Indian Mounds at Moundville, Alabama

On our way down to Greensboro from Tuscaloosa, we stopped off at Moundville to look at the amazing Indian mounds there.

We have seen Indian mounds before, all over the southeast, but never so many in one place. There are probably about 25 of them here, all within sight of each other, and all built the same way.

The site is on the Black Warrior River, and contains about 25 or so large Indian mounds. These mounds were built over a period of about 100 years by Indians of the Mississippian period.

The Great Fire of 1927 in West Blocton, Alabama

Here are a few of the very few links to information on the Great Fire of 1927 in West Blocton, Alabama and the history of two of its churches:

Here are three books detailing the history of West Blocton:


http://www.mindspring.com/~jallison/west_blocton.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~albibb/towns/1927blocktonfire.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~albibb/towns/1927blocktonfire2.htm

At the time of the Great Fire of 1927 in West Blocton, Alabama, my father, Jeremiah Dotson Clements, was a young fellow who had just turned 14 years old on June 4th, 1927, about a month before the fire on July 12th, 1927.

J.D., as he was known in those days, lived with his mother and five brothers and sisters on Main Street, where his mother, Dorothy Arrie Stewart Clements, had a grocery store. The family had moved from their farm in the country about five years earlier, and were seeking a better, easier and more prosperous life in West Blocton. Unfortunately, their store, home and livelihood were destroyed by the fire.

Jerry was a first-hand observer and participant in the fire and the well-intentioned, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts to contain and extinguish it. At 93 years of age, Jerry's memory of that day is clear as a bell, and he remembers so many interesting details of that day and the days following the aftermath of the fire. Then as now, he is a most keen observer of events and people around him.
Jerry recalls that the day before the fire, he was feeling something akin to an adolescent restlessness with the somewhat boring life he was living in West Blocton. An extraordinary coincidence occurred, and the repercussions of it have stayed with him to this day. He learned the hard way the lesson of the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for. It might come true."

He wished that the entire town would just burn down. And the next day it did. The entire town - almost completely burned down by a conflagration fueled by a strong west wind.

The day the fire started, Jerry was walking down the sidewalk outside the Douthit Hotel where he worked. He was on an errand to the grocery store to get the day's groceries for the hotel, when he heard the loud clanging of the town's fire alarm. He looked around and saw the flames of the fire shooting out of the dry cleaner's shop. These were not just ordinary flames like we see in our fireplaces or campfires, but a huge solid flame shooting out sideways from the building into the street.

At this point, he headed to his family's store, and talked to Mama about what was going on and what to do, and she urged him to go help Mrs. Manring get as much as possible out of the hotel. Afterwards, he went back to help Mama move whatever they could out of their store and put it in the vacant field behind the street.

He recalls that he and everyone in his family were all in such a state of shock, having lost everything, and he cannot remember a lot in between the time when they moved things out of their store and when they went to the preacher's house that night to stay for a few days.

He does remember looking at the remains fo the Douthit Hotel, and seeing stacks and stacks of melted glass liquor bottles in the basement. Mrs. O'Reilly served her homemade brandy in the evenings to her favorite customers. She had a brother in West End who grew peaches and she made peach brandy from these peaches.

He walked around the town for a while, looking at the devastation, and even though the fire was no longer a threat, there were many hot coals and embers, plus smoke, in many of the burned buildings.

I am working with him to put into print all his memories of the fire, its aftermath, life after the fire, and everday life in West Blocton. If anyone reading this blog has additional information related to any of this blog, please feel free to add your comments by clicking the Comment Button at the end of each post. We are endeavoring to reconstruct the events surrounding the Great Fire of 1927, to add to the historical record, since so few of the citizens involved in the fire are still living.

Where the West Blocton Fire Started

The fire started the morning of Tuesday, July 12th, 1927, and then spread rapidly due to a very strong wind that swept it through the business district.

Jerry remembers the fire as originating in the Ben L. Edmonds Dry Cleaning Plant when a tub of gasoline overheated and caught fire. The Blocton Enterprise dated July 14th, 1927 said it started in the Pipes Pressing Shop. There seems to be agreement, however, that it started when gasoline or chemicals overheated and caught fire in some sort of dry cleaning establishment.

At any rate, the building it started in was at the end of the block shown here, and is now Jack's Pharmacy (the red brick building at the corner). The building was a wooden frame building, and after the fire all that remained was the frame wall on the far end of the building. From here the fire rushed up the street, aided by a very strong wind from the west.

The Silver Moon Cafe that Jerry worked in as a child was located to the west, and across the street from the dry cleaners.

The vacant lot next to the white brick building in the photo could possibly been the location of the Manring Hotel.


Here is a photo taken on July 12, 1927, the day of the fire, by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner). It shows the ruins of the Manring Hotel, where Jerry worked as a young boy.

Where the Fire of 1927 Stopped - at the Masonic Lodge Building

This photo was taken the day of the fire shows the wall of the West Blocton Masonic Lodge. The photo was taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner), looking east from Davey's Store. The lodge wall is the wall that stopped the fire, but not before most of the entire business area had burned to the ground. More information at this link: http://www.rootsweb.com/~albibb/towns/1927blocktonfire2.htm



The fire stopped here at the Masonic Lodge because there was a brick wall on the end of the building. This brick wall had no windows and inadvertently, and thankfully, served as a firewall.

This photo shows a new building next to the present-day lodge that was not in the fire, but was built later. Next to the lodge during the fire, there was a vacant lot that also helped stop the fire.

The Water Tower That Ran Out of Water The Day of the Fire

This is the water tower for the town of West Blocton. In the photo, you can see the round black ball near the bottom of the tower, positioned on an exterior framework of some sort. This ball goes up and down, indicating how much water is in the tank, depending on whether it is full or empty or something in between.

The day of the fire, the water tower ran out of water. The fire department was all volunteer, and they did the best they could, but in spite of their best efforts, the town's only fire truck ended up catching on fire and was destroyed.

The volunteer fire department had bad luck all the way around. When they turned on the water, the force of the water broke the hose.

Then the pressure gave out from the water tower, because the water tower ran out of water. On the day of the fire, the tower was only about 1/8th full of water. Why there was so little water in the tower is a question many have asked. The water came from a well, Jerry thinks, so someone should have monitored the tower better and kept the tank full.

The fire department had one bright red Ford truck, and it had no fire-fighting apparatus at all. It only had a stand on the back for firemen to stand on while riding, plus there was space in the truck bed for storing the water hose for putting out fires.

Of course, there had been no fires in the town in ages, so it is possible that everyone involved had gotten complacent and let their vigilence down.

The Clements Grocery Store (Mama's Store)

This corner lot where the red building now stands is where Arrie Clements (formerly Mrs. D.L. Worthington) had her grocery store. She was Dorothy Arrie Stewart Clements, who was widowed at a young age with five young children, and who remarried, had another daughter named Elva Odell Worthington Waugh (Elva), and soon thereafter divorced Mr. Worthington.

Arrie Stewart Clements was Jerry's mother and my grandmother. We all knew her as Mama.

After leaving Mr. Worthington and leaving her home in the country in Hale County, Mama moved to West Blocton to be near her sister Lela Ann Eliza Wilma Stewart Harris (known as Lela) and her family. Lela's husband was Ira L. Harris, Sr. Arrie changed her name back to Clements after she divorced Mr. Worthington. Lela and Ira had seven children. One of them whom Jerry remembers is Mishia Mauselle Harris (Mauselle), who went to work in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and another was Julius Lloyd Harris, who became a barber in West Blocton.

Her store had plate glass windows with a door in the front to enter the store. It was a frame one-story building with the store in the front and the family's living quarters in the back.

Some of the wholesalers Mama used had the idea of 9 cent sales to boost store sales. These wholesalers supplied Mama with special promotional signs and banners to advertise the sales, and the sales items were priced at prices ending in 9 cent intervals. In other words, sale items were $ .09, .19, .29, .39, etc. You get the idea, and this was an innovative advertising and sales strategy for the times.

What happened to the Clements family and The Clements Grocery Store During the Fire?
Behind the store was an open field that sloped downward and eventually went upward again to the residential neighborhood behind the business district. During and after the fire, Arrie and her children tried to salvage what they could from the store and their living quarters, and they piled it up in the open field behind their store. There wasn't much to save, but Mamma got the cash box from the store and everyone had the clothes they were wearing that day. Jerry went back some time later after the fire had died completely out and found Mama's old pistol in the ashes of the store.

Mama's store was about four doors away from the hardware store.

As the fire swept through the town, the town fathers and officials tried to devise some way to stop its spread. One scheme they came up with was to blow up the hardware store with dynamite, in the hope that the vacant space left behind would stop, or at least slow down, the fire.

The owner of the hardware store was a nice man, whose name Jerry cannot recall at the moment, and Jerry thinks the owner might have had some connection with the fire department. But anyway, the hardware store was a very deep building that extended way back from the street.

In the rear of the store were supplies of barbed wire, dynamite, shotgun shells and bullets. So, using dynamite from the back of the store, the townspeople blew up the front of the store. Unfortunately, this strategy didn't do any good at all, and when the fire reached the back of the store, it heated up and burned the shells and bullets, which then started shooting off at random, in all directions, making a tremendous noise as they went off, and frightening eveyone in town because they didn't have any way of knowing which way the bullets were coming.

The hardware store was in the middle of the area that was burned, about half way down in both directions, and it, along with everything in the fire's path, was completely destroyed.

After the Clements family had moved as much as they could out of the store before it was consumed in fire, they just stayed as a family in the back lot with their meager possessions, partly from the shock of what had happened so suddenly that day in July, and also to protect their possessions from any possible looters or thieves.

Later that day, Jerry left to walk all around the town of West Blocton, to survey the damage from the fire. The devastation was everywhere, and many smaller fires were still burning, with hot ashes and coals all over the place, which were especially treacherous if you were walking around barefoot in the summer.

The night of the fire, the Clements family went to stay a few days with the preacher and his family who generously took in the family of seven. The preacher's house was located on the hilly area behind the main business district, and almost directly behind the Clements store. We drove around there looking for the house, and narrowed it down to a few likely prospects, but it may have been torn down in the intervening years.

What happened to the Clements family after the fire?
Soon after, the Red Cross came to town and gave the townspeople affected by the fire some basic supplies for starting over and getting their lives back together. Jerry remembers that the Red Cross gave him a pair of gray-black trousers that were made of a thick, fuzzy fabric, perfect for mid-July in Alabama! But he wore them just the same.

At this time, Jerry worked at the Silver Moon Cafe. He wonders how it happened that he stopped working at the Manring Hotel and started at the Silver Moon, but we finally concluded that this was a plan worked out by Mama and Mrs. O'Reilly of the Silver Moon, and they just told Jerry what to do and when, like you do with young children.

Someone gave Jerry, Johnnie and Aubrey the job of gathering, cleaning and stacking burned bricks from the fire. He was paid the grand sum of 1 cent per brick, and it seemed like a fortune in those days, and under those circumstances.

Later Mama opened another store in town, but the location was not desirable, and the store didn't do well at all. So when she had the chance, she moved her store to a far better location and was back in business again. Mama never complained about the adversities in her life, but accepted the good and the bad with grace and composure. She never felt she was the victim, and she never expected anyone to rescue her from adverse circumstances.

Somewhere along the line, Mrs. Manring from the Manring Hotel gave Mama some work and some extra money to wash the sheets and linens from the hotel. (Jerry thinks it was more of a favor to Mama to help her out after the fire than anything else.) Mama set up the washing operation in the family's living quarters, and went to work washing, rinsing, squeezing the water out, and hanging the sheets and whatever all over the house to dry. Then they had to be folded and returned to Mrs. Manring.

At this point in her life, Mama's hands and fingers were not as strong as they were in her younger days, and she couldn't squeeze much water out of the wash, so she had Jerry help her with the squeezing out of the wash and rinse water. When Jerry came home from his job at the Silver Moon Cafe, he set to work helping Mama with the washing, rinsing, squeezing out water, and hanging up the wash. In her kind and encouraging way, Mama always praised young Jerry to the skies for his big, strong hands that could squeeze that water out so well, and his big, strong arms that could hang up those sheets so well. His chest swelled with pride for being such a good helper to his Mama!

Mama never complained, not once, about the hardships she encountered in life, and never, ever thought of herself as a victim. And she never expected anyone else to solve her problems or give her charity. An amazing woman, whose strong character and example of how best to live one's life serve as a beacon of hope to those of us living in today's tumultuous world.

A few years later, with the help of his oldest brother Aubrey, Jerry moved to Montgomery to go to school at Sidney Lanier High School. Aubrey also helped Jerry get several newspaper routes in the south side of Montgomery to help pay living expenses for room, board and rent.

Back in West Blocton, Mama had decided to move back to the country in Hale County where she still owned a small farm that she and her husband Jeremiah E. Clements had acquired shortly after their marriage in 1909. They had paid off an existing mortgage and then received the title to the property near Grandma Stewart's house. The property had no house on it, except a barn, so the newlyweds lived in the barn for a time until they were able to acquire better accomodations.

Jerry's brother Johnnie was still working for the soft drink distributor in West Blocton, and he was able to make a deal to acquire a vacant dwelling owned by the coal mine operators. So he and the family set about dissassembling the house, taking it apart piece by piece, board by board, peg by peg. He was careful to label each door, window, each piece to make it easier to reassemble in the country. He even saved the hinges, screws and nails. Then he moved it by truck to the farm where Mama and the younger children (Bill, Esther and Elva)reconstructed their house, which was truly an amazing feat when you think about it.

When Mama noticed that the wooden floor was worn out, she had the idea of switching the (worn out) wooden floor for the (not worn out) wooden ceiling. So she ended up with a virtually new floor in her new home!

The older children Aubrey, Johnnie and Jerry had moved away, so she took the younger ones (Bill, Esther and Elva) with her to the farm. Their first few years were nothing but hardship and poverty, with a good bit of misery mixed in, but never any complaining that anyone knew of. The older boys sent them money when they had some to spare, which was not all that often, but they did their best to take care of the family.

Mama had a mule, but no harness or collar for the mule to plow with. Being the resourceful woman that she was, she went to the woods and found a tree in just the right shape, cut it down, and made the collar out of that. She used old wire for the harness and reins, and somehow she got that field plowed and planted, and managed to raise some crops that year.

Another good thing that happened was a federal government program to help farmers in these very rural areas. The program gave the community pressure cookers and cans so they could can their excess produce and meats, to save it for the winter season when food was scarce. This was such a big help, and then the farmers banded together to share their canned goods with each other, and balance out their diets.

The schools in the area were very poor, and at one point ran out of money, and closed altogether at Christmas time. So Bill, Esther and Elva had no school to go to. When Aubrey heard of it, he rented a house and made arrangements for them to come live with him in Greenwood, Mississippi, where they had decent schools, and that's how the younger children were able to complete their schooling. Aubrey was working as a cashier at National Biscuit Company there, and borrowed an automobile from someone and brought his younger brother and sisters to Mississippi.

Many years later, when Aubrey was in his 90's, he spoke proudly about how the months at Greenwood School had inspired his younger brother and sisters. He felt that it was this experience that led William Webster to enroll at Auburn University and become a veterinarian after his war service.

Somehow they all made it through these difficult times, with a combination of hard work, ingenuity, a little luck, and the grace of God, not necesarrily in that order.

Murphree's Drug Store, the Telephone Exchange, and More

This photo shows the remains of Pat Murphree's Drug Store after the fire swept through town. It was taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payner Turner) on July 12, 1929, the day of the fire.



This photo may show some run-down buildings, but the buildings that used to be here have a very interesting story behind them.

On the right hand corner in the photo, with the large plywood front, and below the four arched windows, was the location of Pat Murphree's Drug Store. Pat Murphree was a very nice fellow who lived at the Manring Hotel.

When it was evident that the fire would destroy most of the town, he spread the word throughout town for anyone and everyone to go into his drug store and take anything and everything that they could save. This is what many people did, and the goods that were in his drug store probably helped many West Blocton residents cope with the aftermath of the fire.

What a thoughtful, unselfish gesture of kindness and generosity to give his townspeople the medicines, toiletries, home goods, foods, and whatever to start their lives over after the disastrous day that wiped out so much of the town.

Above Pat Murphree's Drug Store was the telephone exchange for the city of West Blocton. The entrance was by way of stairs on the side street to the right side of the photo. One day long before the fire, Jerry went in the exchange and given his penchant for mechanical things that continues to this day, he was fascinated with what he saw there. There were 4-5 women telephone operators, who sat in high-back chairs with foot rests and headphones. They plugged in all the the wires to connect telephone callers with other people. A technological marvel!

Jerry is not sure what the building to the left housed.

There was a sidewalk that went left to the Douthit Hotel, where Jerry worked at the time of the fire.

The Bank (and Banker!) of West Blocton, An Interesting and Touching Story

This photo of what was left of the Bank of West Blocton was taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner) on July 12, 1929, the day of the fire.



The Bank of West Blocton was located in the space now occupied by the West Blocton Pharmacy, on the corner and in the same block as the West Blocton Masonic Lodge where the fire was stopped.

When Jerry was a boy working at the Manring Hotel, one of the guests was a U.S. senator there, and he gave Jerry a tip of one dollar for his superior service and attitude. Not just any old one dollar bill, but a crisp, brand new one dollar bill! Mrs. Manring told Jerry to go put that money in the bank for safekeeping, so Jerry opened an account at the bank with one dollar in it. He was about nine or ten years old at the time.

However, as luck would have it, when the fire destroyed the bank, it also destroyed Jerry's life savings at the time, his prized one dollar bill from a U.S. senator! And that deposit of one dollar was the only deposit he made in the account! Now it was gone, destroyed by the fire!

At the bank, Jerry opened his account with the president of the bank, Mr. Young, who was a very nice fellow.

A few years later, after Jerry had moved to Montgomery with Aubrey to go to high school at Sidney Lanier High School, Jerry was coming back to West Blocton for the Christmas holidays. He took the train from Montgomery to Centerville, and planned to walk the eight or so miles from Centerville to West Blocton. He was wearing his ROTC uniform, which he had received as a benefit for enrolling in the military training course in high school for the advantages it offered, including military training, discipline, teamwork and leadership opportunities. (Jerry had also joined the National Guard in high school, and was paid $7 a week, and attended weekly meetings for training in military discipline and marching.)

At any rate, it had snowed recently and the walk home that night was not easy. There was snow all around and mud with melting snow in the holes in the rough, unpaved road. And it was cold.

Jerry's shoes had holes in the soles, and he had placed cardboard in them to help keep out the cold and water, but they were quickly soaked by the snow. But there was no other way to get from Centerville to West Blocton, so Jerry walked.

He had gotten about four miles along, about halfway home, when along came a big, black car, which passed him, and then stopped and waited until he came alongside it. The man inside asked him where he was heading, and when he heard it was West Blocton, invited Jerry to ride there with him, since that was where the driver was going as well.

Jerry gratefully accepted the offer of a ride, and was even more grateful to be dropped off at his home, given the weather, and since the driver of the car lived some distance away in West End, which was where all the rich people lived in West Blocton.

And the kind man who stopped his car and gave a ride home to a cold, wet student on that snowy road that night was none other than Mr. Young, the president of the bank, who years earlier had helped nine-year old Jerry open his bank account with his one dollar deposit! What a small world, and what a coincidence! And what good fortune for Jerry to have a ride home!

Mr. Young, like all the wealthy and powerful people in West Blocton, was a Republican, and Jerry hated, then as now, all Republicans, because they had money which they used to oppress the poor people, the Democrats, of the world. (Hmm, I wonder about billionaire Democrats like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Bill Gates and John Kerry, oh, that's different...) Even so, Jerry was touched that someone who was supposed to be the enemy of the common people would do something so kind and generous for someone less fortunate. Mr. Young did not seem to remember that he had helped Jerry open his one dollar bank account years earlier, but Jerry remembered him, and was grateful that this fine man stopped by that snowy road that cold evening.

West Blocton Masonic Lodge, I & N Quality Store, and the West Blocton Bank, All in One Block and All in the Path of the Fire

A photographic view of the I&N Quality Store, the lodge and the bank, taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner) on July 12, 1929, the day of the fire.



Look at the Masonic Lodge at the end of the block, to your left in the photo, where the fire was stopped by the brick wall with no windows on one end of the lodge. The red car in the photo is in front of the lodge.

There was a vacant lot between the lodge and the present-day Cahaba Lily Center. The Cahaba Lily Center was originally the I&N Quality Store, owned by the Israel family.

The West Blocton Bank was located on the corner where the West Blocton Pharmacy now stands. This was the bank where Jerry deposited his prized one dollar bill given him by a U.S. senator (see above post about the West Blocton Bank).

Gillespie's Furniture Store

Photo of Gillespie's Furniture Store, taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner) on July 12, 1927, the day of the Great Fire of West Blocton.


This recent photo shows the approximate location of Gillespie's Furniture Store in West Blocton. The original store was made of a type of corrugated metal, and had a metal, iron-clad roof.

While the fire was raging through the town, Jerry was at the Manring Hotel, helping Mrs. Manring move as much as possible out of the hotel.

There was an alley to the east of Gillespie's Furniture Store, and across the alley was the Manring Hotel. Jerry moved to the back of the hotel, outside of his room on the second floor where there was a porch/balcony to stand on.

From this vantage point, Jerry had a view of the fire engulfing the furniture store. Jerry took a garden hose, brought it to the porch, turned it on, and hosed as much water as he could through a window of Gillespie's Furniture Store.

Of course, a garden hose was no match for the fire, but it was a valiant effort on young Jerry's part. Not long after this, the water pressure on the water system dropped and there was no more water in his hose.

The I & N Quality Store is Now the Cahaba Lily Center in West Blocton, Alabama

Here is an update from our reader with more information on the I&N Quality Store. This comment comes from the son of Elmo (Israel) Ellis who adds:

"At 10:51 PM, JFIEB said...
Originally there were two I&N Quality Stores, one in West Blocton and another one in Centreville. My grandfather, Samuel B. Israel was the proprietor of the West Blocton branch. His sister's husband, Isaac Nathews oversaw the Centreville location. In later years, "Mr. Sam" became the sole owner when the Centreville store was closed. In the early 1970's my dad, Elmo Ellis, and his sister, Libby Israel Caplan, sold their father's building to people who used it for a home appliance business. It was many years later that it became The Cahaba Lily Center."


The owners of the I&N Quality Store were Mr. Israel and Mr. Nathan (or is it Nathews ?). Mr. Israel was Elmo Israel's father, and Elmo Israel went on to become Elmo Ellis of Atlanta, Georgia. Elmo changed his name to Ellis, and had a long, successful career as a reporter, editor, writer, broadcaster, and finally as General Manager for WSB TV/Radio in Atlanta.

Elmo's cousin was Melvin Israel, later known as Mel Allen.

Jerry recalls that at the height of the fire, when it was certain that the downtown business district would be destroyed, Elmo's father told the other son, Frank, to lock the doors to his store, so that nothing would be saved or looted, and so that he could collect the entire loss from his insurance policy. And that is what happened.

Frank Israel went on to career at a radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Years later, Elmo Israel (Ellis) arranged for the Cahaba Lily Center and the West Blocton Improvement Committee to be housed at the site of his father's former dry goods store.

Allen's Furniture Store, the Silver Moon Cafe, the Shoe Shop and the Metropolitan Life Insurance office

This is the approximate site of Mrs. Allen's Furniture Store, which sold all manner of furniture, including caskets. Sometime, maybe years, before the fire, Mrs. Allen hired Jerry to pull weeds from her garden and plant pansies for her. This was the first time Jerry had ever planted pansies and Mrs. Allen very kindly gave him detailed instructions on how to go about it without disturbing the delicate roots.

Next to the furniture store was a vacant lot, approximately 200 feet wide, to the right in the photo. The next building was the Silver Moon Cafe, a two-story building that did not burn because it was in the opposite direction from the fire's path. This building was a frame building with porches, upstairs and down, across the front, and had an upstairs and downstairs, with an external stairway in the middle that led upstairs.

On the ground floor of this building was the Silver Moon Cafe (on the east side) and on the west side was a shoe shop that manufactured, repaired and sold shoes. Out front there was a bench for sitting in order to pass the time of day, visit with friends and neighbors, and play checkers.

The shoe shop was run by a nice man and his young son. This boy knew that Jerry could play checkers, and he wanted to learn how to play too, so Jerry taught him how to play on the bench outside the shoe shop. One thing Jerry couldn't help but notice was that the boy's thumb on his right hand was much, much larger than his other thumb, and it was large, hard, calloused and tough. Jerry thinks this was due to the hard and repetitive work the boy was involved in while sewing shoes in his father's shoe shop.

As always, Jerry was drawn to and fascinated by the machinery in the shoe shop. There were machines for buffing the shoes, grinding the soles of the shoes, polishing the shoes, sewing and stitching the shoes. And that wonderful smell of leather and polish permeated the store.

The small office, appoximately 8'x10' in size, of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was located upstairs in a part of this building that housed the Silver Moon Cafe and the shoe shop below. The business of the Metropolitan Life Insurance office was "debit insurance." The insurance agent was Mr. Lowery, who was a little man with a dried-up look, who always wore a black suit, carried a black book with his customer list in it, and who drove a black Ford one-seater sedan, not a convertible but a coupe. Mr. Lowery was a frequent customer at the Silver Moon Cafe where Jerry worked.

Jerry worked at the Silver Moon Cafe after the fire, and after he had the job of gathering, cleaning and stacking burned bricks from the fire. He worked at the Silver Moon from the summer of 1927 till June of 1929, when he moved to Montgomery with his oldest brother Aubrey (Audie) Alexander Clements.

J. B. Davies Dry Goods Store

Photo of J. B. Davies Store, taken by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner) on July 12, 1927, the day of the fire.



This red brick building was the site of the J. B. Davies Dry Goods Store, where Jerry's brother Aubrey worked as a boy after he had to stop working at the Manring Hotel after he burned his leg badly while starting one the morning fires in the wood stove in a guest room of the hotel. He made the childish mistake of pouring kerosene on the fire to get it going faster.

Near the dry goods store, and probably next to the vacant lot in the photo, was Mrs. Allen's Furniture Store. After the fire, Jerry and Aubrey got jobs gathering, cleaning and stacking burned and damaged bricks. They were paid the grand sum of $ .01 per brick, but they worked hard at one of the few available sources of money after the fire. They were grateful to have any work at all.

Photos Taken the Day of the Fire by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner)

Here is a historic treasure trove of photographs taken the day of the fire by Mrs. Coleman Parker (Lelia Payne Turner). I wish I knew more about this woman who had a camera and who, in the aftermath of the fire, had the initiative to go out and about and make a photographic record of the buildings that were destroyed.

More information and links at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~albibb/towns/1927blocktonfire.htm

http://www.rootsweb.com/~albibb/towns/1927blocktonfire2.htm

Gillespie's Furniture Store

The furniture store below Davies Store ruins

The Drug Store, not sure if this is Pat Murphree's Drug Store or another one. There were three drug stores in town, Murphree's, Pope's and Jones. Jones Drug Store did not burn, but Murphree's and Pope's were destroyed. Pope's Drug Store was between the bank and the Quality Store.

The Douthit Hotel, where Jerry worked as a young boy

The J. B. Davies Dry Goods Store

The Coca-Cola building, the Elk's Home, the C.M. Pope home, and the C. Smith home

The West Blocton Bank

Young Jeremiah (J. D.) Clements Learns to Ride a Bike!

The narrow side street on the left in this photo shows the street where Jerry learned to ride a bike.

Here's how it happened:
Louis Perry, a boy who lived in the house behind the house shown here, in the area of the 20 mph speed limit sign shown in the photo, agreed to sell Jerry a used bicycle for $5.00. Five dollars for a used bicycle that was missing its left pedal! What a bargain!

Well, Jerry did not have five dollars all at once in those days, so he saved and saved until he had accumulated the sale price. Louis agreed to give Jerry lessons in how to ride a bike, and so Jerry learned on this little narrow gravel road in the photo. In addition to being a gravel road, it had dips and little hills and valleys, which seemed huge to a young boy just learning to master the art of bicycle riding. No easy task when the bike only has one pedal.

When Jerry's loving and generous Mama learned of the missing pedal, she gave him the seventy-five cents to buy a new pedal. Then Jerry had wheels!

The white house in the photo was where Chalk George lived, and he was an interesting fellow. He was tall, thin, always wore overalls, and always seemed to have a smart remark to make about everything. He had a younger brother named Buddy George.

Chalk would go down to the Silver Moon Cafe where Jerry worked, and order a 6 1/2-ounce Coke (known as a "Dope")and a tube-shaped packet of Tom's Toasted Peanuts. He would then tear off the top of the peanuts and pour the peanuts into the Coke, making the Coke fizz even more, and then eat and drink them both, pretty much at the same time. As he would drink the Coke, the peanuts would float on top, so he would eat a bite of them as he drank the Coke.

Chalk George would also order a "Dope and a Cream," which was a Coke and an ice cream cone. He would hold the ice cream cone sideways in his left hand, pointing to the right, and he would hold the coke bottle in his right hand. Then he would push the Coke bottle into the ice cream in the cone, and it would be forced into the bottle. It would fizz up and Chalk would drink Dope and eat ice cream at the same time.

Eating these two snacks the Chalk George way was both complicated and efficient at the same time.

Later Chalk worked at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Interestingly, Mauselle Harris, Lela and Ira Harris' daughter, also ended up working at Oak Ridge.

Jerry Spots a Wild Plum Tree near the Mount Carmel Cemetary in Bibb County, Alabama

As a small boy in the country, Jerry and his family would always be on the lookout for wild fruit sources, such as berries and fruit trees. A wild plum tree was a great find, and they would eat their fill on the spot and then fill pockets, hats and any other containers they were carrying at the time will all the fruit they could gather.

This wild plum tree had green fruit, but Jerry spotted it nonetheless and remembered how much he enjoyed eating its fruit in the wild as a boy. In those days, if they found a fruit tree, they would make a mental note of its location, and go back later when the fruit was ripe, gather as much as they could carry, and enjoy a bountiful harvest.

Jerry's Church in West Blocton

Well, this is where we think it was. Apparently, it has been torn down, but this is where we think it sat, to the best of our collective abilities.

As a boy, Jerry went to a Presbyterian church in West Blocton. It was down the same street as the Baptist church Aubrey went to. Not next door or even a few doors away, but down the same street, about a half-mile or so apart. Different sides of the road, and not in view of each other, but close.

Jerry probably would have gone to the Baptist church with Aubrey, but Mrs. Manring of the hotel with the same name, told him in a nice way, but in no uncertain terms, that they would all go to the town's Presbyterian church together each Sunday.

And they did. I asked Jerry how they got to the church. Did Mrs. Manring have a car? No. Did you go by wagon drawn by a horse or mule? No. Did you ride a bicycle? No. Well, how then? We walked to and from church, he said. That was a long walk in bad weather. But they did it just the same, because it was the right thing to do, and that was what everybody did in those days.

Aubrey's Church in West Blocton

Here are two photos of the Baptist church Aubrey joined as a young man, and which he attended faithfully as long as he lived in West Blocton. It was here that he first confessed his sins, professed his faith, and accepted Christ as his personal savior for the rest of his long life.

Historical Marker for West Blocton

Historical marker in downtown West Blocton details the history of the town and the importance of coal to the local economy.

Jerry Returns to West Blocton

Jerry takes in the sights and sounds of present-day West Blocton, while remembering the West Blocton of his childhood.

Mount Carmel Cemetery and Amanda Rebecca Shuttlesworth Clements

The Mount Carmel cemetary is the largest in Bibb County, and Jerry's grandmother, Amanda Rebecca Shuttlesworth Clements [1858-1948] is supposedly buried here.

Jerry has always heard that this is her final resting place, but on reflection, Jerry is not sure this is true, because he doesn't think anyone else in the family is buried here. He doesn't know why her family would bury her at Mt. Carmel, so he wants us to check the cemetary records to verify this information.

Jerry's grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Clements, Jr. [1853-1907] is buried in an unmarked grave on the grounds of Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa.

Some Random Photos from West Blocton, Alabama

Here are some random photos from West Blocton, Alabama in May 2006.


This is a lovely bungalow, remodeled and so well-kept up, but take a look at the remnants of the rock wall in the front. It could be left over from the era of the great fire, but I'm not sure.


An old coal rail car demonstrates how coal was transported from the mines to the railroad in the old days.


An old, old house in West Blocton, possibly from the fire era, since the fire spared most of the residential areas. This house sports a Roy Moore for Governor political sign in the yard.


This old building is now the Municipal Court Annex, but Jerry thinks it may have had a similar role at the time of the fire.

We're Off to the Averette Family Reunion in Greensboro, Alabama!

Here's Jerry getting his gear into the car as we head to Alabama for the Averette family reunion at Jo Anne Hill's house in Greensboro!


I thought we would stop for lunch at Johnny Ray's BBQ in Birmingham, since it was so good a few years ago when we were on the Clements family reunion in Alabama. Bad idea! Johnny Ray's has really gone downhill since the last time we were there. But we were able to eat all of it, because after all, it is barbeque, and we never turn down barbeque!

Looks good, but this meal was a real disappointment. We know our BBQ, and this was not top-drawer stuff.