Son of freed slaves recalls seeing the Nettie Quill for the first time in 1886

(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 “At 93 he recalls the good old days” was originally published in the Jan. 27, 1972 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

“I can still remember just about anything that has ever happened in my lifetime. See this scar on my chin? I fell against the cooking pot when I was three years old and burned my chin. My mamma was cooking peas. I liked peas so well I couldn’t wait for them to get done. I was going to slip me some out of the pot.”

I visited Mack Lawrence Johnson of Beatrice one afternoon and as we talked about the old days, he told me about his life as a child on the banks of the Alabama River. Mack Lawrence is blind now and doesn’t hear too well, but his memory is remarkable. He remembers dates, days of the week and time of the day as though it happened yesterday.

“I was born on Tuesday, the 10^th of December 1878, near Johnson’s Woodyard on the Alabama River. I was the fifth of 15 children. My mamma and papa was born in slavery and was freed about the time the war was over. There was seven boys and eight girls in the family. I am the only one of them that is living now.

“We used to raise cotton on the river bank, and we would watch the river boats come up the river on their way to Montgomery and Wetumpka. The boats would tie up at Johnson’s Wood Yard and pick up firewood and unload freight for the people along the river. We would go aboard and look around just about any time we wanted to.

“I remember the day the steamboat ‘The Nettie Quill’ came up river for the first time. It was on a Wednesday evening, during the first week in September of 1886. The sun was about tree top high on the west bank of the river. She took on about three and a half cords of wood for her boilers. She was the first boat to come up the Alabama that was equipped with electric lights. Capt. Quill let us children go up in the wheelhouse and look around.

“In later years, I worked at Johnson’s Wood Yard. I was freight agent there in the early 1900s. After I left there, I started to do blacksmith work. I could always build good wagon wheels. I built the tall ones for the log carts.

“I could still build a good wheel, if I could just see. That’s my biggest trouble. I’m still as limber in my joints as I ever was. Do you believe that I can put my foot behind my head?”

I told him that he might hurt himself, but in spite of my objections, he placed his right foot against his right ear, with little or no effort. I was glad that he didn’t ask me if I could do the same.

As I was about to leave, I asked this amazing man what he liked to do most of all, now that he didn’t get around like he used to.

“I like to talk. A good conversation with my old friends is better than going to the doctor. I plan to live a long time yet, and I want you to tell my friends to come and see me. You come back too. You’re a good listener.”

He gave the names of some of his old friends, and I promised I would see these people and give them his message. As I left the room, the thought occurred to me that somewhere in this man’s life, some of the iron that he worked as a blacksmith must have gotten into his bloodstream. A man with his determination couldn’t be all flesh and blood.

[This column was also accompanied by a photo of Johnson and included the following caption: Mack Lawrence Johnson, 93, of Beatrice recalls memories of his early life.]

(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.)