USA > Alabama > Conecuh County > History of Conecuh County, Alabama. Embracing a detailed record of events from the earliest period to the present; biographical sketches of those who have been most conspicuous in the annals of the county; a complete list of the officials of Conecuh, besides much valuable information relative to the internal resources of the county > Part 3
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life of seventy-five years, Mr. Crosby died at his home, between Bellville and Sparta, on May 22nd, 1864.
FIELDING STRAUGHN.
Among the earliest inhabitants of Conecuh was Fielding Straughn, who was in very many respects an extraordinary man. He was born in Chatham county, North Carolina, in 1783. In 1817 he came to Conecuh, in the full vigor of manhood, and settled his home where Thomas Robbins at present resides. Such was the hardiness of his physical constitution that he defied all the difficulties encountered by him in this pioneer region. He was a modern Nimrod amid the abundant game that thronged the primitive wilds of Conecuh. It is said to have been a marvel how he could penetrate with bare feet and short-cut trousers, the dense everglades of cane and tangled thickets of briar, as he would chase the flying deer or the retreat- ing bear. Though unlettered, he is said to have been a speaker of marked ability in the religious assemblies, of which he was from time to time a member. In early manhood he had a passionate fondness for pancakes and molasses, and indicated an ambition to become suffi ciently wealthy to have them every day, instead of only on Sunday. The object of his gastronomical ambition was finally attained, and finding his desires for other objects increasing with his acquisitions, he declared that every man had a pancakes and molasses point in life which was never reached. Mr. Straughn lived to be quite old, having died in 1867, after reap-
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ing his share of the prosperity of the county during "the flush times" of its early history. Because of his calm judgment and extensive practical knowledge, he served the county for a long time as one of her most efficient commissioners. Among other descend- ants he left two sons-Pinkney and James-the former of whom has been a prominent and useful citizen of Monroe for many years, and the latter of whom has served the county of Conecuh with efficiency, as sur- veyor, for several successive terms.
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CHAPTER VII. ,
Centres of Population -- Bellville -- Hampden Ridge -- Sparta- Brooklyn-Fort Crawford.
Reference has already been had to the settlements at Bellville and Hampden Ridge. Between the years of 1817 and 1823 the population of both these points was steadily increased. Several brothers, whose name was Bell, came to Bellville, then called "The Ponds," about 1818 or 1820, and having commenced an enter- prising life in this region, they called the village after their own name-Bellville. At Hampden Ridge, the home of Mr. Autrey, as at every advance post in this un- civilized region of country, there was a nucleus formed, around which the elements of growth would accumu- late as the stream of immigration would continue to flow. As has already been said, by the permission of Mr. Autrey, and partly by his direction, the first court house of the county had been built on Hampden Ridge during the year 1817. After this there came, in rapid succession, and settled hereabouts, the fami- lies of Savage, Charlton, Thompson, John and Duncan McIntyre, Dr. Houghton (who soon after died), Major Bowie, Stringer, Causer, Thomas Hodge and Jesse Baggett, the father of Richard Baggett, of Castleberry, who was the first white child born in the county of Conecuh.
By mutual agreement between the white residents
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on Hampden Ridge, and the Indians, whose camps and villages lay beyond Murder creek, this stream was fixed as the boundary. But regardless of the agree- ment, the savages would now and then cross the creek in predatory bands, and commit depredations upon the white settlers, by stealing their cattle and driving them beyond the stream, and to the headquar. ters of the tribe at Old Town. So enraged did the whites finally become, that they resolved upon a total suppression of these wrongs. Accordingly they mus- tered every one who was able to bear arms and moved in a body to Old Town. This, they attacked with considerable spirit, driving the native inhabitants, terror stricken, away. They next proceeded to set fire to their town of huts and wigwams and reduce it to ashes. Flushed with victory, the triumphant whites returned to their homes, no more to be molested by the prowling Red Man. The Indians having disap- peared from this region, the whites commenced to remove to the eastern side of Murder creek. Major Richard Warren was the first to venture across the stream and pitch his home in a region so lately filled with peril. He was soon after followed by his son, who located at the point where he died, one mile east of Sparta. During the same year Malachi Warren entered eighty acres of land and built a log cabin on the spot where, afterwards, stood the Rankin House. This cabin was the first building erected upon the site of old Sparta, which, at this period, had not been honored with its classic name. At this point Malachi
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Warren opened a place of business that might have been aptly described as a pop-corn grocery. Between the homes of Major Warren and his son, Hinchie, a gentleman, whose name was Spires, located. The place occupied by him was afterwards called the Calla- han Place. He was the first to begin the improve- ment of what has been since known as the Cary Plantation. In 1819, Thomas Watts (uncle to Ex- Governor Watts), removed from Georgia and settled near Malachi Warren's home. During the same year a man named Gauf removed from Tallahassee, Florida, and built below the point where afterwards stood the Rankin House, on the road leading from Sparta to Brooklyn. It was near this spot, too, where the first jail was erected. Mr. Gauf established here the first hotel built in Sparta, and in honor of himself, called it the Gauf House. Like most other structures of this period, this primitive inn was of pine poles and flat upon the ground, and, in the absence of lum- ber with which to construct shutters for the doors, calico curtains and counterpanes had to be suspended as flaps. About this time there came to this commu- nity a Northern physician, whose name was Jonathan Shaw. He engaged board in the Gauf House, and built an office near where the Masonic Hall after- wards stood. It was just subsequent to the events already related, that the court house agitation sprang up between the rival communities of Hampden Ridge and the settlement on the opposite side of the creek. A vigorous effort was being made by the Warrens,
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Boykins and Hunters, to transfer the site of the county from Hampden Ridge into their own midst. Alexan- der Autrey led, in a stout opposition, but the decision of the ballot was against him, and, much to his dis- satisfaction, he had to yield. Accordingly, in 1820, a new court house was built, and the village there- upon received the name of Sparta-given to it by Thomas Watts, an attorney, in honor of Sparta, Georgia, from which point he had removed. This second court house is said to have been a slight im- provement on the one originally built on Hampden Ridge. It was constructed of pine logs, and was, in size, about 20 by 30 feet, and had two doors. In the absence of a local church edifice, it served the double purpose of temple of justice and house of worship. Another court house-the one consumed by fire in 1868-was erected three years later, by a man named Simmons, from Tallahassee, Florida, and the Masonic Fraternity gave him $500 additional to place the lodge room and attic above. Evidences of improvement began now to become manifest in all directions. The evidences of an ambitious civiliza- tion were beginning to show themselves in schools, and in more pretentious forms of business than had hitherto existed. The first school here was under- taken by John McCloud, who taught but a brief period, when he was succeeded by Murdock McPher- son. The last named gentleman is said to have been the first Mason buried with the honors of that Frater- nity upon the soil of Conecuh. To give marked
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solemnity to the occasion, a fiddle was brought into requisition, and its solemn tones were evoked in the strain of a funeral march, by a wooden-legged doctor, named Ogden. Anderson and Blackshear, two broth- ers-in-law, and John and Reuben Dean, built two places of business in this rapidly growing village. And after the removal of the court house, the bar of Conecuh was increased by the location of Samuel W. Oliver, Eldridge S. Greening and John S. Hunter, at Sparta.
BROOKLYN.
Prior to the settlement of Brooklyn proper, quite a community had been formed on Ard's and Bottle creeks. There were in this community, as early as 1818, two stores, owned respectively by McConnell and George Feagin. There was also a school being taught here by Mr. Graham, of Georgia; and a black- smith shop, owned by John Brantley. No trace of this settlement, which was about six miles northwest of the present location of Brooklyn, remains. The last vestige has been obliterated by plantations. Among the earliest settlers here were Asa and Caleb John- ston, and Aaron Feagin-their father-in-law. They removed from Georgia in 1818. Richard Curry, grandfather to Rev. W. G. Curry, now of Wilcox, was also one of the founders of this community. The first settler of the village of Brooklyn was a man whose name was Cameron. He established a ferry across Sepulga river. Edwin Robinson, from Brook- lyn, Connecticut, bought out Mr. Cameron's interest,
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opened a store, and called the place Brooklyn, for his native village in New England. This occurred in 1820. He was reinforced pretty soon by the location of Dr. Milton Amos, after whom Milton, Florida, was named. Then followed the families of George and Reuben Dean and Benjamin Hart, who had first settled at Bellville. Improvements were rapidly made in the promising village, and thereabouts. A church was erected in 1821, the pastor of which was Elder Alexander Travis; a school was established under Mr. Scruggs; a grist mill contributed to the comfort and convenience of the expanding village; new places of business were opened, and thus Brooklyn became, in 1821, the emporium of trade to Conecuh, and the river, which runs hard by, became the commercial outlet of the entire region of country.
Transportation was begun on the Conecuh and Sepulga rivers in 1821. It is believed that George Stoneham was the owner of the first boat that sailed upon the waters of Conecuh. The inauguration of this movement was but the signal for many similar enterprises ; for in rapid succession were boats entered by Messrs. Edwin Robinson, James and John Jones, Starke and Harry Hunter, and Frank Boykin, so that within a few years the river was alive with well- ladened boats, plying between Brooklyn and Pensa- cola, and when the depth of water would justify it, ascending as high as Montezuma, above Brooklyn. These were keel boats, and would carry from fifty to sixty bales of cotton. In capacity they were from sixty
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to seventy feet long, and eight to ten wide. They were entered in the Custom House at Pensacola, tonnage paid, and then license obtained for steering into port. But the heroic enterprise of these early inaugurators of navigation on the Conecuh river, deserves more extended mention than a bare passing notice, and hence a detailed account of their reverses and successes is reserved for a subsequent chapter. Fresh additions were constantly being made to the population of Brooklyn, and but a short time after its location, we find the families of Hart, Hodges, Meeks, Manning, Slaughter, Folks, Amos, Turk, Burson, Horton, Lee, Halstead, and several families of the Stoneham rela- tionship. These were, for the most part, men of enterprise, and under their direction the work of advancement went steadily on. Vast tracts of land were cleared in the direction of the river, where were soon some of the best improved plantations in the county. Eleven miles below Brooklyn there was a settlement founded on the river, the first inhabitant of which was Malachi Ethridge, who removed with his family from North Carolina in 1818. This well-to-do colony were not neglectful of the advantages which they had enjoyed in the older States, and hence one of the first considerations was the erection of houses of worship. The first church built in this region was a Methodist house of worship, which enjoyed the pastoral ministrations of Rev. James King-favorably known for many years after, as "Father King." In another portion of the community a Baptist church
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was erected, under the ministerial auspices of Elders Travis and Ellis.
One of the chief attractions of this thrifty com- munity was a manufacturing establishment, which had been built by Thomas Mendenhall, whose ingenuity at that time was proverbial in all parts of the county. Here he was resorted to, from all directions, as the only manufacturer of chisels, augers, cotton-cards, spinning-wheels and gins. Near the village of Brook- lyn is a large cave, known as Turk's Cave. A tradi- tion among the earliest inhabitants has it, that it was a place of resort to the noted highwayman, Joseph T. Hare, and his accomplices. It is said to have been the spot where they stored their treasures, and whence "they sallied forth to rob and murder the traders who plied their vocation between Pensacola and the Indian country."*
FORT CRAWFORD,
now in Escambia county, was one of the points earliest settled in Conecuh. It derived its name from an offi- cer in Jackson's command. Benjamin Jernigan seems to have been the first to pitch his tent in this region. He settled within two and a half miles of where Fort Crawford subsequently stood, and on the west side of Burnt Corn creek, within three-quarters of a mile of the present site of Brewton. This was in the latter part of 1816, or early in 1817. Not more than two or three settlements had been made in the county at that
* Brewer's History of Alabama, p. 194.
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time. Soon after Mr. Jernigan came here, he was joined by James Thomson, Benjamin Brewton, R. J. Cook, Lofton and Loddy Cotten. At this time the fort was occupied by the Seventh Georgia Regiment. General Jackson was in the habit of visiting the home of Benjamin Jernigan-the father of the venerable William Jernigan, now a resident of Pollard. Mr. Jernigan had removed with his family from Burnt Corn Springs for the purpose of herding cattle for Jackson's army. From the direction of Pensacola, Jackson sent the Jernigan family supplies by the Con- ecuh river, and many were the annoyances to which the boatmen were subjected by the Indians firing upon them from the thickets along the banks. The army quartered at this point received their supplies from Montgomery Hill, on the Alabama river. They were hauled in wagons across the Escambias to Fort Crawford, where for a time all the citizens of this section went to procure bread. The erection of the fort was commenced in 1817. Prior to this time only temporary earth works had been thrown up. No In- dian settlements were then near; but now and then prowling bands would pass through the country, osten- sibly on hunting excursions. They usually encamped about the heads of streams, and built temporary shel- ters of pine and cypress bark. Sometimes they would linger at such points a week together, and then pass onward. In the winter of 1817, tracts of swamp land were cleared of the trees and rank cane, which were burned in the following spring, and the soil planted in
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corn. Though unprotected by fences, these cleared spots yielded immense crops. The following year an effort was made to fence with the tall cane, but failed.
Soon after the formation of the settlement, Rev. Radford Cotten, a Methodist clergyman, settled in its midst. He was afterwards joined by Rev. Mr. Shaw, also a Methodist minister. Some time prior to this, services had been from time to time held at the fort by Rev. Thomas Walls, a Baptist minister. These services were held at the request of the officers of the fort. In 1818, a church edifice was built on the west side of the river, about four miles above the fort, at a point called "The Bluff." It is thought to have been erected through the influence of Elder Walls. Near this spot a store-house was also built.
The inhabitants living in the neighborhood of Fort Crawford were devoted to farming and to raising cat- tle and hogs. As early as 1817 they furnished to the markets of Pensacola vast quantities of pease and pumpkins, which they transported in wagons, and ex- changed for such delicacies as coffee. So highly were these farm products valued by the Pensacolians, and so great was the abundance of coffee at that period, that a bushel of peas was readily exchanged for a bushel of coffee. The year 1818 was one of sore trial to this interior settlement. The soil had been most fruitful in its yield, but the resources of the earliest farmers had been subjected to great drain by reason of the constant influx of immigration. Such were the straits to which this region was subjected, that
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corn was sold for four dollars per bushel. During that year the community sent Bartley Colley to New Orleans to purchase supplies of corn, which were shipped to Pensacola. As the Indians persisted in their disturbance of all boats ascending or descending the river, wagons were employed to convey these necessaries across the country. A decided check was put upon these troubles from the Indians, in 1818, by the capture of four hundred warriors, by General Jackson, at Ferry Pass.
In 1818, Mr. Walls, brother to the minister, erected a small grist mill near "The Bluff;" and a few years later, Thomas Mendenhall built a saw mill above Fort Crawford. Very little of the lumber sawn here was sold to the citizens, and Mr. Mendenhall, aided by a man whose name was Rolly Roebuck, transported his lumber on rafts to Pensacola. Prior to the erection of this mill, the "whip saw" had been used to some extent in the community. The lumber with which were built the houses of the officers of Fort Crawford, was sawn with the "whip saw." Other timbers were cut and rafted down the river to Pensacola. The read- iness with which man adapts himself to surrounding circumstances is strikingly illustrated by the unique plan adopted here by the residents for conveying the products of their diminutive farms to a favorable market. These fresh bottom lands were abundant in their yield of pumpkins. In order to ship these to Pensacola, a huge cypress was scooped out, somewhat in the shape of a mammoth batteau, and of sufficient
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capacity to hold three hundred pumpkins. With a cargo like this these heroic farmers would speed away down the river, and Pensacola reached, their golden fruit was readily sold-realizing for each pumpkin twenty-five or fifty cents-and rejoicing, they would return.
Game abounded here, as elsewhere in Conecuh. But, strange enough, the community about Fort Craw- ford was destitute of dogs. To obviate this disad- vantage, the officers of the fort, having become very intimate with Willie Jernigan, then a boy of sixteen, engaged him to "play dog" for them in routing the. deer from their hiding places at the bushy heads of the streams. With many a bark and yelp, he would plunge into the thick coverts, and the affrighted deer would scamper out in all directions, only to be greeted by the leaden bullets of the officers from their stands.
When, in 1819, it was determined to erect a court house on the east side of Murder creek, Benjamin Jer- nigan, R. J. Cook, Allen and Alexander McCaskill, Mabry Thomas, and several others, were chosen by this community to select a site for its erection. As has already been stated, the point fixed upon was Sparta.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Centres of Population (Continued)-Old Town-Fork Sepulga- Burnt Corn-Evergreen.
OLD TOWN.
The settlement of this point by the whites was made about 1820 or 1822. Within this period there were residing here Richard Curry, who had settled first near Brooklyn; Joel Brown, Matthew Ray, Wil- liam Rabb, Sr., Levi T. Mobley, Capt. Wilson Ashley, Adam McCreary, John Scoggin, and Cravey. This point seems to have been a favorite one with the original resident tribes. It appears to have been a chosen halting place on the great trail that ran from some prominent point on the Chattahoochee to Pen- sacola. It is supposed, from its original size and ap- parent importance, to have been the headquarters of some of the tribes. Here was an extensive commu- nity, with all the evidences of having been for a long period occupied. The huts, the patches of ground, the extensive play-grounds and the order in which they were kept, the marks on the trees, the neighbor- ing streams, and the cool, perennial spring, which bursts from amid the hills near the old camp-ground -all these would indicate that it was a point of unusual importance with the native inhabitants. But the chief object of attraction, to the early white set-
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tlers, was a memorable tree, which still stands as a source of wonder to the passer-by, and is known by the familiar name of the "Old Flag Tree." Its name is derived from the banner-like shape of its branches at the top. For six or eight feet the trunk is utterly bare of branches, when they assume the shape of a flag by growing in a single direction. There was a tradition among the early white settlers to the effect that this towering tree was a signal to the Indian traders passing from the Chattahoochee to Pensacola, as it was to all the bands prowling through the coun- try. The first white settlers who occupied this point were an enterprising colony. Improvements were begun at once. With characteristic energy, William Rabb, Sr., erected a grist and saw mill on Old Town creek. Joel Brown soon followed with the construc- tion of a water-gin, the first built in this portion of the county; while Thomas Lord proceeded to open a small stock of goods-the chief commodity of which was cheap whiskey ! But four or five miles beyond Mr. Lord's store, William Rabb, Sr., began merchan- dising upon a more respectable scale, having ample supplies of groceries and dry goods to meet the de- mands of the growing community. Scoggins' Meet- ing House was the first place of public worship in this section. And the devotion of the people was manifested by a ready disposition to walk to church, on occasions of worship, the distance of seven or eight miles. Others, more favored, would come on horse- back, or in carts and wagons. The families of William
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Rabb, Sr., and Adam McCreary were classed elite, be- cause the former owned an old time gig, and the latter an ordinary Jersey wagon. At this period, postal facilities in the county were exceedingly meagre. The nearest post-office to this community was at Sparta- thirteen miles away. An occasional newspaper would stray into the community of Old Town, and it was sacredly preserved, by the fortunate possessor, until the first general gathering of the people, when, by common consent, some one was appointed to read the marvelous harbinger aloud-and this was done to the infinite delight of the eager crowd circling round.
FORK SEPULGA.
The stream, between which and Duck creek this settlement was formed, derived its name from a com- pound Indian term, Sucka Pulga-which means Hog's Creek. A tradition, derived from the Indians, is to the following effect : The Indians lost a large herd of swine from drowning in the stream where Sowell's Bridge now spans the creek. The native tribes were accustomed to drive hogs, fattened on the luxuriant mast in the oak and hickory swamps of Lowndes and Montgomery counties, to Pensacola. A drove of these hogs having been drowned at the above mentioned point, the name Sucka (hog) and Pulga (creek) was given it; and for convenience, the Anglo-Saxons have corrupted the name into Sepulga.
The inhabitant who first settled in this region is said to have been Richard Sermons, who came here in
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1818. He was soon followed by Ely Stroud, John Houston, Harrison Harris and Billy Thompson. Later still, we find the homes of Drury Dean, Jesse Cone, Thomas Pigot, Joshua Calloway (a Methodist minis- ter), and Jacob Page-the father of Allen Page (who was murdered near this region), and grandfather to the late P. D. Page, Esq., of Texas, and Haskew Page, now of Sparta. Among the earliest residents here, too, were Abraham Baggett, the grandfather of Rev. Dr. Hawthorne, and William Wetherington. As in all other new settlements, the first improvements here were those born of the absolute necessities of the in- habitants. And almost invariably, if not strictly so, a grist mill was the first public enterprise. Thomas Pigot was the first to meet the public demand in this particular. He constructed a mill upon one of the branches of Duck creek. He subsequently added to his original enterprise a cotton gin. A mercantile establish ment had its existence under the auspices of Messrs. Gallagher & Farley. They commenced busi- ness, with a substantial stock of staple goods, about 1823. They were succeeded by T. M. Riley, Sr., now of Pineville, Monroe county, who purchased their en- tire stock in 1826. This point of trade was the same as that which has been long known, by the later in- habitants of the county, as Jackson's Store-the name having been derived from that of two brothers, Wiley and Andrew Jackson, who succeeded Mr. Riley as merchants at this point.
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