The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-01

capitol being located at Huntsville but
 short time before Alabama was ad- mitted into the union. old St. Stephens was tho only territorial capital. The last session of the territorial 1egisia-. ture which met In old St. Stephens In November, 1s1s, located the permanent
 seat of government at Cahaba, on the Alabama river in Dallas County, and made Huptsvflle the temporary capital until State House could be built at Cahaba-
 On October 25, 1919, the last session of the territorial Legislature assembled in the old log court house in Hunts vile and enacted the last laws ever
 passed by the territorial government.
 On March 2, lS19, the United States
 Congress passed an act to allow the
 people of the Alabama territory to form a constitution preparatory to admission
 Into the union. This act was passed
 just one day less than two years after the act of Congress creating the terri
 tory of Alabama out of the Mississippi
 territory.
 In those early days Madison County
 was the common hunting grounds of the Chickasaw and Cherokee Indians. but settled by neither tribe. Their vil- iages were along the Tennessee river to the South and among the mountain ranges of the north. Their hunting camps throughout Madison County are today marked by large numbers of ar- row heads.
 Early Settlers.
 The early settlers of Madison County came from the mountains of Tennessee and the pine woods of Georgia and were of the pioneer type. They had fought many battles with the Indians in their own country and were inured to all the dangers of Indian warfare, but they found the Alabam Indians friend ly and their weapons of warfare were laid aside for those of industry. Soon the story of the beautiful mountains and fertile fields of Madison County was spread far and wide and ere long many people of culture came from va- rious States and soon established beau tiful homes in the valleys among the
 mountain peaks of Madison County. As a result. the county grew rapidly in population and soon surpassed In pop ulation Washington County. the old est county in the State.
 Robert Williams, the Territorial Governor of Mississippi, made the first government survey of Madison County and in 1909 at the Government Land Ohlce in Nashville, Tenn, the first public sale of lands in Madison County was made. Gen. John Brahan was reg ister of the Nashville Land Office at the time. At this sale Le Roy Pope bought the spring property in Hunts vile for s23 an acre.
 Tn Alabama, north of the Tennessee River, in those early days, the Tennes- see Land Company held a deed to | 100000 acres of land. The land now l occupied by Huntsville was included in | this tract. The company had pur- | chased this land at a public sale in l 17s4, authorized by the Governor of | Georgia. This property covered the | spring and nearly all of the present | city of Huntsville. The purchase price | was $t an acre. The last of these | deeds was to Martin Realty and Benja- | min EstilI. This deed was for "40,0 acress. less 5000 acres already sold" This land was near Huntsville. Tn the year 1874 Congress appropriated | $s00,000 of script and purchased all of this land claimed by the Tennessee as Mississippi stock" Prier to the Government land sale in 1909, Martin Beatty had relinquished his claim to his land in Huntsville. In the ar- chives of the Probate Judges office in there is today a small rec- ord book which contains a record of the deed to Martin Beatty from the Tennessee Land Company besides of other records of deeds these deeds were recorded during the l years 1s10 and 1911. The deed book was made by hand and Is to this day remarkably we'll preserved.
 What a widely different story is that of old St. Stephens on the Tombigbee River, where theShrst territorial gov- ernment of Alabama was located, and that of Huntsville, among the moun- tains of Madison County, where the