The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-30
Rv n w. McIyer.

sssost historic towns in all the State. We are told in the "reminiscences of the iate William R. Smith. that fin lsl2 there was an Indian village called Tuskaioosa at the falls of the Black Warrior River. and that there were no white persons known to have been residents thereon.
 Tn RIP a white woman named Crawley was brought as prisoner from Tennes. see to Tuscaloosa by a party of Creek indians. and Tandy ,,aSar Maiksr; rds was was the Indian village. There was white village here, in 1916. as one James Dear ing Is said to have stated that ne USn sn at Holbert Hotel" The town continued to grow in numbers so that. as MT. Smith says there must have been direction" 1t was here that one Davis was nung for counterfeiting, and 1t IS stated that this is believed to be the only instance of an execution ,d TOT IT coun, .,no < from the book above menuoned,S TOT '4Which am indebted to Dr.. Wyman and which I have much enjoyed. that Levin Powell was the first Tuscaloosa mer- chant and that Pass q Toxey built the first two-story brick house on Washing ton Hall corner in 1920. Writing of the man says the name Tuscaloosa has travelled down the centuries from an aEe long gone, namely the era or the revival of learning in Europe. to time
 
 when the name was given to the town founded by white people on the banks of the Black Warrior River. when we nov call Tuscaloosa. The name Iusca . of the lower falls in the Black Warro River can bs traced back to the year 17o. On the map of Louisiana, made " Guilaume De LAsle, geographer to the Klne of France. which was printed about that time. an Indian town named Tuscaloosa is placed at or near the place where the modern city of the same s:.ine hers were probably Choctaws: for these ciajmed all the country in this region , oxf6rdfng from the Mississippi River on shs streams flowing eastwardly into the AIaSasma from those flowing westwardly into the Tombigbee and the Black War, yior. The Black Warrior River IS named Patarahatchie." On maps printed about l75o and later the river is named the Tuscaloosa River. We may there tSe. Sd Indian town winch stood here was named for some noted Choctaw ehiefta4n whose war-title was Tuska- loosa. or the "Black Warrior. wno S further that the river first called Pat agahatchie,'' was the town itself
 nc exact spot on which this old town stood can now be tracea s,n ohiy ynns Ty pa.S and broken muscle shells scattered here and Shere over the ground. Judge Moody used to relate that in his boyhood th8sl place. He used to pass the ruined town every day on his way to and from school Judge Moody's recollections re- vsrsd to the year tS s,s b,s w9en fsaber e to the new settlement of Tuscaloosa The olo settlers used to tell of a barricade or breastwork at the Indian town; whlSn Wa s must not infer from this that these in- dians belonged to the tribe of Seminoles of Florida. It Is worth while to remem- Der that the word seminole IS :.ssea- sea- ratist." The Creeks who lived here in the early part of the century were. Tn the truest sense of the word Semnoies' ss, as they were cut off from the main hooy of the Greeks who lived in eastern Ala hama and Georgia. The old Indian town 4 of Tuscaloosa was situated some quarter and a half below the iron bridge that spans the Warrior at Tuscaloosa
 According to Judge Moody's manuscript history of Tuscaloosa, which was com, com, piled from the statements of pr. Tlndali and other first inhabitants Of the toWn' and from Judge Moody's own Teconec- tions, the first white settler at the Iai.s of the Tuscaloosa was Tnomas dorh, who came to this spot in the spring or early winter of 1916 from Blount county and planted a crop of corn tnat year. About the same tune came a oona,nIhn arnhl l ably sons of Thomas York; John Barton a blacksmith: Patrick Scott, Joslan lll- ley. and John G. Ring ,, o.r ,s1o the town had grown large enough to feel the need of regular government On the l5tn of December the Legislature passed an act to incorporate tn" town or iCsc ioosa Two facts are worth mention m | this conection: First. that now Tor the ! first time was the town called Iusca loosa, seccnd, that when the settl emeli. | Af of the inhabitants owned so much as a | souare foot of land within Its limits | They were lll "squatters. Tor the tc"h site which had been reserved rom eht,y and sale had not yet been laid out on she first Tuesday of January, ls.u' all white male citizens of the age Of 2l, re- siding on the fraction of land known es the south fraction of section v, town- @s,n 21' range 10. west, were invited to asseunble at the court house and choose | by ballot seven houseEoioers to act as commissioners of the town ol IHscet to4Sa tSf.
 'sIt is manifest from the words of this | aet that In the month of December, lsis' | there was already court house TOT tne souaty within the limits of the town. go far as I know thtre Is no record or tradition which enables us to establish che spot on which this first court house stood. I conjecture that 1t was tenn porary structure or legs nuiit on the ,"e Ioe ; ulat of the town as Court Square. This was the lot on the north side of Broad Street immediately opposite the present Washington Hctel. ,.,
 Judge Smith tells us in his "Reminis- eences" that the first jail was about m the center of what is now Market Street mar Main" that Is to say. somewhere befween Broad Street and the McLester House corner. "Tt was built of heavy dewn logs. and one story high. ne prif on bounds of this first jail are thus given in one of the old court house re- cords: "Comencing at the iail: thence running in direct line to Living IT. cluding Livings houses; thence to J. V. Isbalfs; from thence to John Reads. in ciuding Nashs cotton gin: from Read thence across the lot to the jail
 All this old time history is most in
 tenseIy interesting and the temptation to print much more of it Is very great, but space demands that should devote my letter to the present and not to the past of this most beautiful City of Oaks"
 in lS16 the seat of government was moved here from CahabA and one of the n~-- sunstantiaI and snle0d'1 buildings erected uved as the Capitol. which is to be -een in fNo Illustrations. nov orru- pie4 bv the Alabama Central Female Col iere which is wonderfully preserved an which would make d Court House for Tuer4 loosa County beyond anything t., cou0ry can ever hone t0 he able to
 b.i'i About the tima the town was made the Capital Of the State 1t was the ce"'-" nf refinement and culture and vii the capital rlmc mHFh Of the we"'s' and beauty "f this Hholo section ana "a tha t'me i' lN46 when the Cap