Digital Alabama (https://digitalalabama.com/article/alabama-history)
Alabama History
Our Alabama History section is comprised primarily of the selection, organization and editing of out-of-copyright publications and historical documents.
All Alabamaians owe a great deal of gratitude to the chroniclers and travelers of Alabama’s past from which we inheritied an expanse of knowledge of our history. These writiers include, Ruby Pickens Tartt, Albert James Pickett, Mary Morgan Keipp, Maria Howard Weeden, William Bartram, Albert Samuel Gatschet, James Mooney and many others.
Map of Mobile Point & part of the Bay & of Dauphine Island shewing the position of the British land & naval forces investing Fort Bowyer, the batteries erected and the trenches opened when the summon was made to the garrison.
Growing up, Albert befriended many of the Creek and frontier traders that frequented his father’s store. From them he began to piece together the early history of the state which he later determined to put into writing.
Pickett studied law, but never practiced professionally, instead devoting his time to literature, agriculture and historical research. He traveled widely and corresponded with archivists and book dealers in the Atlantic states and Europe in order to document various parts of his history of the state. The two-volume History of Alabama was published in Charleston, South Carolina in 1851.
Albert James Pickett uses the preface of his book to relate the efforts undertaken to acquire information for the book.
The area’s first inhabitants, the Cherokee Nation, lived in the area between Rocky Ravine and City Lake Park. They lived near the “division of the waters.” There is a continental divide in downtown Haleyville where water runs north to the Tennessee, south to the Warrior and west to the Tombigbee. When the Cherokee were forced out in 1836, many refused to go and and later intermarried.
MELVIN’S ALABAMA HISTORY
Introduction
Melvins Alabama History with Melvin Cane (alias) has been a popular topic of discussion among his relatives for over a hundred years. Melvin was born in north Alabama in 1890 and the family discussions started when Melvin first walked off the family farm around the turn of the century. Melvin was seldom seen after he walked away but he would show up often enough to let others know he was still alive. His random reappearances added further to the mystery of this man. He did not emerge from his enigmatic existance until he was 42 years of age at which time he started his family.
Bart Thrasher, the notorious Bibb county outlaw, who, with six other convicts, recently broke out of the Pratt mine’s penitentiary and, overpowering the guards, escaped, turned up at Horse Creek with an unknown pal, and had a night of robbing and murdering.
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles.
