Mickey Starling, reporter3@greenepublishing.com
There was always plenty of excitement in Madison around the early 1900s, and October of 1903 was no exception. It seems that several of the fine citizens of our community were stricken with the common conundrum of the carbuncle. These irritating sores are more commonly referred to as boils today.
One local individual who had taken up the fight against these unsightly blemishes was Mr. P.S. Coggins, who was said to have been wrestling a very active carbuncle for several weeks. He was spotted roaming the streets after successfully overcoming the sore. However, Coggins' face carried a mark to remind him of his recent health battle.
Another Madison resident, Mr. S.D. Morrow took great offense with The New Enterprise for reporting on a carbuncle that was located on his neck. The newspaper erroneously reported that the carbuncle was located on the side of the gentleman's neck, rather than on the back of his neck. This had the normally jovial Mr. Morrow oozing with anger and promising a libel suit for the misreporting. Editor Columbus B. Smith issued a correction for the reporting and left Morrow this message: “We make the correction for “Uncle Sam” [Morrow] and state to his many friends that the “pet” is on the back of his neck, and as such causes the old gentleman to look downward rather than upward, as is his usual custom of doing. Now, Brother Morrow, shake our hand and let's withdraw the libel suit.”
In the midst of this boiling tension, Smith began hearing the loud bang of brickbats being thrown at his residence. The city council offered a $25 reward for the arrest and conviction of the guilty party. It is uncertain that the brickbat boondoggle had anything to do with the carbuncle calamity.
Information for this article was taken from Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne's book, “Madison County, Florida Newspaper Clippings, 1901-1903.”