The Vagabond

By Danny Crownover During October of 1893, Etowah County residents enjoyed some fine bicycle racing at the fairgrounds in East Gadsden. The one-day meet was the beginning for Ben Stowers, who became a nationally known bicycle racer professional. Stowers won the half flying start and the five-mile lap race in the event. Gadsden competitors won

In April of 1893, a large billy goat, which was closely shaved all over with the letter ‘G’ and a square and a compass painted on each side in a vivid red color, began roaming the streets of Gadsden and soon became a familiar sight in the city. The animal apparently felt at home anywhere

By Danny Crownover In the late 1870s and early 1880s, one of the most colorful figures of Gadsden was Mr. Puck. Where he came from, nobody knew. He was a complete mystery. Mr. Puck stood daily on the front doorstep of the John S. Paden store on the north side of Broad street between Court

By Danny Crownover The Vagabond recently wrote about the big fire of July 4, 1883, that occurred at the south end of Broad Street from 3rd Street to almost 5th Street. The Kyle Opera House, a three-story brick building, prevented the fire from reaching 5th Street. It was the largest fire Gadsden ever had. What

By Danny Crownover The Vagabond recently was walking at the northwest corner of Broad and Third streets in downtown Gadsden. He noticed lettering on the store window that said it was the store was Meeks Building, built in 1879. The Vagabond was puzzled, as the style and materials of the building was not of that

By Danny Crownover There has always been gambling in Gadsden and probably always will be, as long as human nature remains what it is. The first prohibition law forced upon Gadsden and Etowah County by a legislative act and without vote of the people was back in 1882. Some of the results that followed included

By Danny Crownover The purchase of Noccalula Falls and its surrounding 169-acre tract in 1946 by the City of Gadsden for park purposes recalls the fact that the city has smaller parks that contain much historical interest. On the west brow of Lookout Mountain, less than a mile from Noccalula Falls, is Sequoia Park, a

By Danny Crownover The Tunnel Block was an old deep drainage ditch that crossed Broad Street in downtown Gadsden and has since been built up and covered. Today, there are tunnels hidden underground where the tunnel once went. Many of the downtown buildings have huge basements at the site. The early buildings built in 1868

By Danny Crownover The Vagabond recently started researching a historic building located at 408 Broad Street for owner Michelle Head. This 1885 building was occupied by Cottle Drugs in 1901. It was found that Cottle Drugs was actually involved in getting the famous William Frederick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, and Annie Oakley to Gadsden. In

By Danny Crownover Through the years, many people asked The Vagabond about how the late Jerry Jones, a former Etowah County Tax Assessor, first became interested in genealogy and history. His ancestor Edmond Jones had survived an Indian massacre in what is now Rainbow City, and Jerry was trying to find out which Indians did

By Danny Crownover Through the years many people have asked the Vagabond about how the late Jerry Jones, former Etowah County Tax Assessor, first became interested in genealogy and history. We continue the story from last week. Jerry Jones will never forget the story of the Indian massacres, and when he was grown, he began

By Danny Crownover Through the years, many people ask The Vagabond about how the late Jerry Jones, a former Etowah County Tax Accessor, first became interested in genealogy and history. Several years ago, Jerry sent The Vagabond an article. When Jerry was eight years old, he went with his family to Old Harmony Cemetery in

By Danny Crownover Sometime back, The Vagabond came across an article written by Joe Robertson and P. Wayne Findley containing a lot of information about Camp Sibert. It reads: “Occasionally, people in Etowah and St. Clair counties stumble across artifacts, not of lost civilizations, not of the dark past clouded in the distance by centuries,

By Danny Crownover Years ago, The Vagabond grew up with a friend in the local school system. We both went to Striplin Elementary School, Disque Junior High School and Gadsden High School. The friend’s name was John Stam. As a young teenager, John had a job as a local newspaper carrier and often was seen

By Danny Crownover The Vagabond reported in a past column about a Chickasaw Indian village once located south of Big Wills Creek around Rainbow Drive near the entrance to Whorton Bend. The village was called Natchez Village. Around the 1750s, the Principal Chickasaw Chief Chinnaby brought his people to that location. They originally were Natchez

By Danny Crownover One of the funniest and strangest things ever to hap-pen in Gadsden occurred in 1904 just after Broad Street had been paved with high-grade white chert, which yielded great clouds of gritty dust when any sort of wind blew up. The dust had a very cutting edge like that of broken glass.

By Danny Crownover It was probably a dull day in May of 1882 when a reporter for a local newspaper wrote this item: “M.D. Lowe’s two-horse team pulled 5,446 pounds of salt-pork from the depot to S.W. Riddle’s store.” At first glance, that seems to be a trivial item and not worth printing. As a

By Danny Crownover The Vagabond recently wrote about Will I. Martin’s story of Bud Easterwood. We now we get to read the colorful story of his sister Ella. The following article was clipped from the Jan. 1, 1893 issue of The Columbus Daily Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia: “Gadsden has had a holiday week of a

By Danny Crownover Two mysterious men appeared in Gadsden in the mid-1890s, and for several months afterward, there was much speculation as to their origin and their purpose. During the first week of their stay, the men daily walked all over town. Many women and children began to call them the Wild Men, largely because

By Danny Crownover William Kuner recently posted an article about local historian Will I. Martin meeting his grandmother and great-grandfather. Kuner writes: “In his office of the local newspaper, Will I. Martin was introduced to Mrs. Nancy Ellen Malone of Attalla and learned that she is the daughter of the late Bud Easterwood, a noted

By Danny Crownover There was news recently about some Native American writings found in Manitou Cave in Fort Payne. The inscriptions inside the cave are evidence of the Cherokee tribe’s syllabary, which Sequoyah, also known as George Guess, developed using symbols for each sound. Sequoyah’s alphabet was formally adopted as the tribe’s official written language in

The Ringling Brothers Circus made its first appearance in Gadsden on Nov. 8, 1899. Ringling Brothers was a rival of the Barnum & Bailey show and equally as large and imposing. The two big outfits were later combined later and still bears the name of Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus. The show grounds were

By Danny Crownover Back in 1869, there was an article from The Selma Times advocating a canal across Sand Mountain to connect the Tennessee and Coosa rivers. The paper’s editor said that the project would be a great boon to this part of the south and that he wished to stand on the banks of

By Danny “The Vagabond” Crownover The first steamboat to ply the waters of the Coosa River was appropriately named The Coosa. On July 4, 1845, that gallant little steamer, came around the bend below what is now Gadsden. Captain James Lafferty commanded the boat. Large proportions and un-heard-of-profits were said to have been derived from

By Danny Crownover Gadsden’s historian Will I. Martin wrote extensively about early Gadsden. The following is a sample of his work: “When the Ralls Sanatorium was opened on Sept. 1, 1906, it had only 16 beds. More important, ‘at the opening of the hospital, a chartered school of nursing was started with six entrants.’ These

By Danny Crownover Many boys and older men who did not participate in the Civil War stayed behind and formed Home Guards. Those units did their best to defend their homes and towns. After the war ended, there was no official militia in this area but veterans of the war met periodically in associations. Individual

By Danny Crownover The American Civil War remains the most significant event in Alabama’s history. Tensions that had been building for decades within the United States over the issues of slavery and states’ rights came to a head in 1860. The topic of secession was in the forefront in the State of Alabama. Gadsden was a city

By Danny Crownover In June of 1959, two human torsos were discovered a few hours apart in Etowah and St. Clair counties and body parts were found scattered in Calhoun County. All of Northeast Alabama cringed in fear. Two men were horribly murdered by shotgun blasts and dismembered by an axe, causing an uproar among

By Danny Crownover Last week the Vagabond wrote part one of Gadsden native, Edward (Ed) L. Gamblin leaving for Germany as an American soldier in the  317th U.S Army Infantry Regiment April 11, 1945 was the day that Ed Gamblin was injured. It is not known exactly how. It is possible he fell or jumped

By Danny Crownover America entered France in World War II with the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944. Two months later on August 25, the Allies liberated Paris. In the skies over the Third Reich and the occupied countries, Allied air power wreaked havoc on the Wehrmacht, German industry and all lines of