Many of you will remember when the northbound Whitesburg Bridge was replaced in 2006.
At the time, traffic was reduced to two lanes on the old steel bridge and people grumbled for months about the inconvenience. Well 14 years later we have a bigger issue with the Folsom-McFarland Highway (Hwy 231).
A client said to me just the other day, ” I know who Big Jim Folsom was but, who is the McFarland the highway is named after?”
After contemplating the question for a moment, I said that I remembered a guy called Tiny McFarland from my childhood. He weighed about 300 lbs. and that was why he had the nickname “Tiny.” But I felt sure the highway wasn’t named in his honor.
My curiosity got the better of me, so when Eli brought some documents to us, I asked him to research it. It turns out that Ward McFarland was the Director of ALDOT under Governor Big Jim Folsom. Big Jim’s platform when he ran for Governor was all about paving our roads here in Alabama.
Clement C. Clay Bridge
Oh! And by the way, that Whitesburg Bridge I mentioned in the headline is actually the Clement C. Clay Bridge. So I was wondering who this Clay was. He was a State Senator during the Confederacy who died on his farm in Gurley in 1882.
Clay was a part of the Confederate War Department effort to create a network of secret agents to conduct espionage and sabotage. In May 1864, president Davis sent Clay to Canada with a secret mission to coordinate activities of the Southern sympathizers in the Great Lakes area, including members of the Order of the Sons of Liberty and the Knights of the Golden Circle. Clay took part in a secret meeting with John Hay, President Abraham Lincoln’s aide, at Niagara Falls, Canada.
It was suspected that Thompson and Clay had employed John Wilkes Booth for some services before he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. President Andrew Johnson signed an order to arrest Clay. After learning from a newspaper that a reward was issued for his capture, Clay, who initially planned to escape to Mexico, turned himself in to General James H. Wilson in Macon, Georgia in May 1865. He was arrested and held in Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia until April 1866. Former Confederate president Jefferson Davis was also held in Fort Monroe, but was never tried; he was released in 1867.
Back to Highway 231
Al LaGrone, our Founder, complained when they made Highway 231 a four lane going north out of Huntsville to Tennessee before the southbound section coming to Arab. He told the Governor that it was a mistake, encouraging traffic, people and business in the direction of our neighboring state rather than at home here.
Most people today don’t realize that U.S. Route 231 is 912 miles long and stretches from downtown Panama City, Florida to Chicago (actually St. John, Indiana). I will never forget being in Las Vegas with Al LaGrone when a man from New York asked how you get to Arab, Alabama. Al said “from New York, just go to Chicago and turn left on U.S. Hwy 231 and it will take you straight to Arab, Alabama.”
Greg
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