Wicked North Alabama by Jacquelyn Procter Reeves

Author:Jacquelyn Procter Reeves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wicked North Alabama
ISBN: 9781614230172
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2010-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

THE BLACK WIDOW OF HAZEL GREEN

The letter written to a Hazel Green widow from leaders in her Baptist church in Huntsville is now lost to history, as is the exact wording. We do know, however, that there was a letter, and were it written tongue-in-cheek, perhaps it would have read something like this:

Dear Mrs. Elizabeth Dale Gibbons Flanagan Jeffries High Brown Routt,

It has come to our attention that some, if not all, of your many husbands have died under mysterious circumstances and rather prematurely. Though you may explain it as coincidence, we feel that coincidence is not an acceptable theory in our doctrine (authorities are searching for references right now), and some of our members have voiced their concern that sitting too close to you on Sunday mornings puts them in grave (no pun intended) danger of dying due to the collateral effects of possible lightning strike.

Yes, Mrs. Dale Gibbons Flanagan, etc., we know that while your biscuit recipe has been featured in the November issue of Southern Living magazine (and we all agree this is historically the best issue of each and every year), no one will eat your biscuits when you bring them to our Fifth Sunday potlucks. Lela Mabel Ann Eliza has suggested that perhaps you have mislabeled your baking powder and rat poison, but we feel you would have probably noticed that after, say, your fourth husband had turned up his toes.

Our minister has conducted so many of your wedding ceremonies that he is sick of wedding reception cheese straws and cannot afford to keep getting his suits dry-cleaned. In fact, the cleaners are not able to get them cleaned fast enough before your next wedding. Our elders have voted, unanimously, that we can no longer accept you as a member of our congregation and that perhaps you would be better suited as a member of the Methodist church down the street. In addition, they seem to have an overabundance of male members of their congregation.

We would like to conclude by wishing any and all future husbands of yours who may be waiting in the wings (sort of like sitting ducks) good luck, but not Godspeed.

Elizabeth Evans Dale was born in Worchester County, Maryland, on October 28, 1795, one of ten children born to Adam Dale and Mary “Polly” Hall. More than two hundred years have passed since her birth, and with the passage of time, memories wither and history forgets. This is not the case for Elizabeth Routt, known locally as the Black Widow of Hazel Green. Though we have details of her life, the answers to many questions will forevermore remain unknown. However, as elusive as the reasons are, her story remains as vivid and interesting as if it happened just yesterday.

In 1797, the Dales left Maryland to settle in Liberty, Dekalb County, Tennessee. In 1812, Adam Dale fought under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. He is credited as having raised, equipped and commanded a company of one hundred volunteers from Smith, Tennessee, also in Dekalb County.

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