The Saga of William Bauck "Bill" Looney Aka Ol' Bill Looney & Old Black Fox

Written by: Leola Looney Hessom and Wesley S.
Thompson
Submitted by: Fred McCaleb


His name was William Bauck Looney, but everyone called him
Bill, or just Ol' Bill Looney. He was born in 1827 in Lawrence
County, Alabama just along the northeast border with Winston
County, near the intercepts of Morgan and Cullman counties.
Bill was the 11th child of Moses and Mary Guest Looney, both
born in Tennessee, married in Warren County, 1807. Moses
and his brother, John came down to northern Alabama with
Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812, and when the war
was over, they returned to Tennessee and brought their families
back to Alabama, Moses settling in Lawrence County and John
in St. Clair County.

The life of Bill Looney seems to have been more or less
uneventful up until the time of the Civil War. He had left
Tennessee Valley for Winston County, and had married Senie
Ellen Penn, daughter of John Penn and wife Elizabeth Day
Penn. His just younger brother, Andreson Marion Looney (Sgt,
Company I, 1st Alabama Cavalry, USA), married Senie's sister
Nancy Emily Penn, and Anderson and Nancy also settled in
Winston County. Other siblings of Bill and Anderson Loony
married into families that had prosperous farms in the fertile
Tennessee Valley which would lead them in the direction of the
Southern Cause, the protection of "property" and enlistment in
the Rebel Army.

Henrietta Looney, daughter of Anderson and grandmother to
Leola Looney Hessom was the teller of many Bill Looney
stories about "Uncle Bill," telling these stories over and over.
Leola explains that Henrietta's versions of the stories may
"differ some that from that of Professor Thompson, but they are
substantially the same."

In 1854 Bill Looney received through the Huntsville Land
Office, a plot of land in Winston County described as the SE1/4
of the SW1/4 of Sec 2 and the NE1/4 of the NE1/4 of Sec 10 in
TS 10 S, R 7 W, on Clifty Fork about four miles north of the
town of Houston, which at that time was the county seat of
Winston. Wesley Thompson's research indicates that this was
the location of Looney's Tavern.

Wes Thompson tells of the area-wide political meeting to
discuss the secession speculation and related issues which was
held at Looney's Tavern on July 4, 1861, and he points out the
desirability of this location for such a meeting. It was near the
intersection of the Burleson and Burnham roads. Burleson
Road connected westward to the Marion County seat of
Pikesville and the Burnham Road ran northward toward
Moulton, connecting with Cheatham's Road. This meeting
would be a festive social gathering occasion. However, there
would have been no indecent behavior, as Bill Looney would
not tolerate it on his property and he had a reputation for
enforcing his standards with a shotgun. This meeting became
famous for setting the stage for several of the north Alabama
counties, centered by Winston, to take up a strongly pro-Union
stance in the midst of a sea of emotional Confederate
sympathies. This meeting was the origin of the legend of the
"Free State of Winston" and later developed into possible
consideration of creating the state of "Nicajack" (after one of
the Cherokee Indian tribes) which was proposed to unite the
pro-Union sympathy counties of north Alabama with similiar
philosophy segments of Eastern Tennessee. Of course neither
of the fledgling proposals prevailed.

Bill Looney played an important role in the history of North
Alabama during the Civil War. When it became evident that the
people of Winston County and the surrounding areas were not
going to be left out of the conflict, many men in the area
decided that if they had to fight they would do so on the Union
side. One of the problems was how to get past the Confederate
lines into the Union Army encampments. Bill Looney was the
answer to that problem for many of the hill country men.

The pro-Union sympathies were much more widespread than
many today realize. And the makeup of men who served in the
1st Alabama Cavlary, organized specifically for these pro-Union
men reflects the widespread Union sentiment among the many
north Alabama counties. In a special Alabama State Convention
of 1861, the residents of Winston County had voted 477 - nil for
a Cooperationist Platform vs. a Secessionist Platform; indeed 22
other north Alabama counties also voted for the Cooperationist
position.

Although small, being just five feet tall, Looney was a man of
considerable strength and endurance. He was thin and wiry and
reportedly could do a standing jump over his horse.

He is said to have had black hair and dark eyes. Bill was an
expert tracker and knew the woods, caves, creeks, and bluffs,
all good hiding places, in north Alabama. And when those men
who desired to join the Union Army needed someone to guide
them through the maze of hills and hollows, Looney was the
one. After the war, Colonel George Spencer, CO of the 1st
Alabama Cavalry and congressman Chris Sheats, both testified
that the "Black Fox" had piloted more than 2500 (or 500?)
Confederate deserters (or pro-Union sympathizers) to Union
lines between 1862 and 1865.

Looney became a wanted man, with a price on his head. Large
rewards were offered both in terms of money and even a
permanent discharge from service for the one who could bring
him in dead or alive. He was captured several times but in each
instance either escaped or was rescued. He became known as
"The Black Fox." This name was probably given him because
of an association with a Cherokee Chief from the Guntersville
area called Black Fox in the early 1800s (1801-1811), who also
had the English name of "John Looney" and the Cherokee
name of Enoli. Bill Looney would have been about six years old
at the time of the Cherokee Removal from north Alabama when
Chief John Looney, aka Enoli & Black Fox, was removed into
western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. One of Bill's great
uncles, was Captain John Looney (Revolutionary War soldier)
who was captured by the Cherokees in March 1782 on the
southern branches of the Tennessee River, and may have left
some progeny behind when he was set free after a few weeks
of captivity.

Ol' Bill Looney was captured several times by the Rebs but was
never subdued. Upon his capture at one time, Looney was
placed in the custody of two officers. Rather than place him in
confinement they decided to keep him close to themselves to be
sure he didn't escape again. They took a room on the second
floor of a hotel. The room had two beds, one for each officer.
Looney was placed on the floor, tied with ropes and the ropes
tied to the beds. When the officers were asleep, Looney
worked constantly on the ropes and finally succeeded in freeing
himself. He tied blankets together and went out the window.
Upon reaching the ground, he picked up a piece of charcoal
and wrote on the wall of the building, "The Old Black Fox is
gone again."

Bill Looney developed a survival instinct that included a "quick
on the trigger" reaction. One account by Sgt. John R. Phillips,
was that he met Looney one day in Decatur and they were to
ride together down into the hills. Just west of Day's Gap, the
party met a man (Martin Stout) known by Looney to have
Confederate sympathies. Looney drew his pistol, shot and killed
the man without passing a word and left him where he lay.
When asked why he had shot the man, Looney replied that he
was one of the Rebs that tired to hang him in Decatur. Looney
said that if he ever laid eyes on him again, he would kill him.

Further westward, Looney, Phillips, and other members of the
party stopped to rest by a branch. While at the branch, the
party received an incoming volley of fire from hidden foes
which killed party members Phillip Sutton and a Carter boy.
Looney and other members of the party scattered, leaving
Phillips and Bill Elkins to fend off the Rebs, which they were
able to do. Looney had slipped away heading for a nearby
friend's house where he would hole up for the night.

On another occasion, five of the Union sympathizers had been
captured in a raid by the homeguard and been put in the jail at
Jasper, Alabama, with the ultimatum that they had five days to
make up their minds to join the CSA Army or be shot. Ol' Bill
was named to ride to the Union camp at Decatur and plea for
cavalry assistance to raid the Jasper jail and free the imprisoned
men. So soon thereafter, Bill appeared at the headquarters of
the Federal Army in Decatuor, tired and exhausted. Looney
spoke with General Mitchell; Looney got the detachment of 26
volunteers which he sought, led by Captain Anderson Ward of
Winston County and in a lightning quick raid, the five loyalists
were set free. As the entire detachment had only 14 horses and
mules, they had taken turns riding and walking down to Jasper.
The jail was burned and the jailer Gilbert Sides was hit by a
volley of about ten shots in the back as he ran away.

After the war, many people wanted to get revenge on Bill
Looney. One day after the war, a man came to Looney to tell
him that a man named Bill Eady had been going around telling
a story about Bill. The story was untrue, Bill said and the
informant who was blaming Eady knew the charge was a lie.
Looney then went looking for Bill Eady and when he found
him, he shot him. A few nights later, a contingent of
white-robed, masked members of the Ku Klux Klan entered
Looney's home and found him in bed. When they walked up to
his bed Looney asked "Where did you come from?" One of
them said, "We came straight from Hell." Looney drew his
pistol from beneath his pillow and, pointing it at the nearest
figure, inquired, "Did you see anything of old Bill Eady? I sent
him there a few days ago." The white robed figures silently
withdrew and never bothered him again.

No one ever told Bill Looney that he had murdered an innocent
man, for they knew that to do so would ensure the death of the
informant who lied. [Some of these stories have taken on
legendary status and some variations of these stories circulate
with different circumstances or completely different people, but
with essentially the same outcome.]

Bill Looney continued to live in the general area of Winston and
Lawrence Counties. Sometime during the war, Rebels had
staked out his Tavern and waited in hiding for several days.
When he failed to show up, they burned the Tavern. He stayed
in the area at least until 1870, probably living near his family in
Inmanfield, but after that, all track of him is lost.

Although Bill Looney was never officially enlisted in the US
Army, his role was one of a "spy," scout, and recruiter, all
performed without any pay. He applied for a pension but his
application was ignored since he had never officially enlisted. In
1867, congressman Chris Sheats, led a petition drive which
resulted in Bill Looney receiving a Congressional Citation and a
small pension by action of the 40th US Congress, 3rd Session
on February 8, 1869. This action was reported in the
Congressional Globe on May 12, 1870 pages 3430-3431. This
citation/pension effort was aided by the signatures of some 196
fellow fighters or sympathizers of the Union cause, including a
large number of officers of the 1st Alabama Cavalry.

It is told by some relatives that he went to Memphis, Tennessee
where one of his sisters was living. He and wife Senie Ellen
Penn Looney had a family of four children: Henry, Mary,
Anderson, and Sarah. After leaving Alabama, the family seems
to disappear with no trace. One rumor is that Ol' Bill the Black
Fox was finally outsmarted somewhere over in Mississippi, with
some indication that a man from Winston or Marion County
named Hyde had tracked him down and was instrumental in the
hanging of Bill Loony for injustices done during the war.
Perhaps this rumor is true but one almost has to believe that the
hero/villain that Old Black Fox had become, escapted with his
family into self-imposed silence. The spirit of the courageous,
resourceful, crafty, vengeful Old Black Fox lives on today in the
annual summer-long performances at the Looney's Tavern
Theater held just east of Double Springs, Alabama, on a hill-top
overlooking Looney's home - the "Free State of Winston" and
the larger province of "Nicajack." To this day Old Black Fox
can continue to be seen slipping silently through the "hills and
hollars" of his native land, leading a good neighbor to freedom,
to take up the valliant cause of the Union - forever.