Transcription of Wyman's HORNETS' ROW Transcribed historical account, Hornet's Row, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, W. S. Wyman, Sr., circa 1890 - James Austin Anderson papers - The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections
BLOG POST ON HORNETS' ROW Reclaim Alabama
from the July 23, 1904 TUSCALOOSA TIMES-GAZETTE
HORNETS' ROW, TUSCALOOSA.
(It is proper to sav that those sketches were written some three months ago, while the celebrated Hornets' Row was still standing. It was the writer's purpose to print them then: but circumstances not necessary to be mentioned here prevented. Hornets' Row has been just now demolished, and the readers of the Times-Gazette will take these sketches mune proturne as the lawyers say.)
A few days ago the Times-Gazette informed its readers that the City Council of Tuscaloosa had condemned the time-smitten range of buildings known as Hornets' Row as a public nuisance and had ordered it to be demolished.
Before this pitiless decree shall be carried into effect, it may be worthwhile to record in these pages a brief sketch of the past history of the Hornets' Row or the Hornets' Nest, as it was sometimes called in the old times. An ancient author upbraids his countrymen because they glorified what was old and neglected all that was new and fresh. I applaud these old Romans; for they were following a simple law of nature. To the natural man untainted with the greed of gain the distant past is full of the spirit of poetry and fine romance; the present is raw and prosaic.
Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear
More sweet than all the landscape smiling near?
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue
The average modern American, engrossed all his thoughts with the spirit commercialism, is apt neglect, even if he does not sneer at the memories and traditions of the glorified past. The average modern American is missing in this way much of the happiness that naturally belongs to man on this side of the grave.
Of many events connected with the early history of Tuscaloosa only vague tradition remains. The twilight of uncertainty is already casting its shadow over some things that yet linger in the memory of the oldest living inhabitants. Presently the night of oblivion will come down and hide what is left. Before the Hornets' Row shall be destroyed and pass into the realm of utter forgetfulness, let me set down here a few brief notes of its interesting past history.
But where and what is Hornets' Row in Tuscaloosa? This question will certainly be asked by many of the younger generation who know but little of the antiquities of the old town. Let me answer this question first. On the west side of Monroe Street,- Monroe Street is called Twenty Third Avenue by the Mayor and Aldermen and the other Ave-noodles of the town: but the graybeards in despite of all the present day Ave-noodles, will continue to call it Monroe Street, till they die, -On the west side of Monroe Street, as I was saying, between Broad and Cotton Street, just across the way from Rob Rodes's coal and lumber yard, there stands a long row of one story wooden offices, whose rusty sides, sway-backed mouldering roofs, and crumbling chimneys show signs of extreme old age, This is the famous Hornets' Row. There are eight apartments in all; for Robertson's iron-clad grocery store at the corner of Monroe and Cotton Streets and Tom Ferguson's fish and fruit shop and Tom Dauser's shoe shop at the other end are, comparatively speaking, new buildings do not belong to the original row.
These tenements are nearly old as the town of Tuscaloosa. Built in 1826, the year in which the seat of government was removed from Cahawba to Tuscaloosa, they have been standing for more than three fourths of a century. There is no one now living who can remember them when they were spick and span new, gay with fresh plaster, white paint, green blinds. On the border of the sidewalk in front, there was a row of China trees which since 1826 had grown so large as shade the walk from the rays the mid-day sun. Two or three these old China trees were living after the war of secession. Men of Tuscaloosa not yet old can well remember these vestiges of a past generation, their gaunt trunks hollowed by old age and hard usage, thin boughs scanty which no longer offered shade to the by. offered passer by.
The name Hornets' Row or Hornets' Nest was given to these offices at a very early period. In the month of August,1829 a poem was published in the Tuscaloosa Spirit of the Age entitled "The Hornets' Nest." These verses in which the Hornets who then occupied these offices were celebrated by name, were written by Alexander M. Robinson, poet lawyer, and brilliant scholar, still well remembered by one or two of our oldest citizens. Mr. Robinson was the editor of the Spirit of the Age. He died, as his gravestone in the old Cemetery tells us, ten years later, to wit, in the year 1839.
The men who occupied the Row at this time were, with a single exception, young lawyers, many of whom in after years won the highest honors of the State. The exception was the beloved physician, Dr James Guild, Senior who occupied No. 8. Hornets' Row from the beginning to the day of his death in 1884-a period of nearly sixty years. He was the last survivor of the original Hornets.
It is not necessary to believe that these young lawyers scorned delights and lived laborious days. Life was easy going in Alabama in that blessed year, 1829. The State Bank was paying all the expenses of the State Government. Anybody who could get somebody to endorse his note could borrow money from the Bank. It is fair to imagine that to these young hornets, life was a primrose path those days. Doubtless they had a lively sense of their possibilities.
Doubtless on midsummer afternoons, when the sun was casting long shadows across the street, they sat under the trees that bordered the row and smoked their cob pipes and gossiped and told tales,and played checkers: They may have played marbles too on the shady sidewalk for all that we know to the contrary. Probably they beguiled some of the long afternoons by discussing the great political questions and the great political leaders of the time. The popularity of John Quincy Adams was rapidly declining. The star of Andrew Jackson was rising full of brilliancy and power. The present Democratic party was just then coming into existence. Honesty, sobriety, and well directed effort soon forstered, the noble ambition of most of these young lawyers into something like greatness. Of the young lawyers who had offices in Hornets' Row in 1829. There was Collier and Crabbe, And Moody and Jack, who belabored each other With many a thwack, as Mr Robinson's poem tells us. Besides these there were Acee and Frierson and Jones and Stewart. A few words touching the subsequent courses of these young men.
Henry W Collier was soon after made a Circuit Judge, and then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and finally Governor of Alabama.
George Whitfield Crabbe died in the prime of life. During his brief public career he had been Comptroller of the State, Senator from Tuscaloosa County, Lieutenant Colonel of an Alabama regiment during the Florida war, and had served two terms in Congress| of the United States.
Of Judge Washington. Moody it is only necessary to say here, in the words of Judge William R Smith, that "'his name is woven into the history of Tuscaloosa, and runs through it like a silver thread. unbroken for sixty years."
William H Jack was of the noted family of Jacks who lived in Greene County, descendants of that Revolutionary hero, Captain James Jack, who in 1775 rode horseback all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Philadelphia to deliver the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in person to the Continental Congress. Mr Jack left Tuscaloosa in early life and removed to the Republic of Texas, where he distinguished himself in the arts of war and peace .A County of Texas has been named for him.
Edmund L . Acee was a highly educated young lawyer from the University of Georgia Judge Smith in his "Reminiscences'" describes. him as "the flashing orator"' of the Tuscaloosa bar. He was noted as a faithful worker for the Union Sunday School of Tuscaloosa established before the churches had yet organized separate Sunday Schools. Of the subsequent career of Acee I know nothing. He probably died at an early age.
Samuel Gordon Frierson, well known far beyond the confines of Tuscaloosa for corpulency, mimicry, and wit, soon abandoned the practice of law. After serving for two or three terms in the General Assembly of Alabama he was in 1840 elected State Treasurer. He was continued in this office until the seat of government was removed in 1847 from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. He then became a tavern keeper in Tuscaloosa. He was at different times proprietor of the Bell Tavern and of the Indian Queen Hotel. "Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" exclaimed jolly old Falstaff, as he sat in the Boar's-head Tavern in Eastcheap, drinking sack and chaffing Dame Quickly. So memory brings back to me the portly form and the rare spirit of jolly old Gordon Frierson, as I knew him in the last years of his life, taking his ease in his inn, while he lolled in his easy chair on the veranda of the Indian Queen Tavern, smoking his long stem pipe, and telling droll stories for the entertainment of his guests. He died in 1856 at his country home of many mansions on the Greensboro road. This delightful retreat had long been a favorible summer resort for Tuscaloosa folks.
John H Jones was the only one of the young lawyers, who did desert the Hornets' Nest during the dog-days of 1892. So in Robinson's poem tells us. The others had all gone away to rest during the hot and dull season. Mr.Jones remained in town and kept his office. He was practicing now in the Court of Love. No intricate lawsuit, made him a late lingerer in town. Why John H Jones, Esquire did not shut up his shop and hie away with the others to cooler quarters is explained by the announcement of his marriage in the Tuscaloosa Spirit of the Age, one week after the publication of Mr. Robinson's poem. He was married to the charming young widow, Caroline Irby, described by Judge William R Smith in his volume of Reminiscences, as "the most beautiful of the daughters of Tuscaloosa -a belle of undisputed sway." "John H Jones was," says Judge Smith, "among the foremost of our earlier Tuscaloosa lawyers.' After his marriage he removed to Mobile, where in the practice of the law, he won fair fame and a handsome fortune.He afterwards removed to Matagorda. Texas, where he disappears from our picture.
George N Stewart, the last of the Hornets of 1829 to be mentioned here, came to Alabama in 1818 as the secretary of the Vine and Olive Colony settled by French exiles near the present Demopolis. Mr. Stewart began his legal career in Tuscaloosa while he was living in Hornets' Row, he held the office of Reporter of the Supreme Court. Two or three of earlier volumes of the Supreme Reports were prepared by him. Mr Stewart was a learned and not & politician remained in Tuscaloosa until reached the front rank among the lawyers of the town. Then went to Mobile, where he soon won his way to distinction as one the leaders of the bar of the State. He was best known for his unabating passion for work while he always took a wholesome interest in the affairs of State His public life was limited to four years' term as State Senator for the County of Mobile. Mr. Stewart was one of the three original hornets who outlived the war between the States, the other two being Judge Moody and Dr. Guild who lived and died in Tuscaloosa.
Such is the story of the Hornet' Row and its inhabitants as they were three quarters of a century ago. W. (Dr. W.S. Wyman)
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