Early Monroe County, Alabama settler John Frye homesteaded along the bottomlands of Flat Creek

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 “In early 1800s, Frye settled near Flat Creek” was originally published in the July 31, 1975 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

John Frye was a young man who came to Monroe County as a settler in the early 1800s. He bought and homesteaded land north of what is now Ridge Road. Here, along the bottom lands of Flat Creek, he built a home.

All the land that was level enough to farm was cultivated into growing cotton and the many other things that were needed for the early settler to survive.

If you look closely, you can see where the fields stretched wide along the edges of the hills that border the flat area that has come to be known as the Frye Swamp.

Oaks and flowers

Little remains of the old homeplace except a couple of tall oaks that once shaded the house. And if you look closely enough, you will see the faint traces of a flower bed and a few jonquils growing at random along where the old walkway led up to the house.

There was a time when all of the fine farming area was in full view of anyone who wished to gaze upon if from in front of the house.

In locating the area where the barn stood, I used a metal detector. Within a few minutes, I began to uncover old horseshoes, harness buckles and the old square nails that were used during this period when John Frye built his home.

Nothing remains of the old public road that once ran by the door. Only the faint traces of tall, worn banks can be seen and this only in places where the wagon tires cut deep into the clay dirt.

Into oblivion

The areas where once there were a house and barns are now crowded with tall, slender pine trees. Almost all traces of what used to be a fine, productive farm have passed into oblivion.

The only reminder of an era that has passed with the years is the huge granite marker in the small graveyard west of where the house stood.

Here, surrounded by a rustic iron fence, are the graves of John Frye and his family. Here he sleeps, in death, as in life, a part of the land he clung to and loved so dearly.

(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 also helped organize the Monroe County Museum and Historical Society and was also a past president of that organization. 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.)