Sketches of Alabama PDF
Preview Sketches of Alabama
'Jl}ARl.] qORDon DUFFEE'S or SIITCIES ILIIIIII You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. This section from Bartholomew's Alabama map of 1856 shows the stage road on which Mary Gordon Duffee traveled from Tuscaloosa through Elyton, crossroads of travel, to Blount Springs. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. ~~I=================i~~ ~ ~ 'JllARlJ qORDon DUFFEE'S or SIETCIIS ILIBIMI ~eing an Account oftheJourney from Tuscaloosa to Blount Springs through Jefferson County on the old Stage Roads NOW FIRST PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM PREPARED FOR THE PRESS WITH INTRODUCfION AND NOTES BY VIRGINIA POUNDS BROWN AND JANE PORTER NABERS Illustrated with advertisements from the Jones VaHey Times of 1854 THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS ~ j it~!===============I~~ You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. ++~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~+~~~+~~~~++++++ ~ + ~ ~ .:. The five articles in this book were first published .:. :i: :i: in The Alabama Review, Vol. VI (1953) No.4, .:. Vol. IX (1956) Nos. 2, 3, and 4,and Vol. X (1957) .:. + + .:. No.1, copyrighted, 1953, 1956, 1957, by The .:. ~ ~ .:. University of Alabama Press. .:. ~ ++ ~ i~~~~+~~~~~~+~++~~~~~+~~+~~+++++~+~+<~· Copyright © 1970 by The University of Alabama Press ISBN 0-8173-5011-X lalk. paperj Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-139830 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. ---~-- For ...Margaret..; ...Miller and enid 'Bodine Winstorz-, ---~~--- You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Introductory essay 1 1. In which the writer travels from Tuscaloosa to Jonesboro 12 2. In which the writer visits Jonesboro 18 3. In which the writer travels from Jonesboro to Elyton 24 4. In which the writer visits Elyton 31 5. In which the writer travels from Elyton to Hagood's Crossroads 39 6. In which the writer visits Hagood's Crossroads and digresses on the Creek Indian War 45 7. In which the writer travels through the Turkey Creek vicinity towards Blount Springs 55 8. In which the writer recounts the coming of the railroads 63 9. In which the writer expounds on the founding of Birmingham and Colonel James R. Powell 71 Footnotes to the introductory essay 78 Footnotes to the Sketches 80 Index 91 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. EDITORS' NOTE Sketches of Alabama by Mary Gordon Duffee originally appeared as fifty-nine articles in the Birmingham Weekly Iron Age from 1885 through 1887. Editor Charles Hayes, in financial difficulty, solicited Miss Duffee, a personal friend, for the exclusive rights to publish the articles. "To help him," she says, "and with a view to future profits from its sale, I let him have the exclusive right to publish the Sketches in this State, reserving all rights to ownership of the articles. All I asked him to pay me was twenty (20) subscriptions to the paper as long as I wrote said Sketches. This he did. My writing brought much money to the paper, but not one dollar came to me." The Sketches.. however, did not solve Hayes' financial problems; in 1887 he sold out to the Age Herald and no more Sketches appeared. Twenty-two years later, a woman of sixty-four, Miss Duffee began frustrating attempts to get the Sketches published in book form. Her correspondence in 1908 with Thomas M. Owen, Director of the Alabama StateDepartment of Archivesand History, reveals Dr. Owen's intent to have the Sketches published. He wrote her that he would "not be content until we have your Sketches in print. They will con stitute one of the most interesting chapters in the history and growth of the state." Unfortunately, neither Miss Duffee nor the Department had a complete file of the Sketches at that time, and the missing num bers could not be located while plans for publication were still active. Subsequently the Department completed its file of the Iron Age, and in 1937, as a W.P.A. Writer's Project, the Sketches were typed from the newspaper file and placed in the Manuscript Room of the Depart ment. Under the direction of the Birmingham Library Board another copy was typed by the W.P.A. for the Southern Collection of the Birmingham Public Library. Mary Gordon Duffee has rendered in the Sketches an immeasurable service to the historical literature of Alabama. Proof of this lies in their extensive use as source material by every competent writer on Jefferson County and Birmingham. Ethel Armes acknowledges her indebtedness to Miss Duffee for much of the material in the first chapters of her exhaustive book, The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. The early histories of Jefferson County are so permeated with the Sketches that it is difficult to separate the authors from their source. Regrettably Mary Gordon Duffee's style in the Sketches hampers their use both as historical material and for general reading. Shewrote in the ornate, wordy language of the Victorian era, and scattered lines of poetry, sometimes her own, confuse the text. Biographical material You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.
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