2025 April 19, Walking Tour Historic William Winston Home and Stage Coach Stop. Guide Lorie Johnson

We began our walk at the old location of the Cold Water Bookstore. We walked to the Stagecoach Stop and entered the one-room Stagecoach Cabin. After everyone returned, we took a group picture in front of the cabin.  

Group picture

The Coldwater Stage Stop, located on South Dickson Street, was built in Tuscumbia between 1815 and 1830. It served as a stop on Andrew Jackson's Military Road. It is thought to have been one of several log cabins operated as hotels by Michael Dickson, the first white settler in the town.

We continue up Main Street, and our guide identifies sites of interest. 

Maude Lindsey's photo is atop the piano in the front room, and most of the items in this room belong to her. 

She talked about Maude Lindsey, the granddaughter of William Henry and Judith Winston. Her father was Robert Burns Lindsey, and her mother was Sarah Miller Winston Lindsey. Robert Lindsey was the 22nd governor of Alabama. 

Maude Lindsey taught music at a kindergarten in Tuscumbia. In 1898, she founded and became a teacher at the first free kindergarten in Alabama.

Her home is across the street from the Tuscumbia Courthouse. 

We also visited the Helen Keller Library and the Institute for the Deaf and Blind. 

We continued to Deshler High School, which was built on land donated by  Gen David Deshler.

Brig. Gen James Deshler's painting hangs in the hallway of the home.
His father, Major David Desheler, and his mother had three children, but all three died. So, they gave the land to the city of Tuscumbia.
His request was that when the school was built, it would honor his son, who was killed in the Civil War.

Mrs. Judith M. Winston, who was upstairs in her dwelling, was caught under the falling timbers and died in a few minutes after being brought down. 
Article about Mrs. Judith Winston's Death 
A terrible Tornado on November 22, 1874 
Great Destruction of Property 

When the tornado hit, Mrs. Winston went to the top of the stairs to check the weather.

The stairs were rebuilt after her death. Born Mar 10, 1806, died Nov 22, 1874. 

William Winston was born Mar 24, 1789, and died April 27, 1857. So William Winston had died several years before the tornado hit and killed his wife Judith Winston. 

As you walk up the sidewalk to the home, you can see a historic marker and a piece of fence.

This is a piece of the original fence made in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century for the Winston Family Cemetery in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Given by Al, Andy, and Nancy Winston Blackburn 
In memory of their mother 
Judith Winston, 1948 D.H.S.
Graduate 2006

William Winston Home 
Clark T. Barton began constructing the home that would become the center building of Deshler High School in 1824. William Winston purchased and completed the Georgian-style dwelling in 1833. 
The largest remaining antebellum house in Tuscumbia. It features a winding staircase, eight fireplaces, ten original closets, and an inscription on the cellar wall written during the Union occupation, saying. 
It is a dam shame to destroy this mansion." The original log kitchen was placed at the NW rear corner to avoid fire near the house. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. April 1982. The house and property were purchased by the city of Tuscumbia in 1948 for the site of the new deshler campus, relocating from property bequeathed by Major David Deshler (from his Main St residence, 3 blocks north), memorializing his son, Brig Gen James Deshler C.S.A. killed leading charge at the Balttle of Chickamauga ept 20, 1863.
William Winston (1789-1857), the father of Alabama Gov. John Anthony Winston
Grandfather of Maud Lindsey, a famed educator and author of children's books.
Father-in-law of Robert Burns Lindsay, the only foreign-born governor of Alabama. 
Winton family cemetery is located approximately one mile northwest of the house.

I was excited about this walking tour because I had never been inside the Stage Coach Cabin or the William Winston Home. 

There is a rich history associated with this little town where I grew up, but I moved away when I was twelve. 

It's always interesting to learn about the town where you grew up. 

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