A History of Jacksonville and Calhoun County
If John Pelham had a hometown, it was Jacksonville, Alabama. John was born and raised in Benton County, on September 7, 1838. He lived on a plantation in the country and, when he was a teenager, in the hamlet of Alexandria. The family did, however, frequently go to Jacksonville, and there John Pelham is buried."
Benton County became open to white settlers as a result of the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, whereby the Muscogee (or Creek) Indians gave up their lands. This treaty was the center of controversy. It allowed the Indians to leave or stay voluntarily and whites were not allowed into it before the Indians' land was surveyed. Of course, many whites had already settled and did not intend to leave. The federal marshal insisted the treaty be observed and was backed by federal authorities in Washington. As a result, the Alabama general assembly immediately divided the new territory into eight counties, including Benton, on December 18, 1832. A compromise was reached between federal and state authorities; by 1838 the Indians were removed to lands west.
Land developers got busy. One, Charles W. Peters, bought a 320-acre tract from Chief Ladiga for $2,000 in silver money. Ladiga had signed the Treaty of Cusseta. This became the site of Jacksonville.
The county was named Benton after Col. (later Senator) Thomas Hart Benton. He had been an officer in the Creek Indian War, commanding Fort Montgomery in Baldwin County. His later politics disenchanted the residents of Benton, who renamed their county after John C. Calhoun of South Carolina in 1858.
Jacksonville itself underwent name changes. It was often referred to as Ladiga, after the chief of the Indian tribe, then as Madison, and Drayton. Admiration of General Andrew Jackson, who defeated the Creek, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, and one of this country's most popular presidents, led to the town being renamed in his honor in 1836.
Alabama tripled her population in two decades. A fertile soil, cheap land, and a beautiful climate drew settlers. It was a place to make a fresh start. "A generous soil, and a human slave code, had conspired to produce an exemption from the extremes of poverty and wealth wholly unprecedented in human annals. Plenty was the rule; want was a stranger to the humblest," wrote Brewer in his history of the state. By 1860 Alabama had a population of 964,201; Calhoun County's population numbered 17,169, of which 4,370 were Negro slaves. Jacksonville was the seat of justice in Calhoun, and remained the county seat until 1899, when it was roved to Anniston. Parts of Calhoun County were partitioned to form Etowa and Cleburne counties in 1866. Today it has an area of 610 square miles.
The town of Jacksonville was built around a public square. Life in the 1830's and 40's was barely better than that of the frontier. The first courthouse was a log structure. Only a few homes were pretentious, but in the 1850's cotton was selling at 12ยข a pound and a measure of wealth was enjoyed. Doctors, lawyers, and teachers were attracted to the new town. For entertainment, lotteries were popular, as was horse racing at the Benton Course. A preacher who visited the town in 1846 wrote: "The people are all country people -- manners simple -- not much neatness or taste displayed about anything. It is, however, apparently a moral and good population."
The county is broken and mountainous, near the end of the Allegheny chain. The Coosa River forms its western boundary. It is intersected by valleys of great fertility and beauty. Coal, iron ore, and pine lumber are among its natural resources. A furnace in Oxford was operating until destroyed by General Croxton's raid in 1865. Cotton, of course, was the staple crop. But in 1869 Calhoun County produced 238,451 bushels of Indian corn, 29,030 bushels of oats, 79,818 bushels of wheat, 1500 pounds of tobacco, and 4,840 pounds of wool. During the war, when the Confederate government realized cotton was not ''King'' and urged planters to switch to more grain to feed the armies, the ladies of Calhoun County burned the cotton of uncooperative planters.
The residents of Calhoun were enthusiastic for the new Confederacy. The 10th Alabama, under its Colonel, John H. Forney (a native of the town), formed in the Square to receive the Calhoun Guards standard. The 51st Alabama (Mounted) Infantry was formed in 1862 in Oxford (this was the regiment all of John Pelham's brothers enlisted in), as was the "Alexandria Rifles" in 1861. Calhoun County felt the shortages of war like other places in the blockaded South, but not until 1864 did it feel the hard hand of war. Jacksonville was on the railroad from Rome, Ga. to Selma. Calhoun County was a rich source of granaries for the South. Jacksonville served as headquarters for Confederate generals Beauregard, B. M. Hill, Leonidas Polk, and Joe Wheeler in 1864. The war left its bitter mark, but the people of Calhoun County were too forward-looking to let bitterness impede progress.
In 1836 Jacksonville Academy was established and a Female Academy the next year. Education was important to the people of Calhoun. Calhoun College was formed under General William H. Forney in 1870. Its building was donated to the state when the Normal School was founded in 1883. In 1966 the Normal School became Jacksonville State University. The influence of Dr. Clarence W. Daugette, who married a daughter of John H. Forney, was inestimable. He ambitiously expanded the size and influence of the school.
Real estate development boomed in the 1890's. Many important businesses were founded -- the Jacksonville Mining and Manufacturing Co., the Tredegar National Bank (later First National Bank of Jacksonville), the Union Yarn Mills, the Dixie Clay Co. and, more recently, Federal Mogul Corporation, which manufactures auto engine parts. The establishment of Fort McClellan in Anniston (home of the Military Police School and the Women's Army Corps) remains an important asset to the local economy. Tanks and artillery are tested on "Pelham Range," at Fort McClellan, on land first settled by Dr. Pelham.
Blessed with a beautiful climate, a fertile soil, and a diversified economy, and a state university, the citizens of Calhoun County are very much part of the 20th century. Yet pride in their past heritage is evident from an active historical society, and active chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Son's of Confederate Veterans. The people of Calhoun have known defeat and they recovered. Their spirit seems exemplified by the uncompromising inscription on the Confederate monument, erected in the Square in 1910. It reads:
Times change, men often with |
This article first appeared in Volume 7, No. 1 of The Cannoneer.
Source:
First National Bank of Jacksonville, undated, The Jacksonville Story.
newspaper clipping, "Jacksonville Square has made County history,"
undated.
Worden Weaver, "Antebellum Jacksonville, " an address to Alabama
Historical Assoc., April 23, 1983.
W. Brewer, Alabama: Her History, Resources, Public Men and War Record,
Montgomery, 1872.
