The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-08

location. where 1t became the nucleus about which the big town of the Wiregrass was formed.
 From Poplar Head to DOthan.
 Then came the railroad and Dothan, the railroad being the old Ala bama Midland, the year being 1889.
 | J. R. Keyton. a former editor of the Dothan Home Journal and now a well known citizen of the town, told me of his coming to the town. MT. Keyton's s advent was with the railroad, he be- ing employed with the construction corps. He came in when the place was yet Poplar Head.
 There were then" said MT. Keyton, two barrooms and three wooden stores. They were situated on both sides of the big road and to locate the exact place I will tell you that they stood at the intersection of Main and St. Andrews Streets, where Young's drug store is now.
 "Out in the middle of the road was a country well and a big chinaberry tree The tree, you may understand, was a popular resort. The differences which arose in those rather rough days between the farmers and early settlers | of Poplar Head were usually arbitrated by the old-fashioned fist and skull method under this tree. There were some quite lively contests under the old chinaberry tree. but so far as have been informed no funerals ever came of the chinaberry tree fights. Under the china berry tree the jus tices of the peace held their high courts with all due so1emnity. Here they weighed evidence. pronounced ver- diets. settled legal matters and pro- nounced sentences.
 Holding Open Court.
 l "WhY, the very day I got here they were holding court under the big tree. What cases were they trying? A jus tice of the peace was trying several white boys of the community who were charged with violating hen roosts. It was charged against the boys, a mischlevous set, that they had formally organized for the purpose of raiding hen roosts and having big din- ners of roast chicken out in the woods. It was more a mischievous prank of country boys than anything else, and I think the boys were worse fright ened by the justices court than pun ished by it.
 This was on the eve of Dothan and l Dothans greatness. The men who owned lands were to get rich by sim ply sitting still. The principal land owners in and around Dothan at this l crucial time were W. J. Jerkins, J. T. l Richard Pitcher. These men owned about 160 acres apiece in and around | Dothan. l suppose you could have | bought that land at a figure anywhere from 50 cents to $2 an acre. Now? Well, now, I should say their land, in all, first and last. would be dirt cheap at $200O an acre.
 About this time Ed Williams had come in and gone to publishing a little l lNxrnn nlFI FINr ruynf fNh h0 rsf. Dothan Light, being assisted in the en- | terprise by Lucius Cranberry. For 1 editorial rooms, composing rooms and sleeping apartments the two had the rear end of a wooden store. But the paper before long had developed into The Wiregrass siftings, money maker and one of the most valuable pieces of newspaper properties in the State.
 Tn the latter part of 1889 the town began building up rapidly and few erishly. It would look like that store houses went up In a night. They were wooden structures however. and easy food for the flames once a fire ever got started. Dothan had a big fire in the early part of 1890 when the flames ate up nineteen stores Building Brick Stores. The people then were coming rapid ly from the counties above us, and many others were moving in from Georgia and other states. The growth of town was then certain and as- sured. Brick stores began to sup plant the wooden structures" The first brick building the two story structure on the corner of Main and Faster street was put up by Dr. J A Balcum. The second story was used as a hotel operated by S. F. Lightner. Ten stores shortly after wards was built by contract by A. c. Crawford. By that time the town of Dothan was on a firm basis and it's | future growth was assured. From then until now its progress towards a city has been as steady as 1t has been rap- i'd"
 But with the coming of the railroad the name of the town was changed from Poplar Head to Dothan. The ap- propriate name of Dothan is said by some to have been suggested by Rev. M. Connally, a minister of tine town at that time and by others the name Is said to have been suggested by the l Postoffice Department at Washing ton. There Is not, however, any dif- ference of opinion as to whence came the name. It was from that verse of Genesis: For I heard them say. Let us go 10 DOInan.
 In the early days of Poplar Head and Dothan the country below mad in 1t many settlers of a free and easy na- ture who loved fight almost as well as they liked a drink They were not A criminal class but they were unac- customed to the restraint of the law and under committees further up the State. They gave the authorities of the lncipient town some trouble, but they were soon crowded out of the section by the migration of so many good men to the section.
 The Tragic RiOt.
 It was during their day. SeptembeJ 1889, when there occurred the fam ous bloody riot of Dothan, at which when the shooting was over three men were found in a heap two of them dead and the third desperately wounded, while half dozen others were more or less seriously hurt. The bloody af- fray came about because of a differ ence between the town council of De- than and the Farmers Alliance. The Farmers Alliance was operating a warehouse just outside the city limits. which the council assessed because the Alliance people were hauling their cot ton into the depot which was in the towns limits
 Acting under instructions from the Council Marshal Tobe Domingus and his assistant Porker Powell arrested George Stringer. Manager of the ware house for refusing to pay the license.