By Kelly Kazek
In the unincorporated community of Toney in rural northwestern Madison County, you’ll find the remains of what was once a little whistle-stop town. The remnants, located about four miles from the Tennessee line, include a store and post office, some probable old cotton warehouses, and a railroad depot.
What it doesn’t have is a railroad. So how and why did the buildings get there?
Old store near the intersection of Old Railroad Bed and Baites roads in Toney, Ala. The Middle Tennessee and Alabama Railroad went through the area in the late 1800s.Kelly Kazek
Part of the answer can be found on a road sign at the crossroads: Old Railroad Bed Road. The Middle Tennessee and Alabama Railway was built through the area in 1893 with plans to continue the line all the way to Decatur. It never quite made it, eventually ending at the nearby community of Jeff. The only remainder of Jeff is its namesake, Jeff Road.
In 1897, the rail line was sold to the Nashville, Chattanooga and Saint Louis Railroad. In 1929, rail service was stopped altogether. The rails were removed in the 1930s.
When I stumbled on the abandoned whistle-stop village after moving to the area five years ago, I was curious what it used to be. Was the community of Toney once a town? Or were the buildings the remnants of another town? I’ll share what I discovered in my research and I welcome any input from readers. Send an email to kkazek@al.com.
I came across an online history that said there was once a community called Dan in this area. It had numerous businesses, including a cotton gin, a sawmill, blacksmith shop and four stores. But the history also says all the buildings in Dan except a house and grist mill were destroyed by a 1913 tornado.
A March 15, 1913, article in The Birmingham Post-Herald describes the destruction in the area as part of a series of tornadoes that struck the South on March 13. In Madison County, “The cyclone apparently divided itself in two parts someone west of here and struck 18 miles northwest and seven miles southwest of Huntsville simultaneously,” the article said. “A great many farm houses were blown away; much timber was blown down and a great deal of stock was killed. The property loss is heavy.”
Bulah Posey, the 8-year-old daughter of Lonnie and Mary Posey, and an unnamed man were killed, according to the March 20, 1913, edition of The Huntsville Weekly Times quoted on FindaGrave.com.
Most newspapers described the area as “Toney,” which likely included the community of Dan.
I have since learned the abandoned building with the red roof on Old Railroad Bed Road is known as “Old Toney Depot” and the weathered gray building at the intersection with Baites Road was once a combination general store and post office.
I could not find a name for the store, or what community the post office served, but I did discover the Toney Post Office was founded in 1898. The first postmaster was Blanche Ralls Toney. According to a 1970s history by Jay Crook located farther down on the history page, there was a separate post office in Dan from 1872-1904, which would mean Dan had already stopped being an incorporated “town” nine years before the tornado destroyed it.
That means it’s likely that Dan was absorbed into Toney following the tornado and the remaining ghost town was the central part of Toney at the time. Toney still has a U.S. Post Office, which is located on Toney Road, a mile and a half from the ghost town.
Dan’s gristmill, which survived the 1913 storm, was torn down in about 1939, Crook said. “The grist mill was, most likely, the tallest of all the buildings in Dan,” Crook wrote. “The grist mill was three stories tall and was built without a single nail. All the main beams and foundation beams were hand honed and were notched and pegged into place.”
