Bon Secour, Alabama History Timeline

Bon Secour, Alabama History Timeline

Travel back in time. As you go down this list, the farther back in time you travel.
Year Event Picture Link
1868 Daphne becomes Baldwin County's Seat of Government and begins to build a courthouse.
Daphne Courthouse after it became the Normal School.
1864 The Bon Secour salt factory was destroyed by Union forces on September 8 and 9 in 1864 during the Civil War.
The USS Rodolph, one of two Union Ships that entered the Bon Secour river and destroyed the salt works factory in Bon Secour.
The Battle of Mobile Bay took place on August 5, 1864 during the Civil War. The commander of the Union Navy of the Gulf, Rear Admiral Farragut, overcame the Confederate fleet and took control of Mobile Bay. Fort Morgan was captured on August 23, 1864.
"Battle of Mobile Bay ... Passing Fort Morgan and the Torpedoes"
1864
to
1861
The blockade of Mobile Bay, Alabama is lead by Union Rear Admiral Farragut. During the Civil War Mobile was an important seaport of the Confederacy. Schooners from Bon Secour acted as blockade runners when they were needed.
Raphael Semmes, captain of the CSS Alabama, was responsible for more captured and sunk Union ships than any other commander of a Confederate cruiser.
1860 Clotilda, was a schooner which brought the last cargo of African slaves into the United States through Mobile, Alabama.
Clotilda Mural.
1865
to
1861
American Civil War is fought, and Alabama joins the Confederate States.
The states of the Confederacy.
1860 Clotilda, was a schooner which brought the last cargo of African slaves into the United States through Mobile, Alabama.
Clotilda Mural.
1854 Public School System created in Alabama. Alabama Public School Act created the first state wide education system by establishing an office of State Superintendent of Education. Barton Academy, built in 1836, was the first public school in Alabama.
Barton Academy Mural.
1846 Montgomery becomes the capital of Alabama.
State Capital in Montgomery.
1839
to
1836
Trail of Tears, Cherokee people called the journey when the United States government forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, and sent them to Indian Territory (today known as Oklahoma). The impact to the Cherokee was devastating. Hundreds of Cherokee died during their trip west, and thousands more perished from the consequences of relocation.
Trail of Tears.
1833 Stars Fell on Alabama, a spectacular meteor shower on November 12-13, 1833. The shower created great excitement across the state and for years was used to date events and became part of Alabama folklore.
Stars Fell on Alabama.
1830 The First Railroad in Alabama, the Tuscumbia Railway Company, was formed. This was the first railroad on the American frontier, the first chartered and constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains, built connecting the two Alabama cities of Tuscumbia, and Decatur.
Historic Marker in Decatur, Alabama.
1819 Alabama becomes the 22nd state of the Union on December 14, 1819. William Wyatt Bibb is the first governor.
Alabama Great Seal.
1817 Alabama Territory was created when Congress passed the enabling act allowing the division of the Mississippi Territory and the admission of Mississippi into the union as a state. Alabama would remain a territory for over two years before becoming the 22nd state in December 1819.
Territory of Alabama and Govenor William Wyatt Bibb.
1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend occurred near an Upper Creek village on a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Tallapoosa River near present-day Alexander City, Alabama. General Andrew Jackson lead about 2,000 infantry and 700 mounted infantry to defeat the Creek warriors at Horseshoe Bend.
General Andrew Jackson.
1813 Creek War also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, began as a civil war within the Creek (Muscogee) nation. It is sometimes considered to be part of War of 1812.
Menawa, also known as Great Warrior,
was a military leader of the Creek
(Muscogee) people.
1812 War of 1812 lasted for over two years when United States declared War on Great Britain, and was a war that once and for all confirmed American Independence.
War of 1812
1809 Baldwin County is the third county to be created in Alabama, while still part of Mississippi Territory.
Baldwin County
1795 The Ellicott Line was being surveyed, �squatters� (those having no legal claim to the lands they settled) began to move into Alabama forcing the various Indian tribes off their lands. Washington, the first Alabama county, was created in 1800 from Mississippi Territory. The area below the 31st parallel was added to Mississippi Territory in 1812.
West Spainsh Florida.
Pinckney Treaty, an agreement between Spain and the United States, fixing the southern boundary of the United States at 31� N latitude. This made most of Baldwin County (everthing south of Stockton) property of Spain.
1789 George Washington becomes the first president of the United States.
George Washington.
1783 America wins Independence. The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, and ratified by the U.S. Congress on January 14, 1784, formally ended the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America that had rebelled against British rule in 1776.
Signing the Treaty of Paris the British commissioners refused to pose, and the picture was never finished.
1776 Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, is approved by the Continental Congress on July 4th.
Thomas Jefferson.
American Revolution begins and America is at war with England.
1763 French and Indian War, known in Europe as the 7 Year War, ended when the English defeated France and Spain. France was force to give all its land east of the Mississippi River to England. Spain was force to give all of it land in Florida to England.
Soldiers.
1711 St. Louis de la Mobile . Originally at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the French fort was moved piece by piece to the new site of Mobile in 1711 when yellow fever swept through and devastated the first settlement of Mobile.
St. Louis Mural.
1702 Bienville and his older brother Iberville were French explorers that founded the French colonies of New Orleans, Biloxi, and Mobile.
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville.
1620 The Mayflower left England with 102 passengers, looking for a better way of life. They landed in what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The Mayflower.
1607 Jamestown Colony was started when the Virginia Company explorers left London, England and landed on Jamestown Island, to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
Captain John Smith.
1561 Don Tristan de Luna fails to establish a permanent Spanish colony on the Alabama or Florida coast. After trying for over two years, Luna had met with one disaster after another. He was at Mobile Bay long enough to explore what is now southern Alabama.
Don Tristan de Luna.
1540 Hernando de Soto, the Spanish conquistador, landed in Florida and began his 4,000 mile search for El Dorado, the legendary lost city of gold. His journey took him through several southern states including Alabama. Over the next several centuries, disease and warfare caused large losses of Native American life.
Hernando de Soto.
1528 European Contact started in 1528, a century before the Pilgrams landed, when Cabeza de Vaca spent eight years in North America. Conquistadors led their troups very near Bon Secour as they traveled along the Gulf Coast.
A Conquistador.
1519 Mobile Bay was the first body of water in the New World to be accurately charted by the Spanish explorer Alonso Alvarez de Pineda.
Gulf Beach.
1492 Discovery of America happened accidentally when Christopher Columbus was trying to find a westward route from Europe to Asia.
Christopher Columbus.
1170 A legendary Welsh prince, Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd, sailed away from his homeland seeking a better place. He returned to Wales brimming with tales of the new land he found--warm and golden and fair. His tales convinced more than a few of his fellow countrymen, and many left with him to return to this wondrous new land, far across the sea. This wondrous new land is believed to be what is now Mobile Bay, Alabama.
Mandan Bull Boats and Lodges.
1500 A.D.
to
700 A.D.

500
to
1,300
Years Ago
Mississippian Period - The Native Americans of this time stayed in more settled groups and farmed to raise their food. They formed a type of government with chiefs as their leaders. Their pottery making became better. They built platform ceremonial mounds. Moundville, Alabama is one of the finest examples of the Mississippian culture. Bon Secour is part of a larger area where many Native Americans lived and hunted.
Indian Mounds.
700 A.D.
to
1,000 B.C.

1,300
to
3,500
Years Ago
Woodland Period - The Native Americans in our area at this time were still hunting and gathering their food, but now they were also making pottery. This was also the time period when the people began to live in one area instead of being nomads. Along with spears to kill animals, bows and arrows were being made and used.
Woodland Indians.
1,000 B.C.
to
8,000 B.C.

3,500
to
10,000
Years Ago
Archaic Period - The Archaic Indians were hunters and gatherers with no year-round villages. Some became experts at fishing or shell fishing. They made many tools such as: grinding tools to process nuts; different shaped spear points; bone tools and polished stone axes. People were carving bowls from a type of rock called steatite or soapstone. A few on the coast made the first wide-mouthed clay vessels and carved shell ornaments.
Archaic Indians.
8,000 B.C.
to
10,000 B.C.

10,000
to
12,000
Years Ago
Paleo Indian Period - It is possible that early Native Americans lived in the Bon Secour area. An archaeological project in northern Florida places Paleo Indians there hunting the mastodon 12,200 years ago. This is one of the earliest records of humans in North America. These people were nomads that hunted and gathered their food. A small cave in the northeastern most corner of Alabama, Russell Cave served as a home for Pre-historic Indians for over 8,000 years.
Early Native Americans hunting mastodons.
10,000 B.C.
to
100,000 B.C.

12,000
to
120,000
Years Ago
Beringia - is the name of the land bridge that appeared in the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska during the Ice Age that united the two continents and was home to a wide range of cold-adapted animals and, at some periods, human beings. Scientists believe that people traveled from Asia to America over this bridge, along with animals and plants.
The Bering Strait Land Bridge
and the Migration of Early Indians.