As a young boy, I was raised in Phenix City, Alabama; on Ingersole Hill over
looking the Phenix Drive In Theater and the Hitching Post Drive In cafe. I was
like most children, not aware of much of the world outside my neighborhood.
where we played. In my "hood", at that time, it was more important to be a
good cowboy, bike racer, baseball player or explorer. Our world was what
we could see, touch, hear. or dream. Life was simpler then (mid-1950's)! We
knew all the neighborhood parents, they watched over all the kids, as well as
correct us when we got out of hand. "Yes Sir" ,"No Ma'am", and "Thank You"
were expected to be used when talking to anyone older than you. Everyone
knew and liked everybody on the Hill; friends were everywhere in the "Hood".
From our lofty view of the world, as we knew it, you could see; the downtown
Columbus/Phenix City to the east, Summerville Hill to the north, Crawford and
Opelika Road to the west, and Girard to the southeast. Everything in between
was a large valley called Phenix City. On our Hill lived several well known
families: the Carmack's, the East's, the Nix's, the Websters, the Brown's,the
Crowley's, the Hall's, the Goldwater's, the Faulk's, the Childers, the
Stillwells, the Godwin's, and the Patterson's. This was my world as I knew it as a child.
We did venture off the Hill from time to time, with my Dad in the 1953 Ford
nine-passenger station wagon we owned. It was usually loaded with kids most
of the time, as we would go to school just down the hill behind Central High
School on Crawford Rd., or go to grandmothers house (Rosa Jackson) on
20th Street (old Brownsville section of town) at the base of Summerville Hill.
Other outings I made with Dad were to get Bar B Q from Chicken Combers
down the hill, Dairy Queen for Ice Cream on Crawford Rd. just past Sam's
Motel before the Fire Station at Opelika Rd. intersection, or every Sunday
to church at West Side Baptist Church on 16th street where we meet the
rest of the Millard Jackson Clan to worship-The Jackson were in the House!
Other than these outings, we kid's knew nothing of the " woos or trouble" in
Phenix City until the death of Mr. Patterson shook the neighborhood. I will
write more on these issues,of then "Sin City" at a later date, but for now back
to the my reason for mentioning Ingersole Hill in the first place. As I wrote
earlier, the neighborhood overlooked the Drive Inn Theater, well our best
spot to see the screen ( no sound) was from Godwin Cemetery. We kids
would go there on a warm summers evening on our bikes and sit on the back
rock wall and at least see the news reel and cartoon; before most of us had
to go home to bed, as our Dad's began calling each of us home as the hour
grew late. We bid our goodbyes to our friends and returned to our loving
homes.
One day I went in the grave yard to look around and look at the
head stones, not at that time a normal thing for me to do at that age. I saw
the monument place at John Godwin's grave. It was different from the rest.
The monument read" This Stone was placed by Horace King in Lasting
Remembrance of the Love and Gratitude he felt for his friend and former
Master". I read it, but didn't understand it and soon forgot about it! My life
went on with no thought given on this puzzling monument again.
August 26,2006; I attended my 40th reunion from Central High School
class of 1966. While in Phenix City, I drove nearby to the old neighborhood,
I had left while in the fourth grade as my family moved to a new home on
Summerville Road; near Summerville Ellementary School. I returned to find the old
home had been torn down, but the "hood" was much the same except for
very few children on the now paved streets. I stopped in again at Godwin
Cemetery at the end of my old street to look around. As I entered the grave
yard I again spotted the monument to John Godwin; I had long forgotten!
I read the inscription again as a man. I knew the name Horace King ( the
Bridge Builder). My childhood memories and my old man explorer sense
went off in my head at once. The Question was, Who is the man Horace
King and why was his love for his friend and former Master so great?
Horace King (1807-1888)
Born in bondage, September 8,1807 in Cheraw District of South Carolina.
His father was said to have been a mulatto (half Black and half White) named
Edmund King. His mother was a half-breed (Catawba Indian and Black) slave
women named Susan. Death took the Kings old master in the winter of 1829
and in settling the estate Horace and his mother Susan became the lawful
property of John Godwin; a contractor and builder. John was an understudy
of Ithiel Town, designer of lattice support bridges. John Godwin, his brother
Wells, and slave Horace King arrived in Columbus, Ga. in the spring of 1832
having already won a contract for the first public bridge across the river the
Chattahoochee,between Columbus and Girard (now Phenix City, Ala.).These
three men brought the art of lattice bridge building to west Georgia, east
Alabama, and Tennessee. The 560 ft. long covered bridge was crucial to the
development of the region. During the next several years, King's responsibilities
and reputation as a bridge builder and contractor grew. Though
King was technically Godwin's "property", in reality, King functioned more as
Godwin"s junior partner and friend. Together they played an important part
in opening up the Chattahoochee Ally region for crucial development in the
1830's and beyond by making passage possible over it's many creeks and
rivers. The stigma of slavery was in no way to have interfered in the relations
between King and Godwin.
During the mid 1840's, Robert T. Jemison, a well known west Alabama
planter and lawyer, began to call upon Godwin to contract on bridges in the
State of Alabama. Jemison was said to be one of many who offered as much
as $6,000 for the purchase of Horace King. Godwin, who was in ill health and
having failing finances, decided it was time to make his friend Horace King a
free man; so he could not be considered part of his estate that could be claimed by creditors. To manumit (free from slavery) a person prior to the
Civil War was not an easy task. The master could not just simply give his
slave a "paper of freedom"; there were many legalities to fulfill and the
process was very tedious, but both King and Godwin were eager to make
manumission happen. Likely influenced by an important legislator, who was a
business associate of Godwin and King, (Jemison); it was concluded Ohio
would be the best location in which to manumit King, where he was formally
freed under the laws of that State. After returning from Ohio, now free the
force of the Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, King was emancipated by
the General Assembly of Alabama in the last secession at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
February 3, 1846. Freedom did not weaken the affiliation King had with
Godwin and Jemison. He maintained very close ties with his former master
and friend, while Jemison provided challenging projects until his death in
1871. John Godwin died in 1849 within three years of setting his friend free!
Godwins death, set the stage for the remarkable tribute from King to his
long time friend and business partner. Marking John Godwin's grave, King
erected an ornate headstone, for which he paid $1,000, an incredible sum
in those times.(This was the inscription I remembered, from my childhood,
seeing in the Godwin cemetery on Ingersole Hill !)
As a newly independent businessman, King moved about the South building
covered bridges. He also built homes, commercial buildings, three-story
textile mills, and a state hospital in Alabama. He also is credited with
building the magnificent self-supported wooden staircase that is still one of
the most outstanding features of the Alabama State Capitol building in
Montgomery, where he also served four years as a state legislator after the
Civil War. But it is his covered bridges that seem to have captured peoples
hearts. The last bridge still in use today is in Imlac, Meriwether County off
Ga Hwy 85 in-between Woodbury and Gay, Ga. One more bridge was saved
when West Point Lake was being built; It was moved to Callaway Gardens
and now not in use and has sat for over 20 years in a back lot not far from
the Sibly Center wasting away; out of public view and enjoyment.
Horace King moved to Lagrange, Ga. in 1872, and during the decade prior
to his death he increasingly devoted himself to architectural pursuits, leaving
the bridge business to his four sons. In his later years, King enjoyed raising
and riding fine horses. He was often seen walking about town wearing a
velvet lapeled jacket. Horace King died on May 27, 1888; his funeral
procession went around what is now LaFayett Square, the center of Lagrange.
Business stopped, blacks and whites alike gathered to pay their respects.
In his obituary it was noted that King had "risen to prominence by force of
genius and power". He survived a half century of back breaking yet productive
work. Horace King's grave is located near the Confederate Cemetery on
Mulberry Street in Lagrange, at the south west side near a old cedar tree
next to his second wife. He had four son's by his first wife of many years, her
grave site unknown to me and no children by his second wife. I was told his
grave for years was unmarked, but found in 1978 marked with a simple slab
marker, nothing like the marker he provided his friend John Godwin. He does have
several historical markers scattered around the south given to him for his
work because they all state one thing" Horace King-- The Bridge Builder".
Dr. William H. Green memorialized the former slave as follows: "Horace King
was a "Southern Everyman", born a slave but winning his freedom, sprung
from the three noble races of the early South. Laborer and Legislator his
life was an astonishing symbolic bridge-- a bridge not only between states,
but between men. Like one of his stately Town lattice bridges, Horace King's
life soars above the murky waters of historical limitations, of human bondage
and racial prejudice. He did not change the currents of social history, but he
did transcend them and stands as a reminder of our common humanity, the
potential of human spirit, the power of mutual respect."
Read My Informative and Historical Stories on Columbus Georgia OnLine.
Ronald J. Rollins > A Boyhood Memory Leads Me To Horace King,