Alan L. Samry's Blog

There’s a historic marker for the Colony Cemetery along Oak Street. Have you read it? That’s okay, long sign story short, the Fairhope Single Taxers built a coffin out of a picnic table for one deceased John Hunnel, who dropped dead while swimming in the waters of Mobile Bay on the Fourth of July 1895.

He was the first of many to be lowered into the Colony Cemetery or inserted into a niche in the Columbarium.

Ever seen the marker in Henry George Bluff Park in Fairhope, Alabama? It recognizes the single tax philosophy that was theorized was Henry George and then practiced in Fairhope. This is a story about land, labor, and capital and the single tax. Hey! It’s not naptime yet. Don’t worry, this is not an economics story. It is about land…and its uses.

In my gallivants through the digital pages of past Fairhope Courier newspapers, I found this little-known story from June 2, 1916. Oddly enough, like many stories, this one caught my eyes serendipitously. The headline, “An Old Resident” got my attention. It was the reminisces of Mr. Jos. Feminear about the area two decades before it became Fairhope.

The article continues, “He remember that one time there were several houses under the bluff at the site of the old ‘Alabama City’ wharves, and above the gully just north of the Swift tract, including one that was a well-built and partly brick,” according to Feminear. He recalled the days before the single taxers arrived, a time when William Stack owned the beach and the gully area we know as Stack’s Gully.

Mr. Feminear was born near what is now Pier Street Boat Ramp. He knew “Old Man Stack” and “confirmed testimony of old John Lewis,” a former slave, whose family lived and farmed on twenty plus acres on the northeast corner of Section Street and Morphy Avenue. His wife was Nancy Lewis, and their descendants are still here.

“Mr. Stack lived on the north side of the gully at one time, about where the ice plant now is,” according to Feminear. Today, the Stack house and later ice plant would have been located by the recently demolished Down by the Bay Café where the construction trailer is now parked.

Feminear claims, “Mr. Stack and others were buried on the bluff above the ice plant.”  

Feminear said his own relatives were buried in a cemetery near the “old still wharf,” in what is now Magnolia Beach Park. The old turpentine still might have been in Gambino’s parking lot.

I don’t think we need to get South Alabama’s archaeologists over to Henry George Park with their ground penetrating radar. If there are unmarked graves on the bluff, the remains are safe. They’ve been resting there for well over a century.

History is one part memory and two parts storytelling. Strike that. Reverse it. Do you think Feminear’s stories are the ramblings of an old man? His story rings true to me. It was common to bury your kin on your own property, but obviously not along the bay’s shoreline.  

Evidence confirming Mr. Feminear’s claim can be found all along the bayfront. Across from Paddock Estates is a small cemetery, including the remains of African American’s who served in the United States Colored Troops. A little further south is another family plot with headstones of the names of the former landowners.

The next time you watch a sunset from the bluff benches, stroll in the park, listen to the Baldwin Pops, or take in the annual Eastern Shore Repertory Theatre musical, share this history. It’s our parkland. I can’t think of a better place for storytelling.

 

(“Gonzo Technology” was written for my library school blog and posted on April 25, 2016.)

“I never met him alone,” Anne, our volunteer technology instructor at Fairhope Library said. “My husband, or daughter would go with me to downtown Mobile.”
“He would give me his Dictaphone tapes and I would give him his manuscript.” Anne  used her data processing machine in the picture above (left) to transcribe the tapes of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Curse of Lono (1983) manuscript.

“There was a lot of foul words in it,” she recalled, “And I remember them flushing drugs down an airplane toilet.”

“He liked my speed, she said of Thompson. “He was a bit strange, as writers tend to be. This was way before he became famous.”

“I needed the money,” she said. Anne’s IT addiction, a computer and printer set her back five thousand bucks. Anne is pictured above with the actual Apple II Plus (right with NEC Monitor) she used to type Thompson’s manuscript.

Hunter, it turns out was a friend of a friend of Anne’s husband. All these guys shared a love of cars. American Cars! However, this wasn’t just any friend of a friend, it was novelist Tom Corcoran.

I didn’t have any reason to doubt Anne, but I found myself Googling (newly acquired reference skills be darned) Hunter Thompson and Fairhope. The next time I saw her she had done the same thing, “I’m losing it,” she said, of her memory, but of all the people I know, Anne in IT speak is “with it.”

WE found the same book reference. Fairhope is mentioned in Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson, by William McKeen.

None of this may seem like a big deal, but Anne continues to be an early adopter despite having a severe case of macular degeneration, which she described to me one day as “looking through a shattered windshield.” She’s mastered Windows 10, wields an iPad better than any kid, and can code like there is no tomorrow.

My first home computer, circa 1992, was a Tandy 1000. (www.old-computers.com)

Anne and I have a lot in common. We thoroughly enjoy lifelong learning and we are absolutely giddy when we are sharing what we know with others at the Fairhope Public Library.

Here’s what’s happening in my reading and writing world now that March is about to roll in. If I did this correctly, you should be able to save the event image and share it on social media to help me get the word out. All books are for locally at Page and Palette.

So honored and excited to be a part of Alabama Authors day at Five Rivers in Spanish Fort.

I’ll be reviewing Gabriel Zevin’s book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on Tuesday, March 5, at 10:30 AM at the Fairhope Public Library.

My friend and Alabama Authors Day Organizer Mike Bunn is going to be our speaker at the March 7 Fairhope Single Tax Lecture Series (poster below). It begins at 6 PM at the Fairhope Public Library and I look forward to seeing you. Mike is the director of Blakeley and is a fine writer, especially his latest book, Fourteenth Colony.

We’ve got a Pensters Writing Group meeting in March too. I’m interviewing my friend and fellow Penster Lovelace Cook. I’m reading Meet Me in Mumbai now and have already lined up a few questions for her.

Yes, Gabe Gold-Vukson and I are closing out the lecture series in April this year talking about our Fairhope book.

Thanks for reading and sharing!

Please join us for the Pensters Writing Group meeting this Saturday, featuring Mike Turner. Guests are welcome. 

Also, a few updates on my book events. I’ll be signing books with Gabe at Page & Palette this Sunday, November 19. It’s the annual Downtown Business Holiday Open House. Come by and get a book or say hi.

You only have another week to vote for me Gulf Coast Media’s Best of Baldwin. I’ve been nominated for Best Local Author, so sign in and vote for me.

I’m proud to be a first-generation college student. Coastal Alabama recently featured me and many other first-generation students, faculty, and staff. My story starts around the one minute mark. The video was recorded and edited by students right here on the Fairhope campus. 

Gabriel and l will be speaking at Fairhope Sunset Rotary on November 30 at the Fairhope Yacht Club at 6:30. I serve as secretary for FSR so if you are interested in joining us please let me know. 

Spotlight on Susan! We are going to the Governor’s Mansion in December. Susan will be honored along with other Class of 2022 National Board-Certified Teachers in Alabama. There is a reception and photo op with Governor Kay Ivey. The mansion is decorated for the holidays and there’s light refreshments. Pinkie’s up! Cheers to my brainy and beloved bride!

I’ll be at the James P. Nix Senior Center on Tuesday December 12 at 11 AM. I’ll be talking about the new book and a little about my history with photography.

Fairhope by Foot tours started out as walking tours, and that’s still my bread and butter, and I love leading them. The most recent was for a student trying earn a Congressional Youth Medal. In addition to walking, I’ve led Fairhope tours hoping on and off golf carts, from a bicycle, but here’s the next big leap. I’m hoping on a motor coach! Not sure how this is going to work yet. These things don’t corner well so we may just park in the turn lane like the delivery trucks. The people on the bus with me are going to see Fairhope up close, but through the tinted looking glass.

Thanks for reading, watching, and listening!

So excited to be part of the food, fun, and family tomorrow at the Fairhope Piggly Wiggly. I’ll have my books, Fairhope Past and Present, Stump the Librarian, Clay City Tile, and Mapping Fairhope for sale. My Fairhope Past & Present co-author Gabe Gold-Vukson is joining me after he gets out of work. Stop by and say hi!

On Monday, I went in to the Fairhope Public Library to return and renew some books and ran into my former co-worker, Kris. We were getting caught about a committee we are both on. As we parted ways she said, “don’t forget to vote.” I looked at her puzzlingly. “You are a finalist for Best Local Author in the Best of Baldwin.” What? Sure enough! Someone nominated me and now I’m one of five finalists in Gulf Coast Media’s Best of Baldwin 2024. Follow this link or scan the QR code below and vote for me. Thanks for voting! While you’re there, vote for people and places (Fairhope Public Library) in other categories including my friend, fellow blogger, and local artist Judy Hanks Pimperl.

Yes, my next Fairhope book, with museum director Gabe Gold-Vukson, is out July 31. You can pre-order a copy through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Or stop into Page and Palette and ask to pre-order the $24 book. For the Arcadia Press Past and Present Series book, Gabe and I found some amazing photos in the museum collection, the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation Online Archives, and the Fairhope Public Library. Then we went to the same locations and took a photo capturing the very same scene. In most cases, they are a match! Except the present photographs are full color.

Sunday July 16, 2023: 2:00 PM, Guest Lecturer Alan Samry and Willie Taylor, Baldwin County Historical Society. University of South Alabama Fairhope Campus.

“History Nerds 100 Years Ago: The Faces and Places of our Society Founders,” traces two librarians and other prominent county leaders as they organized the first Alabama county historical society in 1923! Alan will put the founders into perspective as he traces the organization and it’s early leaders from 1923 until the publication of the society’s book, A Brief History of Baldwin County. Yes, the society compromised history nerds from lawyers, judges, doctors, educators, bankers, retirees and armchair enthusiasts with names like Comings, Albers, Cross, Stapleton, Holmes, Winberg, and Rickarby to name a few.

Willie Taylor, retired educator and author of Reaching Reality East of Mobile Bay, will talk briefly about her African American descendants in Baldwin County. She’ll also connect the late authors Florence and Richard Scott and the historical society.

New Book Launch/Trivia Night

You are invited to attend our book launch/trivia night at Page and Palette. We will be there Thursday August 3, at 6 PM. We’ll have a brief and fun trivia contest to see who knows what about Fairhope. After, we’ll hang around and personalize books.

Gabriel and I are proud of this book. As we looked at the historic photographs, dating from the 1900s to 1970s, we were amazed at how much is still the same. Yes, Fairhope is growing, but this book shows that our downtown, bayviews, and homes of the founders are still present.

More Book Event Dates!Sunday August 6: 2:00-5:00 PM, Authors Event, Barnes & Noble in Spanish Fort
Sunday August 20: 10:00 AM, Guest speakers, Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship

The Rest of the Story

As a writer, I have to say, it was a huge challenge getting our captions down to 80 words. Fairhope Past and Present is dominated by some grand images. However, I’m reminding that you have to have my previous book, Mapping Fairhope: Legends, Locals, and Landmarks. It tells the stories both then and now of the people and places inside the Fairhope images. Paperback available at Page and Palette and Tom Jones Pottery. Paperback, hardcover, and ebook available at Amazon.

Mapping Fairhope: Legends, Locals, and Landmarks, is now on sale. Mapping Fairhope is a collection of my Fairhope Living magazine articles that you can purchase locally and online. I’ve teamed up with some local nonprofits who will benefit from the sale of my book.

The book launch/fundraising event for the Fairhope Public Library is Sunday, November 6, at 2 PM. All the proceeds from the sale of each book, which costs $20.00, will be donated to the Friends of the Fairhope Public Library. Can’t make it to the event? That’s okay, the book will be for sale in the Friends bookstore with all proceeds benefiting the Friends nonprofit.

Mapping Fairhope is also for sale locally at Page and Palette. I will be signing books there on Friday, November 11, from 3-5 pm. Or stop by Page and Palette for the Holiday Open House the afternoon of Sunday, November 20. 

Other local retailers, including Tom Jones Pottery in Clay City, will have the book for sale soon.

Not in Fairhope? I got you blueprinted…I mean covered. Purchase the book online.

November already booked?

Mark your calendar for the second fund-raising event at the Eastern Shore Art Center on Saturday December 3, at 1 PM. This will be a panel discussion titled, “Mapping Fairhope: The Intersections of Fairhope Art and History.”

Finally, I will be raising funds during an event at the Fairhope Museum of History on Saturday December 10 at 1 PM to benefit the Friends of the Museum.

Books will be sold in the gift shop in the art center and museum after each event, with all proceeds benefiting the respective nonprofits. 

I look forward to seeing you at one of these upcoming book events!

It’s been a week for books! The first book arrived in the mail, a thank you for blurbing a friend’s book. Kathie Farnell asked me to say some kind words for the back cover of her book, Tie dyed: Avoiding Aquarius. Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed her first book, Duck and Cover: A Nuclear Family, the sequel, I can honestly say is better than the original.

“Farnell’s latest memoir, Tie Dyed: Avoiding Aquarius is equal parts dramatic and hair-on-fire hilarious. A follow-up to Duck and Cover, Tie Dyed traces Farnell’s high school and college trips in Alabama through the counter-culture sixties and early seventies where she’s mostly a fish out of water, swimming against the “tied.” Farnell’s true life tales are slap full of smart, sass, and sarcasm. She’s got gumption, so get reading.” Alan Samry, Author of Stump the Librarian

A day later, my order of Clay City Tile books arrived. Just in time to restock Page and Palette, our local bookstore. Finally up to date on their accounts, they are now, happily, paying us when we drop books off, instead of after they’ve sold through the consigned copies.

I met with Jason Fisher the following day. He’s a kind soul, full of care and compassion, and a newly minted author. His new book, To Where You Are was published last month. I interviewed him for Fairhope Living magazine at Provision in downtown Fairhope. The young woman at the counter overheard Jason talking about his daughter, who has autism. As someone with autism, the Provision hostess offered to answer any questions we had, which was very kind and unexpected.

The next day, in a serendipitous connection, I unboxed a book at the Austin Meadows Library, located on the Bay Minette campus of Coastal Alabama Community College. I’m filling in on that campus due to several retirements, including my former boss. Long story short, some new books arrived already cataloged courtesy of Kim in Brewton and were ready to be shelved. The one that struck me, after having met Jason and the young woman at Provision was The Boy Who Felt Too Much: How a Renowned Neuroscientist and His Son Changed Our View of Autism Forever, by Lorenz Wagner. After I read that people with autism “don’t feel too little; they feel too much,” I was intrigued.

I just finished reading All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler. The American woman is Mildred Fish Harnack. You should read this book! Although it is history, it is written in the present tense. Let that settle in…History, not written in the past tense. Many publishers declined it for this reason, but you’ll see that Donner is closely connected to Mildred and I am glad she stuck to her principles and found an agreeable publisher. Donner’s book of narrative nonfiction is compellingly crafted and very relevant.

I have a book deal! My co-author and I will be working on a Fairhope history book this year and it will published, hopefully, in the fall of 2023. It’s a long way off! I’ll keep you posted here at Stump the Librarian. In the meantime, keep reading Fairhope Living.

Photograph Courtesy of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation

These are my favorites from 2021! Buy a copy or check them out at your local public library.

Saving Bay Haven: A Charming Town with a Dirty Secret, Karyn Tunks Wayfaring Stranger, James Lee Burke Jubilee Sunset Romance, Deborah McDonald
Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, Kristen Radtke

Leg Stories
We went to visit Greg and Pam, my former reference desk mate, in Tennessee. We checked out their new home overlooking Norris Lake and took in the sights. The weather wasn’t all that great, but we spent a little time outside and inside. The Museum of Appalachia is well worth your time and money.
John Rice Irwin started the museum. Most of the text is told in the first person by JRI himself, or as told to him by the original owner of the item. Mr. Irwin didn’t just collect stuff, he collected stories, and once people knew what he was doing they donated things to him, like coffins, entire buildings, peg legs, traveling cart and soooo much more. It’s nicknamed “A Living Mountain Village” for good reason.

Henry Clay Moss with a hatful of potatoes. Peg leg nerd alert: He wears suspenders to hold up his pants and a belt around his waist to keep his peg leg on. Uncle Henry Moss’s Peg Leg with the suspension strap still attached. Museum of Appalachia. JAKE JACKSON’S TRAVELING CART-When J.J. (Jake) Jackson became crippled, he made this hand powered, three-wheel cart to get to and from the grocery store he operated in Jonesborough-Tennessee’s oldest town.(The name of the store was “Jackson’s General Merchadise.” My best information indicates that Jackson operated his store from about 1930 into the late 1960s. (David Byrd, from whom I purchased this interesting contrivance, had heard thatjackson became paralyzed with “jackleg”, a condition said to have been brought on by drinking “bad” whiskey-not an uncommon occurence during prohibition, I understand.) JRI

If you ever find yourself northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee or near the Cumberland Gap, the building and grounds (including the Popcorn Sutton Whiskey Still) of John Rice Irvine’s Museum of Appalachia is a must see.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year. Write On!