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 

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. 

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.