The Journal-Record - Bicentennial Edition Thursday, July 1, 1976 Section B, Page 8 B. HARRIS OBTAINED FIRST LAND GRANT FOR GUIN IN 1820, STARTING A GROWING CITY Whether there were any settlers in the area of Guin, earlier than 1820, is not definitely known, but according to the abstract title of the property owned by Mr. and Mrs. W. A. COLLINS, who aided greatly in obtaining history of Guin, B. HARRIS obtained the first land grant from the United States Government, February 2, 1820. Evidently HARRIS kept the land until selling to Allen HALEY, who ran a Stage Coach line sometime in Guin, before 1870, as HALEY and his wife Lavina, sold the land to John T. MEADOR in 1870, according to the Abstract. Then in 1873, MEADOR sold the land to Dr. Jerry GUIN, who gave a great part of the land for the town of Guin, the right of way for the railroad, and the land for the Guin Cemetery. Dr. GUIN was the person for whom the town was named. After the land was donated, by Dr. GUIN, for the M & B R.R. in 1886, and the railroad was built, the land began to be purchased by many other early settlers including the BURLESONS, HULSEYS, BAIRDS, LITTLETONS, WEEKS, INGLES, LOGANS, CASHIONS and COLLINS and others also, but only the above names were listed in this particular abstract. According to Flint FRAZIER, his ancestors, the parents of Mr. M. FRAZIER moved from North Carolina to Columbus, in 1843, in a wagon, when Mr. Flint FRAZIER'S father was a mere infant. They moved, them, from Columbus to old Pikeville in 1859. M. M. FRAZIER was fourteen then, and when he was older he fought in the Civil War under Stonewalll(sic) JACKSON when the Yankees captured Gettysburg. He was put in the Yankee Prison for two years. Returning to Pikeville in 1868-9, he went into business with his Uncle J. T. MEADOR, then moved to Hamilton, where he served as County Sheriff and Tax Collector, then the same office but changed after his term of office. He was Sheriff at the time of the notorious outlaw, Rube BURROW, who was killed in Linden in 1890 for Robbery by the Burrow Gang. Mr. FRAZIER said that Rube BURROW, who was buried in Lamar County, had three different tombs that had been erected. Mr. FRAZIER said that his father did not come to Guin to live until 1894. Unable to get any history on B. HARRIS and his years in Guin, after his land grant in 1820, Mr. FRAZIER said that he sold to Allen HALEY who operated possibly a stage coachline and "HALEY's Stand," and that people traveling through the section near Guin, stopped over there for the night. HALEY had space for housing horses, cows, swine and other animals being transported by the people who stopped at his "stand". he also said that HALEY sold to his uncle J. T. MEADOR and that MEADOR sold to Dr. Jerry GUIN.(sic) who moved to Guin, January 26, 1873. MEADOR, a stepson of Judge TERRELL of Pikeville, had built a store in the area where Guin now stands, near the present residence of John HOLLOWAY, and Dr. GUIN operated the store along with his medical practice after buying MEADOR'(sic) interests in '73. In July of 1887, the day that the K.C.M. & B. Railroad was linked with the other branch, proved to be quite a memorable day at(sic) Pvt. John ALLEN of Tupelo made a big speech at the special ceremony linking the railroad which is now known as the Frisco, and a gold spike was driven as the last spike, near the tool house in Guin. Dr. GUIN had already had the agreement with the railroad that if he gave the right of way, a flagstop would be put in Guin. It was the [in] 1888 that the settlers began to move into Guin, after the town was officially started. W. A. COLLINS said that after Dr. GUIN'S coming, his father J. F. COLLINS and Jim KIRK wee the next two settlers, but he wasn't sure which came first. The COLLINS family lived where Claud GANN is living at the present time, his father having purchased forty acres of land, giving ten to the town space and keeping the remaining thirty. He said that Henry CLARK was Representative when guin was incorporated in 1888. FIRST STORE AFTER RAILROAD Mr. COLLINS thinks that Clark WHITE had the first store after the railroad was built and that the first business was located where the old Cotton Building stood. Mr. COLLIN's uncle Dr. J. W. COLLINS, also an early doctor, built the first hotel in Guin, Known as the Wall Hotel and operated by A. A. WALL. The FRAZIERS bought the hotel and continued to operated(sic) the hotel for many years. FIRST NEWSPAPER IN 1889 Jim CLEMENTS opened and operated the fist newspaper in Guin, know as The Guin Eagle, from 1889, where Mrs. HOLLOWAY'S residence stands today. As far as it [is] known, Guin had only one other newspaper, the one known as the Guin News printed at the Marion County News Office in Hamilton, for a short period by Frank McKENZIE, aided by the Rev. R. E. PATE. Guin has been and is still being covered by the Journal-Record the newspaper of Marion County. SALOONS IN 1887 Three SIDES brothers, Chris, Dock and Lee SIDES of Mississippi, had one of the first saloons in Guin, in 1887, near the turn of the century, when saloons were quite legal in this section, and they continued to [be] operated until in the 1890's when they were ruled illegal because of a famous shooting scrape near the saloon. However, reports were that during the days of the open saloons that Dee JONES, the first known police of Guin, came from Birmingham to "keep law and order" but that things became so quiet that he quit his post and returned to Birmingham, quite a contrast to the shooting scrape that ended the open saloons legality.