The following article appeared on the editorial page of the Eufaula Tribune, in the 20 August 2000 weekend edition. It was written by Joel P. Smith. ========================================= "Excited voter elected Dr. Thornton town's first mayor" With the mayoral election only days away, a yellow clipping in Mrs. George N. Hurt's fragile scrapbook gives an interesting and timely account of the election of Eufaula's first mayor, 143 years ago. Eufaula was incorporated by an act of the Alabama Legislature on Dec. 19, 1857, with the stipulation that "the city governing body of the City Council of Eufaula shall consist of a chief officer to be styled 'the Mayor of Eufaula' and common councilmen." the first election was held under Intendant Ramson Godwin's and council member's supervision. Eufaula's excited voters chose Dr. William H. Thornton as their first mayor. That old clipping of an article written by Anne Kendrick Walker, author of "Backtracking in Barbour County," recaptures the town's excitement when townspeople chose Eufaula's "most prominent and popular and honored physician" as their first mayor. "A group[ of dust-covered horsemen galloped out of Eufaula one day with a message which, at that time, had all the importance of a Paul Revere mission, all the 'flourishes' that we associate with the ride to Concorde and Lexington, all the 'dash.' For Eufaula did things picturesquely; the men rode well, body-servants went along as outriders, a gay cavalcade it was drew rein at last, not at an officer's headquarters or an inn, where public men were wont to gather, or either before some white doorway of an old home. "This particular cavalcade went forth to meet one of the town's citizens, who was returning from a call which he had made on one of his patients. There had been an election that day in town-Eufaula had elected the first mayor in her history. Unanimous choice had fallen to a young physician, Dr. William Horatio Thornton, and the town could not await his return to inform him of the result of the day's voting. "And so before dusk fell, the ballots were counted, lights were set out in the windows of the houses, preparations made for bonfires and, meanwhile, a cavalcade was formed and rode through the street on a mission which could not be delayed." The riders galloped through the dust and drew rein suddenly and saluted the man of the hour.. Dr. Thornton had married Mary Butler Shorter, a daughter of Gen. Reuben Clark Shorter. The wedding had taken place in the general's palatial house on the bluff in 1845. The bride and groom built their home on Randolph Street. It's now know as the Thornton-Comer-Rudderman House. The fascinating old scrapbook includes another article on the Dent Mansion (Fendall Hall) by Miss Anne Walker that is also timely. She tells "the romantic story" of how Edward Brown and Ann Fendall Beall Young's second daughter, Anna Beall Young, was "courted by a princely gentleman whose name she was soon to bear - Hubert S. Dent." They courted in the detached brick kitchen which was being used as a 'parlor' until the manor house was completed. Today, the Friends of Fendall Hall are assisting the Alabama Historical Commission in developing a plan for a reconstruction of that detached kitchen which was destroyed by a falling tree during a storm. =============================================== Richard Price SOS 6-3