317 Church Street
200 Main Street - Humphrey – Hughes Drug Store
This building was constructed around 1908 as the Burton
& Wise Drug Store. The Burton and
Bradford families owned it until 1975, but G. W. Hughes rented it from 1925 to
1972. The early manually-operated
telephone switchboard for Madison was located here, in an upstairs apartment
for many years. Operator Viola Styles
Keel slept on a cot beside the apparatus, while her two sons Buddy and Percy
shared a bedroom in the apartment. The
downstairs was used as the drugstore of long-time pharmacist George Walton
Hughes, known to all as "Doc" because he attended to a variety of
medical conditions in the town. When the
town had only two telephones, one was in Doc's store so that he could provide
medicine and news to the town folk. 
For many years during the Great Depression of the 1930s, this building was the location of Madison's renowned “chicken toss” on Christmas Eve. Doc Hughes would go onto the roof and toss off live chickens that would fly to the waiting crowd on the streets below. Each chicken had a prize coupon taped around its leg. The coupons were redeemable for merchandise in Doc's store. Many families of the time received their only Christmas presents in this manner, as well as getting a fine chicken dinner.
In later years, Doc moved his chicken toss to the 75-foot tall city water tank that stood at Garner and Martin Streets behind the 2-story second City Hall.
There are many stories of the Christmas Capers from Madison's early history. One is that the event was so popular and the resultant crowd so large during the Great Depression years that one time a chicken was able to fly all the way across Main and Front Streets to land under the house at 25 Front Street now owned by Dennis Vaughn. As the crowd chased the chicken to get the bird and the merchandise certificate, the press of people knocked down the fence in the front yard by the street. Several men crawled under the house, and one finally got the fowl. The certificates were not always for really large prizes as we think of such today. I (John Rankin) have heard that sometimes they were for pencils or pads of notepaper and such, but for those who otherwise would have nothing to take home to their families for Christmas, the chicken and the pencils or just about anything was welcomed.
208-210 Main Street
Frank G. Hertzler, son of Dr. John Hertzler, operated a
hardware store at this 208 Main Street site in partnership with Matthew Harvey
Anderson, the banker who lived at 17 Front Street. Frank built and resided in the house at 25
Front Street. The original store
structure here was destroyed in the 1912 fire, and the tax office records of the
county show that the current building was constructed in 1940.
A couple of years after Robert Edgar (“Pud”)
True and his wife Gladys McFarlen True moved to Madison, they bought the
building and operated a grocery store from 1944 to
1976. In fact, during their first three
months in Madison, the True's rented a room in the former residence of Frank
Hertzler at 25 Front Street.
The True's built
a house in 1941 that was then in the county, just outside the town limits, at
318 Church Street. They moved into their
new residence on January 1, 1942, and became leaders in the community and in
the Methodist Church on Church Street for the rest of their lives. After Pud died, Gladys donated funds for the
electronic chimes in the church that still sound throughout the historical district
of Madison.
For a time this building was
also operated as an annex to the post office.when the post office was located
next door in the 206 Main Street location.
According to the 1890 Hartford Insurance Company map of
Madison, an early structure at 210 Main was the office of Dr. Richard M.
Fletcher. A later use of the location
according to the 1905 Alabama Mercantile Book was the drugstore of Pride &
Bradford.
Thomas Logan Bradford was only
35 years old when he committed suicide by taking an overdose of morphine from
this drugstore. He had married Fannie
Burton, a daughter of John Mullins Burton, who owned the competing drugstore at
the 216 Main location. The Bradfords had
bought the house at 306 Church Street in 1906 and had a daughter born
there. Thomas had been employed by his father-in-law
for a while, but resigned to go into partnership in the store at 210 Main by
about 1904. His suicide note mentioned
failing health and business losses.
After the passing of Tom Bradford, there are indications the drug store reopened as the
Phoenix Drugstore. However, it may have also been the name for the rebuilt store after the fire of 1912
heavily damaged the structure. Tom's wife Fannie moved into her father's house
at 21 Front Street and wrote a weekly column about Madison for the Huntsville
newspaper for the remainder of her life.
A vintage comic book business utilized the 208 building in
the 1990s, but it was later renovated by Walt and Larry Anderson to become the Bandito Burrito restaurant. The
restaurant occupied not only 208 Main, but it later included the location at
210 Main Street.
The Madison Drug Company was established at 210 Main by Dr.
Luther Wikle and his partner Ben Porter in 1912. It may then have been given the name of the
Phoenix Drugstore. Wikle later sold his
interest to William Russell, a son of the constable of that name who also ran
the gristmill for which Mill Road is named.
Since 2015 208 and 210 Main have been occupied by Old Black Bear Brewing. Old Black Bear is a favorite hangout for locals and guests. Often on Friday nights during the summer there is live music on the patio to the east of 210 Main.
206 Main Street
There were a number of residents of old Madison who had come
from Woodville in Jackson County, Alabama, probably due to ease of travel and
moving household furnishings via rail between the two locations. The Thomas and Wann families with children Dea Thomas and William Wann were enumerated in the 1880 Federal census as
next-door neighbors in Woodville. The
father of William and Nora Wann was listed as Andrew, known to be a son of an
older generation William Wann born in 1812 in Kentucky. Andrew's occupations in various censuses of
Woodville listed him as a schoolteacher, a merchant, and a Primitive Baptist
preacher. William Wann's wife was Vida
Barclay. Vida was a daughter of James Barclay and Mary F. Woodall. Vida's mother, Mary Woodall, also had roots
in Woodville of Jackson County. In 1900
the census of Woodville showed the family of James William Barclay with wife
Mary and daughter Vida (at age 14, born Nov. 1886) living in dwelling
36, while Andrew J. Wann was in nearby dwelling 48. Additionally, the Barclay family household
included a nephew, Tabor J. Woodall at age 5.
The family of Emmett Woodall was living in 1900 in Woodville dwelling 50
per the census, while dwelling 49 was for a Gormley, another surname found in
Madison. Emmett Woodall soon afterward
left Woodville and moved to Madison, where he was enumerated living next door
to William Wann in the census of 1920.
From 1940 until 1962 the 206 Main structure housed the
town's post office. In the 1970s this
was the location of J&B Electrical for a few years.
Affair At Madison Station
May 17, 1864
Both Civil War engagements fought in and around Madison
occurred during unusual weather. The one
of December 23, 1864, at Indian Creek where Old Madison Pike crosses the water
and along the campus of Madison Academy at Slaughter Road, was fought on one of
the coldest days of a severely cold winter.
It was so cold that not only did the creek freeze over, but guns were of
little use because no one could use their fingers adequately to reload after
firing. It was largely a saber
fight. However, artillery and guns were
the weapons of the day when much warmer weather prevailed for the conflict that
occurred on May 17, 1864.
Both
engagements began at dawn as surprise attacks on the entrenched forces. The December Union attack started near the
Indian Creek railroad bridge and continued west toward the town. The May Confederate attack began in the town
and continued east along the tracks to the Indian Creek railroad bridge. May brought a Confederate rout of Federal
forces, whereas the December struggle was a Union rout of rebel forces. The December fight involved frozen water as a
factor. The May fight involved liquid
water as a factor, because it was raining so hard that the combatants could
barely see their opposition. The Union
accounts described the December event as a “grand victory”, reportedly
involving far more rebels than could possibly have been present. Some of the official reports claimed that 200
Union troops attacked a rebel force of 600, whereas more realistic descriptions
show that a maximum of 150 rebels were surprised by over 300 Federals. Yet, the official Union accounts of the May
event term it as simply as an “affair” -- not even worthy of being called a
battle. However, the May attack by the
rebel forces included four artillery pieces and over 1000 troops against a
force of about 350 Federals who occupied the town of Madison.
Confederate reports are sparse from those last months of the
war, but there are numerous documents of the engagement preserved in Union
accounts. The most descriptive Union
reports were filed by Colonel Gorgas of the 13th Illinois
Infantry. He first told that a cavalry
force of about 1,000 with four artillery pieces attacked on May 17 about 8
o'clock in the morning. When General
John Smith reported the engagement a day later, he stated that Madison Station
had been attacked at 8 a.m. from all directions by a large force, numbering
about 1,000 to 3,000 men with four pieces of artillery. Gorgas recounted that “...we were obliged to
fall back, after a severe fight, and, being completely surrounded, we cut our
way through their lines, and fell back to the bridge and water tank, about
three miles east. We formed and returned
to this place (Madison), and, after skirmishing, drove them from the town. They captured several of our men, what number
we are not able to say. Our camp and garrison
equipage, together with all the regimental and company papers, are either
destroyed or carried off. The depot
buildings are burned, together with about 50 bales of cotton. (He said 70 bales in a later report.) The railroad is all right, telegraph lines
cut. We are left here without rations,
and but little ammunition.”
A much more detailed account of the engagement was filed by
Gorgas a day or so later. In it, he
specified that the artillery consisted of “four 12-pounder howitzers”. He wrote that the attacking force was under
the command of Colonel Josiah Patterson and included “two regiments of mounted
infantry”. He blamed the successful
surprise upon local citizens guiding the rebels to the locations of his five
pickets, who were then overwhelmed before they could sound the alarm. In fact, subsequently the Union occupiers
arrested Madison residents Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher, Edward Betts, and
James Harvey Pride. They were taken into
Huntsville to be tried and hanged as spies for complicity in the event. After a gallows was constructed, a
recently-transferred and remotely-located but friendly senior Union officer who
knew that Dr. Fletcher had compassionately treated Federal soldiers during the
occupation years came to Huntsville and had the men released.
Veteran's Memorial Park - Madison AL
The Veterans Memorial Park is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Church and Front Streets. The park was designed and constructed by Madison American Legion Post 229 in the spring and summer of 2001.The park is dedicated to Jesse Ollie Wikle, Jr., who was the first
The flag pole was refurbished and relocated from its former location next to the old city hall on Main Street. Likewise, the monument was moved from its location on Main Street to its present location in
the park.
Water and electrical services were installed underground and the park was delineated by planting a hedge around it. A flower bed was constructed of landscaping bricks and is formed in the shape of a heart. The heart shape is symbolic of the Purple Heart Award presented to service men and women wounded or killed in combat operations.There is a small plaque for each of the fifteen service men from Madison who gave their lives in our 20th century wars. Both the flag pole and the Purple Heart flower bed are illuminated during the hours of darkness.
The Veterans Memorial Park was dedicated on the 21st of September 2001 , only days after the
United States found itself in a new kind of war it had never known - a war with terrorists.
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