The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-24
HERE'S EARLY HISTORY
 OF THIS GREAT STATE
Ava Fitzpatrick Delivered an Exhaustive Address on Interesting Theme Before the Meteor
 Club at Recent Meeting.

The following paper was read by Ava Fitzpatrick, Esq, before the Meteor Club at a recent meeting, and Is pup hshed by request of the club:
 Alabama in the Teens of the Last
 Century. 2
 The heeting memorials or an age Tn which pioneer and savage form the prime factors in the development Of ciyiliza- tion, suggest scanty detail for subject which seeks to magnify the earlytgtopAes of a great commonwealth;
 Beyond the single fact that. Alabama sGrn ss is too
 supposed that the early era of her his- tory is devoid of significant claim that Hes outside the realm of romantic ad- venture and border tradition.
 The researchful labors of Pickett, Ball and Brewer, and more latterly. the ex- cellent school work of Mir. William Gar rott Brown. are in happy evidence against a complete disregard of these remote times but the indifferent regard which has been accorded these valuable histories by generation which appears to esteem the anticipations of the future to a proper veneration of the past, has not served the design of these faithful chroniclers to successfully impress the earliest recollections of the State upon the popular heart Had fulfillment or that purpose rewarded their unselfish labors. Alabama in the teens of the last century would present less important claims as a subject for deliberation and study at this time. Of the years reck-- oned by the termination of teen-that IS. the period from 1915 to 1Sl9. inclusive, tho most eventful of them were spent in theAambitious preparation for the dignity of statehood, but while yet Doundless and nameless portion of that splendid domain known as the Mississippi Terri tory the soil which was hereafter to constitute the area of our great State was fruitful in staple that enriches the worlds $ history.
 There are few periods known to Ameri- can annals more replete with events or romantic interest and heroic adventure than the bloody interim between the war of the Revolution and the decade follow ing the war of 1872 In many particulars thea sto5y of JaclSsons Indian campaign in the Southwest reads like page from the legends of a mythical age, and ln- stances of personal deeds of daring as cribed to the sturdy pioneers who shared In the conquest of that old hero, suggest the exploits of the fabled heroes of an- tiquity.
 The soil of Alabama Is consecrated by memories of the momst thrilling incl dents of that famous war, and its history in the earliest teens of the century IS but another version to the preliminary chapter of the annals of sovereign ana Independent State Contemporaneous evidence to the glory ef this 3period and among the noblest
 
 &he rudel Notifications which formed so prominent a feature in the annals of ln- dian warfare. The scenes of the most celebrated of these quaint old fortresses are laid in the, re- zion now embraced in the counties of Washington, Mobile and Baldwin: Every foot of this locality is consecrated ground Here more than four hundred years ago the bloodiest Indian conflct ip the United States was fought between DeSoto and Tuscaloosa. Here century and a half later Bienville. the romantic adyenturer and founder of New Orleans and Mobile, led his cohorts of French men against the Natchez and Spaniards, and in more recent, yet still remote times the troops of Buckingham, Calves. Jackson. Weatherford and Canby bivou- acked on this famous soil. Most of the forts were erected here during the Creek war in 1s13. though some of the more celebrated antedate this time by a cen tury and more. The earliest of the lat. ter class was old Fort Stevens. situated on the Tombigbee near Mobile, and ereoted sft TIA by the, French. Sixty years later 1t was captured by the Span fards, and finally its gates opened upor the American garrison. the last occupants of a landmark one hundred and fifty years old, and from whose battlementi