By Staff
I ran out of room last week so I will finish with Edley Franklin's story about Sanders' Cave. It was sort of funny, but a few weeks after his adventure in the cave, someone else told his story about the same place, only many years earlier. Mr. Watson wrote a letter to the editor about his adventure in the same cave back in 1900. I will get around to his version next week because I thought it would be interesting to see it from two points of view.
But let us first finish with Franklin's story.
We must have gone several hundred yards back in the cave. Anyway, it was far enough to suit me.
We found the cave long and narrow in places with the ceiling low, while at others the cave widened and had a high ceiling. We saw where someone had recently been digging for Hare's buried gold.
Sanders Cave is an interesting place, if you like to go in caves. There is plenty of room to cuss all you want to when you slip down or stumble over a rock. It's well worth the trip to see.”
Be sure and read the column next week about Mr. Watson's venture into the cave. In the meantime, I thought I would throw these little snippets in so you could get a laugh or two. These &#8220Did you knows?” were given to me by Ann Biggs-Williams. Apparently they were in an old issue of the Escambia County Historical Society's quarterlies. There is no date on it but it must have been some years ago.
Did you know?
That the first post office in this area was just across the river and north of Henley Bridge and it was named Nathanville. The postmaster was Nicholas S. Travis. (This was near where Riverview is today.)
The next post office was on Cedar Creek where the original Cedar Creek Mill operated by water was located. It was named Filmore. E.T. Brewton was the postmaster and he moved the post office from there to what is now East Brewton, being called at that time Fort Crawford.
The post office in Brewton was established in 1869 and the first postmaster was William Cross.
That Mildred Street in downtown Brewton in the early days was called &#8220Rotten Row” because of all the fights and disturbances on that street from Murder Creek to the Robbins &McGowin square.
That East Brewton was formed and made up of two communities, one was the Fort Crawford community and the other was &#8220Little Germany” (now the Cedar Hill community), it being so called because most of its early settlers were of German descent, the Harauldts (Harold), Mantels, Zepernicks, Albrecht (Albreasts) and Shawd (Schad).
That the names for Nokomis, Keego, Wawbeek and Owassa (in Conecuh County), all on the L&N Railroad, were taken from the &#8220Song of Hiawatha.” Nokomis is the grandmother of Hiawatha, Keego is the Indian name for fish, Wawbeek for small rocks, and Owassa for Bluebird.
That Dixonville was named for John T. Dixon and had two post offices within &#8220hollering” distance from one another, one for Dixonville, Ala., and one for Calhoun, Fla. Dixon Mill Creek was also named for John T. Dixon.
That Berrydale, Fla., was named for Berry Dixon, one of its first settlers.
That Century, Fla., was once called &#8220Teaspoon.”
That J., Fla., was named for J.T. Nowling, one of its first settlers, and was called &#8220J.” before the word &#8220Jay” was contrived.
If there is a story that you'd like to see here, please feel free to give me a call or drop by the office.
Happy hunting!