Who's Who in Tuscaloosa in 1826-1827

John Murphy (1786-1841) , Governor of Alabama 

John Murphy (Alabama politician) - Wikipedia

Harry Innes Thornton

HARRY I THORNTON was a native of Virginia but in early life removed to Kentucky where it is believed he held an office under the administration of Mr JQ Adams probably that of United States District Attorney He married a sister of Hon John J Crittenden while the latter gentleman married an aunt of Mr Thornton Thus they were doubly connected by family ties which strengthened and harmonized their political attachments both being Whigs and the warm personal friends of Mr Clay I have not ascertained what year Mr Thornton came to Alabama He settled in Huntsville and more than thirty years ago was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court After retiring from the office he changed his residence to Mobile where he practiced law for several years Thence he removed to Eutaw and in 1840 was elected a Senator in the Legislature over John J Winston Esq to fill the unexpired term of Thomas Riddle Esq deceased The high character of Mr Thornton as a jurist induced the President of the Senate to waive the usual party selection and he was made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee at a time of intense party excitement His reports fully justified the wisdom of his appointment In debate he was probably the strongest man in the Senate He had all the qualities of a dignified and effective speaker He declined being a candidate for reëlection and pursued the practice of his profession with great favor and success Judge Thornton was a delegate to the National Whig Conven tion at Baltimore in May 1844 and was a Vice President of that body He engaged in the canvass for Mr Clay with the full belief that he would be elected President The defeat of his favorite statesman greatly depressed his spirits During the administration of Mr Fillmore from July 1850 to March 1853 he was appointed by the President a commissioner to investigate land titles in California In a few years thereafter he died He was a gentleman of elevated princely character and was in the communion of the Presbyterian Church To know him was to love him Thousands in Alabama will cherish his memory with affection The Judge had a brother Col James I Thornton who was elected Secretary of State in 1824 and served by successive elec tions until 1834 He was a very high minded gentleman made an excellent officer and was respected by all who knew him At a venerable age and with a character full of dignity and honor Col Thornton now resides in Tuskaloosa 

 College was fun but it was tough. I worked hard every summer saving my money & had a work study job at the Union Building which enabled me to work backstage at the rock concerts. I remember working for Elton John, Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker and The Rolling Stones. In fact, I met my future wife while working the gate to the floor at Jethro Tull. She flashed that pair of play pretties at me and next thing ya know she had full access to everything at that show.

I didn't get to travel at all while in college except for a couple of trips to the Panama City Beach each summer.

Before I settled down to work after college I took a couple of trips up to the Carolinas but I spent most of my college years working and saving my pennies.

My first job out of college was being a Psychologist 1 at Partlow. The first year wasn't bad. I saved up all of my vacation days, holidays and comp time so I could take off an entire month during the summer of '73. Greg Wright & I took my VW van out to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Greg had already served in 'Nam & I was still scared of being drafted so I wanted to check out groovy little hippy pads in Victoria, B.C. in case I needed to take an extended vacation. Driving back to Tuscaloosa, we visited Olympia National Park, Yellowstone & I got to hang out at Philmont in Cimarron, New Mexico for the first time since visiting there in July of '65.

The Partlow job came to a screeching halt one day in January of '74. I got attacked by a patient who almost took out one of my eyeballs so I took off a couple of days and decided to become a school teacher. The Colegio Americano de Guayaquil came to the rescue and enabled me to live in Ecuador for four months and get my teacher's certificate. Before leaving for Ecuador, my girlfriend & I took the train down to New Orleans & we stayed with Jeanie Dowling and her husband Octave Livaudais at their house in the Garden District.


I returned to Tuscaloosa from Ecuador in September of '74 broke & broken hearted. Fortunately the head basketball coach & science teacher at Druid High got caught with his britches down during sixth period so in November I had a science teaching job on the West End of Tuscaloosa.

In '75, I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans again & took at least three trips to the Smokies. I spent a week hiking the Appalachian Trail above Cades Cove and really fell in love with the mountains.

The Olympics were in Montreal during the summer of '76 so I got this old gal to haul me up to Quebec in her Barracuda. We stayed with Thomas Wheatley and his wife in Hingham, Mass. and then toured Boston and the coast of Maine. We didn't make it to the Olympics but really enjoyed discovering Quebec City & Ille de Orleans. The girl I was with spoke fluent French so we had quite an adventure.

I finished my Masters at the Sea Lab on Dauphin Island in the summer of '77 and celebrated by going out to Austin to meet my old girlfriend Laurie Bensburg & we drove out to Santa Fe in my old '62 Impala. We climbed to the top of Lake Peak and hung out in the cafes on the square in Santa Fe. On our way back to Lubbock, we heard the news that Elvis had died.

I was getting tired of teaching so I was restless when I attended our DHS 10 Year Class Reunion in the Summer of '78. Ricky Blumenfeld told me about a sales job so I quit my teaching job at the end of July and started my new career as an underwear salesman out in the world "covering the asses of the masses." That didn't work out so another buddy of mine told me about a job out in California so I took off for California. I got to hang out in Austin, Philmont and Santa Fe again and really had a wonderful time in Big Sur and Yosemite but I had nightmares out there so I came back home. I got a scholarship to work on my PhD but in the spring of '79 I dropped out of school and took a job teaching in New Orleans. I got an apartment in Faubourg Marigny and got to hang out in the French Quarter & see why they call New Orleans an ELEPHANT'S GRAVEYARD.

In September of '79, I got my old teaching job back in Tuscaloosa. I married Debbie Emblom and for the next three years I settled down and didn't go anywhere except to Panama City Beach in the summer.

Debbie and I got divorced in '83 so I spent the summer living in Scott Gellerstedt's Gulf Front apartment in Reddington Shores near St. Pete.

Scott and I hatched a business plan to sell Panama hats so in the summer of '84 I returned to Ecuador. I attended the inauguration of President Leon and had a wonderful time except I got my wires crossed with Scott and didn't see him until we both took the same flight back to Miami.

We sold some hats but selling the excellent handmade sweaters Scott had discovered proved to be more lucrative.

In the summer of '85, I quit my teaching job so I could take care of my mother. She died on the day I would have returned to school so after taking care of Mother's funeral arrangements, I went out to Austin to see Laurie again before returning to Ecuador. I returned to Ecuador twice in the fall and winter of '85 and really got the sweater business kicked off in the spring of '86.

I returned to Ecuador twice in '86 to buy handmade sweaters, handbags, belts and earrings.
I also returned to New England again and got to see Thomas Wheatley again. He had moved up to Maine so it was great hanging out with him while I set up the sweater business on the coast of Maine.

During the school year, Scott and I spent all our time selling sweaters in sorority houses all over the South and Midwest. I spent a lot of time at Indiana University, the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota,the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue. We worked all the SEC schools and all the girls schools in Virginia and North Carolina.

I returned to Ecuador once in '87 and spent that summer in New England but I was getting burned out being on the road all the time. By Thanksgiving I was hanging out with the girls in Tuscaloosa and by Christmas I was married.

My wife got pregnant right off the bat so in February of '88 we went up to Michigan to unload our merchandise and then took a little honeymoon down to Key West.

On September 14, 1988, my son Christopher was born in Druid City Hospital so for the past 20 years I've been concentrating on raising him making sure that he was able to travel every summer. He's been to a National Scout Jamboree near Washington, D.C., sailed around Abaco Island in the Bahamas, canoed the boundary waters between Minnesota & Ontario, hiked Philmont, camped on the Ontario side of Lake Superior, visited New Mexico with one of his buddies, hiked portions of the Appalachian and attended many national and regional Order of the Arrow meetings as far away as Oklahoma, Iowa State University and Michigan State University.

I've published a bunch of articles on Alabama history and have traveled a lot in South Alabama & Northwest Florida doing research. On one trip from Tuscaloosa to Panama City Beach, I checked my trip meter on my speedometer and saw that we'd traveled 996 miles one way from Tuscaloosa to the beach.

I still have my health so I'm looking forward to all the challenges my new life will bring.

I've still got plenty to accomplish but at least I can be thankful that
I'VE HAD A DAMN GOOD RUN SO FAR!

The main thing I do for Pake Realty is keep the houses rented to Section 8 tenants maintained to HUD standards. I do the work plus I hire others when needed. I do all kinds of plumbing and  I also clean & paint. Whatever is needed~ that's what I do.

I taught high school science (mainly Biology) for 19 years. I taught in Ecuador, Tuscaloosa, New Orleans, Carrollton, AL , Midfield, AL and Birmingham. I was also an adjunct faculty member @ Bevill State Community College in Fayette for seven years. I quit teaching in '97 and started working for Pake Realty in '99. I have a B.S. from Bama ('72 -major: Psych , minor: Biology) and an M.A. in Education from Bama ('77 concentration in Biology). I also did some work on a PhD.

My wife of over 22 yrs., Sharon (native of Northport), passed away January 30, 2010. We started dating in the summer of '72 but didn't get married until December of '87. We have a 22 yr. old son, Christopher, who lives in Northport. He has his own home repair business and he has earned certificates in Welding, Diesel Mechanics and Industrial Electronics Technology from Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. He will begin working on a machine shop certificate @ Shelton State this fall. We are very close and talk to each other every day. We also work together some days and we take a couple of vacations together each year. He's my best bud & it would be tough for me to leave Tuscaloosa because I would miss him so much.

Robert Register, a Dothan native and Tuscaloosa resident, spent his working career in the Tuscaloosa area, the first two decades teaching life sciences in Alabama's public schools and community colleges and the last decade working in property maintenance. At the end of his teaching career, he began writing articles about Alabama's formative years for OLD TUSCALOOSA MAGAZINE. This work led to his publishing "Andrew Ellicott's Observations While Serving on the Southern Boundary Commission: 1796-1800" in the May 1997 Gulf Coast Historical Review, a journal focusing on the history of the coastal region from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana. This publication resulted in Mr. Register writing the text for the historic marker of the SOUTHERN BOUNDARY OF THE U.S. 1795-1819 which is located beside U.S. Highway 231 South just above Campbellton as well as his writing the text for the plaque for Ellicott's Line in the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. Register discovered blogging in 2003 and he has used this internet tool daily since then to share his ideas under the Internet handle of  ROBERTOREG.  In 2005, Register assisted author Greg Haynes in doing the research for Hayne's book THE HEEEY BABY DAYS OF BEACH MUSIC. This work rekindled Register's interest in THE OLD DUTCH, the first barroom built on Panama City Beach. After retirement in 2012, Register wrote several articles for PANAMA CITY LIVING magazine, including ROADHOUSE BLUES AT THE OLD DUTCH. In September of 2013, Mr. Register published an article entitled CENTENNIAL in CRIMSON MAGAZINE, the magazine of the Tide Nation. This article represented the magazine's commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. In January 2018, Register partnered with retired University of Georgia professor James Hargrove on two articles concerning the War of 1812 in Northwest Florida which were published in the Apalachicola Times. Presently Register is writing a critical analysis of the 1948 novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD which is a story modeled after the early history of Dothan.

 1826-1827 laws passed by the Alabama legislature in Tuscaloosa.

AN ACT to prohibit the importation of slaves into this state for sale or hire. 

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in General Assembly convened,

 That from and after the first day of August next, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to bring within the limits of this state any slave or slaves for the purpose of sale or hire And if any person or persons shall bring  into this state after the first day of August next, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars for each negro so brought to, one half thereof to the person suing for the same, and the other half to the use of the state- And moreover, any person thus offending shall be subject to indictment, and on conviction shall be liable to be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars for each offence, and shall be imprisoned not exceeding three months, at the discretion of the jury trying such offence.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent citizens of this state from purchase for purchasing any negroes for their own use: Provided, they shall not hire or sell any such negroes for the term of two years from the time of their being brought into this state: Provided, Proviso, nothing in this act contained shall prevent the hiring negroes belonging to the estate of any person who may depart this life within two years after having brought negroes into this state under the provisions of this act.

APPROVED, Jan. 13, 1827.

AN ACT prescribing the punishment of slaves and free persons of color for
the commission of the crime of manslaughter on other slaves or free persons of color.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Alabama, in General Assembly convened,

 That if any slave or free person of color shall hereafter be tried and found guilty of the crime of manslaughter, commitlor, for man- ted on the body of any other slave or free person of color,

slaughter on such slave or free person of color, so offending, shall receive

persons of co- not less than thirty-nine, nor more than one hundred, lashes, lor, how pun- on his or her bare back, at the discretion of the jury trying

ished. the offence, to be inflicted by the sheriff of the county in which

said slave or free person of color shall be found guilty; and moreover, that such slave or free person of color be branded in the forehead with the letter M.

When to take Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall corn-

effect. mence and be in force from and after its passage.

APPROVED, Dec. 30, 1826.

AN ACT to prevent the Creek Indians from hunting and trapping within the settled limits of this State.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in general assembly convened, That if any Creek Indian or Indians shall, after the first day from hunting of May next, be found hunting, trapping  or fishing within the
trapping and settled limits of this state, or upon any lands in this state to which the Indian title has been extinguished, it shall be lawful for any person or persons to arrest such Indian or Indians found hunting, &c. as aforesaid, and to carry him or them before some justice of the peace of the county in which such state offence may have been committed.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace, before whom any Indian or Indians may be brought for trial, charged with the offence of hunting, &c. as specified in the first section of this act, to examine such proof as may be adduced before him, and if in his judgment such Indian or Indians be guilty of the offence with which he or they may stand charged, such justice shall cause the gun and trap or traps of such Indian or Indians to be taken from him or them, and place the same in the hands of some constable, whose duty it shall be, (on giving ten days notice by public advertisement,) to proceed to sell the same to the highest bidder, for cash, and pay the proceeds thereof, to the agent of the nation to which such Indian may belong, for the use and benefit of such Indian, after deducting his fees for said service; and upon conviction before any justice of of-the peace of any Indian or Indians, of a second offence offence, hunting, &c. as aforesaid, said justice may commit any such punished.
Indian or Indians to the common jail of the county in which such offence may have been committed, for any time not more than five, nor less than one day. APPROVED Jan. 11, 1827.

Alabama legislative acts, 1826-1827 : Alabama. Legislature : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 Sawyer @ The Saban Center

 March 30 water moccasin

 More fish at the old steamboat bow