The Blount County Herald was published at Bangor by Denis W.D. Boully and edited by W.H. Edwards and F.A. Hanna. Only one issue of this newpaper is known to exist. It is on microfilm in the Oneonta Court House. The paper is dated 4 Apr 1879. A contemporary newspaper, the Bangor Broad-Axe was run by Phillip Musgrove. Similarly, only one issue of the Broad-Axe is known to exist. All the rest have apparently been lost to time. F.A. (Francis Asberry) Hanna served the Confederacy in Company C of the 29th Alabama Infantry. Phillip Musgrove was Captain of Company C of the 12th Alabama Cavalry. In April of 1881, Hanna was murdered. He was sitting inside his house reading a newspaper by lamp or candle light with the front door open. Someone crept up outside and shot him with a rifle. He was taken back to the Hanna Family Cemetery near Hanceville for interment. Mathew's paper, The Blount County News, was in business in Blountsville in April 1881, but the issues which would have reported on the actual incident are missing. The 19 May 1881 issue reported James McAnnally was arrested and jailed at Blountsville and charged with complicity in the murder. McAnnally later posted a $2000 bond and was released. In May 1884, the News reported the case of the State vs. Willis McAnnally was called into court. Phillip Musgrove was investigated as a suspect involved with conspiracy to murder his newspaper competitor, but any charges were dismissed. In October, 1884, this note was found in the News: The trial of Dr. P.M. Musgrove and Wm. Musgrove, charged with the murder of F.A. Hanna, near Bangor in this County, came off last week in St. Clair County, where the venue had been changed. After a trial of three days and an exhaustive examination of witnesses, the verdict of the jury was "Not Guilty." In September, 1885, this note was found: The trial of Bud McAnnally, charged with the murder of Frank A. Hanna, has been again continued by the State. It was to have been tried in the Marshall Circuit Court on the 2d inst., and many of the witnesses passed through here on the 1st, on their way home. McAnnally was referred to as "James," "Willis," and "Bud." No other local newpaper reports were found concerning this Blount County murder mystery. It is not known for certain if McAnnally was the real killer. Although it involved a few well known men from Blount County, Hanna's murder remains one of Blount County's unsolved murders. Phillip Musgrove moved to Cullman not long after the incident. Hanna's younger brother, Lafayette Randolph Hanna, was a lawyer in Blountsville. Newspaper ink must have flowed through the Hanna boys veins. He, and two other prominent Blount Countians, Howell and Doyle, started "The Mineral Age" some time after the death of his brother, F.A. Hanna. Mathews, at the News, did not exactly welcome the competition and used his editorial column to deride the young upstart. In any event, the Mineral Age only lasted a few years. Mathews sarcastically eulogized the Mineral Age with this note in the 22 Oct 1885 issue of the News: In Memoriam. Died, at Blountsville, Ala., on Oct. 20th, 1885, in the hope of a glorious resurrection at Warrior, Ala., Miss Minner Alage, the adopted daughter of L.R. Hanna, Esq., a pretended philanthropist of this County. It had never any legitimate parentage, and was begotten in iniquity, and died of a slow starvation, a dose that he prepared for its neighbor, the Blount County News. The ways of God are inscrutable, and hypocrisy today, meets its true deserts as it did in the days of the Savior. The puny bantling was born at Chepultepec, Blount County, and was of very doubtful parentage, yet it was a sensitive thing, and told its adopted parent three weeks before its death, that it didn't want to live, for the following reasons, to-wit: "The County officers paid no attention to it! The Probate Judge snubbed it; the Sheriff only noticed it three or four times; the Circuit Clerk never tipped his hat to it; and the Register in Chancery totally ignored it." However, it had only one true and faithful friend, the Rev. Remus Murphree, a contributor, and one of the most worthless darkies in the State, who will preach its "Funeral" on November the 5th, the anniversary of Guy Fawks' plot to blow up the Lords and Commons of old England. But it has gone, gone forever! Yet its close financial career is known to the little boys of Blountsville, who often found it a difficult thing to collect a small but hard-earned fee from the management. Peace to its ashes! It has undoubtedly been done Brown so let it rip! >From the snow-clad hills of Maine to the marshes 'round Savannah, Everyone now knows what's the matter with poor Hannah! In March 1886, the News reported the Mineral Age was sold to Prof. S.A. Ellis and Rev. S.C. Davidson, who moved it to Warrior. L.R. Hanna was yet a young man when he contracted typhoid fever and died 20 Feb 1887. He was buried with Masonic honors in the New Lebanon (Blue Springs) Cemetery. A final note about Frank Hanna. In a June 1891 issue of the Blount County News-Dispatch, a traveling salesman, then known as a "drummer" sent a letter to the editor which mentions Hanna. His letter reads in part: I then bethought me of Frank Hanna, and on inquiry was told he is dead, "had been murdered, mysteriously, horribly murdered years ago." Frank was a social kind hearted companion and I could not but feel a great sorrow in not meeting him, and the terrible idea that he was murdered followed me whenever I went, and I caught myself dreamily wondering whether the spirits of murdered men forgive, and if I ever could believe in spooks and restless spirits I would certainly have thought he lingered 'round for I thought of him all day, and could almost see him as I saw him last-the picture of health. "Where then is the Musgrove family?" I asked, I am sure every one thought me a veritable Rip Van Winkle and I myself begun to look around for Synder. For "the Musgroves moved too, soon after Frank Hanna died." So what of the 4 Apr 1879 issue of The Blount County Herald? Here are a few transcriptions: On the 27th inst., Mr. Jas. Scott, of Jefferson co., was married to Miss Ellen Milner, of Blount, at the residence of the bride's father, Mr. Henry Milner, near Chepultepec. After the ceremonies were over the guests were invited to a table well filled with the luxuries of life, to which they did ample justice. Blountsville, Ala., March 28, 1879. Eds. Herald--Since my last, two, if not more, heavy rains have fallen here, and hen came a frost after; but, so far as I am informed, it did no harm. The prospect is good for fruit--peaches, plums and apples. Wheat promises an abundant crop. The last two or three days two or three days have been rather warm, and our neighbors engaged in farming have taken advantage of the time and planted their corn, and prepared to plant cotton by planting guano in some instances. The outlook is good for a crop, especially wheat, and especially Mr. Wooten's, which is said to be the finest in this community. By the way, Jim is one of the best farmers in the county, being careful always to prepare well and thoroughly his soil before planting. No one in this section succeeds better than Wooten. Uncle Dan McPherson is on a visit to Blountsville to see his son-in-law, Mr. Wooten. Although his head is white with the frosts of 78 winters, and he afflicted with old age, yet Uncle Dan "spins a yarn" and cracks a joke with as much zest as when in the prime of life. He is quite old, but always good-humored and cheerful, and seems to enjoy his declining years as much as any aged person. A better citizen than Uncle Dan is not in Blount. About 350 to 400 motrgages have been recorded and filed for record in the probate's office up to this time, and still the mortgage for supplies. Many more will yet be filed for corn and meat. Herein is another potent answer to the question, What causes the hard times? Will we never learn to produce our corn and meat in this county? After the immense quantity of guano, corn and bacon shipped and sold here to the farmers is paid for next winter, how much will they have left of their crops? Just about enough to do till Christmas, when they must again give a lien to get supplies. Scribe. Died, on the 29th ult., at the residence of her son, in this county, Mrs. Jenkins, aged 83 years. We learn that the jail at Blountsville was broken on last Wednesday and the prisoners made good their escape. The free use of a hand-saw and chisel enabled them to make their exit. We had a short and pleasant call this week by Drs. Willoughby and Drennen, of Arkadelphia. We also had a brief call by Mr. W.A. Cannon, of the "cut off." Esq. Uriah Tidwell, of the Little Warrior region, gave us a call, and also kindly subscribed for the Herald. Our senior went last week in the vicinity of his former residence on Dry Creek, and hearing there had been a post office recently established in the neighborhood, went to see the postmaster. Dr. Ballinger, and while there and thereabout, picked up 43 subscribers for the Herald, some of whom declared they had never before taken a newspaper, and never would, had not a representative of the Herald gone there.