on trains at the Winfield Depot, to go off and
fight against Hitler and later to fight the Chinese and North Koreans, yet
we still hope that this same peace that we celebrated for in 1918 can still
reign supreme and that we will not have to witness our boys going away to
fight in an atomic war.

In 1900, Glen Allen was as large a town as Winfield and probably did more
business.

In 1823, when Pikeville (then the county seat of Marion County) was
incorporated, it was a larger town than Chicago, Illinois. At one time,
about three hundred people lived at Pikesville, making it the largest town
in Marion County at that time.

Two hotels were built and later burned on the site of Erwin Brothers store.

A disastrous fire in 1922, wiped out practically the entire business
section of Winfield on the west side of Tenth Street.

Tenth Street was once a dead end street about the location of Dr. Aubrey
SEWELL's.

Many an exciting baseball game was played when home plate was near the
building that recently housed PATE Chevrolet and left field was along about
City Lumber Company. Later the field was moved to the location of the Holly
ROBERTS residence, then to the school area.

Pitching dollars out underneath the shade trees used to be big sport of the
Winfield Merchants, between customers.

The first automobiles of the town used to mire down in the mud of Main Street.

A run-away team of horses furnished many an exciting moment for the
Saturday crowds that came to town.

Before being channeled in the twenties, the overflow of the Luxapallila
from the big rains, would cross the street at the residence of Mrs. Mary
SMITH.

Within an eighteen mile radius of this section, there is a Boston,
Philadelphia, Detroit, Moscow, Kansas, Bethlehem, Mt. Vernon, White House,
and a Texas.

Thanks, Monya, for posting the Town of Wiginton article.  The Ford's
mentioned in the article are my kinsmen.

Elijah Walker Ford and wife Elvy Purser Ford were in Marion County, AL by
1850.  They moved to Marion County from Henry County, GA.  I believe J. B.
Ford mentioned in the article should actually be J. G. Ford son of Elijah.
J. G. Ford's full name was Jabus Gillian Ford.  He married Susan Loden of
Marion County and they are both buried at New Prospect Church in Marion
County.

Elijah Walker Ford was a son of Daniel Ford who married Agatha Walker in
Laurens County, SC and moved to Georgia.  Agatha's parents were Elijah
Walker and wife Elizabeth of Laurens County, SC, formerly of Henry County,
VA.   I'm searching for the names of Daniel Ford's parents.  Any help
appreciated.

Other children of Elijah Walker Ford mentioned in the newspaper articles:

Jim Ford (James Walker Ford) - Sheriff
Jason Parks Ford - Probate Judge

Elijah Walker Ford and wife Elvy are buried at New Hope Freewill Baptist
Church, Marion County, AL.  Their daughter Winnie Lee Ford Nichols married
Andrew Jackson Nichols and they were my g'grandparents.  Will share.

Jimmie