Up The Pike To Rockford - Coosa Co., AL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with the USGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. ALGenWeb File Manager - Lygia Dawkins Cutts ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sat, 10 Apr 1999 22:08:15 -0500 Contributed by Ronald Bridges Up The Pike To Rockford - Coosa Co., AL "UP THE PIKE TO ROCKFORD The other afternoon I sat on a veranda - not a 'porch' - in a high-back split-bottom chair in old Coosa County. I asked whose old house it was originally - it was a residence and not a mansion - and was told that it was the old Powell home, 'where the stage stopped in the forties. ' It was the old tavern of the mother of James R. Powell, the main stage operator who founded there the fortune which enabled him to promote what we now called Birmingham. That house is by the side of the road at Rockford and the interior, at least, is much like it was when Jim Powell and Mary Smith were married there in 'the forties.' I had driven up the 'new' way through Wetumpka, Bassville, Speed, and by the old 'court tree,' but when the great post oak, which marks the site where the stage horses were changed was pointed out, I knew that the wide smooth road over which we came was not 'new.' Engineers have made one of the most attractive of Alabama's highways out of this 'turnpike' of stage coach days. I drove up from Montgomery in less than an hour. The stage line coach passengers spent the first night out of Montgomery at 'Powell's at Rockford,' and arrived at Talladega late the 'next evening.' In those days after supper was 'night,' and after the sun passed the noon meridian it was 'evening.' That old roadway has many historic associations but there has been little written about it. When you read Alabama history you will see that the fight between Jemison and Powell for the control of the stage lines, and Mr. Powell's competition with the Winter interests were 'fireside stories,' yet you can find nowhere an account of those 'stories.' Coosa County was created by the legislative act of December 18, 1832. It was named for the Indian town of Coosa, which DeSoto found at the mouth of Tallassahatchee Creek in 1540. Kusa is the way the name was pronounced, therefore, we have 'Coosa.' Alfred Mahan, George Taylor, Simeon Chapman, and Larkin Cleveland organized the county's affairs in the spring of 1834, though Washington Campbell, William Lovelady, and Archibald Downing were originally appointed. The first site selected for the court house was on Madekahatche (now Hatchemadeka) Creek. The old post oak tree where the two 1834 sessions of the Circuit Court were held still stands. It is close to the road on the Shaw place. Tradition says the place was named Lexington, but if so never had a post office. The legislative act of 1835 fixed the county-seat at a place to which was given the name Rockford, but the original post office was called 'Pondalassa,' presumably in honor of Ebenezer Pond, an early settler at this place. Robert M. Martin (sometimes Robert W.) was a postmaster at both places. He earned $5.57 at Pondalassa and $2.55 at Rockford during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1835. So, Rockford postoffice dates from about July 1st, 1835. Today, as you drive north from Wetumpka, you are referred to the Titus Road and the Buyck Road. The old Buyckville pike is the present Rockford Road to a point about half-a-mile from the old postoffice site which perpetuates the name of a South Carolina Huguenot, who settled in that rocky river country quite early. One Hollifield built an interesting old open-hall house two miles north of there, and further along in the woods is the old Alex Spear house. To the early travelers this was the 'middle route,' and the "Jackson Trace' went by Buyckville, Travelers Rest, Marble Valley, Talladega Springs, Fayetteville, and to Talladega. Personally, I rather doubt that Andrew Jackson went that way, but every Indian trail and 'pig track' path in Alabama is romantically tied to the travels of General Jackson. So, to please the popular fancy, we call it the 'Trace.' An Indian trail from the very earliest historical times, known as the great Cumberland and War Trail, did lead up the east side of the Coosa and General Jackson may have gone back to Tennessee after Weatherford's surrender in 1814 at Fort Jackson by this route, but it is an historically established fact that he did not come south that way after Horse Shoe Bend fight. In the other days Coosa County included most of what is now Wetumpka, as Elmore, was not created until 1866, and the first settlers of Coosa subsequently include many of the first families of Elmore. Rockford dates from 1835, but there were settler there among the Indians several years before that time. Alexander Logan and John Ray were early settlers in the vicinity. Logan lived north of town, and Ray was settled on the present highway about two miles south. The community of Pentonville perpetuates the name of a family which settled there later. One of these Pentons, J. C., was at one time probate judge of the county. The court house first built at Rockford was of logs. This stood until 1858 when it was replaced by a brick and stone structure. The architect was Wm. Jenkins, and it was built by Patrick Conniff. Nix, the marble man who developed the original quarry at Sylacauga, furnished the stone. One of the earliest settlers in the southern part of the county was Ebenezer Pond. He became one of the first elected probate judges, according to the records. Robert W. Martin was appointed judge of the county court in August 1834, and Mr. Pond was made judge of the eighth district in 1837. Mr. Pond was one of the first settlers at Montgomery. He later moved to Wetumpka and was residing there when elected to office. An office chair - home-made ladder-back of hickory - used in Mr. Pond's office when he was county judge (later changed to judge of probate) is in possession of the "Pond boys,' his grandsons, at Rockford today. Even though it was the original chair in the court house and served may years in the probate office and later in the Superintendent of Education's office, with the exception of a missing 'ladder round' (the top seat), it is just as good as it was ninety-eight years ago, even if they have painted it. In one respect, the Powell house is quite unlike it was when the stage passengers stopped there. No stage rider in 1847 ever saw an electric refrigerator. The house has been modernized on the exterior and the cabins which accommodated the overnight sleepers are all gone. The foundation of the bath-house under the hill at the spring is there, but the house has long gone. Mrs. Cason, sister of the Pond 'Boys' and granddaughter of old Ebenezer, who is hostess of the house now, tells interestingly of the built-to-the-side-wall tables fronted by benches which extended the whole length. Then, so they told her, as she is not old enough to remember that far back, the kitchen with the skillets and crane was out separated from the 'big house.' James R. Powell was born in Virginia in 1816. He came to Alabama in 1833 and soon began teaching in the Academy in 1833. In a few months his father, Colonel Addison Powell, came to Montgomery and the father and son ran Abner McGehee's new 'Planters Hotel' on Court Square for three or four years. After the death of the father, the family moved to Coosa County, and in 1845 James R. Powell represented that county in the legislature. He and his friend, Col. Howell Rose, were vigorous advocated of the selection of Wetumpka as the site of the capitol when the removal from Tuskaloosa took place in 1846. He served in the Senate in 1853 and again in 1855, retiring then from politics to give his sole attention to his mail contracts and stage lines. As early as 1839, Mr. Powell was carrying the mail over the 'Rockford Pike.' His first contract paid him $6,760.00 annually. In 1841, J. R. and A. Powell has a mail contract for $6,170.00. For the 1855, J. R. Powell, Powell and Metcalf, and Powell and Ellsworth had mail contracts for $136,820.00 About 1856, Mr. Powell moved to Montgomery. During the War between the States, he saw no active service but furnished supplies, particularly $40,000.00 worth of ice on one occasion, to the Confederate Government refusing to take any payment. After extensive travel in Europe in 1870, he returned to Alabama in 1871 and early thereafter founded the Elyton Land Company from which sprung Birmingham. Mr. Powell spent his last years on his plantation in Mississippi, and died in that state in 1883. Today, as you travel the road to Rockford, you pass through the plantation of Colonel Rose which many years earlier was that of Lachlan McGillivary and on which was born that American strategist, his son Alexander. The 'Apple Grove' - sometimes in the records 'Little Tallassee' - is just east of the highway one mile north of Bassville. There today, at Thelma Baptist Church, is a boulder of native rose colored quartz, superimposed with a bronze tablet, which tells the story of the early days of that river plantation. On a little further and to the left, is Jordan Dam generating power through those great dynamos. The concrete bridge which spans Sofkehatchee is a startling contrast to those which Colonel Powell's coaches used in the 40's." (1) (1) Peter A. Brannon, "Up the Pike to Rockford," Alabama Highways, 6 (September, 1932) 1 and 5. Published Monthly Official Publication of the State Highway Department: Paragon Press, Montgomery, Publishes.