George Singleton writes of the unusual 'Up-Side-Down Tree' of Monroe County

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 “The up-side-down tree” was originally published in the May 20, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Five miles north of the Franklin community, on the left of Highway 41, lives W.J. Knight. Growing between his house and barn is an up-side-down tree.

The tree started out as a clothes-line post. Stuck in the ground upside down, the oak pole sprouted a few leaves and began to grow. Over the years, it has grown into a large shade tree, measuring about five feet in diameter near the bottom (or should we say the top). It stands about 60 feet high, with limbs spread well over a hundred feet apart.

Knight stated that he had planned to cut the tree down, but just never got around to it. Now that it has grown into such a big shade tree, I’m sure he’s glad he didn’t get around to making it into fire wood.

Mr. Knight described how he and his sons built their home on the spot, and how over the years the house was enlarged to accommodate his growing family. Now that the children are grown and married, the Knights’ grandchildren come to visit and play in the shade of the up-side-down tree.

As I stood in the shade of this huge monarch, I could imagine the good times this family has enjoyed under it through the years, eating watermelons or homemade ice cream or even just sipping a cold drink of water from the spring below the house.

As Aaron White and myself prepared to leave this home, one could see that life had been good to this man, who has lived and worked with nature most of his lifetime. I could understand why nature had chosen this spot for the Up-Side-Down Tree.

(This column was also accompanied by a photo by Monroe Journal photographer Aaron White, and the caption beneath that photo read as follows: The Up-Side-Down Tree – Believe it or not, it started out as a clothes-line post.)

(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 during a late-night thunderstorm on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served 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 1964 to 1987. 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.)