Singleton tells of old stagecoach sign nailed to tree near Beatrice

Old L&N train depot in Beatrice, Alabama. 

(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 “Sign marks road in Monroe where stagecoaches used to roll” was originally published in the Jan. 6, 1972 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

The heart pine shingle with the two square nails are showing the effects from the weather of many winters. The tree stands tall, as though time forgot to leave its tell tale marks among its branches. In place of what used to be a well traveled road over the decades there is only the faint trace of the right of way.

A hundred years have passed since the sign was nailed to the sweet gum tree behind Lee Fountain’s house near Beatrice. The letters are faded now; faded so dim that one has to look close to make out the words carved there: “Johnson’s Woodyard - 14 Miles.” It told travelers to take the right fork of the road if they wanted to go west to the steamboat landing on the Alabama River.

This sign is posted where the old roads forked. The one to the south went to Claiborne. The one to the east went to the Turnbull community, and the one to the west – well, it went to the woodyard like the sign says. Both were well traveled in the 1870s.

These are the words of Lee Fountain, on whose property the old junction is located: “That sign has been there for a hundred years or more. I’m 75 and I’ve known people who said it was here long before I was born.”

Johnson’s Woodyard was a boat landing where the river boats would unload freight and pick up wood with which to fire their boilers. It stayed in operation until the early 1920s. A big portion of the freight that went into Butler County was hauled up the woodyard road.

This used to be part of the old stage route. The stage from the south connected at Turnbull with the eastbound stages.

As I leaned against the old sweet gum tree and talked about past decades, I wondered how many had done this very same thing down though the years; how many had leaned against this very same tree and pondered over which road to take. I could imagine the dusty stagecoaches turning south for Claiborne, the freight wagons stopping, and the drivers wiping the dust from the sign to be sure they were on the right road.

The dust from the horses, and the rattle of the wagons have passed into oblivion. The roads have been discarded, and huge timber grows where staged coaches used to roll. But the heart pine shingle still keeps a silent vigil on the side of the old gum tree – waiting for the footsore traveler to stop and cool in the shade on a hot summer day, or for the phantom stagecoaches with their road-weary passengers, telling them that they are still on the right road.

[This column also included a photo by Singleton that bore the following caption: Century-old sign nailed on a sweet gum tree at the forks of Old Stage Road and Johnson Woodyard Road is so faded that it can only be read close-up. Shown with the sign is Lee Fountain of Beatrice.]

(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.)