The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-06
TO ERECT MONUMENT ON
 SITE OF FORT TOMBECKBE

The Alabama division of the Colonial Danes of America will unveil a monu- ment on the site of old Ft. Tombeckbe on Saturday, June 12, and the com mittee of Sumter county ladies has ,s- sued the following statement about it:
 The border line between the ChiclSa- saw and Choctaw Indians 200 years ago was only a short distance north of the present Jones' Bluff on the Tom bigbee river. English settlements along the Atlantic, French and Spanish set dement's along the Gulf of Mexico were swayed by like rivalries with the mother countries of Europe, and their agents were ever busy in stirring say age hearts to foster private and tribal vengeance, and to ignore contracts and treaties made with colonial enemies of the mother countries.
 To protect French interests with the Creeks, Fort Toulouse was built in TIA at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. British agents had tempered with the Creeks and lured them from friendliness to the French. In like manner. British agents turned the Chickasaws against the French, and through Red Shoe. a Choctaw chief, partly alienated the Choctaws.
 Bienville anticipated conflict with the Chickasaws, and commissioned De Lusser in 17S5 to build Fort TombeclSbe in order to control the choctaws and keep them hostile to the Chlckasa v,s, and in order to counteract as much as possible the disturbing influence of British traders. s
 Nine months afterwards the French and Choctaws under BienviIle passed through Ft. Tombeckbe in their route to Ackia where they were disastrously defeated by the. Chickasaws. encour- aged and directed by British councel- lors, and here they made a brief stop on their. return to Mobile
 Peter J. Hamilton, in Colonial Mo bile" makes number of references 10 Ft. Tombeckbe and it's importance 10 the French in their business with both the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Only brief outline Is given of life at the fort, but enough Is related to show that the French garrison there was quietly watching French interests and adding to constructive history. LeSuer. De- Berthel, De Grand Pre- and De La Gau- terais were among the commandants, the last of whom, Pierre Chabbert and Valentine Dubroca keeper of the mag azine, surrendered the fort to the Brit sh Captain Thomas Ford in 1763 Ma tor Robert Farmer changed the name of the fort to Ft York It was par tially abandoned in 1766 and wholly abandoned in 176S.
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil in 1Ti2 halted here in his expedition to a sec ond French defeat in battle against the Chickasaws
 Bossu visited the place in 1759 and wrote interestingly about it,
 The Spaniards revived the fort for trade and treaty purposes some 25 years after the British abandoned 1t. and renamed 1t Ft. Confederation. Here. we made the. Choctaw treaty of 1902 confirming to the United States large land session between the Chickasnnw W hay and Tombigbee rivers. Here romance mingled with the hardship of border wars and the hard grind of frontier fort life. Here one grand dame Mad anne Espejo, wife of Antonio Espejo. spent her honeymoon Near here Sarn- uel Jones had hts home and whose name. is perpetuated in the present Jones Bluff. the site of old Ft Tom beckbe.
 The monument to be unveiled on this old fort is a splendid tribute to the patriotic spirit of the good women who thus perpetuate the memory of the he- roes who helped to carve the wonder