Conecuh County AlArchives History .....History of Conecuh County, Alabama 1881
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CHAPTER V.

Signs of Advancement-Industrious Signs Prevailing.

   With the restoration of tranquility there naturally came an influx of 
immigration from the States of South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. 
Civilization now began to find expression in the establishment of social 
institutions. Commerce, though on a scale quite limited, assumed positive 
shape. Schools were established. Here and there a church edifice, though quite 
in keeping with the rough life of the pioneer, was erected, and industry was 
rearing embryonic monuments all over the face of the country. In 1818 there 
came to the Bellville settlement a young man whose name was Robert C. Paine. 
He was half-brother to Mrs. Alexander Travis. Prompted by a spirit of 
enterprise, he erected, in the Bellville community, the first mercantile 
establishment ever built on the soil of Conecuh. His store-house is described 
as having been of exceedingly rude appearance-in apt keeping, however, with 
the principle of "the eternal fitness of things." It was built of pine poles, 
unstripped of their bark, and had a dirt floor. The stock in trade of this 
father merchant was a little coarse sugar, which he sold at fifty cents per 
pound; a little coffee, at one dollar per pound; and a few dry goods, suited 
to the tastes and the necessities of the early families. These goods he hauled 
in a small ox-cart from Blakely.

   While Bellville was thus rapidly asserting her claims to a more advanced 
civilization, Hampden Ridge (the Autrey settlement) was setting up rival 
claims. Here the first temple of justice was erected by the aspiring fathers, 
in the shape of a rude court house. It was built of chestnut logs, was planted 
full upon a dirt floor, and in regard to furniture, boasted of a rough table, 
behind which sat the wearer of the ermine in all his primitive dignity. Having 
but one room, the retiring juries would have to resort for secrecy, and for 
the formation of their verdicts, under the eye of a vigilant bailiff, to the 
surrounding forest. Prisoners were conveyed across the country-a distance of 
thirty-five miles from the prison in Claiborne. During the session of court 
they had to be guarded beneath the shades of the ancestral oaks, which crown 
Hampden Ridge. Favorably for the future inhabitants of Conecuh, her earliest 
settlers were, to a great extent, men of piety. Along with the development of 
the several bustling communities of the county, there grew up a desire to 
erect church edifices, to be consecrated to the worship of "the true and 
living God." About 1817 there removed from Twiggs county, Ga., a Baptist 
minister, whose name was David Wood. Though blind, he was an earnest, 
practical, devoted minister of the truth. He preached the first sermon ever 
delivered in Conecuh county, in a small, rude cabin, which stood on the spot 
of ground now occupied by the graveyard, near the Bellville Baptist Church. A 
little later than this, the first school ever instituted in Conecuh was 
established by John Greene, Sr., near the site of his present home. Among his 
pupils were the Rev. David Lee, now of Lowndes county; his brother, Ithiel, 
deceased; Watkins Salter, at one time clerk of the court of Conecuh, and 
afterward its representative in the Legislature, and still later a 
representative from Lowndes county; the late Miles Herrington, and Jacob 
Betts, a prominent merchant at Burnt Corn-then quite a small boy.

CONECUH IS ORGANIZED INTO A COUNTY.

   Conecuh did not become a separately organized county until January, 1818. 
Prior to this time it was embraced within the limits of Monroe county, which 
then embraced an extensive tract of territory, extending from east to west, 
from the Chattahoochee to the Alabama. But after the organization of Conecuh 
into a county, it was bounded on the north by Monroe and Montgomery counties, 
on the west by Clarke and Mobile, on the east by Georgia, and on the south by 
Florida-then a Spanish province. Richard Warren became the first 
representative of the county in the Territorial Legislature, which met then at 
St. Stephens, in .Washington county. Ransom Dean (brother-in-law to Col. J. R. 
Hawthorne), was the first sheriff, and by virtue of his office, was tax 
assessor and collector, as well. Joel Lee (the father of Rev. David Lee), was 
the first justice of the peace appointed in Conecuh. He was appointed by Gov. 
William Bibb.

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.

For a long time after the settlement of this portion of Alabama, the 
inhabitants had to adopt for their highways the beaten trails of the Red Man, 
which threaded the forests in all directions, and led through the dense cane 
that skirted the streams, at the only points where it could be penetrated, and 
where the streams themselves could be forded. To form some estimate of the 
density of these brakes, which prevailed with uniform impenetrableness along 
the banks of all streams alike, the present inhabitant of Conecuh has only to 
be told the following anecdote: On one occasion a gentleman living near Burnt 
Corn, Captain Hayes, accompanied by his young friend, Jere Austill-afterwards 
celebrated because of his connection with the famous Canoe Fight-was traveling 
in lower Conecuh, exploring the fertile lands which lie along Murder creek. 
Returning after nightfall, they attempted to cross Bellville branch, just 
where the road now crosses between the village and the house of James 
Straughn, and became entangled in the glade of cane. After wading through the 
mud for some time, and finding no relief, in their perplexity they set up a 
yell of distress, which was promptly answered by Joshua Hawthorne, who 
hastened to their relief, with several negro men, bearing lighted torches, and 
extricated them.

   In 1822 the first public road that ever penetrated any portion of the 
county, was cut by order of the Legislature. It was then about the most 
important thoroughfare in the State. It ran from Cahaba, via Old Turnbull and 
Bellville, to Pensacola, and was afterwards known as "the Old Stage Road."



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Chapter V

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