“Bad, Bad Dothan!”: The Dothan Riot and

“Bad, Bad Dothan!”: The Dothan
Riot and Wiregrass Agrarianism
SCOTTY E. KIRKLAND
I
N DOWNTOWN DOTHAN THERE IS A MURAL painted on the old Ellison
Building. A casual glance identifies the scene as a bar fight that spilled
onto the dusty streets of the town. But this mural commemorating the
Dothan Riot of 1889 depicts much more than a simple street brawl. It
describes the battle for respect of a young town marshal, the search
for legitimacy by a small town government, and the social conflict of
life during an era of increasing agrarian protest.1
The Dothan Riot serves as an example of the inherent conflict between “town elites” and local farmers that came to a head following
the Civil War. The tension between city and rural values, the declining political significance of farmers and their ability to organize in
protest, combined with rapid economic changes, all contributed to
the riot. It occurred three months after the first railroads came to
Dothan and only five years after the city’s incorporation, changes
that heralded the growing power and influence of the town and the
businessmen and professionals who earned their livelihood there.
Farmers in the area reacted to these changes in ways similar to their
brethren across the South, by organizing to protest what they perceived as inequitable local laws.2 Wayne Flynt describes the “Dothan
cotton riot” as one of best examples of the “multiple dimensions of
Scotty E. Kirkland is a graduate student in history at the University of South Alabama.
He gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the editors of The Alabama Review, as well as
Jacqlyn Kirkland, Dr. Marty Olliff of Troy University Dothan, and Dr. Clarence Mohr of the
University of South Alabama in the preparation of this article. An earlier version was presented at the 58th annual meeting of the Alabama Historical Association in Montgomery
on April 9, 2005.
1
Dothan Light, October 30, 1889; Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R
(New York, 1955), 23 –59.
2
Hofstadter, Age of Reform, 7; Samuel L. Webb, Two -Party Politics in the One -Party South:
Alabama’s Hill Country, 1874–1920 (Tuscaloosa, 1997); Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern
Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850 –1890 (New
York, 1983).
164
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
the agrarian protest.” C. Vann Woodward saw the riot as part of a
deep-seated hostility to the Farmers’ Alliance cooperatives among
southern business elites.3
The riot and the events that occurred afterward demonstrate an
effort by farmers to influence town politics in the early stages of increased political activity by the Alliance. The “town versus country”
dilemma was still very real in Dothan even in the early 1900s, during
the formative years of writer Douglas Fields Bailey. In 1948, his novel
Devil Make a Third chronicled the exploitation of poor whites by business elites in the fictional town of Aven. Unlike Dothan, Aven experiences no riot, but the conflicts and tensions are the same.4 A nonfictional indicator of the lasting effects of Populism and the agrarian
revolt on the Wiregrass can be seen in election results. In 1892 Henry
County overwhelmingly supported Alliance- endorsed gubernatorial candidate Reuben F. Kolb. A generation later, the descendents
of Wiregrass Populists supported the unlikely candidacy of James E.
“Big Jim” Folsom, who appealed to the same Jacksonian ideals embraced by their parents and grandparents.5
3
The national Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union originated in Texas around 1874 as
an alliance against cattle ranchers and land barons. In the 1880s it spread throughout the
Southeast, absorbing several local farmers’ clubs. Wayne Flynt, Poor but Proud: Alabama’s
Poor Whites (Tuscaloosa, 1989), 254; C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877–1913
(Baton Rouge, 1951), 198. Woodward cites an article from the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger
about the riot, which demonstrates the importance of the event to southern farmers. The
Dothan Riot is characterized as a “local war of interest” in Rogers et al., Alabama: The History
of a Deep South State (Tuscaloosa, 1994), 301–2.
4
The precursor to Wiregrass farmers’ increased involvement in politics occurred in August
1889, just two months prior to the Dothan Riot, at a meeting in Auburn. There, Alliance
members approved a merger with the Agricultural Wheel, voted to initiate a boycott of jute
bagging, ratified the Southern Farmers’ Alliance constitution, and set the stage for their
eventual support of Alabama agricultural commissioner Reuben F. Kolb’s gubernatorial
bid. Sheldon Hackney, Populism to Progressivism in Alabama (Princeton, N.J., 1969), 8 –9;
Hofstadter, Age of Reform, 96; Douglas Fields Bailey, Devil Make a Third (New York, 1948).
5
In 1894, Henry County voters supported William C. Oates for governor. Although he was
identified with the Bourbon democrats, Oates was a native of the Wiregrass and regional
loyalties may account for the shift in support from Kolb to a Bourbon candidate between
1892 and 1894. William Warren Rogers, The One-Gallused Rebellion: Agrarianism in Alabama,
1865 –1896 (Baton Rouge, 1970), 223, 284; George E. Sims, The Little Man’s Big Friend: James
E. Folsom and Alabama Politics, 1946 –1958 (Tuscaloosa, 1985), 19; William D. Barnard, Dixiecrats and Democrats: Alabama Politics, 1942–1950 (Tuscaloosa, 1974), 4, 149.
JULY 2007
165
Dothan’s origins date back to the 1830s, when Georgia lumbermen
established a logging campsite in the Alabama Wiregrass and named
it Poplar Head. The Wiregrass region of Alabama is bordered loosely
by the Conecuh River on the west and the Chattahoochee River on
the east and is named after a particularly obstinate grass prominent
in the area.6 Yellow pine forests flourished in the region’s sandy soil,
contributing to its initial development of turpentine and naval industries. After the trees were harvested, small farmers moved into
the region, planting grains and later cotton. These settlers were predominantly Anglo-American and of Jeffersonian or Jacksonian political persuasion, but had little shared interests with Black Belt or Hill
Country farmers.7 As northern Alabama grew in the late nineteenth
century, the Wiregrass remained rural and geographically isolated. As
late as 1882, no railroads served the region. Farmers relied on riverboats and wagons to carry their goods to market, and there was little
indication that the region would soon become a commercial center.8
The eventual arrival of railroads in the late 1880s, however, helped
shift the region toward commercial agriculture and precipitated the
rise of several towns and trade centers. In 1880 there were over two
thousand farms in Henry County, the future location of Dothan. The
average farm size was 179 acres, and a majority of the farms were
cultivated by their owners; only 157 farmers owned farms larger than
500 acres. Cotton was the largest crop. By 1900, average farm size had
decreased by 62 acres but cotton production had increased in overall
cultivated acres.9
6
The Wiregrass comprises the present-day counties of Coffee, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale,
Geneva, Henry, and Houston. Flynt, Poor but Proud, 382; Furman Rogers Jr., “A History of
Houston County” (M.S. thesis, Auburn University, 1952), 140– 45.
7
Thomas McAdory Owen, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography (1921;
repr., Spartanburg, S.C., 1978), 2:1,410; Flynt, Poor but Proud, 16; Rogers et al., Alabama, xi.
8
Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 95; Allen Johnston Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama,
1874 –1890 (Tuscaloosa, 1951), 128.
9
The Wiregrass never produced cotton in amounts comparable to the Black Belt. U.S. Census Office, Report as to Productions of Agriculture as Reported in the Tenth Census ( June 1, 1880),
Table 5, 30, and Table 7, 104; U.S. Census Office, Census Reports Volume V, Twelfth Census of
the United States, Agriculture Part 1, Table 10, 58, and Agriculture Part 2, Table 10, 430. The
1880 Census can be found online at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/
1880.htm. The 1900 Census is available at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1900.htm.
166
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
Settlement of the town was slow until after the Civil War.10 In the
early 1880s, the town served as “nothing more than a crossroads” for
travelers bound for Florida and local farmers purchasing supplies,
but continued growth prompted residents to apply for incorporation.
When they discovered that another settlement in Alabama also bore
the name Poplar Head, J. Z. S. Connelly, a former Confederate officer in the Palmetto Guard, proposed the name Dothan, a Biblical reference to a town situated on the trade route between Syria and Egypt.
The town was incorporated on November 10, 1885, and Connelly
became its first mayor.11
Since the settlement’s establishment, local farmers had come to
Dothan on the weekends to “swap tales, patronize the saloons, and
buy supplies,” and these activities continued after incorporation.12
These men were fiercely independent and had been established in
the area long before the town was incorporated. They had little respect for the newly created government. The town council’s primary
objective was to preserve order in Dothan. Like many towns of the
1800s, Dothan faced a “consistent level of rowdy violence.” The town
council appointed W. F. Gregory as the first marshal, who soon arrested several farmers for disorderly conduct. The arrest of Jim Taylor
presaged the troubles Dothan officials would have with local farmers
for years to come.13
10
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 140 – 41.
Dothan appears in two places in the Bible. Genesis 37:17 [Authorized (King James) Version] reads “And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go
to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.” 2 Kings 6:13
[AKJV] reads “And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And
it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.” Rogers, “History of Houston County,”
145– 47; Dothan Eagle, October 5, 1907, and August 31, 1907; Fred S. Watson, Hub of the
Wiregrass: A History of Houston County, Alabama, 1903 –1972 (Anniston, Ala., 1972), 319 –20;
Richard Morse Hodge, Historical Geography of Bible Lands: A Manual for Teachers (New York,
1915), 41.
12
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 147.
13
Documentation for Dothan’s history before the establishment of the town’s newspaper—
the Dothan Light —in 1889 is limited. Consequently, it is difficult to establish exactly when
Gregory was appointed marshal or when Taylor was arrested. As Gregory was Dothan’s
first marshal, it is likely that this arrest took place in late 1885 or early 1886. Flynt, Poor But
Proud, 71; Paul A. Gilje, Rioting in America (Indianapolis, Ind., 1996), 140; Fred S. Watson,
“The Early Days of Dothan, Alabama” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Ala11
JULY 2007
167
Marshal Gregory arrested Taylor for public drunkenness and took
him to the mayor’s court, where he was fined five dollars in the first
trial in town history. Angered by the fine, Taylor assaulted Connelly
during the court session and was thrown into the unfinished jail by
Gregory. Soon after, Taylor’s fellow farmers came into town and angrily demanded his release. During an altercation between the marshal and several armed farmers, Taylor escaped from jail and fled.
Once the farmers learned of their friend’s escape, they too left town.
Frustrated and shocked by the event, Mayor Connelly resigned.14 As
the Taylor incident demonstrates, the animosity between farmers and
Dothan officials was apparent from the earliest days of the town’s
existence. Although Dothan needed the patronage of the agricultural community, their perceived lawlessness complicated relations
with town residents and officials, while farmers came to deeply resent
any actions taken against them by those in control of the town. The
Taylor incident was a harbinger of more violent altercations between
the two groups.
A succession of mayors, councilmen, and marshals came and went
during the next four years, and all faced problems with farmers in the
area. When A. C. Crawford became mayor in 1888, he and the new
town council faced the daunting task of appointing a new town marshal.15 They turned to nineteen- year - old J. L. “Tobe” Domingus, who,
despite his youth, displayed all the mettle needed to police Dothan.
A Domingus family Bible records the story of Emmanuel Domingus,
who was kidnapped as a boy from Portugal and put to work on a
merchant ship. During the 1820s, the ship anchored at Richmond,
Virginia, and young Domingus escaped. A few years later he married
a local merchant’s daughter and moved to Georgia. His grandson
Tobe was born in 1870 and lived in Macon until his appointment
bama Historical Association, Birmingham, April 29, 1972), Houston County Clippings file,
Alabama Department of Archives and History, p. 4; Rogers, “History of Houston County,”
147; Dothan Eagle, October 5, 1907.
14
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 147– 48.
15
Wendell H. Stepp and Pamela A. Stepp, Dothan: A Pictorial History (Norfolk, Va., 1984),
23; Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 145– 46; Dothan Eagle, September 7, 1907.
168
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
as Dothan’s marshal.16 Domingus retained his predecessor, Parker
Powell, as a deputy and began to make his presence felt. The new
marshal told the farmers they would not scare or force him into resignation as they had the five men who had previously held the office. Domingus established a pattern of breaking up large gatherings
in saloons and hotels to prevent riotous behavior, using his pistols
and clubs effectively to enforce the law. His policing tactics kept the
Dothan jail full.17
While Domingus policed the streets, Dothan continued to grow. In
March 1889, T. E. Williams established the first newspaper in Dothan.
From the very beginning, the editor seemed to have an unalterable
faith in Dothan’s future as a commercial hub in the Wiregrass.18 In the
first edition of the Dothan Light, Williams described the city: “Upon
our arrival, we find a town of 400 people who are fully enthused over
the boom. The streets are continually working alive with people. . . .
The town is incorporated with two policemen, four or five doctors,
four lawyers, three barrooms, six stores of general mercantile, one
dry store, and one good barber.” By the end of March, the Dothan
Light had over eighty subscribers.19 Williams’s editorial style and literary flair provide a clear picture of the editor: staunchly Democratic,
business minded—he also sold real estate— and committed to his
work as the “light” of Dothan.
Other Alabama newspapers shared Williams’s view of the growing
town. In June 1889, the Montgomery Advertiser wrote of the “multitude of improvements recently made” in Dothan. “The rapidity of its
progress now and the inevitably glorious future in store combine to
make the place a desirable one in which to build homes and invest
16
Ethel A. Hancock to Carolyn M. Domingus, December 11, 1958, in possession of Carolyn
Domingus, Dothan. Information concerning why and how Domingus was offered the position of marshal is not available.
17
Keener Baxley, pamphlet, “Some Highlights in the Early History of Dothan” (p. 7), Local
History Room, Houston-Love Memorial Library, Dothan; Dothan Eagle, October 27, 1953;
Stepp and Stepp, Dothan, 84; Watson, “Early Days,” 6.
18
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 150; Dothan Light, March 2, 1889.
19
Hoyt M. Warren, Henry: The Mother County, 1816 –1903 (Auburn, 1976), 133; Dothan Light,
March 20, 1889. The actual population of Dothan in 1889 was less than two hundred and
fifty; Marie Bankhead Owen, The Story of Alabama: A History of the State (New York, 1949),
1:438.
JULY 2007
169
Tobe Domingus, circa 1900; from the
Dothan Eagle, October 27, 1953.
170
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
capital.” The Advertiser spoke of the “rich, populous, and prosperous
country that housed Dothan and other large and booming towns.”20
A few months later, the editor of the Ozark Southern Star wrote that
he was “utterly surprised at the wonderful growth of the place. . . .
New buildings of every description have been built and the building
boom continues.”21 Dothanites marveled at their “southwest portion
of Henry County,” noting the town was “on a boom” making “very
rapid strides” in “agricultural improvements.”22
But from the beginning, Dothan had a rebellious side and its share
of rowdiness. Crawford and Domingus worked together to maintain a
semblance of order in Dothan. The overwhelming challenges of the
job to which Domingus was appointed may have prompted his harsh
policing tactics. Few in the town minded their young marshal’s treatment of drunkards and lawbreakers, but farmers received the brunt
of Domingus’s severity and deeply resented him. Williams wrote,
“Marshal Domingus is getting in some good work. When [lawbreakers] have pistols and knives and won’t be arrested he just clubs ’em
down and puts them up anyhow. He is doing good duty.”23
Dothan’s growth and penchant for rowdiness did not escape the
notice of Henry County boosters in the well- established and successful towns of Abbeville, Headland, and Columbia. An 1833 commission chose Abbeville, in the center of the county, as the new seat of
county government.24 But it was the town of Columbia, situated along
the Chattahoochee River less than twenty miles from Dothan, that
became the most ardent critic of Dothan and other Henry County
cities in the late nineteenth century.
Columbia had been established in 1820. Access to the
Chattahoochee River quickly transformed the town into the trading
center of the county and steamboats became a regular sight along
the waterfront. The Henry County courthouse moved to Columbia
20
Columbia Enterprise, June 20, 1889, quoting the Montgomery Advertiser, June 10, 1889.
Ozark Southern Star, October 16, 1889.
22
Columbia Enterprise, March 19, 1885.
23
Dothan Light, August 21, 1889.
24
Oscar L. Tompkins, “Wiregrass Sagas,” The Alabama Lawyer 3 ( July 1942): 253; Warren,
Henry, 40.
21
JULY 2007
171
in 1824, and a post office opened in 1831.25 With river access in abundance, Columbia became the shipping center of the Wiregrass. The
town’s port was the best way to transport cotton, and early farmers
were tied to it by necessity. The social and economic benefits of river
access made Columbia the place to go for business throughout the
region, despite the “long and tiresome trip” to get there from other
Henry County towns.26
By the 1880s, however, Columbia’s hegemonic status was in jeopardy due to growth in other areas of the county and the coming of
the railroad. The Columbia Enterprise began vitriolic headlines against
the town’s competitors and referred to Columbia as the “healthiest town in the state” and the “leading city in Southeast Alabama.”27
Shortly after Williams wrote his first lines on the growth of Dothan,
the Enterprise editor retorted: “There is not a town in this section of
the state that can compare with Columbia in material advancement
within the past few years.”28
The main reason citizens of Columbia considered new towns in
the county as potential rivals was the coming of the railroad to the
area. Surveying for the Alabama Midland Railroad, which ran from
Montgomery to Bainbridge, Georgia, began in 1888. It was part of
a rail boom in 1880s Alabama that resulted in over three thousand
new miles of track. The Alabama Midland transported material to
Columbus and provided short- distance travel to residents along the
line.29 The same day the Dothan Light began publication, the Columbia
Enterprise stated that “the building of the Midland Road has given the
villages along its route the big head mighty soon.” The indictment
was followed by a warning to “wait until you lay aside your ‘swaddling
clothes’ and put [pants on] . . . before you undertake to outdo your
25
Ashford (Ala.) Power, July 14, 2005; Tompkins, “Wiregrass Sagas,” 249 –50; Warren, Henry,
29.
26
Hoyt M. Warren, Chattahoochee Trails: Short, Factual, Historical Stories About the Chattahoochee
Valley (Abbeville, Ala., 1981), 7–8; Warren, Henry, 37, 114.
27
Columbia Enterprise, September 26, 1889.
28
Columbia Enterprise, March 21, 1889.
29
Dudley S. Johnson, “Early History of the Alabama Midland Railroad Company,” Alabama
Review 21 (October 1968): 276 –87; Wayne Cline, Alabama Railroads (Tuscaloosa, 1997),
174; Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 140.
172
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
superior.”30 The railroad coming to Dothan, located strategically in
the central portion of lower Henry County, was a significant economic blow to Columbia and inspired the boosters of Dothan, particularly
Williams.
The new railroad brought growth to Dothan and highlighted a
growing problem: maintenance of the city’s streets. The town council
levied a three- dollar annual street tax and gave the marshal authority to compel roadwork from residents who refused to pay the tax or
who were already in jail. Farmers who were arrested or fined could
be put to work mending city streets in addition to their jail sentence,
which could keep them away from their farms for long periods of
time. The Alabama Constitution of 1875 prohibited state funds from
being used for internal improvements, thus forcing many towns to
adopt some sort of local street tax. Local farmers resented town officials mandating work that took them away from their crops.31 The
council further embittered farmers when they passed an ordinance,
at the insistence of Williams and other prominent citizens, prohibiting Sunday liquor sales. Fines for public drunkenness on Sundays
were raised to a maximum of twenty-five dollars and harshly enforced
by Domingus. Enforcement of these ordinances contributed to the
growing hostility between town boosters and local farmers, a tension
not unique to Dothan or Henry County. Historian Lacy K. Ford, for
example, has noted a similar dynamic in a study of South Carolina
Populists. “The lofty ambitions of town boosters,” Ford observes, “often met with a . . . chilly reception in the countryside, and the growing economic power of town merchants aroused considerable hostility” from local farmers.32
But there was more to the growing animosity between farmers and
Dothan’s elite than fines and law enforcement. In Poor but Proud,
Wayne Flynt writes that “never before in American history had farmers felt themselves so besieged.” By the end of the 1880s, Alabama
30
Dothan Light, March 2, 1889, quoting the Columbia Enterprise.
Dothan Light, June 5, 1889; Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 100; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 16.
32
Dothan Light, August 7, 14, 1889; Lacy K. Ford, “Rednecks and Merchants: Economic Development and Social Tensions in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1865 –1900,” Journal of
American History 71 (September 1984): 313.
31
JULY 2007
173
farms had fallen to an average size of 126 acres, down from 346 acres
in 1860, and fewer than half of farmers owned the land they worked.33
The growth of urban markets contributed to a decline in the status of
farmers, who noted the change with contempt. Not a few discerned
a developing scorn for farmers by the emerging middle class. “I am
heartily sick,” wrote one farmer to the Montgomery Advertiser, “of the
lawyers, doctors, merchants, editors, clerks, gamblers, in short the
whole non-farming class setting themselves up as censors of the farming class, dictating to them when, and how, and what to plant, telling
them ‘what I would do if I had a farm.’ ”34
A declining economy led to worsening conditions for farmers, whose
economic interests lost political favor after the end of Reconstruction
in 1874.35 The sweeping Democratic victories in the elections of 1874
were orchestrated by state party leaders seeking to minimize divisive
issues like education and agriculture to focus solely on their most
fundamental difference with the Republicans: the issue of race.
The result was an overwhelming victory for the Democratic Party.
Alabama farmers received little help from the state legislature, which
in 1888 quickly disposed of proposed legislation offering five-year tax
exemptions to farms smaller than eighty acres. Allen Johnston Going
has shown that the majority of agricultural legislation in the 1880s
was designed to benefit Alabama’s largest landowners. With politicians focusing on white supremacy instead of economic concerns
and agriculture, Alabama farmers began to organize in opposition to
the party that previously held their loyalty. The emergence of these
agricultural organizations in Alabama had a tremendous influence
on Wiregrass farmers, who saw Dothan’s growing political power as
a parasitic expansion of a non-producing class. They grew more belligerent with each new ordinance, and Marshal Domingus became a
convenient target for their anger.36
33
Flynt, Poor but Proud, 250; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 13.
Hofstadter, Age of Reform, 34 –35; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 25; Montgomery Advertiser,
July 19, 1882.
35
Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 23; Going, Bourbon Democracy in Alabama, 209.
36
Hackney, Populism, 4; Rogers et al., Alabama, 260–65; Hofstadter, Age of Reform, 35. Lacy
K. Ford demonstrates this “yeoman resentment” in his study of South Carolina, “Rednecks
and Merchants,” 316; Going, Bourbon Democracy, 99; Alabama House of Representatives Journal,
1888 –1889 (Montgomery, 1889), 1005.
34
174
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
Even before incorporation, Dothan had an active agricultural movement. The Grange was the first agricultural organization in Henry
County. In April 1873, several towns in the county met with Tuskegee
planter and Grange supporter Evander McIver Law and formed several Henry County chapters. Granger ideology claimed to be interested in neither the “Democratic party, nor the Republican party, its
nominees or its isms.” The Dothan Grange met on the second floor
of Smyrna Baptist Church and claimed many members. When the
group disbanded, it donated its considerable coffers to the church
for rent.37 The early popularity of the Grange and Agricultural Wheel
demonstrate an organizing tradition on the part of Dothan farmers
that would continue into the 1890s with the arrival of the Farmers’
Alliance.38
Historians John Hicks and John Barnhart note in their article on
the Farmers’ Alliance that the entire South was “ripe for a movement
of protest on the part of the farmer” by the 1880s. The Alliance, which
began in Texas to protect small farmers against “the depredations
of the wealthy cattle kings,” was such a movement. When Alliance
representatives came into Alabama they found a fledgling organization already begun— communities such as Dothan, highly dependent upon cotton and populated by predominantly white yeomen
farmers, were fertile soil for the Alliance. W. J. McKelvey was elected
the first president of the Alabama Alliance. Alliance ideology, which
C. Vann Woodward writes was always “more interest- conscious than
class -conscious,” spread quickly throughout the primarily agricultural state. Karl Rodabaugh has called the Farmers’ Alliance “Alabama’s
first embryonic interest group.” Alliance businesses, fertilizer compa37
The Granger movement was originally founded in 1867 as an educational endeavor; each
local unit was called a Grange. By 1873 the Grange had become involved in politics concerning the state regulation of railroads and grain elevators. The Alabama Grange was
initially supervised by Law and claimed 14,440 members by 1877. Warren, Henry, 122; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 28, 56, 63, 67–68; Stepp and Stepp, Dothan, 13; Rogers et al.,
Alabama, 294 –95; Going, Bourbon Democracy, 47.
38
The Agricultural Wheel was a large farmers’ organization established in Arkansas in 1882
that quickly expanded throughout southern and southwestern states. In 1887 the Wheel
claimed a membership of half a million. It merged with the Farmers’ Alliance in 1889.
Woodward, Origins, 191–92.
JULY 2007
175
nies, hotels, and banks grew throughout the state. There was even an
Alliance bar in Dothan in 1890.39
The Farmers’ Alliance also served a social function, holding gatherings and picnics, but was far more involved in local economics and
politics than its predecessors and sought to educate its members using the “language of liens and mortgages, the mathematics of store
accounts, and the history of the working people.” Michael Schwartz
writes that it was a “conflict organization” designed to aid its members in their battles for equality. Historians have noted the unusually
strong Alliance presence in the Wiregrass region and adjacent counties. The area had a history of social upheaval that welcomed Alliance
values, and the organization’s evangelistic rhetoric resonated with
farmers who were angered by local officials. Henry County alone
had over thirty Alliance chapters. Historian James Turner writes that
“Populism resulted specifically from the ‘ending of the frontier’—
not in [Frederick Jackson] Turner’s sense of the drying up of free
land, but in a wider sense of the curtailment of social isolation.” This
isolation, Turner writes, breeds a “political culture at odds with the
mainstream of political habits and attitudes.” As Dothan continued
to grow, area farmers no doubt perceived an ever-increasing threat to
their way of life.40
Alabama’s Alliance chapters strengthened their influence and
attracted members by sponsoring cooperative business ventures.
Warehouses were the most “widely . . . patronized business” of the
Farmers’ Alliance and became a frequent feature in larger towns
39
John D. Hicks and John D. Barnhart, “The Farmers’ Alliance,” North Carolina Historical
Review 6 (July 1929): 262; Morgan W. Scott, History of the Wheel and Alliance and the Impending
Revolution (1891; repr., New York, 1968), 91, 111; Rogers et al., Alabama, 298 –99; Michael
Schwartz, Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers’ Alliance and Cotton Tenancy,
1880–1890 (Chicago, 1976), 113; Woodward, Origins, 193; Karl Rodabaugh, “Agrarian Ideology and the Farmers’ Revolt in Alabama,” Alabama Review 36 ( July 1983): 212; Rogers,
One-Gallused Rebellion, 132, 136, 153.
40
Robert C. McMath Jr., Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers’ Alliance (Chapel
Hill, N.C., 1975), 66; Scott, History of the Wheel and Alliance, 112–13; Theodore Mitchell, Political Education in the Southern Farmers’ Alliance, 1887–1890 (Madison, 1987), 46; Schwartz,
Radical Protest, 129; Rogers et al., Alabama, 299; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 139; Flynt,
Poor but Proud, 16; James Turner, “Understanding the Populists,” Journal of American History
67 (September 1980): 372.
176
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
throughout the state.41 As construction of the Alabama Midland
Railroad’s line into Dothan neared completion, the Alliance presence in the town rose to new levels, to the alarm of Dothan officials.
In May 1889, the “primary trustees” of the Henry County Alliance met
to discuss construction of an Alliance warehouse that would purchase
and sell cotton grown by Alliance members. The following week, the
Dothan Light announced that the warehouse would be built along the
Midland tracks inside Dothan’s city limits. A smaller warehouse would
be built in Columbia, but most business would go to Dothan. The
trustee’s decision to build the warehouse there and not in Columbia
or Abbeville is evidence of the rapid economic expansion and growing significance of the town. The Dothan council sought to capitalize
on the farmers’ decision and levied a tax on building the new warehouse inside the city limits. The Alliance outmaneuvered Dothan
officials by placing their warehouse outside council jurisdiction—G.
R. Merritt, president of the Dothan Alliance, arranged for the site
to be moved outside town limits on land adjacent to the railroad.
Construction on the warehouse began in mid-August 1889.42
On August 13, 1889, the first Alabama Midland train rolled through
Dothan. The Light wrote of “good tidings. Every heart in Dothan is
glad. . . . Old folks, young folks, big folks, little folks, all turned out to
hail the first train. . . . There was never a train looked upon with more
gladness than was the Ala[bama] Midland yesterday. It was virtually
the grandest of events in the history of not only Dothan, but of Henry,
Dale, and Geneva counties.” The faith of Williams and other Dothan
boosters seemed fulfilled by the arrival of the railroad, which overshadowed the warehouse’s construction outside of the town’s boundaries. “This grand country of Southeast Ala[bama], for miles around,
of which Dothan is the Hub,” Williams noted, “has only lain dormant
awaiting the coming of this event to develop her resources.” A “public celebration,” the greatest ever planned for Dothan, was scheduled for August 29 to give voice to high spirits and expectations. The
town’s citizens viewed the arrival of the railroad as an event that gave
Dothan momentum against Columbia. “There are thousands of good
41
42
Rogers et al., Alabama, 301; Rogers, One-Gallused Rebellion, 151; Woodward, Origins, 196.
Dothan Light, May 22, July 3, and August 14, 1889; Baxley, “Highlights,” 10.
JULY 2007
177
citizens,” the Light reported, “all over Henry, Dale, and Geneva counties clapping their hands joyously that the Alabama Midland (and
Dothan) now stand able to rescue them from Columbia’s clutches
which has so oppressed them for years.”43
As the warehouse neared completion, the council passed two ordinances that increased the powers of the marshal. One was a vague ordinance concerning refusal to “help the marshal” and the other addressed interference with his duties; both were enforced with heavy
fines and jail time. The increased presence of farmers working on
the warehouse no doubt prompted the new ordinances as differences between town officials and farmers exacerbated tension. Alliance
advertisements in the Light began to show a determination to control cotton shipping in the Wiregrass. The advertisements spoke of
an “unlimited amount of cash to pay you” and pleaded with fellow
agrarians to “keep the ball rolling” by selling through the Alliance
warehouse. The Dothan Alliance and warehouse had become very
popular and would prosper in spite of council action.44
The warehouse opened on September 4, 1889. Dothan Alliance
president Merritt called a meeting on September 20 at which George
Stringer was appointed warehouse manager. Stringer owned a farm
east of Dothan with his father, Green. George was married and had
a younger brother, Botsie, and several sisters. He was in his thirties,
considerably older than Marshal Domingus, whom he would soon
encounter.45
On September 23, 1889, the Dothan council approved two additional ordinances. One required “any person or persons running a
public dray [i.e., wagon] in the town of Dothan . . . to pay a License
Tax of twenty five dollars.” To avoid the drayage license, farmers would
have to circumvent Dothan streets—a difficult task. A second new ordinance required “anyone drumming [i.e., soliciting or advertising]
for any store, warehouse, hotel, or any other business” to also pay a
twenty-five dollar fee. Thus in order to advertise for their warehouse,
the Dothan Alliance would have to pay a large fee. The council ar43
Dothan Light, August 14, 1889.
Dothan Light, August 21 and 28, 1889.
45
Dothan Light, September 4, 1889; Stepp and Stepp, Dothan, 32.
44
178
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
gued that the new taxes were justified because they would help fund
street repairs that would benefit everyone traveling through Dothan.
Stringer claimed the Alliance was an association and did not provide
public transportation and, therefore, their drays should be exempt
from the tax. But the council ruled otherwise and, immediately after
the ordinance passed, Domingus began arresting draymen—including Alliance members—who did not pay the tax.46
Stringer, along with several other farmers, was arrested twice in two
weeks for violating the ordinance. For each offense, he went before
Mayor Crawford and was fined. Each time, Stringer protested the fine
and appealed to officials in the county seat of Abbeville. Stringer felt
that city elites were attempting to unduly profit from the growing influence and success of the Alliance. On October 10, 1889, Domingus
stopped Stringer for a third offense. Stringer became enraged and
announced he would not be arrested again. Domingus beat him into
submission and hauled him into jail. Recovering from his beating,
Stringer swore out a warrant against Domingus and Deputy Powell
for assault. To prevent further problems with the farmers and placate the Stringer family, Domingus and Powell agreed to stand trial for the charges on Monday, October 14. News of the altercation
spread quickly as farmers came into town that weekend. Seeing the
attack on Stringer as an attack on the Alliance itself, many farmers
remained in town for the trial— armed, agitated, and seeking retribution. Domingus and Powell were released on bail and returned to
work as the farmers lingered in town.47 Crawford asked Domingus
to avoid actions that would further escalate tensions until the matter was resolved. But Domingus was determined to take a hard line
with the farmers and not be intimidated or forced out of office as his
predecessors had been.
The trial was held in an old storehouse, where many farmers (some
with guns in hand) gathered on the second floor to hear the proceedings. After a brief session, the court recessed for the day and all
46
The twenty-five dollar fee would amount to over five hundred dollars in 2007. S. Stanley
Friedman’s Inflation Calculator, http://www.westegg.com/inflation. Dothan Light, September 25, 1889; Dothan Eagle, October 27, 1953.
47
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 153–54; Dothan Light, October 27, 1889.
179
JULY 2007
The “Dothan Riot” mural by Cheryl Hardin.
The mural can be seen on the side of the Ellison Building at 170 East Main Street
in downtown Dothan near the site of the riot.
Reproduction courtesy of The Downtown Group, Dothan, Alabama.
180
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
parties were released on bail. Stringer left the court and went with
his father and brother to Deal’s Bar at the intersection of St. Andrews
and Main Street. Some time later, George’s brother Botsie left the
bar and was walking down the street when he spotted Domingus and
Powell in a crowd of people. Botsie confronted Domingus to complain about the treatment of his brother and insults were exchanged.
The marshal considered such behavior blatantly disrespectful, and
responded by striking Botsie about the head with his club.48
Hearing the noise on the street, Green and George Stringer, along
with family friend and farmer Jeff Walker, exited the bar to confront
Domingus and Powell with weapons in hand. Domingus and Powell
drew their guns in defense. Bystanders fled as armed Alliance members and townsmen ran into the streets.49
The ensuing fight, at close range with pistols and knives, lasted
only moments. By Williams’s account the incident lasted no more
than five seconds, but “enough blood was shed to sicken any human
with a heart.” The first man killed was Jeff Walker, shot in the head by
Domingus. As his friend fell, George Stringer fired at Domingus. The
marshal shot back, killing the warehouse manager with a round to
the head. A farmer approached Domingus from behind and stabbed
him. The gunfire continued— one shot hit Green Stringer in the arm
as he pulled his dazed son Botsie away from the fight, a farmer shot
Deputy Powell in the left arm, and passerby Peter Tew (who was in
Dothan looking for work) was wounded in the leg. Domingus suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen and face and several knife
wounds to his back and head. He collapsed soon after killing George
Stringer. His loss of blood was severe and doctors carried him home
to his young wife and warned that “he [could] not possibly recover.”
The Dothan Light reported other minor injures to several farmers and
townsmen.50
48
Dothan Light, October 16 and 27, 1889; Rogers “History of Houston County,” 154.
Stepp and Stepp, Dothan, 32; Dothan Light, October 16, 1889.
50
Dothan Light, October 16, 1889; Dothan Eagle, October 27, 1953; Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 154 –55; Baxley, “Highlights,” 11. For additional riot coverage, see Newton Messenger, October 19, 1889; Columbia Enterprise, October 17, 1889; Ozark Southern Star, October
16, 1889.
49
JULY 2007
181
Headline from the Ozark Southern Star, October 16, 1889.
News of the fight spread quickly. The Ozark Southern Star proclaimed
a “Bloody Riot at Dothan” and the name stuck. The reporter wrote of
a long-standing battle of the “City Council Vs. The Alliance People”
and spoke of “Streets Flowing in Blood.” On October 16, 1889, the
Dothan Light headline read: “An awful bloodshed from a half minutes fight in Dothan. Three widows and several fatherless children
to suffer the sorrow.” Williams counted Domingus among the dead
because of the severity of his wounds. The affair was beyond explanation to the editor. He ended his report with the scolding, “Bad, bad
Dothan.” Papers in Columbia and Ozark speculated confidently that
the violence would surely continue. The Newton Messenger ended its
reporting on the riot with the warning “whiskey destroys the strongest man.” The Columbia Enterprise eulogized George Stringer, saying
182
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
“his memory will be cherished by thousands . . . like him [who] had
convictions of right.” Little was said about the two injured lawmen.51
The fight caused the protagonists to reconsider the events of the
past six months and, despite all the acrimony between the farmers
and town officials, the fighting stopped. Apparently, both sides were
so shocked over the incident that they paused. Despite its growth,
Dothan was still a small town, and the killings were unprecedented.
Consequently, the Dothan Riot prompted a change in relations between the townspeople and the local farmers and the violence did
not continue.52
A week after the riot, the Dothan Light announced that Domingus
had recovered from his wounds and would survive. In his final editorial on the affair, Williams wrote:
It is justice to the farmers to say that they are reasonable and willing to do right, and are willing to submit
the matter to fair settlement; and they are not disposed to impose upon our town. It is also justice to
the town authorities to say that they are also reasonable and willing to do right, and are not disposed to
impose upon the farmers. Upon this principle each
side has wisely submitted the matter of difference to
experienced counsel for settlement, which is very
commendable and we are proud to say to our many
readers that the war is over.
51
Ozark Southern Star, October 16, 1889; Dothan Light, October 16, 1889; Newton Messenger,
October 19, 1889; Columbia Enterprise, October 17, 1889.
52
Was the event known today as the “Dothan Riot” in fact a riot? Paul Gilje, author of Rioting in America, defines a riot as “any group of twelve or more people attempting to assert
their will immediately through the use of force outside the normal bounds of the law.”
Although there were elements of a riot as defined by Gilje throughout the incident in
the streets of Dothan, the goal of the farmers was a reconsideration of a town ordinance.
Each time George Stringer was arrested, he appealed within the normal bounds of the law.
Stringer’s reaction is consistent with the frustration of southern farmers and tensions from
the rise of commercial agriculture and a growing disenchantment with the realities of agricultural life on the eve of the twentieth century, which departed from the “agrarian myth”
described by historian Richard Hofstadter. Gilje, Rioting in America, 1– 6, 77; Hofstadter,
Age of Reform.
JULY 2007
183
By the end of October, the drayage issue was settled in favor of the
Alliance. Their drays would not be taxed.53
Dothan soon recovered from the trauma of the violent episode
and continued to prosper, but the town still retained a reputation for
rowdiness. “For years after [the riot] fights were frequent, and someone always got hurt. Dothan soon [earned a reputation] for being a
fighting town, and visitors who knew its history would duck into any
place of refuge if a firecracker exploded on the streets,” according
to one student of Houston County history. A local historian writes
that passengers riding through Dothan on railcars “crouched in their
seats as they passed through, afraid that idle roughnecks would shoot
at the train.”54 Despite this reputation, Dothan secured a branch
courthouse from Abbeville in 1895, and the subsequent increase in
commerce from the railroad marked the “beginning of the end” for
old Henry County as proposals to carve out a new county became
common. Citizens of Columbia were opposed to the creation of new
county, certain that Dothan would become the county seat. In 1890,
Columbia had almost 1,000 citizens while Dothan could count only
247. A decade later, however, Dothan had grown to over 3,000 while
Columbia inched up to 1,100. When the final vote came to form a
new county, the citizens of Columbia were overwhelmingly recalcitrant; only three votes were cast in favor of the formation of Houston
County, which was nonetheless approved in 1903 with Dothan as its
seat.55
Following his recovery, Domingus was convicted twice for the
murders of Walker and Stringer. He appealed his convictions, and
in 1892 the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Domingus should
be retried.56 He was acquitted at a third trial. Domingus returned to
Dothan and was a presence in law enforcement until his retirement
from the city in 1936 at age seventy—a resignation that was forced
53
Dothan Light, October 23 and 30, 1889.
Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 156; T. Larry Smith, Henry County Siftings (privately
printed, 1998), 1:160 – 61; Dothan Eagle, September 21, 1907; Marvin Scott, History of Henry
County, Alabama (Pensacola, Fla., 1961), 69.
55
Geneva, Dale, and Henry Counties all lost land to Houston County. Warren, Chattahoochee
Trails, 103; Rogers, “History of Houston County,” 152; Ashford Power, July 14, 2005.
56
Domingus v. State, 11 So. 190 (Ala., 1891).
54
184
THE ALABAMA REVIEW
Tobe Domingus circa 1930.
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Domingus.
upon him when the city council refused to take a vote on his reappointment, ending the half-century career of Tobe Domingus. The
Dothan Eagle demanded that Domingus, Dothan’s “bullet-scarred
policeman,” receive a pension following his displacement: “Dothan
owes venerable Chief Tobe something for his long and distinguished
record.” Local officials agreed, and Domingus received a pension
from the city until his death on May 2, 1942. He was memorialized
for his long career and buried in the city cemetery.57
57
Dothan Eagle, November 10 and 11, 1942.
JULY 2007
185
Dothan has grown from its early days into the undisputed “Hub
of the Wiregrass.” Surrounding the Circle City are acres of farmland
that provide work and food for residents. Never again would there be
an incident that would test relations between the farmers and town
officials to the degree of the Dothan Riot. In 1998, the mural depicting the Dothan Riot was completed as part of the Dothan Mural
Project at a cost of $19,000. Initial drafts included inset depictions
of the trial before throngs of angry, poorly dressed farmers. Another
inset portrayed Domingus and several well- dressed townsmen with
guns in hand, presumably going to arrest Stringer for violating the
drayage ordinance. Neither inset was included in the final depiction,
which alarmed city officials and residents alike due to its violent (but
accurate) content. The artists removed some of the mural’s more violent scenes, leaving the image that can be seen there today.58 The
mural is a visual reminder of Dothan’s rural roots and the turbulent
beginnings of a city in the Wiregrass of southeast Alabama.
58
Wendell H. Stepp, interview by author, January 26, 2005; Pamela Stepp, Wiregrass Festival
of Murals: Preserving Our Heritage and History through Art on a Grand Scale (Dothan, 2006),
20–21.