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| George Buster Singleton |
(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Vestiges of large plantation
still remain at Pine Orchard” was originally published in the Oct. 28, 1971 edition
of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)
The Cunningham Plantation that was once located near the
Pine Orchard community was in full swing around the 1840s. There were hundreds
of acres of land cultivation, besides a water mill and many other interests
that added to the overall wealth of the plantation owner. Probably the largest
slave owner in South Alabama, the owner’s holding in human assets were well
over 250. The dwellings for the slaves scattered for hundreds of yards behind
the big house.
The crews that worked the water mills came and went along a
high hogback ridge that extended about two miles north of the Cunningham home,
to where the mill was located.
To the left of the road, where the hill slopes gently to the
west, the final resting place of the plantation slaves dots the hillside. No
headstones mark the shallow depressions in the ground that number over 300.
Time has long erased what identification there was among the rows of graves one
sees beneath the blanket of leaves and tangle vines. There is only one
realization of a passing era, which slips slowly into oblivion. Only the
falling leaves from the tall oak trees break the silence as the wind whispers
what sounded like the humming of the old Negro spiritual.
I looked over Jordon and what did I see,
Coming for to carry me home
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
Nothing remains of the buildings or the big house that
commanded the surrounding acres. Tall huckleberry bushes grow where the living
quarters stood. Pine trees grow where once lay acres of cotton. Only the
imagination brings to life once again the sleeping forms on the ridge, to work
the fields and run the mill beside the creek. Only the imagination lets one hear
the age old lyrics, sung by the field hands returning from work as the day was
done.
If you get there before I do
Coming for to carry me home
Tell all my friends I’m coming too
Coming for to carry me home.
(This article also featured a photo with the following
caption: Milford Champion of Pine Orchard stands in a sunken grave near the old
Cunningham Plantation.)
(Singleton, the author
of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of
79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime
resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances
Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in
Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a
U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand,
lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964
and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from
June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks
to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe
County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe
Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that
appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared
in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville
Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns
are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County
Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week
for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work
and memory alive.)
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