Montevallo is Missing! [My 350th blog post!]

Well, sort of. And only on a map. Sort of....let's investigate.

On September 9th, the city of Montevallo had a festival to celebrate it's bicentennial. Like Pelham, once known as Shelbyville and Shelby County's original seat of government, Montevallo predates Alabama statehood in 1819. 

The first white settler in the county, Jess Wilson, arrived in 1814 and others followed as the Indian threat diminshed. The area became "Wilson's Hill" by 1822 and Montevallo in 1826 according to Clark Hultquist and Carey Heatherly's Montevallo [Arcadia Images of America series, 2011, p. 11]. You can read some more early history here. Montevallo was incorporated by the state legislature in 1848 when almost 1000 people lived there. 

Columbia in the southern part of the county became the seat in 1826 and a post office was established. The town became Columbiana in 1832 and incorporated in 1837.

I was perusing some old Alabama maps recently and noticed something interesting related to this early history. Excerpts are below; all map portions are taken from the state maps at the University of Alabama's Historical Map Archive. You'll note some mysteries as you look at these maps and read my comments. Montevallo appears on a map as early as 1823, then an 1824 map lists "Wilson Hill" but no "Montevallo". 

These maps from the 1820's and 1830's vary in the towns shown. Making maps in those days was hardly a standardized business. Did mapmakers in Philadelphia or Baltimore actually visit these places or copy from previous maps or what?

Feel free to leave insights in the comments section!

On John Melish's 1818 map of Alabama, we see Shelby County in its earliest form. The county was created by the legislature of the Alabama Territory in February 1818. The only named locations in Shelby at this time were Fort Strother and Fort Villanos, Camp Wills and Camp Bradley and Littafuchee. All but Fort Villanos would become part of St. Clair County when it was created in November.

Fort Strother was constructed during the Creek War by several thousand of Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Militia  just before the Battle of Talladega on November 8, 1813. Presumably the other fort and camps were also a part of that war. Littafuchee was an Upper Creek town; the name means "making of arrows." In October 1813 some of the Militia captured the town 

Portion of Fielding Lucas' 1822 map of Alabama that shows two towns in Shelby County at that time. A post office was established at the current Wilsonville in the same year; the town wasn't incorporated until 1897. But this map shows a weirdly shaped Shelby County; is this Wilsonville supposed to be Wilson's Hill? Montevallo is in southern Shelby County, after all, and today's Wilsonville is in the eastern part near the Coosa River.

On this section of Henry S. Tanner's 1823 state map, we find Shelbyville and Montevallo as well as Kelley's Village in the northeastern corner of the county.

Anthony Finley's 1824 state map lists only Shelbyville and Wilson Hill. What happened to "Montevallo"?

Henry S. Tanner's 1825 map again lists not only Shelbyville and Montevallo, but  also Kelley's Village. That third place is a mystery; it doesn't appear in Virginia Foscue's Place Names in Alabama [University of Alabama Press, 1989]. However, there are a Kelley Mountain and Kelley Creek in Shelby County.

Taken from David Burr's 1836 map of Alabama. Notice there are still only two towns noted in Shelby County, Shelbyville and now Montevallo. Poor Columbiana, the country seat, is getting no recognition here. 

What Happened to Old Tuskaloosa Road?

Here's another bit of history I've passed many times over the years but only recently noticed--this street sign in Pelham announcing Old Tuskaloosa Road. That's a mighty new looking sign for such a short road, so I'm not sure what the story is behind that. You can see where it goes below.

In the Heritage of Shelby County, Alabama [1999, p.14], a section on early transportation notes the following:

"State of Alabama, Act, May 24, 1828, Vol. 4, p. 232, Road from Shelbyville to Tuskaloosa."

This reference apparently cites an Act of Congress authorizing the road--and perhaps funding--but so far I have been unable to track it down. Shelbyville is better known as Pelham today, and was the county seat until 1826 when Coumbiana was chosen. Tuscaloosa served as state capitol from 1826 until 1846, so roads to it were no doubt important. 

In the U.S. Statutes at Large, Volume 4, 1824-1835, p. 225, I did find this entry in a list of "post-roads" authorized by Congress on March 2, 1827: "From Moulton, by Walker Courthouse, to Tuscaloosa." I did not find any mention of the Shelbyville to Tuscaloosa road on page 232. Several roads in Alabama were authorized on May 24, 1828, but not that one. 

So where is the rest of this mysterious Old Tuscaloosa Road? How long did it last as an intact road over that distance? 

A Google search turns up such a designation in Helena, but also Jasper and a couple of other places. You can see existing roads in the area in the 1833 map below.

Further investigation awaits. 

Block USA is a construction company. Old Tuskaloosa Road ends quickly at their complex. Across Lee Street is the back of one of the buildings in the Summer Classics site that faces US 31. 

Here's a satellite view from Google Earth taken November 3, 2016.

This 1833 excerpt from a state map by Henry Tanner shows the existing roads. 

Source: Historical Maps of Alabama 

Once Shelbyville, A.T. & Now Pelham

Near Pelham City Hall stands a historical marker that includes the following text: “Near this site stood Shelbyville, A.T., first county seat of Shelby County; named for Isaac Shelby, governor of Tennessee. Shelby County was established February 7, 1818 by an act of the Alabama Territorial Legislature.”  Yes, the first seat of county government was located where Pelham is now. And yes, the community and the county existed before Alabama became a state.

Congress created the Alabama Territory in March 1817 from the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory, which dated from 1798. In the 1810 census what became the “A.T.” seven years later had around 9, 000 people. By 1820, just after Alabama was granted statehood in December 1819, the population had swelled to almost 128,000. In 1826 a town on the other end of the county, Columbia, was renamed Columbiana and has been the county seat ever since. Shelbyville remained a tiny town for over 150 years even after changing its name to Pelham in the 1870s.

As the marker also notes, an orphan’s court was held in what is now Pelham just two months after the county was created. A private home served as the first courthouse. Even in that sparsely populated frontier of the United States, some provisions had to be made for orphans and their right to any family estate. An index for the county’s orphan’s court book 1818-1836 is available online, and the book is kept by the Shelby County Historical Society in Columbiana. This first court of the county was later replaced by probate court.
The map below is a close-up portion of Fielding Lucas' 1822 map of Alabama that shows two towns in Shelby County at that time. The map can be seen at the Historical Maps of Alabama online resource. 

A version of this post appeared in the winter 2015 issue of the Pelham City News.



Pelham Reaches Fifty

       Most of us probably associate Pelham only with recent history. After all, Pelham was not incorporated until 1964, when the population was 654.Most of the town's growth has taken place since the 1980s. In July the city celebrated the 50th anniversary of that incorporation. Yet a community named Pelham has existed in this location since the early 1870s; a post office was established here in 1873.

Pelham's history actually goes back to the very early days of the state. Alabama achieved statehood in December, 1819. Shelby County was created in the Alabama Territory in February, 1818; the county is named for Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky and a hero of the Battle of King's Mountain during the Revolutionary War.

In 1820 a county courthouse was built by Thomas A. Rogers, Alabama's first Secretary of State, in a community known as Shelbyville. Six years later a permanent county seat was established in the southern part of the county at Columbiana. Shelbyville remained tiny, and after the Civil War--some accounts say in 1867--the town was renamed after Confederate hero Major John Pelham.

John Pelham in his uniform at West Point, 1858
Source: Wikipedia

John Pelham was born in what is now Calhoun County on September 7, 1838. He was the son of Atkinson Pelham, a physician, and Martha McGehee Pelham. His siblings included brothers William and Peter. A fictionalized account of the family, Growing Up in Alabama, was published by Mary Elizabeth Sergent in 1988.

As the Civil War loomed, Pelham resigned from West Point just weeks before his graduation. He distinguished himself with an artillery battery at the first Battle of Manassas, and J.E.B. Stuart appointed him captain of a six-gun battery with his cavalry. Pelham participated in some 60 battles under Stuart, and his contribution to the Confederate victory at Fredericksburg led Robert E. Lee to dub him "the Gallant Pelham." He died at the age of 24 on March 17, 1863, at the Battle of Kelly's Ford in Virginia. Pelham is buried in the Jacksonville City Cemetery, where a large monument marks his grave. The city of Pelham held a Major John Pelham Day in March 1988.

Our Shelby County Pelham is not the only location with that name in Alabama; there is a Pelham Heights in Calhoun County and another Pelham in Choctaw County. Communities named Pelham exist in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts. There are also numerous streets by this name around the country. Some of these are probably not named after a Confederate cavalry hero!

Very little history of our Pelham has been gathered for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At least five physicians practiced here during this period. Eli Forest Denson, a Vanderbilt graduate, arrived around 1879. Another Vanderbilt alumni, Joseph Madison Johnson, and William R. King Johnson [perhaps a brother] who graduated from the Atlanta Medical College, set up practices in the early 1880s. Andrew Wailes Horton of the Medical College of Alabama began practice in Pelham around 1901. How long these doctors remained in the area is not yet known. Buried in the Pelham Community Cemetery, which was established in the early 1840s, is John Payne, M.D., who died in 1901. The cemetery is located at the intersection of County Highway 105 (Bearden Road) and Industrial Park Road; the oldest marked grave is that of Louisa T. Betty Cross.

The Alabama State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1887-1888 lists a number of the businesses and professional men in Pelham, which had about 250 residents then. Included were a postmaster, constable, hotel owner, dentist, shoemaker, blacksmith, four general store owners, a lumber yard, three ministers, and one physician, William Rufus K. Johnson.

At least one of the merchants, W.S. Cross, was profiled in depth in the Memorial Record of Alabama published in 1893. A Shelby County native, Cross started a small store in Pelham in 1881. He did well enough to buy and sell at a profit some Birmingham real estate and then bought more property in Pelham, "which he has improved with dwellings and store houses." In 1880 Cross had married Ann McWhorter, a Butler County native; by 1893, the couple had five children.

Pelham appears on Joseph Squire's "Map of Helena and Environs" from 1885 and on a 1937 Shelby County map issued by the state highway department. What is probably the city's oldest building, the Pelham Railroad Depot, dates from about 1900. The

structure was moved from its original location behind City Hall to the city park in August 1988 and renovated.

From the 1930s until at least the 1950s Shelby County Voting District 17 was known as the Pelham District. Development of Oak Mountain State Park began in 1935 under the direction of engineer W.J. Connell using the labor of 180 young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Many of these youths were from New York City and getting their first taste of rural America.

Several schools have been located in Pelham. Rutherford High School opened in the 1870s. This structure, which had one large room and a smaller music room, was destroyed by a storm in 1909. The Pelham School, a two-story wooden building, opened sometime after and was replaced in 1936 by a one-story school with four rooms, an auditorium, and a lunch room. Located on the site of the current City Hall, the building was used as the city's offices after Valley Elementary opened in 1964 until it was torn down in 1973. Pelham High School opened in 1974.

Efforts to organize churches in Pelham began before 1900. A Methodist church, located for over a century at the southwest corner of U.S. Highway 31 and Shelby Co. 52, was dedicated in November, 1898, and also served Baptists and Presbyterians. A Baptist church formed in 1908, but became inactive the following year. Several other attempts to organize a Baptist church continued into the 1930s; the first full-time pastor, Ronnie Euler, was appointed in 1966.

On July 7, 1964, an incorporation election was held at the Pelham School. Many residents were afraid the nearby city of Alabaster would try to annex the area. Over ninety percent of eligible voters, one hundred and forty-one people, voted; one hundred and twenty-one were in favor of incorporation. Three days later the "Order of Incorporation" was filed at the Probate Office, and Pelham's legal existence began. The incorporated area included the Pelham and Keystone communities, Fungo Hollow, and part of the Helena rural route. In the fifty years since that vote, Pelham has had only five mayors: Paul Yeager, Sr. [1964-1976], Alton Burk Dunaway [1976-1984], Bobby Hayes 1984-2008], Don Murphy [2008-2012], and the current mayor and former city Fire Chief, Gary Waters.

In December, 1964, Pelham hired its first policeman, L.A. "Buddy" Wilkinson, who was paid $100 a month. Initially the fire department was a volunteer one; the first Chief was Roy Jowers, followed by O.C. Ray, who served from 1966 to 1977. In March of that year W.A. Bryars became the city's first professional Chief. The first city clerk, Willie Mae Dennis, held the post until her retirement in 1984; during her first few years she worked part-time for the city. The U.S. Census Bureau population estimate for the city on July 1, 2012, was 22,012 individuals.

Read More About It 

Hassler, William W. Colonel John Pelham. 1960 

Heritage of Shelby County, Alabama. 1999 

Mercer, Philip. The Life of the Gallant Pelham. 1995 

Milham, Charles G. Gallant Pelham: American Extraordinary. 1985 [1959] 

Roberts, Barbara. "History of Pelham" [unpublished; available in the Pelham Public Library] 

Schatz, Clark T. "The Birth and Growth of a Town" [unpublished; covers 1964-1979; available in the Pelham Public Library] 

Seales, Bobby Joe. History of Pelham: The Gateway of Opportunity.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~alshelby/Pelham.html

Links to Pelham Articles on this blog

Pondering an Alabama Map (2): Pelham in 1926

Pondering an Alabama Map (1): Pelham in 1917

Keystone Then and Now

Pelham Schools Have a Long History

Pelham Railroad Depot Then and Now

Pelham's Oak Mountain State Park 

A Story in Stone: John Payne, M.D. [1860-1901]

Pelham in the 1880s

A version of this article appeared in the Pelham City News July 2014.

Pelham in the 1880s

In May 1985 my wife Dianne, son Amos and I moved to Pelham, then a small suburban town south of Birmingham. The town was just beginning to grow rapidly as part of the population explosion in northern Shelby County underway at that time.

Although not incorporated until 1964, a town called Pelham had existed since the 1870s; a post office opened there in 1873. As Shelbyville a town had occupied the location since the creation of Shelby County in February 1818 in the Alabama Territory and served as county seat until it was moved to Columbiana in 1826. After the Civil War the name was changed to recognize Confederate hero John Pelham, who was a native of Calhoun County.

In the 2010 census Pelham had over 21,000 residents; at incorporation in 1964, there were 654 people in the town. But let's go further back, into the 1880s, when the newly-renamed town of Pelham was still very small. After all, in 1880 the city of Birmingham itself had only just over 3000 residents.

A fascinating snapshot of the area in the mid-1880s can be found via the magic of Google Books, the City Directory of Birmingham and Gazetteer of Surrounding Section for 1884-5.

Source: Google Books

On page 328 of Volume II of that publication, we can find a short listing for little Pelham:

 

 

Here we get some sense of what the town was like 130 years ago. The L&N Railroad came through Pelham, which we learn was some 20 miles south of Birmingham and the same north of Columbiana. The trains dropped off and picked up the mail and perhaps freight at Pelham, but there was no passenger service ["Postal facilities only"].  

 

At that time S.R. Oates was the postmaster and L&N agent. According to this listing, Pelham had three physicians and two Methodist ministers. Two of the physicians also farmed, which was not unusual at the time. Doctors in rural areas and small towns were seldom able to make a living from their practice alone. Even many physicians in cities also operated drug stores to make ends meet.

 

Businesses in Pelham at this time included the Oates & Richards cotton gin and a grist mill operated by another of the farmers, W.C. Denson. Also interesting to note is W.P. McKellar, a teacher and justice [of the peace?] and Miss Fanny Hall, a music teacher.

 

The two teachers may have given private lessons, but they may also have taught in Rutherford High School, Pelham's first school. Built in 1872, the facility lasted until a storm destroyed it in 1909. You can find out more about the history of Pelham schools in my article on page 36 of the Spring 2014 issue of the Pelham City News.

 

I'll be exploring the history of Pelham--and the entire area--in future posts. I would recommend a perusal of the City Directory discussed here to anyone who would enjoy such an historical snapshot. The ads for businesses long gone are alone worth the effort!

 

Oh, and one more thing. What's up with that Pelham on Highway 42 in northern Choctaw County??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updating Pelham's Historical Marker

In conjunction with Alabama Bicentennial activities, new historical markers are going up all over the state. One was recently placed in Pelham in front of the City Hall building on U.S. 31. 

The new marker actually replaced an older one, which can also be seen below. I've written a blog post about the older marker. 

Over the life of this blog I've written a number of posts about Pelham; you can find a list here.

A few further comments are below. 

The name was changed from Shelbyville to Pelham sometime after the Civil War ended, although exactly when and by whom are not known. John Pelham was born in Jacksonville, Alabama, and is buried there. 

However, the name Pelham appears on an 1876 map of the state and in an 1880 city of Birmingham directory.

Current state highway maps distributed at welcome centers and rest stops along the Interstates include a community named Pelham in the northeastern corner of Choctaw County. I have been unable so far to locate any information about this place. Google Earth doesn't show much there but houses, trees and roads; perhaps I'll drive down one day and check it out.

Here's the original marker, which had the same text on both sides. The date of installation in the lower right is hard to read but appears to be 1976. 

Pondering Alabama Maps (8): Shelby County in 1822 and 1825

I've written in a previous blog post "Once Shelbyville, A.T., Now Pelham" about the city's early history as the Shelby County seat. That lasted from 1817 in the Alabama Territory period until 1826, when Columbiana became the county seat. Pelham changed its name to honor Major John Pelham sometime in the 1870's.

Below the photo of the historical marker describing all this you'll find two maps of the county from 1822 and 1825. These snapshots were taken from two maps of Alabama created when the area was still in its first decade after becaming a territory and then a state. Despite this early era, the population of the county was more than 2400 in 1820 and over 5700 by 1830.

The 1822 state map was created by Fielding Lucas, Jr.[1781-1854], a successful cartographer and map publisher in Baltimore in the early 19th century. Lucas was the primary engraver on A Complete Historical, Chronological and Geographical American Atlas published by the firm of Carey & Lea in Philadelphia in 1822. This atlas was the most detailed and important one of the United States at the time of publication. A copy of that first edition is currently for sale at $14, 000, which gives some idea of its importance in the mapping history of the United States. The atlas also included extensive historical background on states, cities, etc. 

The 1825 version of Shelby County's map appeared in a German edition of the Carey and Lea atlas. The work was completely re-engraved under military and commercial cartographer Carl Ferdinand Weiland [1782-1847]. The Shelby County map is a very good copy of Lucas' but slight differences can be found. Compare the western borders of the county on each map, for instance. 

Some other blog posts about Pelham on other historical maps can be found here. You can read more about the only other county town on these maps, Wilsonville, here. 

This 1822 view of Shelby County is taken from a state map by Fielding Lucas, Jr., and published by Carey and Lea of Philadelphia.

Source: Historical Maps of Alabama

This view of Shelby County appeared in the 1825 German edition of Carey & Lea's atlas.

Source: Historical Maps of Alabama 

Ghostly Signs of Pelham's Video Past

Spotting ghost advertising and other signs is a popular pastime these days, and there are still plenty to find in Alabama. Vintage signs that no longer exist are also of interest. Local examples of the first group are discussed in Fading Ads of Birmingham by Charles Buchanan and Jonathan Purvis. Tim Hollis covers some in the latter group in Vintage Birmingham Signs.  

As I've noted in a previous post, the city of Pelham has been around for a long time and dates from its founding as Shelbyville in the Alabama Territory in 1818. Despite that long history, Pelham has very few "old" buildings and thus few ghost and vintage signs from the past. One of the oldest places in town currently houses Riverchase Carpet and Flooring near the intersection of US31 and Valleydale Road. Built in the early 1950's, the structure was originally a service station of the Pan-American oil company.

Dianne and I are frequent visitors to Kai's Koffee in Pelham, and as we were leaving the shop recently she pointed out the item below on the wall to the left of Kai's entrance. We have lived in Pelham since 1985, so we began chatting about the video stores we used to visit back in the day when the children were much younger, roughly the decade of the 90's. My notes on these gone-but-not-fogotten places are below.

If you know of other "old" buildings in Pelham and/or ghost or vintage signs, let us all know in the comments section!

For more about the video store phenomenon, see Daniel Herbert's 2014 book, Videoland: Movie Culture at the American Video Store.

You can see this tape drop on the brick wall between Kai's Koffee and the Linda Hair Salon in the Victoria Plaza on US31 across from the post office. An independent video rental store used to occupy one of these areas and was the only such place in town we don't remember ever visiting.

The location in the Village at Pelham on US31 now occupied by a florist used to be a Video xPress store. That chain of video rental stores began in Bessemer in 1983 and had 85 locations by the time Movie Gallery bought it in 1994. The stores were apparently open most holidays. I remember coming here one Christmas Day afternoon once the kids--and the adults--in the family had finished examining and playing with the holiday haul. I don't remember what we rented, but I bet it was suitable for kids.

In the early 1990's one of these storefronts in the Shelby Mart was occupied by an independent video rental store. I remember visiting there only a few times, even though at that time we lived in the neighborhood behind this commercial strip. I don't think the store operated more than a couple of years. 

Finally we come to the location of Pelham's Movie Gallery, which operated in this currently empty store between Dollar Tree and a barbecue place at the junction of AL119 and US31. Founded in Dothan, Movie Gallery became the second-largest video rental chain by the time it liquidated in 2010. The final stores closed in August of that year.



Pelham, Alabama: A List

Since we live in Pelham, I've explored a few aspects of the city's history on this blog. Here's a list of those posts so far.

This post continues a series of lists bringing together related blog posts. So far I've also done posting lists for

"Holidays Past in Alabama" 

"Film Actresses from Alabama Before 1960"

"Medical History in Birmingham" 

"Alabama Library History"

"Finding Alabama in Distant Places"

Pondering an Alabama Map (3): Pelham in 1928

What Happened to Old Tuskaloosa Road? 

Pondering an Alabama Map (2): Pelham in 1926

Pondering an Alabama Map (1): Pelham in 1917

Keystone Then and Now

Pelham Schools Have a Long History

Pelham Railroad Depot Then and Now

Pelham's Oak Mountain State Park 

A Story in Stone: John Payne, M.D. [1860-1901]

Pelham in the 1880s

Pelham Reaches Fifty

Elegy for a Small Pelham Bookstore

A Brief History of Pelham High School Football

Riverchase Middle School Then & Now

Once Shelbyville, A.T. & Now Pelham

Ghostly Signs of Pelham's Video Past