be surprising if such a book had never existed. A highly active man, he didn ' t seem able to sit still long enough to write more than a brief announcement about his next fiddling appearance and had almost no formal education. On the other hand, he had friends who wrote for daily or weekly newspapers as well as one, Congressman Carl Elliott of Jasper, who owned a small publishing company. If he had actually written anything, it would have been published, no matter how quirky it was, and Tom would have hauled it to fiddlers ' conventions and farmers ' markets … but he didn ' t.
Was he only teasing his friends in the newspaper business when he told them of his " Bug Tussle Murder Stories "?
This question was answered when I had the great fortune of meeting Tom ' s granddaughter, Helen Freeman Sturgeon, who shared with me a box containing a handwritten manuscript beginning with the words " A Story of Fiddling Tom Freeman." Here was Tom ' s unpublished book, which had been kept safe for three decades by his wife, Ida Freeman, and then by his daughter, Ruth Freeman Napier, and finally by Helen. Though thrilled to have Tom ' s book, I found the handwriting, spelling, and punctuation daunting and much of the subject matter perplexing.
For the chapter about Tom in my 1989 book, With“ Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow: A History of Old-Time Fiddling in Alabama,” I mainly deciphered the passages that pertained to his fiddling. But long after that book came out, other stories by Tom stayed on my mind.
Enter Robin Sterling
When I became director of the Alabama Folklife Association( 2000-2010) my research on Tom Freeman came to a halt.
I had given up on the project before Robin Sterling contacted me. He was writing a book about Cullman County and asked for permission to include my Fiddling Tom Freeman chapter from“ With Fiddle and Well- Rosined Bow.”
I did not know Robin, but learned that he was born and still lived in western Cullman County, 22 miles north of Bug Tussle, on land settled by his family in the 1890s.
He had already self-published approximately 90 books of historical data collected from courthouse documents, cemetery surveys, marriage registers, Confederate pension applications, census records, newspapers, and other primary sources.
After I granted Robin permission to use my chapter, a weighty package arrived holding“ Tales of Old Cullman County, Alabama.”
Among its 500 pages and 140 essays were a number of old acquaintances I’ d met in Tom ' s manuscript, though fleshed out more fully. I realized that Robin Sterling not only had information I needed if I were to write my book, but also that he knew how and where to search for facts neither of us knew yet. And having grown up in rural Cullman County, he had bona fide connections to the culture that this longtime citizen of Birmingham could never claim.
When Robin accepted my invitation to collaborate, we plunged into the world of Tom Freeman and Bug Tussle.
The Manuscript
Tom wrote his book on 190 pages of lined newsprint paper in two school tablets, 5½ inches wide by 8½ inches tall.
On those pages, the only punctuation marks are periods— hundreds of them. The whole manuscript reads like one run-on sentence covering the events of an entire lifetime. Tom ' s narrative zigzags through his lifetime without a pause, and it is easy to get lost in his meanderings.
His spelling was eccentric, as well, but he was a master of phonics. It is fairly easy( and fun) for the reader to guess what he was aiming at when he wrote words like sed, wonce, thair, sonanlaw, holesailing, etc. Some of his misspellings are actually helpful because they allow us to hear his pronunciation of certain words: bory, once or twist( twice), hundereds, rosum( rosin), searce( serious), to name a few. He often omitted short words like " in " and " to " making the text a fill-in-theblanks puzzle for the reader.
Such peculiarities in his writing created impediments to understanding, so I worked on making it easier to read without losing Tom ' s style. I hope the reader will agree that Tom ' s voice and personality come through despite changes in spelling and grammar.
Passages from Tom ' s manuscript are quoted with only slight edits and followed by page numbers in parentheses that indicate where those passages are found in his manuscript. These parenthetical numbers tell the reader that these passages are from his manuscript. They are the heart of this book.
Fear not, linguists, historians, folklorists. Because there is knowledge to be gained by reading the words " as is," of a man born in 1883 who lived in the same small community his entire life, we have placed his manuscript online. As of 2025, scans of the manuscript and our transcription of it are accessible at southernmusicresearch. org with all of Tom ' s writings exactly as he wrote them and you can hear Tom ' s speaking voice and nine of his fiddle tunes on the website. C
Listen to Tom ' s speaking voice and nine of his fiddle tunes at southernmusicresearch. org
Purchase the book locally at Yates Chance Christian Bookstore or at the Arboreadum Bookshop and Garden or online at uapress. ua. edu and most online book sellers.
Cullman magazine | HOLIDAY 2026
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