William Dudley Chipley (June 6, 1840-December 1, 1897) was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of Dr. William Stout Chipley and Georgia Amelia Stout Chipley of Lexington, Kentucky. He and his family moved to Pensacola in 1876. Chipley was general manager of the Pensacola and Louisville Railroad. He had vast holdings of land and influenced […]
Robert Mitchell Jaye was born in 1932 in Bay Minette, Alabama, to James and Grace McLain Jaye. Jaye graduated from William Carey College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He served in the United States Navy and held pastorates in Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and Georgia. Jaye served as pastor of First Baptist Church in DeFuniak […]
Henry W. Laird was born in the Lexington District of South Carolina on June 3, 1821. He married Sarah Ann Long on September 5, 1848, in Alabama, and they had nine children. Sarah was born in Butler County, Alabama, on April 24, 1832. Laird enlisted in the Confederate Army’s Gulf Rangers at Geneva, Alabama, on September […]
In June 1903, L. G. Crosby became the sole owner of the new Pensacola Coca-Cola franchise. In September of that year, he produced the first bottle of Coca-Cola in the Pensacola plant. By 1924, Crosby had succeeded in running his competitors out of business and had the only bottling plant in the Pensacola area. In […]
Alexander L. McCaskill was born in Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina, on January 4, 1829. He moved to Walton County in 1852 where he married Catherine Campbell Gillis in 1858. They had three children, but only two survived to adulthood. In 1861, McCaskill was chosen to be a member of the Secession Convention and was […]
William Miller (1820-1909) was born in New York, but his family moved to Louisiana when he was an infant. He served with General Zachary Taylor in the United States Army during the Mexican War but changed his allegiance to the Confederacy early in the Civil War. He was commissioned Brigadier General in August 1864 and […]
Jeb Stuart Gaston, Sr. (left) was born on March 18, 1881, in Reidville, South Carolina. Little is known about his early life except that he moved to Walton County sometime after 1900 and served as City Marshal of DeFuniak Springs in 1924. He married Mary Gillis Douglass of Argyle, and they had two children, Margaret […]
Mary Lou Cawthon (left) is shown sitting on the front porch of her father’s home with Mrs. Manning and in her father’s car (below) which was one of the first in DeFuniak Springs. The Cawthon home was on Nelson Avenue, next door to the current Thriftway Supermarket. Mary Lou was the youngest of ten children […]
The 1937 Walton High School basketball team members were (front row, left to right): Ed Taylor, Dawson Cawthon, Gerdon Tappan, John Rutan, Jeb Stuart Gaston, (middle row) Woody Wesley, Bob Hatcher, Frank Mzwreck, Earl Wesley, Kenneth Sconiers, Charles Taylor, (back row) Buddy Lowery, coaches Shorty Waites, Grey Wilson, and Ox Clarke. John Oliver Rutan (above, […]
This photograph of Walton High School’s first football team was taken on the grounds of Palmer College in 1921. The linemen were (from left) Walter Donnelley, Theo Griffith, Fuller Warren, Ralph “Bud” McBroom, Cletus Fuqua, Clyde McKenzie, and Earnest Walker. The backs were Ralph Spiers, Buell Ogburn, Bert McCall, and Hubie “Nugget” Raburn. The substitutes […]