Two Trees, a Lynching, and the Future

Dealing with yesterday to improve tomorrow.

A Commentary by Dale Cox

The actual "Claude Neal" tree at the Jackson
County Courthouse faces Madison Street. 

Thirty years before I was born, six men took a man named Claude Neal into the deep swamps of the Chattahoochee River in Jackson County, Florida. They chained him to a tree, tortured him, and murdered him.

The crime was so brutal that residents miles away heard the farm laborer's screams. After Neal was dead, the men of the self-dubbed "Committee of Six" threw his body onto the back bumper of a car and carried it to the Cannady farm near Greenwood. The remains were kicked from the bumper as the vehicle approached the house. The body was dragged by the neck into the yard.

Claude Neal was accused of killing Lola Cannady, the 18-year-old daughter of farmer and furniture maker George Cannady. She was attacked as she pumped water for the family livestock, beaten with a hammer, and thrown into a muddy pen for the hogs to eat. She regained consciousness, climbed over a fence, and started to crawl across a peanut field, but her murderer saw her and attacked her again. This time she was dragged deep into a wooded area where her skull was crushed with an oak limb. Her body was hidden beneath fallen trees and debris.

The Jackson County Courthouse as it appeared in
1934. The structure was later demolished.

Lola Cannady slept in a cold grave by the time Claude Neal's body was shot full of bullet holes in the front yard of the Cannady home. He was already dead by then. Neighbors threw his body onto a flatbed truck and carried it to Marianna. 

Neal was hanged from a tree outside the courthouse as a message to Sheriff W.F. "Flake" Chambliss, who had gone to extraordinary lengths to save the unfortunate man from death at the hands of the mob. The lawman found the body a short time later, cut it down, and carried it to the nearby jail.

Claude Neal was black. Lola Cannady was white. He was married with a young daughter. She was engaged to be married. Both were murdered in the most brutal ways imaginable. Rumors about them turned into legends, which many now accept as fact. As if anything could excuse murder and the brutal way in which the two of them were killed.

The ghosts of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady still haunt Jackson County, crying out for justice. 

Lola is the more forgotten of the two. Not even a gravestone reminds us that she ever lived. For some reason, people seem not to care, yet she was a victim too.

"Cut it Down," and "Claude Neal" signs were
posted hist week on an oak tree at the Jackson
County Courthouse. The actual tree is visible at
left in the background.

Claude is better remembered. And there is the controversy that rises again to wrap itself around Marianna and Jackson County. A petition is circulating on the internet, demanding that a tree in front of the courthouse be cut down (see it here). Signs also went up on one of the courthouse oaks this week, pointing it out as the "Claude Neal" tree with the demand "Cut it down."

It is a refrain that rises and falls with the times. I have long known that many older people in Jackson County's African American community are sensitive about the tree, and understandably so. Some remember the terror of the riots that followed the Neal lynching and the fear that their homes would be burned down around them. They are fewer in number now, but they are still here.

I admit that I have been surprised by the growing passion among younger generations about the tree, even if there is sometimes confusion about which tree it is (more on that in a minute). This growing passion has caused me much reflection.

Aesop Bellamy's trees are seen here about
20-years after they were planted by the African
American businessman.

The courthouse trees - including the one used for less than one hour to display the body of Claude Neal - are historic in their own right. They were planted in 1873 by a man named Aesop Bellamy. A freedman or former slave, he was one of the county's first black businessmen. In what may be the earliest contract award by Jackson County to an African American, Bellamy was hired to plant 36 live oak trees around the courthouse. Not many of them survive, but they stand as a monument to this early entrepreneur.

The actual "Claude Neal" tree at the Jackson County Courthouse is not the oak in front that many people point to. It is the second tree from the northeast corner on the Madison Street side. The sheriff's office faced Madison Street in 1934, and Neal's body was hung there as a message to Sheriff Chambliss. The actual limb from which the body was suspended is no longer there, it was cut off years ago, but the tree remains.

The tree where the "Committee of Six" killed
Claude Neal was destroyed by Hurricane Michael
in 2018. Only the base of the trunk remains.

The other "Claude Neal" tree is the so-called Hanging Tree near Parramore Landing in eastern Jackson County. He was chained to it while he was tortured and murdered. I have guided classes from Florida State University to the tree on numerous occasions, braving snakes and briars to help them with their studies. Hurricane Michael largely destroyed it, leaving only the base of the trunk. 

So how do we, as a community, begin the process of putting the ghosts of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady to rest? 

That is a question that we should all put some time and thought into answering. The Bible teaches us to be merciful and kind to one another. We all see the world through different eyes, but there are many things that we all have in common, no matter our race or culture or background or religion. We all want our children and grandchildren to have better lives and a better place to live in.

I have some suggestions - and that's all they are, just suggestions - I have no more power than anyone else. Perhaps they are worth considering.

1. Let's begin by offering the families of Claude Neal and Lola Cannady to place headstones on their graves. Neither grave is marked. If the exact burial spots cannot be identified, then the stones can be placed nearby.
2. Jackson County, working with the Florida Division of Historical Resources, should place historical markers near the Neal murder site at Parramore Landing and the Cannady/Smith farm sites near Greenwood to interpret the events of 1934. Independent state historians should develop the text for the markers.
3. The Jackson County Commission should convene a hearing to receive public input on the fate of the actual "Claude Neal" tree on the courthouse square. This tree is the second one south of the northeast corner of the square on the Madison Street side. Despite its historical significance, if the commissioners believe after hearing public input that community healing will result from its removal, it should be taken down and proper interpretive signage placed to explain why.
4. If the tree is removed, "Aesop Bellamy Trees" rooted from acorns produced by the other oaks on Courthouse Square should be planted each year for 10-years at Jackson Blue Springs and other county parks.
5. Regardless of the fate of the "Claude Neal" tree, the County Commission should adopt an ordinance declaring the other live oaks planted by Aesop Bellamy on the courthouse square to be Landmark Trees and providing for their permanent protection and care. The county should work with the Florida Division of Historical Resources to prepare an application for listing the trees (less the Claude Neal tree) on the National Register of Historic Places due to their connection to Aesop Bellamy, an African American entrepreneur of the Reconstruction era. The county should place a marker telling the story of Bellamy's trees.
6. Finally, the Jackson County Tourist Development Council is encouraged to work in cooperation with the Jackson County Commission, the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP, the Florida Panhandle Natural and Cultural Resources Association (FPNCRA), and the Chipola Historical Trust to develop a multi-cultural driving tour of Jackson County. This tour should feature historic sites and landmarks of interest to people of all races and cultures, to inspire our young people and show them that it is possible to rise above circumstances to achieve great things.

These are my suggestions. I welcome you to make suggestions of your own as comments, and perhaps we can come up with a plan to move past the ghosts of the past and into a better future together.

All comments are moderated, so just be polite, and your thoughts will be shared. No bad language!

A Greenwood slave seeks freedom in death

Suicide at the bottom of a well.

by Dale Cox

 

Aerial photograph of Greenwood taken before
Hurricane Michael struck the area.

The census of 1860 shows that half of the more than 10,000 people living in Jackson County were held in slavery by a relatively small percentage of the other half. Most were of African descent, although some Native Americans were among their number.  

A true story of the plight of one of these individuals appeared in the pages of the Florida Whig newspaper in 1853. The man lived on the farm of Dr. Franklin Hart and committed suicide by jumping into a well:

Singular Suicide.- The Florida Whig of the 29th ult. records a remarkable case of suicide by a negro belonging to Dr. Franklin Hart, of Marianna, who precipitated himself, head-foremost, into the well, and was drowned. The circumstances were these: - A few days, probably a week preceding, the negro, pampered by too good treatment, attacked his master, and inflicted considerable injury, and, of course, ran away. On the following Sunday evening, the negro came to the house of a servant belonging to a gentleman of the place, who immediately and faithfully reported his appearance to Dr. Hart, who had him secured. On Monday morning, when asked to step out, which he doubtless concluded was for the purpose of receiving a well-merited chastisement, he threw himself into the well, and, probably stunned by the descent, his own efforts to save himself, though violent, were unavailing, and those from above fruitless, though speedily rendered. [1]

This 1845 drawing depicts the whipping or "paddling" of a
slave in Pensacola, Florida. Library of Congress.

The name of the man who so desperately sought to avoid enslavement and the last is not known. The newspaper writer's statements that the man's attack on Dr. Hart, who held him in bondage, was due to "too good treatment" and that a planned beating was "well-merited" is a reflection of the attitudes held by some in the press in that day.

The man's story reached far beyond his home county or state. The Florida Whig's article about the suicide was picked up by The Liberator, an Abolitionist newspaper published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison. The publisher was a leader in the religious movement against slavery, and his modest readership included Frederick Douglas. 

In addition to abolitionist sermons and editorials, The Liberator republished news accounts of incidents such as the one involving Dr. Hart to reinforce its crusade against American slavery.

Dr. Hart's home, according to an advertisement he placed five years later, was in Greenwood:

The subscriber offers for sale his Residence in Greenwood, Florida, to which is attached 80 acres of Land, 50 of which are cleared and in a good state of cultivation.

Greenwood is situated in one of the most pleasant, healthy, and populous neighborhoods in the State, 9 miles north of Marianna and 10 miles west of Niel’s landing on the Chattahoochee River, and is a fine location for a Physician or Merchant.

The Dwelling is a good two-story house with 6 rooms and there are on the premises a Storehouse, Physician’s office, a good barn and stables, and all necessary outhouses.

Any person buying and not wishing the land for cultivation could divide it into Lots and sell it at a profit. Apply to

FRANKLIN HART.

Greenwood, Jackson county, Fla.

February 2, 1858 [2]

The burial location of the unfortunate man is not known. Perhaps someday, a marker will tell his story and remind us all that he once lived and died in our community.

-

References:

[1]The Liberator, December 2, 1853, page 192.

[2] Columbus Enquirer, February 4, 1858.

Alcatraz documentary premieres tonight in Columbia, Alabama

"Escape to the Wiregrass" to be unveiled!

by Rachael Conrad

The film premieres tonight (Monday, 10/21, 6:30 p.m.) at the
Houston County High School Cafeteria in Columbia, Alabama.

A former dean of Troy University and former Jackson County Sheriff John P. McDaniel are among those who appear in a new documentary set to premiere tonight in Columbia, Alabama!

"Alcatraz: Escape to the Wiregrass" is a feature-length film that explores the links between the Wiregrass area of Southeast Alabama, Southwest Georgia, and Northwest Florida and the 1962 "Escape from Alcatraz." The documentary is funded by Two Egg TV and made possible through the research of historian and author Dale Cox, who produced the film. It unveils new information about the fates of inmates Frank Lee Morris, Clarence Anglin, and John Anglin. The trio paddled their makeshift raft away from Alcatraz prison on June 11, 1962.

Dr. Adair Gilbert, formerly of Chipola College and Troy
University, in a scene from the new documentary.

Among those featured in the program is Dr. Adair Gilbert, Ph.D. As a child, she witnessed the Anglin brothers robbery of the Bank of Columbia, Alabama. Dr. Gilbert later served as Director of Business and Technology at Chipola College and Dean of the School of Business at Troy University. In the documentary, she remembers what she saw from a drugstore across the street where she was enjoying a soda when the infamous robbery took place. 

Columbia historian David Hunter, retired business leaders, and others tell their stories in the documentary - many of them for the first time.

Another recognizable face in the film is that of John P. “Johnny Mac” McDaniel, the retired sheriff of Jackson County, Florida. He unexpectedly became involved in the Alcatraz case many years after the 1962 escape and tells his story on camera for the first time! 

Tourism expert Heather Lopez and historian Dale Cox peer
into the Bank of Columbia building, scene of the 1958
Anglin brothers robbery, during a visit to Columbia, Alabama.

The film breaks new ground in its exploration of possible links between crimes in Marianna, Florida, and Brundidge, Alabama, to the Alcatraz escapees. Both crimes took place AFTER the Alcatraz escape. Jackson County eyewitness Robert Earl Standland remembers a 1963 bank robber in Marianna and historian Dale Cox discusses the Brundidge incident.

Although he now lives near the beloved community of Two Egg, Florida, Cox was born in the same town as the Anglin brothers. He unexpectedly stumbled into a new investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service in the 1980s and shares inside information from the case for the first time. He has researched the Alcatraz escape and what became of the three escapees for thirty years and now tells the whole story of what he has found. Especially compelling are his memories of contacts on several occasions with a man who may have been one of the escapees.

The documentary features locations in Jackson County, Florida; Seminole and Early Counties, Georgia; Houston and Pike Counties, Alabama – not to mention San Francisco, California; Kansas City, Missouri; Brazil, and the Bahamas!

 

“Alcatraz: Escape to the Wiregrass” premiers TONIGHT (Monday, 10/21/2019) at the Houston County High School Cafeteria in Columbia, Alabama. This exclusive, one-time showing takes place at 6:30 p.m. Central/7:30 p.m. Eastern and is appropriate for all ages. Future plans for additional showings will be announced soon.

Two Egg TV is a free, streaming history and travel channel. You can watch on YouTube at www.youtube.com/twoeggtv, online at www.twoeggflorida.com, and on television by adding the Two Egg TV channel to your Roku-enabled smart tv or Roku device. 

The "Hot Springs" of Cottonwood, Alabama

The Story of Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells

by Dale Cox

Sealy's Hot Sale Mineral Well resort is seen here on a
popular postcard from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Dreams of oil wealth vanished for Cottonwood as quickly as they had come (please see Cottonwood, Alabama: "Floating on a pool of oil"). 

The Sealy brothers, who invested tens of thousands of dollars of their own money during the craze, were nothing if not determined. They soon realized that their failed oil wells just might pay off after all.

Sealy Well No. 1 penetrated to depths of nearly 5,000 feet before the drilling was called to a halt. One of the last drill bits, however, struck something that proved almost as valuable as oil - hot water:

Nine years ago on the Sealy farm about three-fourths of a mile from Cottonwood, a well was started in search for oil. After almost four years of drilling and expenditure of about $123,000, at a depth of 4,280 feet, just as it had almost reached the top, the drill dropped and the terrific impact of its fall for almost three-fourths of a mile, broke the strata and immediately a powerful stream of hot salt mineral water gushed out and from then until now the hot salt mineral water has been pouring out at a rate of over 10,000 gallons per hour at a temperature of about 110 degrees. - (Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood, "Oil Drill In Valley Fails But A Mineral Spring Is Result," Columbus Daily-Enquirer, February 13, 1937.)

A small stream of hot water flows from the former resort
grounds and under Sealy Wells Road in Cottonwood.

The artesian well or "hot spring" created a stream of water that flowed off into low spot that soon became a lake. Members of Cottonwood's African American community were the first to test the curative powers of the water. Like most Americans of the early 20th-century, they believed that hot mineral water could cure a variety of illnesses.

One man found relief from rheumatism after bathing in the water. Not long after it was noticed that a dog with the mange cured itself by swimming in the lake. This led another to dig a hole deep enough for his ailing mule to enter and soak itself. The mule was cured of sores and lameness.

These early experiments generated considerable excitement in Cottonwood and prompted a local man named Pete Lambert to see if the water could cure his broken leg. Lambert was driving a mule-team when his leg was broken in an accident. Doctors were preparing to amputate the unhealed limb, but he tried bathing in the lake for 27 straight days. The broken bones healed.

As Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood reported in 1937, the hot spring suddenly became a sensation:

The hot water pool at Sealy Springs was a popular part of
from the days of its creation in the 1930s.
Alabama Department of Archives and History

The news of the cures began to spread. The Sealy's had the water analyzed and found it contained six valuable mineral elements, some not found in any other hot water wells or springs in America. Then it was discovered that taken internally the water was beneficial for ulcerated stomach, kidney diseases and liver complaints; and still later that catarrh [i.e., mucus buildup in the nose or throat] would be cured by snuffing the water into the nostrils and taking the baths. - Ibid.

The brothers J.R. Sealy and C.S. Sealy realized the potential of their accidental discovery. In the spring of 1936, they started building a resort around their "hot mineral well" that included 55 hotel rooms, cottages, apartments, a large assembly area, and dining rooms. Visitors could "take the waters" in 32 rooms with baths built for that purpose as well as in a 50x100 foot swimming pool. 

So many people came - more than 10,000 in 1936-1937 - that almost the entire town of Cottonwood "was turned into a big rooming house to care for the overflow of people who came for bathing and treatment in the healing waters of the well."

The resort was a stunning success. By 1938 its fame had spread across the nation, and even hotels in Panama City were advertising the fact that they were only 90-minutes from Cottonwood, Alabama:

The gates to the Sealy Hot Salt Mineral Wells resort
still retain a touch of their original splendor.

Cottonwood, Alabama, "the Hot Springs of the Southeast," has become famous the nation over within a comparatively short period of time for its hot salt mineral springs, the healing properties of whose waters are declared to have been beneficial to a great number of people. - (Columbus Daily Enquirer, March 27, 1938.)

Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells or Sealy Springs rivaled similar destinations by the eve of World War II. Many who had previously gone to Hot Springs, Arkansas, or Warm Springs, Georgia, came to Cottonwood instead. Even President Franklin Roosevelt expressed interest in the resort.

Campgrounds with trailer hookups were added, and the resort advertised activities and amenities for visitors to enjoy when not taking the baths. Guided quail and fox hunting expeditions became a significant part of life at Sealy Springs, with the Sealy brothers acquiring access to 43,000 acres of hunting lands.

Visitors came by the thousands. Some arrived by car from Dothan, Panama City, and other points. Others came in the comfort of passenger cars on the AF&G Railroad, which connected the town of Cowarts near Dothan with Malone and Greenwood in Northwest Florida. The doctors and nurses on staff helped those paralyzed from polio as well as sufferers of arthritis, injuries, muscular diseases, and even the measles. Most left convinced that the hot mineral waters had helped them.

Nature has reclaimed the surviving structures of the resort.

The final years before World War II marked the peak of the resort's success. And then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The country mobilized for war and trips to resorts like Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells became luxuries in which few indulged. The post-war years did not bring back Cottonwood's glory days. The central administration building of the resort was destroyed by fire in 1947, but there were no injuries as "few guests were registered."

Sealy Springs finally closed as a resort, and the facility later went through uncertain times when a much-investigated medical clinic opened there. Comedian Dick Gregory was also reportedly in negotiations to develop the site as a diet clinic in the late 1980s. A 2001 fire ended the resort's 65-year history, however, by destroying the main facilities.

The site of the hot springs is overgrown and all but forgotten today. An iron gate, dilapidated fence, and a few surviving structures are all that remain as reminders of its fascinating history.

The hot water still flows, filling the warm water lake on the grounds and then flowing away down a creek to eventually make its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Editor's Note: The grounds of the hot springs can be viewed from Sealy Wells Road at its intersection with Joe Cook Street in Cottonwood, Alabama. The site is private property and is closed to the public so please view from the right-of-way and do not trespass.

Greenwood and the Alcatraz Escape: Anglin brothers sighted in Florida?

Greenwood, Florida
Home of the Alcatraz Escapees?

UPDATE: The History Channel aired a documentary on 10/12/2015 revealing a probable photograph of the Anglin brothers said to have been taken in Brazil in 1975. This new evidence in no way counters claims that the two men were living in Jackson County, FL 25 years later.

MORE: Informant claims one of Alcatraz escapees is still alive (6/20/2014).

In June 1962 three inmates slipped out of the United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay and carried out what many believe was the first successful escape from the federal prison that is still called "The Rock." The incident formed the basis for the Clint Eastwood movie "Escape from Alcatraz."

Alcatraz Island
Carol Highsmith photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress.

No one knows whether Clarence Anglin, John William Anglin and Frank Lee Morris are alive today. If so, all three would be between 83 and 89 years old.  Alcatraz is now a national park and the escape is part of American history, but the U.S. Marshals Service continues to search for Morris and the Anglin brothers. A reward for information leading to their capture remains in place.

While many people have at least heard of the 1962 Alcatraz escape, most do not know that Jackson County was the scene of a major local and federal search for the escapees in 1989-1991. That investigation was launched after compelling evidence surfaced that two of the three men had not only been seen in Jackson County, but were living near Greenwood.

Much of what I am about to write has never before been disclosed. I am familiar with the story because I unexpectedly became part of it in the summer of 1990.

W.L. "Mac" McLendon
U.S. Marshal Retired

The news broke on Christmas Eve 1990 when the San Francisco Daily Journal reported that federal authorities had been investigating the possibility that the Clarence and John Anglin were in Jackson County. U.S. Marshal W.L. "Mac" McLendon told the Journal, "What we're looking at is the possibility that two of the three escapees, the Anglin brothers, who were raised in this vicinity, possibly escaped and came back to this area."

Despite the 1962 pronouncements of some federal officials that Alcatraz was "escape proof" and that the men had drowned, the U.S. Marshals Service has always known that the escape probably succeeded. The evidence was compelling. The makeshift rubber raft used by the men had been found on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, along with  homemade paddles, life vests and footprints. Investigators had also interviewed numerous eyewitnesses who reported seeing the men, in the process trailing the escapees east across the United States. Then the trail then went cold.

Clarence Anglin in 1960 (FBI)

That all changed in 1989 when NBC television aired a special edition of the program "Unsolved Mysteries" that focused on the escape. To the surprise of U.S. Marshals, a woman they would only identify as "Cathy" called the show's tip line to report that she not only recognized a photo of Clarence Anglin, but knew him to be living on a farm near Marianna under an assumed name.

Authorities were initially skeptical of the woman's claims, but she provided incredible detail on the escape and correctly identified Clarence Anglin's height, eye color and other physical features not generally known by the public. She also described the farm where the man she believed to be Clarence Anglin was living, placing it in a rural area near Greenwood.

Clarence Anglin as he might
appear today (FBI).

According to "Cathy," the escape had been carried out with outside help. Her story, in brief, was that individuals with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Alabama made contact with a former Florida sheriff to solicit his help. The former officer agreed and went to San Francisco. The escape was timed with precision and he was waiting with a car when the men reached shore. "Cathy" said the party was well away from San Francisco by the time the guards realized the men were missing. The three escapees split up, she said, with two eventually living in seclusion near Greenwood. She identified one of these men as Clarence Anglin and the other as likely being Frank Lee Morris.

Frank Morris in 1960 (FBI)

An investigative team from the U.S. Marshals Service quietly came to Jackson County and launched an extensive search for the farm described by "Cathy" but was unable to find it. Arrangements were made to fly the woman to Jackson County so she could direct authorities to the home she had described. At this point, however, she suddenly stopped talking, telling deputy marshals that her family had warned her to "keep her mouth closed." She was brought to Jackson County by plane but remained uncooperative.

I became aware of these activities in 1990 while I was working as Regional News Director for WJHG-TV in Panama City. With cooperation from law enforcement, I filed reports on the search and encouraged anyone with information to come forward. Due to a commitment I made to Marshal McLendon, I never reported on the events that followed.

Frank Morris as he might
appear today (FBI).

Almost immediately after news of the search hit the national news wires, I was contacted by a California writer who claimed to have information on the location of the escapees. He asked if I would be willing to speak with him in person and offered to fly to Florida from California.

I agreed to see him, but also notified then Jackson County Sheriff John P. McDaniel and Chief Deputy John Dennis of his claim. Marshal McLendon was alerted and a special surveillance team was brought to Marianna by the marshals service. By the time the writer arrived, this team was in place in Jackson County with a surveillance van, cameras, hidden microphones and more.

John Anglin in 1960 (FBI)

The meeting with the writer went downhill quickly after he told Sheriff McDaniel that he thought all Southern law enforcement officers were members of the KKK. The assertion was made after the writer became frustrated that neither the sheriff nor I would provide him with details on the investigation beyond those that had been made public. The sheriff rightfully was insulted by the claim, as were other officers in the room at the time. To the best of my knowledge the writer's claims of having information on the whereabouts of the escapees were false and I do not believe he ever learned that he was under federal surveillance throughout visit.

John Anglin as he might
appear today (FBI).

During my discussions with federal investigators as the writer's visit took place, however, I was given access to much of the information provided by "Cathy" before she ended her cooperation with authorities. I immediately recognized the home she had described and was able to point out its location to investigators.

Now operating with better directions, authorities visited the farm where "Cathy" said she had visited with Clarence Anglin. They found the house and barns to be exactly as described by the Texas woman with one exception - the home was empty. Neighbors reported that two men had lived there, but had moved away suddenly the previous year. Several indicated that one of the men did bear a strong resemblance to a photo they were shown of Clarence Anglin. It was determined that the departure of the men from the farm coincided with the dates when "Cathy" was known to be speaking with the U.S. Marshals Service.

Greenwood Town Hall in Greenwood, Florida

That was not all. It turned out that Clarence and John Anglin had been born in Donalsonville, Georgia, just 23 miles northwest of Greenwood. They had gone to federal prison for robbing the bank in Columbia, Alabama, another area town that is less than 40 miles north of Greenwood. Relatives of the men live in Southwest Georgia to this day.

Investigation also revealed that the retired Florida law enforcement officer named by "Cathy" was a real person, but had passed away between 1962 and 1989. He had a brother living in San Francisco and was related to an individual in Birmingham, Alabama, who was an avowed member of the Ku Klux Klan and a suspect in the Birmingham Church Bombing.

Christmas decorations at the Boys' School when
Clarence Anglin was serving time there.
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

Documentary research revealed that Clarence Anglin and Frank Lee Morris had previous history in Jackson County. Both had spent time as juvenile offenders at what later became the Dozier School for Boys.

Finally, eyewitnesses saw a man they described as John William Anglin write a check at the Red and White Food Store in Brundidge, Alabama, on January 4, 1963. The check was returned to the store by Brundidge Banking Company because it had been written on a non-existent account. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was notified and the Mobile office sent investigators to Brundidge. The eyewitnesses who saw the man pass the check firmly maintained that he "was identical" to photographs of John Anglin.

Wanted poster for John Anglin (FBI)

The check was sent to Washington, D.C., for examination by the Bureau's handwriting experts. These investigators compared the check with examples of John Anglin's handwriting and admitted they could not determine "whether ANGLIN did or did not" write the check. The handwriting, they reported, was very similar with only small differences.

The check is preserved as evidence by the FBI and remains an intriguing clue to the presence of at least one of the Anglin brothers in the Wiregrass region months after the Escape from Alcatraz.

So did two of the 1962 Alcatraz escapees spend years living on a farm near Greenwood? The evidence is compelling. Former Jackson County Chief Deputy John Dennis concluded in 1990 that "they were here."

#59 The Greenwood Club Cavalry (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Grave of Captain Henry Robinson

The school boys of Greenwood turned out in defense of their homes and families at the Battle of Marianna 150 years ago this month. Their company, the Greenwood Club Cavalry, is #59 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

Please click here to see the entire list as it is unveiled.

The withdrawal of most regular Confederate troops from Florida in the months after the Battle of Olustee left vast areas of the state with no protection. Even before Governor John Milton ordered all men and boys over the age of 15 to enlist in militia or "home guard" companies for the defense of the state, individuals in some communities responded to the need and organized companies of their own.

This was the case in northwestern Jackson County where around 30 men and boys formed the Campbellton Cavalry (see #60 the Campbellton Cavalry). At the academy or school in Greenwood, instructor Henry J. Robinson led his students in doing the same.

Great Oaks was  landmark of Greenwood in 1864.

The unit formed by Robinson and the school boys of Greenwood was dubbed the Greenwood Club Cavalry, the word "club" inserted as a probable indication that the company had been formed privately. The boys continued their studies, but Robinson also gave them military training. They were Florida's "other" cadets of the War Between the State (or Civil War).

It should be noted that the Greenwood unit is often confused or blended with another company, Captain George Robinson's Jackson County Home Guards. Both companies were from eastern Jackson County and both were headed by captains named Robinson.

View of Ely Corner where Greenwood Club Cavalry helped
drive back a Union charge during the Battle of Marianna.

Henry J. Robinson was a former member of the 5th Florida Cavalry and had a basic understanding of cavalry tactics. Taking on the mantle of captain of the Greenwood Club Cavalry, he led his students through horseback and weapons drills. By the time Union troops entered the county on September 26, 1864, the Greenwood boys had become proficient.

Robinson was not the only adult member of the unit. Dr. M.A. Butler of Greenwood served as a lieutenant and other adults of the community joined the company after July 1864 when Governor Milton ordered all male citizens of the state to join the militia.

The courageous role of the Greenwood Club Cavalry in the Battle of Marianna will be discussed in a future posting. While the fight at Marianna was the heaviest action in which the company took part, it also responded to Union raids on at least two other occasions.

An original roster of the company has not been found, but the following list was compiled from 19th century documents and later pension application files:

Greenwood Club Cavalry

Henry J. Robinson, Captain
Dr. M.A. Butler, Lieutenant
Francis "Frank" Allen (76 years old)
Henry Applewhite
William Arnold
C.C. Avery
James S. Baker
Bolling Barkley
Thomas Barnes
J.R. Bowles
William Henry Cox
James H. Dickson (left to join cadets in Tallahassee before Battle of Marianna)
John J. Dickson (59 years old)
James R. Ferguson
Charles A. Finley
Davis Gray
Hansel Grice
William H. Harvey
W.H. Kimball (Sheriff of Jackson County)
James R. McMillan
T.D. Newsome
Andrew Scott, Corporal
Robert Sorey
William D. Sorey

This list is incomplete. If you have an ancestor that served in the Greenwood Club Cavalry, please let me know by leaving a comment. We would like to assemble as many names as possible in time for the Battle of Marianna 150th anniversary on September 27, 2014.

Informant claims one of Alcatraz escapees is still alive

Alcatraz Island
Carol Highsmith photo, Library of Congress

An unnamed informant says one of the three men that escaped from Alcatraz prison in 1962 is still alive and "has done a lot of good in the world since escaping."

The claim was made in the wake of the publication earlier this week of a story on a possible connection between the Jackson County town of Greenwood and the 1962 "Escape from Alcatraz." That article included details about how local and federal investigators searched the Greenwood area in 1989-1991 after receiving credible information that two of the men had been living in the vicinity.

Clarence Anglin, 1960 (FBI)

An eyewitness in 1989 said that she knew one of the escapees, Clarence Anglin, and told the U.S. Marshals Service that he was living on a secluded farm near Greenwood, Florida, along with a second man that she thought might be Frank Morris. She did not mention seeing John Anglin, who was Clarence Anglin's older brother and the third participant in the escape. Other eyewitnesses over the years have reported seeing John Anglin as well and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was not able to rule out John as the person who wrote a check to an Alabama store in the 1960s.

Please click here to read the original article: Greenwood and the Alcatraz escape.

The information from the informant is as follows:

Greenwood from the air.

Nice post. Once of these men is still alive, both have lived full good lives that did not include a return by either of them to a life of crime and have raised wonderful families. There are a few details you conveniently left out of your story that reveals more about them on a personal note and circumstances that landed them in Alcatraz. The conditions they experienced were horrible and when given a choice they took a chance as opposed to suffering. Neither ever made excuses for what they did but they have lived good Christian lives and done a lot of good int he world since escaping.
When both have passed on there are arrangements to tell there story for the benefit of others.

John Anglin, 1960 (FBI)

The statement is intriguing because it matches closely with information developed from other sources.

Those sources indicate that the escape was successful and that two of the men succeeded in crossing San Francisco Bay to Angel Island and the Marin Headlands. From there they were picked up by car and eventually made their way back east to their old home turf in the "Wiregrass" area of Southwest Georgia, Southeast Alabama and Northwest Florida.

Other sources also indicate that one of the men has passed away but that one of the escapees remains alive and is now in his 80s, that he has raised a family and that he has avoided further trouble since the time of his escape.

Frank Morris, 1960 (FBI)

The new informant notes that the story posted here earlier this week about a possible Greenwood connection to the escape did not delve into the circumstances that landed the men in Alcatraz. This was due to a space limitation, so look for a more in-depth account on the lives of the three men this Sunday here at http://www.twoegg.blogspot.com.

I normally do not post statements from anonymous informants, but found this one particularly interesting because the information provided matched so closely with what I have been able to learn from other sources.

You can read the original article at http://twoegg.blogspot.com/2014/06/informant-claims-one-of-alcatraz.html.

#88 The Willis House (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Willis House in Greenwood, Florida

The 9-bedroom Willis House in Greenwood is #88 on my list of "100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida."

Please click here to see the full list as it is unveiled.

Surrounded by beautiful live oaks, this much beloved home faces Fort Road in Greenwood. While many mistake it for an antebellum home, the house was completed by Dr. and Mrs. R.A. Willis in 1917 and will be 100 years old in three years.

Mrs. R.A. "Ma Lizzy Willis and her home
State Archives of Florida/Memory Collection

One of the largest homes built in Jackson County during the early 20th century, the Willis House has nine bedrooms. Each has its own lavatory and fireplace. Tradition holds that Mrs. Willis insisted that the house be so large because she wanted her children and grandchildren to always live under her roof.

The house was surrounded by numerous other structures, including a smokehouse, chicken coop, barns, servants' quarters and more. One unique feature was its ice house, where blocks of ice were stored. Although Dr. John Gorrie had invented artificial refrigeration more than 70 years before the Willis House was built, it took time for it to become commonplace in Florida. The earliest "refrigerators" were iceboxes in which perishables were preserved using cool air from actual blocks of ice. The ice house provided a cool place where the blocks could be stored to provide a steady source of ice for the house's icebox.

The Willis House in Greenwood

A prominent physician, businessman and politician, Dr. Willis was serving in the state senate when the house was completed. The following year, like other doctors in the area, he did his best to save patients during the terrible Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. The outbreak claimed more than 400,000 lives in the United States and millions worldwide. It is said that the house often doubled as a hospital for seriously ill patients.

In 1923, while serving as health inspector for Florida's prisons, he spoke up about the treatment of sick and injured inmates:

Dr. R.A. Willis of Greenwood, Fla., who is elected by the board of commissioners of state institutions to visit convict camps and inspect them as to sanitary arrangement and the physical condition of the men has told me repeatedly that he had visited camps and ordered men to be sent here [i.e. Raiford] for hospital treatment and on his next visit, about thirty days later, would find these same men still at the road camp. - J.S. Blitch, Superintendent of State Prison Farm at Raiford, May 3, 1923.

The willingness of men like Dr. Willis to speak up gradually led to improvement in conditions for those held in state institutions across Florida.

The Willis House today is framed by majestic oaks and giant azaleas. As of this writing, it is for sale.

#97 Daniel Boone's Long Walk (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Daniel Boone
Painted in old age by Chester Harding

#97 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County is Daniel Boone's Long Walk. Click here to read previous posts in this series.

It is a little known fact that in 1765 (250 years ago next year), the famed American explorer and pioneer Daniel Boone passed through Jackson County on his long walk across Florida. He later told the story of the journey to his son, Nathan Boone, who recorded it along with many of his father's other memories.

After 250 years of Spanish rule, Florida was surrendered to Great Britain at the end of the French & Indian War in 1763. Spain had sided with France in that conflict and lost Florida as a result.

As the British took over the colony, a steady flow of settlers began to move down from Georgia, the Carolinas and even Virginia. Pensacola and St. Augustine were the primary destinations of these settlers, but others spread out through the back country where they were welcomed by the Lower Creek and Seminole Indians. The British were on good terms with the American Indians who lived in Florida.

Daniel Boone and his dog
Drawing by Alonzo Chappel

Two years after Great Britain gained control of Florida, Daniel Boone joined a party of men headed south on a journey of exploration. He then lived in North Carolina, was 31 years old and had survived Braddock's Defeat, the bloody ambush and defeat of British troops portrayed in the book and movie, Last of the Mohicans. Boone, in fact, was the primary model for the hero of the story, Natty Bumpo (renamed Nathaniel Poe for the movie).

Contrary to legend, Daniel Boone did not wear a coonskin cap. He was from a Quaker family and wore a flat brimmed hat. He had blonde hair and blue eyes.

Boone and his fellow travelers came south through Georgia to St. Augustine. From there, with Boone leading the way, the men set out on a more than 400 mile journey to Pensacola through the vast Florida wilderness. They were following a trail called the Pensacola-St. Augustine Road.

The "road" was really little more than a footpath that wound its way west from St. Augustine to the Suwannee River and then on to Lake Miccosukee near present-day Tallahassee. From there, the trail split into two paths, both of which angled north into what is now Decatur County, Georgia, before reuniting just outside the city of Bainbridge.

Daniel Boone leading a party of settlers
Painting by George Caleb Bingham

A settler and trader named James Burges (or Burgess) had settled where Bainbridge stands today and the explorers crossed the Flint River at his settlement. They then followed the trail on past the present site of Donalsonville, Georgia, and crossed the Chattahoochee River into Jackson County and back into Florida at Ekanachatte ("Red Ground"), a Lower Creek village at what is now called Neal's Landing.

Assuming that Boone and the other men remained on the main trail, from Neal's Landing they passed west along the route of today's State Highway 2. Their journey would have taken them across the sites of today's towns of Malone, Campbellton and Graceville. They crossed Holmes Creek out of Jackson and into Holmes County near Graceville.

1778 Map of the road followed by Boone

None of these towns or counties existed then, of course, and the only people that Boone encountered in what later became Jackson County were the Creek Indians who lived at Ekanachatte and at a small town called Pucknawhitla ("Peach Tree") which stood on the present site of Campbellton.

Section of road followed by Boone through Jackson County

The journey was long and difficult. At one point Boone and the others lost track of the path and became confused in the wilderness. He later told his son Nathan that he never was lost in his life, but was confused once for a few days.

Daniel Boone had not been impressed with the lands he saw between St. Augustine and the Chattahoochee River, but once he crossed into what is now Jackson County he found richer lands and pristine forests. Deer and other animals were plentiful and the pioneer was impressed.

Daniel Boone from Life
Painting by John James Audubon

After the group reached Pensacola, Boone made arrangements to acquire land in West Florida (the British divided the modern state into two colonies, East Florida and West Florida). He planned to relocate to the area and become one of its first English settlers.

The explorer's wife, Rebecca, had other ideas. She firmly objected to the move because it would take her so far from her family in North Carolina. Boone complied with his wife's wishes and the idea of moving to Florida was abandoned.

Other members of the pioneer's family, however, would follow in his footsteps. Among the earliest American settlers of Jackson County was Gilley Crawford Boone Neel, a member of Boone's family. She first settled with her husband and children near Neal's Landing and later lived in the Paront community north of Grand Ridge. She and many other relatives of Daniel Boone are buried at Cowpen Pond Cemetery near Dellwood.

Great Oaks in Greenwood, Florida

Other relatives of the famed pioneer and his wife settled in Greenwood. Rebecca Bryan Boone was a member of North Carolina's noted Bryan family. That family was instrumental in the founding of Greenwood and Great Oaks, a beautiful antebellum home, was originally the Bryan Mansion. Members of the Boone and Bryan families are buried in numerous cemeteries around Greenwood.

The historic Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, which Boone followed across Florida, is interpreted on the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. A kiosk at City Park on Highway 71 in downtown Malone tells the story of the historic road.  Click here for more information.

Daniel Boone's long walk is an almost forgotten footnote of Florida history, but it is one of the 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

The Grave of Captain Henry Robinson

This is the grave of Captain Henry J. Robinson, a key figure in the Battle of Marianna.

Born in 1840, Robinson was only 20 years old when Florida seceeded from the Union. He originally served in Company D of the 6th Florida Infantry, a regiment mustered into the Confederate service in the spring of 1862 at the arsenal in Chattahoochee (today's Florida State Hospital).

By 1864, Robinson was a teacher at the academy in Greenwood. As Florida required all male citizens over the age of 15 to enlist in either the regular military or state militia units, he organized the boys who studied under him into a company of cadets known as the Greenwood Club Cavalry.

After completing their lessons for the day, the boys would take part in military drills led by Robinson, who also served as their captain.

On the morning of September 27, 1864, Captain Robinson was notified that a Union force was approaching Marianna and ordered to bring the boys of the Greenwood Club Cavalry to help defend the city. Many of the older men of Greenwood were unwilling to see the teenagers ride off to fight alone, so they mounted up and went with them.

The unit fought bravely at the Battle of Marianna. Francis B. Carter, a 76-year-old Greenwood resident who rode in with the boys, was killed in the fighting at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, as was Dr. M.A. Butler, another Greenwood resident who rode in with Robinson's Company.

John J. Dickson, a 59-year-old wheelwright from Greenwood who also fought with the company, was wounded in the battle by a severe blow to the head and taken prisoner. He died in a Union prison camp in New York.

Three other members of Captain Robinson's company - W.H. Kimball, T.D. Newsome and Hansel Grice - were also captured in the fighting at Marianna.

Captain Robinson was not captured during the battle, but instead was among the Confederate cavalrymen who retreated across the Chipola River. He and his men joined other Southern soldiers in tearing up the planking of the old wooden bridge and holding off Union efforts to drive them away and capture the bridge.

He did not long survive the hard times of the war, but died in 1866 and the young age of 26. He is buried at Hays Cemetery, located west of Greenwood off the Old U.S. Road. To learn more about the Battle of Marianna, please visit http://www.battleofmarianna.net/