The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-28
For the Good of
the Community

a LITTLE over 100 years ago about
300 followers of Napoleon Bona
parte settled in Marengo county, near the
present city of Demopolis.
The great Napoleon was an exile on the
island of ST. Helena and the rulers of
France at that time passed ordinances
which compelled them to leave their ma
tive land
They arrived at their new home in the
summer of 1913, a land grant of four
townships having been secured for them
by French society in Philadelphia. The
land grant required them to cultivate the
vine and the olive, but accustomed to Pa
risian life they proved to be but indiffer-
ent farmers.
In that small colony which started out
with such brilliant prospects were some
notable men Of the Napoleonic regime in
France, among them Count Lefebyre Des-
notes, cavalry officer and favorite of
Napoleon; NJ Peniers, republican mem
Der of the national assembly, who voted
for the death of Louis XVI; Count Mich
olas Rooul, colonel under Napoleon
Henry L'Allemand, Northumberland,
who afterwards returned to France and
held office, and dozens of others.
The settlement originally was at the
confluence Of the Warrior and Tombig-
bee rivers, on the east bank, but some mis-
take had been made in the surveys and it
was later discovered that their grants lay
back some distance from the river.
The French had trouble with squatters
and other unprincipled '1and grabbers,"
who took advantage of their ignorance
and unfamiliarity with American ways
and especially with frontier life. Even
tually they lost the greater part of their
lands to squatters and others who
trumpet up claims which they fought out
in the courts to such lengths that the
French lost heart and in the end sold their
own claims for small sums.
The present site of the city of Demop-
oils, so named by the French because of
its meaning City of the People
was subsequently purchased by an Amer
lean company at $50 an acre.
Used to the gay life of Paris, then the
social capital of Europe, as it is today, the
colonlsts built their homes near each
other and passed their evenings in festivi-
ties, music, songs and dancing Although
thousands of miles from their native
homes, exiled and without hope of ever re-
turning, they made much of their new life.
dllu uIulIlS TIE lew DrloI years or their
frontier existence they managed to ex-
tract great deal Of pleasure from their
daily intercourse.
They planned the colony as the future
home of Napoleon, who had but recently
been overthrown by the combined nations
OF Europe. His escape from the island on
Which the English, the Germans and
other enemy nations had confined him
was planned, and tradition says ships
were IN readiness to bring him to
America
The cultivation of the vine and the
olive proved a failure. Grapes were
grown in quantities, but they ripened too
soon in the hot sun and wine made from
them was unfit for use.
Demopolis is now thriving little city,
situated in one of the richest agricultural
sections Of the state, but there still fingers
about the place some of the romance of
the old world brought over by the CHEEKY
French.
Opposite the river from the little
French colony the Indians still retained
possession Of the country, and but re-