Judge Harry Toulmin

Table of Contents

Judge Harry Toulmin...... 3 The Blockhouse at Fort Mims...... 18 Marietta Johnson’s Organic School of Education...... 19 The Fairhope “People’s Railroad”...... 21 JUDGE HARRY TOULMIN 1766 to 1823

Prepared at the request of the Baldwin County Historical Society by Harry T Toulmin Daphne, Alabama December 1976 Submitted by Joe Baroco

Table of Contents Introduction Parentage and Early Years Virginia and Kentucky Judge of the Tombigbee District The West Florida Controversy The Fort Mims Massacre Mississippi and Alabama Statehood Last Years

Appendix A Bibliography B The Children of Judge Harry Toulmin

Introduction

Judge Harry Toulmin was born in Taunton, England on April 7, 1766, and died at Washington Courthouse (1), Alabama on November 11, 1823. The vast Tombigbee District of the Mississippi Territory (later the Alabama Territory) where he served as federal judge included Baldwin County (2). The seat of justice where first held court was at McIntosh Bluff, and in 1809 this courthouse became the first seat of government of Baldwin County. Harry Toulmin also was a delegate from Baldwin County to the 1819 Alabama State Constitutional Convention. For these reasons his life is of interest to the Baldwin County Historical Society.

Parentage and Early Years

Harry Toulmin was the eldest child of the Reverend Joshua Toulmin and Jane (Smith) Toulmin. These were people of considerable erudition, numbering among their friends the noted Joseph Priestly and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Joshua Toulmin was a dissenting minister but was also a prolific historian and biographer. One of his more notable biographies was Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Faustus Socinus - Socinus having formulated the doctrinal bases of Unitarianism. Joshua Toulmin was also politically sympathetic to both the American and French Revolutions. During the excitement of the latter, which began in 1789, an effigy of Thomas paine was burned before his door in Taunton. Although Joshua Toulmin never came to America himself, he was awarded a diploma by Brown University in 1769 and a degree of Doctor of Divinity by Harvard in 1794. To supplement his meager earnings as pastor, Dr Toulmin kept a school at the church meeting house Page 3 in Taunton, and his wife carried on a booksellers shop nearby. Most of the education of Harry Toulmin was secured in his father’s school and in his mother’s book store. During this early period Harry Toulmin met Joseph Priestly and impressed the philosopher-scientist. “ I am pleased with your son”, he wrote to Joshua Toulmin in 1782, “and I wish you every satisfaction in his improvement and conduct.” Harry Toulmin’s only more formal education was secured at Hoxton Academy which he attended for a brief time before entering the Unitarian ministry at Monton, Lancashire, in 1786. Between 1786 and 1792, in Monton and Chowbent, Harry Toulmin preached to large congregations. While his liberal political views and religious teachings were favorably received by many, they aroused disapproval among partisans of the established church and monarchy. Influenced by these adverse feelings and by the violent reactions they prompted, Harry Toulmin began to contemplate emigration. In 1792 it was agreed with some of his parishioners that he should go to America and that in doing so he would gather information about the new country and report it back to them and to his other friends in Lancashire.

Virginia and Kentucky

On May 14, 1793, with his wife and four small children, Harry Toulmin sailed from Bristol on the American ship “SISTERS” bound for Norfolk. They arrived there on July 20. True to his promise Harry Toulmin both kept a journal and wrote letters back to England relative to his early travels, life, and observations in America. Many of these letters were reprinted contemporaneously in The Monthly Magazine of London. Early portions of his journal were sent back to England too, but there they became widely dispersed. A copy survived in the United States, however, and was published 155 years later ( in 1948 ) by The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Even now The Western Country in 1793, Reports on Kentucky and Virginia provides discursive and detailed background data for Virginia and Kentucky historians. Upon his arrival in America, Toulmin wasted little time in getting his family settled ( at Winchester, Virginia ) and beginning his exploratory travels. His first such journey, in the summer of 1793, was to the valley of the Shenandoah and elsewhere in Virginia. During the fall of that year he visited Maryland and Pennsylvania, and the following winter he spent in Kentucky. During his stay in Virginia he became personally acquainted with James Madison, and when he went to Kentucky he was preceded by a letter from Madison to John Breckinridge enlisting his assistance on Toulmin’s behalf. The year before ( 1792 ) Breckinridge had felt the opportunity and call of Kentucky so strongly that he had given up his position in Congress ( to which he had just been elected from Virginia ) in order to settle near Lexington, Kentucky. Thomas Jefferson, also, wrote a letter of introduction for Toulmin to be hand-carried to Breckinridge. Arrived in Lexington, Toulmin first issued a prospectus for a private school, but soon thereafter, on February 5, 1794, the Board of Trustees of Transylvania College - which included John Breckinridge, - met and voted Harry Toulmin to become the second president of that institution. His succession to that office was to occur the following fall, on October 9, 1794. Prior to that in the spring of 1794,Toulmin journeyed to Philadelphia to visit friends, including Dr. Joseph Priestley’s three sons who had recently arrived from England. Dr. Priestley himself was soon to arrive in America. As Toulmin noted in a letter dated April 29, 1794, from Philadelphia back to James Breckinridge in Lexington, Kentucky: “He ( Joseph Priestley, Jr. ) heard today from his father that he is packing up. Sixty of the Scotch Convention arrived. The persecutions in England are beyond example. ( King ) George, it seems, is mad again.” Toulmin’s election to the presidency of Transylvania College was not completely orthodox or without dissent. There was already an incumbent president and although he had had a troubled administration with a declining enrollment and curriculum, he had not actually resigned. At the February 1794 meeting of the Board of Directors it was summarily moved that the Board ballet for the presidency. The motion carried and in the balloting, according to the record, “there appeared a majority of votes in Page 4 favor of Mr. Harry Toulmin.” The vote was 8 to 5. The minority desired that it be entered on the record that the election was premature, “being about eight months before a vacancy . . . and that it does not appear that the present teacher is not of good behavior or well qualified.”The election stood, but the Presbyterians on the Board thought Toulmin’s religious views to be “tainted with Socinian errors”. The leader of the opposition , a minister, “resigned his seat and with great warmth predicted the downfall of the institution and charged the Board with committing the management of it into the hands of an infidel.” The other minority members likewise withdrew and together they established a separate school. Toulmin served at Transylvania in Lexington for only two years, but during his term enrollment increased from six to thirty students, a school library was established, and the curriculum was expanded to include Greek, Latin, French, bookkeeping, astronomy, composition, elocution, geography, geometry, history, logic, moral philosophy, natural philosophy, and politics - fourteen subjects in all. In April 1796 Toulmin resigned from Transylvania, stating low salary and impermanence of the position as the reasons. A few weeks later he was appointed Secretary of State of Kentucky by Governor James Garrard, a Jeffersonian Republican of some prominence. Toulmin accepted the new position with pleasure and moved to Frankfort, the state capital. Not a post of excessive challenge, the position of Secretary of State still required a steadiness and attention to detail consonant with his former positions as pastor and educator. As Secretary of State he signed the famed Kentucky Resolutions in 1798, and many supposed the young English liberal instrumental in the agitation which generated them. The Resolutions were actually written by Thomas Jefferson, with the advice of John Breckinridge. They were passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts of the U. S. Congress and stated that the federal government had no powers not specifically delegated to it by the U. S. Constitution. They, and the parallel Virginia resolutions, were later considered the first notable statement of states’ rights theory. During this political interlude as Secretary of State, Toulmin busied himself in his spare hours with remunerative efforts which ranged from selling sets of Blackstone’s Commentaries to breeding racehorses. One major outside interest stood him in in good stead during his later years. He began to study and research extensively, first the laws of the State of Kentucky, and later in the laws of the new United States. During and immediately following the last years of his Kentucky residence he published several major works on Kentucky and American law. One of these, prepared with James Blair, was A Review of the Criminal Law of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, ( 2vols., 1804-06 ); it received high praise from a rising young politician named Henry Clay and was designated the standard work of criminal law in Kentucky. He also compiled A Collection of the Permanent and Public Acts of the General Assembly of Kentucky ( 1802 ), and prepared The American Attorney’s Pocket Book ( 1807 ) and The Magistrates’ Assistant ( 1801 and following ). As the second term of Governor Garrard drew to a close in 1804, the termination of Toulmin’s own tenure as Secretary of State also became apparent. On May 1, 1804, he wrote James Madison, the U. S. Secretary of State in Washington: I had little conceived that I was in any danger at the expiration of my time, of not being again called to the post which I now fill. But our executive department will shortly undergo a change:- and whether it be that my politics has been too open and decided to suit the taste of the destined successor of the present governor, - or that I have been guilty of the never to be repented of, and unpardonable sin of drawing y first breath in a foreign country, - I know not: - but I understand that the point is decided that I am to give place to another. He proceeded then in the letter to make a very specific request. He desired appointment to a judicial post recently created to encompass the settlements on the Tombigbee and Mobile Rivers in the eastern half of the Territory of Mississippi. He planned a new situation, he added, “satisfied... that with the same energy and exertion which I have always used I cannot fail of reaping reasonable success.” The request received a favorable hearing and on November 22, 1804, President Jefferson Page 5 commissioned Toulmin Judge of the Superior Court in the Tombigbee District (officially the Washington District) of the Mississippi Territory. Thus began the third and most fascinating period of Harry Toulmin’s career.

Judge of the Tombigbee District

The Mississippi Territory, of which the Tombigbee District was a major part, extended from the Mississippi River to Georgia and from Tennessee to Spanish West Florida along the thirty-first parallel. The territorial seat of government was at Natchez, around which the largest populations of the territory were concentrated. The territory had a governor, legislature and judiciary. The highest court was the supreme court consisting of three superior court judges of which Toulmin was one. The law, however, permitted any two of the superior court judges to sit at any given time on the supreme court bench. Because of the long distances from the Tombigbee area to Natchez, Toulmin rarely sat on the supreme court. He traveled there occasionally, as was necessary, but most of his time was spent in the Tombigbee District. That district was one of the wildest and least populous areas of the Old Southwest frontier of the new United States. It comprised the vast area later incorporated into the state of Alabama. It included Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek Indians, but was sparsely settled by whites and half-breeds, most of whom lived along the river bottoms. The greatest concentration of settlement was on the lower Tombigbee, particularly in the vicinity of Fort Stoddert. The most respectable and law-abiding citizens lived around Boatyard Lake and in the Tensaw settlements. Toulmin’s official duties as federal judge consisted in presiding over the territorial district court, but he soon discovered that the chief federal official in a vast frontier wilderness confronted a myriad of unspecified responsibilities. He became at once local diplomat, chief legal official, symbol of law and order, and keeper of the peace. His latter role was most pronounced during the West Florida controversy.

The West Florida Controversy

The Spanish had ruled West Florida and, in fact, the bulk of the Mississippi Territory during the years prior to the British conquest of 1763 and again for more than a decade after the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Spanish bitterness against their American neighbors arose at first from a somewhat dishonorable American entente with Great Britain in 1783 which clouded Spain’s rights to West Florida. The tension heightened as years abraded the original ill-feeling. With the territorial difference also arose the question of American rights to navigate Spanish rivers to reach the sea, a question of immense importance to the Tombigbee and Alabama settlements. In 1802 Spain ceded the territory called Louisiana to France, under terms of the Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800, with the understanding that France should not sell the ceded lands to any other purchaser. In the wake of this agreement the brazen 1803 Louisiana Purchase by the United States created further bitterness. The problems yet again multiplied when the American purchasers chose to assume the territory claimed by Spain south of the thirty-first parallel to be part of their new acquisition.This claim the Spanish government hotly denied. The resulting anomaly saw the outraged Spanish territorial officials alternately close and exorbitantly tax passage of American ships through the Mobile River - a river which Americans considered rightfully theirs. The West Florida problem engaged Harry Toulmin for almost a decade. He recognized the paramount importance of the Mobile gateway to the economic solvency of the entire Tombigbee-Alabama area and he favored annexation of West Florida to the United States. On the other hand he sought this through action by the federal government, either diplomatic or military, and he steadfastly opposed the local filibuster efforts and intrigues which characterized the period. During the summer of 1806, Toulmin was able to dissuade one John Caller from a plan to surprise Page 6 Mobile with an attack by local militia from the Tombigbee Area. The judge’s moderation and that of other border figures, combined with a timely reserve by Spanish officials, staved fof a crisis at the time. Anxiety was renewed later that year as Aaron Burr, the former Vice-President of the United States, approached Natchez from the north with grandiose threats to carve a new autonomous western empire from Spanish holdings on the Gulf. Toulmin was in Natchez when Burr was detained there for a grand jury investigation and, on February 3, when Burr vanished for parts unknown, Judge Toulmin immediately issued a warrant for his arrest. In fact, Burr had departed for the Tombigbee area to meet some accomplices; his arrest was effected near McIntosh on February 18. Two weeks later Edward Pembleton Gaines of the regular army contingent at Fort Stoddert arranged for Burr’s transfer to Richmond for trial. Thus Judge Toulmin was instrumental in securing Aaron Burr’s arrest and removal from the Mississippi Territory and the Tombigbee District. For this he was verbally castigated by Burr fanciers and others of the local Tombigbee citizenry who found Burr’s gospel close to their own state of mind. During the winter of 1808-09 Spanish concern was aroused by an American troop build-up at New Orleans. This build-up was really directed at the British, but it was accompanied by rigid enforcement at New Orleans of an embargo to prevent Spanish purchase of American supplies along the Gulf Coast. In retaliation the Spanish seized the American sloop “Victoria” which chose this inauspicious moment to sail into Mobile from Philadelphia bound for St Stephens with goods for the Indian trade. Besides other goods, the cargo of the “Victoria” included one hundred kegs of gunpowder and a quantity of lead. The ship’s detention aroused bitter resentment along the Tombigbee. Informed of the incident in mid-February, 1809, Judge Toulmin began personal negotiations with the Spanish at Mobile on February 19. By February 28, when the matter was closed, Toulmin’s negotiations had been moderately successful. The “Victoria” was permitted to proceed to St. Stephens with her civilian supplies, and all her military cargo was permitted to be transshipped to New Orleans. Concurrent with the establishment of a so-called “West Florida Convention” at Baton rouge in 1810 and its separation from Spanish control there grew up around the Mobile estuary a similar group dedicated to the overthrow of Spanish control at Mobile. Known as the “Mobile Society” this group, in the power of its cause, brought together two erstwhile adversaries in the Tombigbee country, James Caller (brother of John) and Joseph P. Kennedy. Their objective soon became known to Spanish authorities in Mobile and, pursuant to investigations by Colonel Richard Sparks, commander at Fort Stoddert, was informed to American authorities including Judge Toulmin. To forestall a filibuster threatened by the Mobile Society against Mobile, Toulmin convened a group of local citizens as a grand jury and affirmed to them the official displeasure of the territorial and federal governments to the enterprise. A few weeks later, under date of September 25, 1810, Toulmin received confirmation directly from his old friend James Madison. Now President of the United States, Madison strongly supported the judge’s position on the threatened filibuster: There can be no doubt of its unlawfulness, nor as to the duty of the executive to employ force, if necessary, to arrest it, and to make examples of the authors. This straightforward pronouncement pleased Toulmin and he lost no time in spreading abroad the presidential viewpoint; he immediately forwarded a copy of Madison’s declaration to every militia commander in the area. The president’s declaration and the existence of the grand jury temporarily curtailed the influence of the Mobile Society. The threatened filibuster might have been abandoned had it not been for the arrival of one Reuben Kemper from Baton Rouge. He brought from the West Florida Convention an address to the people of Mobile urging “common deliberation” on the course of future political events. Kemper was a former Mississippi tavern keeper. Long a foe of Spanish dominion in West Florida, he hated all things Spanish with a passion. His coming immediately spurred an upheaval among the West Floridians in the area east of Baton Rouge. As he made his way east, in an early overt demonstration of his talent for trouble, Kemper induced the settlers at the mouth of the Pascagoula River to declare themselves independent of Spanish rule. Arrived at Fort Stoddert he quickly became convinced that the citizens of Mobile possessed Page 7 neither strategic position nor frame of mind to arbitrate on the question of juncture with Baton Rouge. Accordingly he unhesitatingly abandoned his diplomatic role in favor of a direct military approach. Joseph Kennedy, never on to pass opportunity, offered his services, and those of his militia, for the reduction of the Spanish fort at Mobile. Kemper as quickly accepted the offer. They were soon joined by James Caller. Their plans were to proceed against Mobile and hoist a flag of independence there on November 25. Aware of the peril which Kemper, Kennedy, Caller and the Mobile Society posed to the area, Toulmin traveled to Mobile himself on a sort of personal reconnaissance. There he found, as he later reported to President Madison, “ a uniform impression ..... that a possession of the country by the American Government would be universally acceptable” and he went on to urge that the central government act quickly before the storm brewed by Kemper and the Mobile Society broke into open violence. Unfortunately neither the American advocates of peaceful annexation, led by the judge, nor the Federal government could react in time to forestall violence. On November 21, Toulmin heard from Kennedy. The filibuster leader imparted the information that the Pascagoula settlement, so stirred by Kemper’s earlier visit, had now risen in arms; a party of some six-score men had proceeded to attack a temporary fort which the Spanish occupied at the mouth of the Pascagoula River. This information coincided with reports already received by Toulmin that an American, Baldwin County Quarter-Sessions Court Justice William Hargreaves, was leading such an expedition. It was clear now that Hargreaves had committed the first real violation of the federal prohibition against military expeditions. The eve of November 25, 1810, the day fixed by Kemper for the campaign against Mobile, found Harry Toulmin in a desperately lonely situation. The militia, ostensibly guardians of the peace, had watched a considerable part of their officers desert to the filibuster ranks. Reuben Kemper was waxing highly optimistic in spite of “Judge Toulmin’s villainous exertions he is a base devil filled with deception and Blading Rascality.” In a last desperate attempt to forestall the mission, Toulmin sent two couriers to the filibuster camp with a restraining appeal. They were promptly arrested by Kennedy and were released only through the prompt good offices of Colonel Sparks at Fort Stoddert. On Sunday, November 25, the Mobile expedition of the “Republic of West Florida” began its southward trek under the guiding genius of Reuben Kemper. His was still a small force numbering perhaps 60 or 70 men. Only its bellicose leaders, plus the looming threat of a thousand volunteers from Baton Rouge, served to make the group in any way a formidable aggregation. The party moved down the eastern shore of the Mobile estuary terrorizing Spanish settlers and creating a state of confusion. With a maximum of sound and fury they ensconced themselves on McGurtin’s Bluff opposite Mobile. There Kemper proposed to cut off any Spanish reinforcements from Pensacola while awaiting his own reputed reinforcements from Baton Rouge, In the meantime his Tombigbee recruits whiled away their time by the light of Toulmin’s burning effigies and fortified their patriotism in a barrel of whiskey thoughtfully provided by the practical Kennedy. On December 6, a shooting culminated a brawl within the filibuster camp, the incident so severely injuring one member, a Dr. Pollard, that he had to be returned to Fort Stoddert for treatment. Seizing this opportunity Toulmin secured his arrest. Based on information obtained from Pollard, Toulmin ordered the arrest of all the leaders of the filibuster. Luck accompanied his efforts, for shortly thereafter Kemper, Kennedy and Caller returned to Fort Stoddert and by December 9 all had been arrested. The following night, on December 10, a Spanish force from Mobile fell upon the filibuster camp and “killed four, ...(took) ten or twelve prisoners, - and wounded and dispersed the rest.” Almost simultaneously the Pascagoula expedition, formerly mentored by William Hargreaves, met an ignominious end when the group developed a civil war “concerning the propriety of plunder, which some condemned (sic)”. Eight of the Pascagoula filibusters died in this sudden outburst within their ranks.The Spanish followed up on their advantage and imprisoned Hargreaves among a number of other survivors of this brawl. Even before the import of these events had fully dawned on Tombigbee settlements a new surprise passed through their community. On December 13, a copy of an annexation proclamation, first presented by Page 8 President Madison on October 29, 1810 reached the area. Following a brief resume of American claims to West Florida, the new statement of policy deemed it “right and requisite that possession should be taken of the said (West Florida) territory in the name and behalf of the United States.” But despite this proclamation , resolution of the West Florida controversy, as it pertained to Mobile, was not finally resolved until the War of 1812. Then, on February 13, 1813, President Madison approved a Senate resolution authorizing American military forces to occupy all territory in West Florida east to the Perdido. The capitulation of Mobile was effected without bloodshed and the Spanish garrison at Fort Charlotte surrendered to General James Wilkinson on April15, 1813. Immediately thereafter Judge Toulmin was instrumental in securing the transfer of Spanish land records at Mobile to American custody, including the recovery of some which had been stolen by Spanish authorities and taken to Pensacola. In the interim, in late 1810, Toulmin completed his investigation of the Kemper filibuster incident and his examination of its principals. All were indicted and held for an upcoming petty jury trial. Free on bail James Caller, Joseph Kennedy, and Reuben Kemper sought recrimination against the judge. Caller denounced him before assembled militiamen as a “Spanish intriguer and a traitor to the United States.” Even as he spoke Kennedy circulated among the militiamen for their signature a petition to the United States Congress praying that Toulmin be removed immediately from his judicial bench. Kemper, during January of 1811, spent several days at various points in the Tombigbee area holding what Toulmin termed “high courts of impeachment against the judge who had the presumption to doubt the authority of the plenipotentiary of the Floridian republic.” Immediately thereafter, Kemper abandoned the Tombigbee area for Baton Rouge, ignoring his status under bail and his upcoming trial for violation of the Military Expeditions Act. The trial of the other principals began on March 4 in an electrically tense atmosphere; apprehension heightened when the defendants entered the courtroom armed. Followers of the filibuster faction attempted to create confusion or, as Toulmin saw it, “to provoke me and produce a riot”, but the court held order and an opportunity for a personal attack on the judge went unrealized. Nonetheless, as Toulmin had expected, the defendants were acquitted by the local jury. Indeed, later in the year, Caller and Kennedy were both elected to the territorial legislature. In their new legislative offices Caller and Kennedy continued their campaign of vilification against the judge. Through their influence they were instrumental in securing a presentment against him from a grand jury impaneled by a Baldwin County inferior court. This was forwarded to the territorial House of Representatives for consideration. There a committee chaired by none other than Joseph Kennedy and numbering James Caller also among its members, considered the grand jury presentment. In due course, on November 20, 1811, it was forwarded by the territorial House of Representatives to the U. S. Congress for further investigation and disposition. Toulmin wished his name cleared mainly for the record and he welcomed an impartial investigation. On the other hand he feared continued difficulties even if he was vindicated..As he awaited the outcome he became weary and depressed. With his moral strength and determination waning he reached the low ebb of a career which was always dependent on his personal resolution. On May 22, 1812, the Congressional committee’s report was rendered and read in the Congress: The charges contained in the presentment...have not been supported by the evidence; and from the best information your committee have been able to obtain on the subject, it appears that the official conduct of Judge Toulmin has been characterized by a vigilant attention to the duties of his station, and an inflexible zeal for the preservation of the public peace and tranquility of the country over which his judicial authority extends; ( the committee ) therefore recommend ... that it is unnecessary to take any further proceedings on the presentment of the grand jury of Baldwin County, in the Mississippi Territory, against Judge Toulmin.

Page 9 The Fort Mims Massacre

When the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, visited among the Creeks in the autumn of 1811, the first manifestation of ensuing Indian unrest occurred in remote settlements of the Tombigbee area. On March 10, 1812, in a letter to John graham, Chief Clerk of the department of State in Washington, Judge Toulmin recorded the increased not of concern among settlers. Traveling his circuit of courts along the Alabama and Tomnigbee Rivers, Toulmin wrote: I find that a considerable consternation pervades the upper settlements, - particularly in the forks of the Tombigbee and Alabama, of an immediate attack upon them by the Creek Indians.While Toulmin was skeptical, he acknowledged that rumors of a proposed council of war seemed well founded and he believed “that war measures against the whites may be proposed.” As he expected, the “immediate attack” on the upriver settlements did not materialize, but Toulmin had hardly posted his letter to Graham when on March 26, the murder of one Thomas Meredith, a respectable old man, shocked local citizens, and the death of another white man by a roving band of Creeks increased the concern. Tribal chiefs friendly to the Americans promised to avenge the two deaths and did so by executing eight braves involved in the incidents. While this seemed initially to calm the atmosphere, it actually provided fuel for Tecumseh’s prophets to use in future war councils. in June1812 the situation was further complicated by America’s declaration of war against Great Britain. The Creeks maintained close friendship with both England and Spain. With war declared, the British increased their support to Tecumseh; the Spanish, incensed by American seizure of Baton Rouge and attempts on Mobile, activated their long-standing Creek alliances in opposition to the United States. Added to these difficulties was the perennial ineptitude of the local militia. OnAugust 5, 1812, Toulmin reported further to John Graham the events of the midsummer. Our militia officers here have been extremely anxious, as I have thought, or at least have so acted as if they were anxious to bring on an Indian War, - and the provocations which they have given will, I fear ... render successful the attempts of the Spaniards to enlist the Creek nation in their service. A party of rangers have been sent out ... without any occasion, - & whose avowed design is to murder Indians ... a party of Indians were wantonly & without provocation fired upon ... and some peaceable Choctaws were almost beaten to death in Washington County. Such things will incite jealousies if not resentments & vengeance, and the Indians will be induced by these to listen to the overtures of the Spaniards. There is the utmost call ... for a vigorous state of preparation, under the guidance not of fanatics, but of men of intelligence, moderation and courage. In a few words, Toulmin had drawn a marked indictment of Indian policy not only in the Mississippi Territory but in a larger sense throughout the whole frontier in the nineteenth century. During succeeding months Indian relations deteriorated further and in 1813 the long smoldering controversy over white encroachments on Creek land burst into flame. Tecumseh’s prophets decreed the extermination of those chiefs who had acted as executioners of the eight Creek braves. They further ordered a policy of distinct racial seclusion. As the threat of hostilities magnified, Toulmin, in his capacity as postmaster for the Fort Stoddert area, began to re-route the mails around Creek lands. One mail carrier, however, stating his belief that the Indian Problem was purely an internal conflict, offered to transmit the post directly through the Creek nation. Toulmin authorized him to proceed. Shortly the mail rider returned in great haste, having escaped from the Creeks with his life only after having his hat shot from his head and his mail sacks confiscated. Reporting this incident by letter to General F. L. Claiborne, Commander of the Mississippi Territorial Militia, Toulmin also reported other dire forebodings. Rumors persisted that hostile Creeks had received a requisition for ammunition from the British in Canada on the Spanish governor in Pensacola; and other rumors held that the ammunition already had been supplied. Furthermore, Toulmin’s good friend George S. Gaines, chief agent of the Choctaw agency near Fort Stoddert, had been informed bluntly by a traditionally friendly Choctaw chieftain that the “villanious Muskogees” are definitely on the warpath; they Page 10 urged the Choctaw to join them against the whites; and “they are making every arrangement to attack the Tombigbee frontier.” In concluding this letter to General Claiborne, Toulman asked: “ I submit it to you, Sir, whether I am not warranted in the opinion that war exists between a part of the Creek nation and the people of the United States.” Claiborne put in his appearance at Fort Stoddert shortly thereafter. Toulmin voiced his sincere appreciation of the General’s presence, particularly so since just prior to his arrival the Battle of Burnt Corn had occurred. This battle, which was fought on July 27,1813, was the immediate precursor of the Fort Mims Massacre. A group of Creek warriors had gone to Pensacola to secure ammunition. In the course of their journey they beat a white trader within an inch of his life and carried off a halfbreed family, selling them into slavery at Spanish hands in Pensacola. A sizable force of militia and volunteers (180 men) was quickly mustered by Colonel James Caller and attempted to waylay the Creeks as they returned. On August 2 Toulmin reported the incident to the territorial governor: An attack was projected by one commanding officer under circumstances the most disadvantageous:- then in an instant retreat was ordered...two thirds of the men decamped with the majors at their head, - and the brunt of the battle was sustained for nearly two hours by... a few...who sustained the conflict with remarkable resolution. The two score and more stalwarts who remained, the judge went on, found themselves fighting against no more than an equal number of Indians; two white men and six of the “prophets” party were killed, and a number of the Indian’s arms were captured. “ The Indians no doubt regard us as old women, and the next conflict will be bloody.” Colonel Caller had not been in the group which first met the Creeks, but the judge could not resist repeating a local rumor concerning his activities: “ Caller got alarmed at the report of guns fired by his own men”, supposed that his troops had fallen into difficulty, and prudently vanished. The militia leader , in the judge’s acid words, “has not been heard of since.” Pickett says that Colonel Caller and other officers attempted in vain to rally the militia, but he says also that Colonel Caller and a companion became lost and wandered in the forest causing great uneasiness to their friends. They were afterwards found, starved almost to death, and bereft of their senses. They had been missing fifteen days. The Battle of Burnt Corn provided great encouragement to the hostile Indians, and many braves who had been unpersuaded before the battle, thereafter joined the hostiles on the warpath. It was at this time that William Weatherford was recruited. On the American side, the battle fully alerted Tombigbee - Alabama settlers to the danger of attack. They flocked to available forts and redoubled their efforts at stockade construction and improvement. Toulmin moved his own family to Mount Vernon, a new fortification under construction near Fort Stoddert. In mid August General Claiborne marched northward from Fort Stoddert to the forks of the Alabama and Tombigbee. From this new encampment he informed Toulmin of a rumor that the first Creek attack would fall near Fort Easley, one of the improved new stockades. While distributing his men among fortifications in the entire area, Claiborne marched his main force to the blockhouse at Fort Easley, there vainly to await any sign of attack. On the way he took time to carry a warning to the larger Fort Mims, on the east bank of the Alabama. There Major Daniel Beasley, with a contingent of Mississippi territorial militia, acknowledged Claiborne’s warning, but with confidence. His men, he said, were eager to give battle to the Indians; the fort, currently being improved, would soon provide such defense as would preclude all danger from marauding Creeks. When the attack on Fort Mims began on August 30, 1813 Major Beasley and his men fought bravely. Unfortunately their own ineptitude, and superior planning by the Creeks, clinched the outcome before the fight began. William Weatherford and other Creek leaders carefully prepared the attack for high noon when all hands inside the fort regularly retired for lunch. Also, on the evening before the attack they crawled undetected to the stockade and through its portholes studied the layout of the fort. They may even Page 11 have obstructed the gate with earth to restrict its being closed. In any case, within the first few minutes of the fight the following day, major Beasley’s brains were bashed out during his futile effort to close the gate. Judge Toulmin could not at the time know all of these details, but his account of the massacre, one of the first to be received outside the Tombigbee area, was reasonably accurate: The dreadful catastrophe which we have been sometime expecting, has at length taken place; the Indians have broken in upon us in numbers and fury unexampled. A few days before the attack, some negros of Mr. Girt’s who lived in that part of the Creek territory which is inhabited by half-breeds, had been sent up the Alabama to his plantation for corn; three of them were taken by a party of Indians. One escaped and brought down news of the approach of the Indians. The officer gave but little credit to him, but they made some further preparation to receive the enemy, and on Saturday and Sunday considerable work was done to put the fort in a state defense. Sunday morning three negroes were sent out to attend the cattle, who soon returned with an account that they had seen 29 Indians. Scouts were sent out to ascertain the truth of the report; they returned and declared they could see no signs of Indians. One of the negroes belonging to Mr. Randon was whipped for bringing, what they deem, a false report. He was sent out again on Monday, and saw a body of Indians approaching; but afraid of being whipped, he did not return to Mim’s but to Pierce’s fort; but before his story could be communicated the attack was made. The Indians had to come through an open field 150 yards wide, before they could reach the fort, and yet they were within 30 steps of the fort... before they were noticed. The sentry then gave the cry of ‘Indians’ when they immediately set up a most terrible warhoop and rushed into the gate with inconceivable rapidity, and got within it before the people of the fort had an opportunity of shutting it. This decided their fate...There was a large body of Indians, though they probably did not exceed 400. Our people seemed to sustain the attack with undaunted spirit ... Some of the Indians got upon the blockhouse at one of the corners; but after firing a good deal down upon the people they were dislodged. They succedded however in setting fire to a house near the pickets, from which it was communicated to the kitchen and from thence to the main dwelling house...When the people in the fort saw the Indians retained full possession of the outer court, that the gate continued open, that their men fell very fast, and that their houses were in flames, they began to despond. Some determined to cut their way through the pickets and escape. Of the whole number of white men and half-breeds in the fort, it is supposed that not more than 25 or 30 escaped. The rest, and almost all the women and children, fell a sacrifice either to the arms of the Indians or to the flames.The battle lasted about five hours and a half...Notwithstanding the bravery of our fellow citizens, the Indians carried all before them, and murdered the armed and the helpless without discrimination. Our loss is 7 commissioned officers, and about 100 non-commissioned officers and privates, of the First Regiment of MississippiTerritory volunteers. There were about 24 families of men, women and children in the fort, of whom almost all have perished amounting to about 160 souls There were also about 100 negroes, of whom a large proportion were killed. Fort Mims was one of the worst Indian massacres in American History. Its immediate significance was a substantial build-up of forces in the Tombigbee area. More importantly, the Creek War which ensued developed Andrew Jackson as a leading American general. With a general of his caliber in the field the armies of the South were able to repel a massive British invasion a year later. Of longer range interest, the Fort Mims massacre and the Creek War drastically changed the American relationship with Southern Indians. Because of the bitterness which was engendered, the Creeks lost half their lands; and within 20 years they were forced to move west of the Mississippi.

Mississippi and Alabama Statehood

During the history of the Mississippi Territory there never developed any binding common interest or feeling of comradeship between the settlers on the Mississippi River and those on the Tombigbee - Alabama. In the beginning it was the settlers along the Tombigbee who demanded separation; but later the Page 12 situation was reversed with those along the Mississippi requesting division.By 1815 the Alabama region has grown in population, particularly in the Tennessee Valey, as to threaten the continued dominance of Natchez as a seat of political power. As statehood for the territory approached, feelings as to division or unity were mixed, but public sentiment tended toward division. Sensing this, a group of delegates from the Alabama region who favored unity met on the Pearl River in October 1816. This convention prepared and adopted a strong memorial to Congress asking admission of the Mississippi Territory as a state without division. Harry Toulmin was not a member of, nor was he present at this convention. However, he was chosen as its special envoy to present the memorial to Congress and to promote the objects of the convention. Five hundred dollars was appropriated to pay his expenses. Arrived in Washington in January 1817, Toulmin found that bills already introduced into Congress to form two states from the territory would almost certainly pass, and “if I had not come there would be no doubt about it.” Even old friends of his in Congress informed him that “unity” was a lost cause. In a letter back to Henry B. Slade in Baldwin County, Toulmin quoted General Desha of Kentucky as saying: I have always voted for one state out of the whole, but I never shall again. You may by great exertion put off the division now, but it is impossible to erect a new state out of the whole territory. Toulmin continued to fight the “division act”, even spending twenty dollars of his own money to print a statement which he personally prepared in opposition; but he must have realized that the Senate would prevail and the House would eventually yield. The trump card which Natchez held, but which was never openly or publicly mentioned , was simply that if two states were made from the Mississippi Territory instead of one there would be two more southern senators in Washington. These would be needed to offset free-soil states which already were knocking on the door for statehood. Congress passed enabling legislation for Mississippi statehood on March 1, 1817. On August 15 of that year a convention held near Natchez adopted a constitution for the people of the western part of the Mississippi Territory. It was confirmed by joint resolution of Congress on December 10, 1817 and Mississippi became a state. Simultaneously, Alabama became a separate territory with its seat of government at St. Stephens. President James Monroe appointed William Wyatt Bibb governor of the Alabama Territory and Harry Toulmin’s tenure as judge continued. The area which became the Territory and eventually the State of Alabama had experienced a steady growth in white and negro population since Harry Toulmin’s arrival there in 1804. Some of the formerly scattered settlements along rivers had become sizable towns; and many upland areas, with their Indian inhabitants removed, were becoming prosperous farms and plantations. A particular surge in population occurred between 1817 and 1819 immediately prior to statehood, the most numerous arrivals being from Tennessee followed next by those from Georgia. The area of greatest growth was in North Alabama. At the time of statehood Alabama’s estimated population was in excess of 100,000, the largest county being Madison of which Huntsville was the county seat. By act of March 2, 1819 Congress directed the election of delegates to a convention to form a constitution of state government for the people within the Alabama Territory. Forty-four delegates, representing the twenty-two counties of the territory were elected. Twenty-eight delegates were from North Alabama; sixteen were from southern counties. Baldwin County was permitted one representative and chose Harry Toulmin as its delegate. The Constitutional Convention met in Huntsville on July 5, 1819. John W. Walker of Madison County was chosen President of the convention. The work of drafting the constitution was placed in the hands of a Committee of Fifteen, of which Toulmin was not a member. Clement C. Clay, of Madison County, both chaired this committee and prepared the draft which contained the main features of the constitution adopted by the convention on August 2. Although not a member of the Committee of Fifteen, Harry Toulmin was an articulate spokesman particularly for the interests of South Alabama. The convention having agreed that election to the Page 13 State House of Representatives should be on the basis of white population, Toulmin joined with other distinguished South Alabama delegates in seeking to limit northern representation in the State Senate. This proved to be one of the most animated debates of the session; but eventually the North prevailed. Instead of one senator per county, as South Alabama desired, the convention decided that senators should be elected from districts drawn (also) on the basis of white population. On another issue, Toulmin sought to make more definite a provision in the draft constitution guaranteeing religious freedom, but his motion was defeated. He also sought to have court clerks selected, or at least continued in office, on the basis of merit as evidenced by examination.Again his position failed, and popular election became the sole basis for selecting and continuing the service of court clerks in Alabama. On at least one major issue Toulmin sided with the majority; the convention decided that the county executive officer would be the sheriff and that he should be popularly elected. The 1819 Alabama Constitution was modeled somewhat after the 1817 Mississippi Constitution. Neither was required to be submitted to the people for ratification.The Alabama Constitution was confirmed by joint resolution of Congress on December 14, 1819 andAlabama became a state on that date. Last Years

With statehood Harry Toulmin’s position as territorial judge ceased to exist. The first session of the State’s General Assembly convened in Huntsville on October 25 and adjourned December 17, 1819, the last to be held in Huntsville. Among its other acts, this first assembly elected five circuit court judges. Under the new State Constitution these judges, sitting together, would compose the State’s Supreme Court. For judge of the first judicial circuit Abner Lipscomb won over Harry Toulmin 63 to 5. By 1821, when the third annual session met at Cahawba, the need for a digest of laws of the State (including the predecessor laws of the Territory) had become acute. Having failed to make the justices of the Supreme Court prepare the digest, the Assembly elected Harry Toulmin to do this important work. By devoting himself assiduously to the task Toulmin was able to submit his digest the following year to the fourth annual session of the Assembly. A joint committee which examined Toulmin’s manuscript reported that the statute laws had been digested with accuracy, correctness, and much ability, and that the arrangement was good, being far superior to the 1816 Mississippi Digest (by Turner) which it would supplant. A bill was reported by the committee whereby the State accepted the digest and paid Toulmin for his services. Unfortunately, Alabama’s treasury was low; the assemblymen haggled about the price. Waiting in Cahawba for action, Toulmin was sick and knew he must soon die; nevertheless he registered his concern for his rights. Knowing of the debate, on December 23, 1822 the ailing judge dispatched a letter to the Assembly; The undersigned having some reason to believe that a difficulty exists as to the compensation he ought to have for digesting the laws of the State of Alabama, begs leave to make the following observations: 1.In the year 1806 he was employed to digest the statutes then existing - which were those of six or seven sessions only. For that work he received twelve hundred dollars - the digest contained four hundred and twenty-six pages. The digest now prepared and laid before the Assembly would, if printed on a similar page and with the same type occupy sixteen hundred pages - and were the compensation allowed for in proportion to the compensation in 1807 it would amount to upwards of four thousand five hundred dollars. But in addition to this, it is but merely just to mark that the digest of 1807 was composed of entire acts while the digest now submitted is arranged under distinct heads, or titles, and care has been taken not only to arrange the acts themselves under the title to which they belong, but to divide those very acts, where they relate as they often do, to several subjects and to place the several sections under their proper titles. 2. The undersigned has known from long experience , what are the labor and the xpenses of attending seven circuit courts twice a year and discharging the duties not only of a Territorial, Page 14 but of a federal judge; he can say with confidence that neither the mental exertion nor the personal expense (even including clerk hire) has been equal to that of preparing the digest now presented to the legislature. It was necessary that the compiler... attend at the present session about four weeks, in order to facilitate an examination of the digest. He conceives therefore that his traveling expenses (having been obliged to bring a wagon for ...conveying the digest and original acts of the Legislature on which the digest is formed together with ... attendance cannot be estimated at less than two hundred and sixty-four dollars. His clerk hire and paper have cost him about two hundred fifty dollars. His labor for one year, taking that of a circuit judge as a criterion, is worth seventeen hundred and fifty dollars ( total twenty- two hundred and sixty four dollars ). 3. The compiler of the (Turner) digest now in use had before him the digest of 1807 and of nine subsequent sessions some of which were very short. An appropriation was made to him of $1,000 in 1816 before the work was completed...What appropriations were made afterwards is not known. The present digest will contain the acts of sixteen sessions besides those of the digest of 1807. If it be supposed that Mr, Turner received no more than $1,000 for the chaos he created, it will surely be a subject of very rational investigation what sum, when a man has been paid $1,000 for mangling and murdering the laws, ought to be paid to anyone who has brought them to life again. The undersigned has endeavored not only to gratify but to be useful to the public. He cannot receive for his services a less sum than about $2,000. If the General Assembly do not deem his services worthy of that compensation he prays permission to withdraw his manuscript. He has labored incessantly and what he solicits is not from the generosity, but the justice of the General Assembly. The Assembly finally authorized a payment of $1,500 to Toulmin - with the proviso that he prepare an index and superintend the printing of the book. Before his death Toulmin prepared a table of contents for this most famous of Alabama law books (3) but he died before making the index. This was accomplished by Henry Hitchcock, the State’s Attorney General, who also went to New York to superintend the Digest’s printing. In 1824 the heirs of Harry Toulmin received $100 from the State as a final payment for his services in digesting the State’s laws. At his death in 1823 Harry Toulmin was 57 years of age. His had been a full and useful life.

------Notes

1. Eighteen miles northwest of St. Stephens 2. From 1809, when Baldwin County was created, until Alabama statehood in 1819,the area encompassed by Baldwin County lay generally, but not exclusively, west of the Mobile, Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. 3. A collector’s item, this book is commonly referred to as Toulmin’s Digest, or more formally as Harry Toulmin’s Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama, 1823.

Bibliography

Brantley, William H., Three Capitals. Merrymount Press, Boston, 1947. Dictionary of American Biography, Volume XVIII. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1943. Dictionary of National Biography, Volume XIX. Oxford University Press, London, 1917. Doster, James F., “Early Settlements on the Tombigbee and Tensaw Rivers”, Alabama Review, Volume XII, April 1959, 83-94. Jennings, Walter Wilson, Transylvania: Pioneer University of the West, Pageant Press, New York, 1955. Lengel, Leland L., Keeper of the Peace, Harry Toulmin in the West Florida Controversy, 1805-1813, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Department of History, Duke University, 1962. Page 15 Lengel , Leland L., “The Road to Fort Mims: Judge Harry Toulmins Observations on the Creek War, 1811 1813”, Alabama Review, Volume XXVII, January 1976, 16-36. Moore, Albert Burton, History, History of Alabama & Her People, Volume I, American Historical Society, Chicago, 1927. Nuzum, Kay, A History of Baldwin County, Baldwin Times, Bay Minette, Alabama, 1970. Owen, T. M., History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume IV, S. J. Clark Publishing Co., Chicago, 1921. Owsley, Frank H., Jr., “Benjamin Hawkins, The First Modern Indian Agent”, Alabama Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXX, 1968, 7-13. Owsley, Frank H., Jr, “The Fort Mims Massacre”, Alabama Review, Volume XXIV, July 1971, 192-204. Pearson, Theodore Bowling, “Early Settlement Around Historic McIntosh Bluff: Alabama’s First County Seat”, Alabama review, Volume XXIII, October 1970, 243-255. Pickett, Albert James, History of Alabama and Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, Republished by the Birmingham Book and Magazine Co., Birmingham, Ala., 1962. Roland, Dunbar, Courts, Judges,and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Miss., 1935. Russell, J., Jr., (Compiler), The History of the War Between the United States and Great Britain, B. & J. Russell, Hartford, Conn.,1815. Tinling, Marion and Godfrey Davies (Editors), The Western Country in 17793: Reports on Kentucky and Virginia by Harry Toulmin, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., 1948. Toulmin, Harry, “A Geographical & Statistical Sketch of the District of Mobile”, National Intelligencer, Washington City, D.C., August 25 1809. Toulmin, Harry, “Comments on America and Kentucky, 1793-1802”, with an introduction by George B. Toulmin, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 47, No. 158:3-20, No. 159: 97-115 Toulmin, Harry, “Last Will and Testament”, September 18, 1823, Original Will Book, State of Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Ala.

The Children of Judge Harry Toulmin

Judge Toulmin was married twice: first in England to Ann Tremlett, and second in Washington County to Martha Johnson, a native of England. Eleven of his children reached maturity.

The children of his first marriage were:

Lucinda Toulmin, married Colonel Daniel Garrard, the son of Governor James Garrard of Kentucky

Frances Toulmin, married Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, United States Army

Hannah Lindsey Toulmin, married first Captain James Wilkinson, and second Major Reuben Chamberlain, United States Army Page 16 B r i g a d i e r G e n e r a l T h e o p h i l u s L i n d s e y T o u l m i n p l a n t e r a n d s t a t e s m a n , m a r r i e d fi r s t M a r y C a l l e r a n d second Amante Elizabeth de Juzan

Joshua Toulmin, died while at college in Milledgeville, Georgia

Jane Toulmin, married Green Duke Caller, planter and son of Colonel James Caller

Ann Tremlett Toulmin, married Morrison Hunter

Emma Sarah Toulmin, married first Thomas Hord Herndon and second Dr. frank Copp

Henry Toulmin, married Joanna Waugh.

The children of his second marriage were:

Helen Toulmin, married William Dabney Gaines, a director of the Bank at St. Stephens

Captain Harry Toulmin, United States Army, married Frances Biddle Priestly

This article was published in a redacted version in the HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL QUARTERLY, VOL II COMBINED EDITIONS, 1989 - 1990 NO. 3 & 4, with the title ALABAMA’S FIRST GREAT JUDGE by Harry T. Toulmin and Samuel N. Crosby.

Page 17 The Blockhouse at Fort Mims

The newly re-constructed blockhouse at Fort Mims adds a new dimension to the site of historic Fort Mims! This amazing structure is located on the southwest corner of the stockade. It replicates the type of construction used by the early pioneers during the late 1790’s to early 1800’s. The 8-10 inch hewn logs are connected at each corner with half-dovetail notching. The only door is 4” thick and is mounted with period- correct hinges and hardware. The upper level is a cantilever—it is larger than the bottom floor and extends a foot beyond the lower wall. This design was intended to keep intruders from easily entering the ‘place of last stand’. Many gun ports are located on both floors allowing those inside to shoot at the approaching enemy.

This blockhouse was originally built around 1989 by a DAR Chapter to mark Ft. McCreary, an historic Creek War site near Lumpkin, Georgia. It was an item of interest to the area and was visited frequently. Unfortunately, the bridge allowing easy access to the site was not repaired when it became unsafe to drive over and the other route to the site was almost impassable and dependent on extremely dry weather. The beautiful structure became remote and difficult to access. After several years, instead of allowing the structure to deteriorate and be unseen and unused, the blockhouse was offered to Fort Mims.

After a great deal of required inspection, calculations and paperwork, approval was gained from the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Building Commission for the structure to be moved to Alabama!

The funding campaign for the blockhouse, started in May of 2011, was supported by the generous donations of many interested individuals and organizations. Having this support already in place made possible the dismantling, hauling and reconstruction of this beautiful blockhouse onto the site of Fort Mims. Although different from the original plan, the end result was the same. What an amazing chain of events leading to this structure being raised and ready for the August 30, 2013 event commemorating the 200 th Anniversary of Fort Mims!

A plaque is posted nearby with the names of all who donated to ‘Sponsor a Log’ for the blockhouse at Fort Mims. Make your plans to visit Fort Mims, located in north Baldwin County. Follow Hwy 59 thru Stockton and continue 12 miles through beautiful countryside to Tensaw. At the intersection of Co Rd. 80, marked by a blinking light, turn west and travel 3 miles to Fort Mims Road. Turn right and follow this to the end.

Enjoy the improvements on this quiet and beautiful site: the stockade, a split rail fence, as described by Gen. Claiborne in 1813; monuments with the names of all known to have been at Fort Mims in August of 1813 and informational signs telling about the Tensaw Country and Fort Mims. ‘Remember Fort Mims’!

Submitted by Claudia Slaughter Campbell, President

Fort Mims Restoration Association

October 6, 2013

Page 18 Marietta Johnson’s Organic School of Education by Bob Glennon, Editor, Friends of the Fairhope Museum of History Newsletter

Have you thought about Fairhope as being an EPCOT, almost 70 years earlier than Walt Disney envisioned his city of tomorrow? The Fairhope founders also saw an Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow that would never be complete but would continue to grow as ideas and inventions were put into practice. This gets us to one of the most progressive and surviving concepts in our city of tomorrow – the Marietta Johnson Organic School of Education.

Marietta Louise Pierce Johnson was born in 1864 in St. Paul Minnesota. Her early education was in public schools in Minnesota and even as a young girl, she dreamed of becoming a teacher herself. Upon her graduation from the State Normal School in 1885, now St. Cloud State College, she did become a teacher. Between 1890 and 1899, she observed students in practice teaching and on occasion would take over a class to demonstrate her ideas; she was an inspiring and creative teacher, full of new ideas on schooling. In 1903, she and her husband spent the winter in Fairhope, a new town founded on the single-tax theory. The progressives in town invited her to open an experimental school to explore some of her educational ideas. She accepted and in 1907 moved permanently to Fairhope where she became the director of the school. She had six students the first day at her “Organic School” and after a few years, enrolled as many as 200 students per year. With community support and her tireless fundraising, the school was always tuition free to its students, yet received no public funds. It was called “organic” in that the central aim was to “minister to the health of the body, develop the finest mental grasp and preserve the sincerity and un-self-consciousness of the emotional life.” She believed grades, report cards and promotions created the tension of self-consciousness so they were omitted. Students were judged only for their individual abilities, and emphasis was placed on the satisfactions of learning and growth. The school incorporated in 1909.

Ms. Johnson’s vision of a new education, based on her organic school experiment, took on national prominence with the publication in 1915 of the Deweys’ Schools of Tomorrow. John Dewey and his daughter Evelyn after visiting and studying the school wrote extensively and positively about the experiment. Ms. Johnson established a second Organic School, following the Fairhope model, in Greenwich, CT. By the late 1920’s, she was dividing her time between Alabama and Connecticut. She became internationally renowned for progressive education. The Organic School in Fairhope progressed well at its location between School and Bancroft Streets until Ms. Johnson’s death in 1938. Then her fundraising skills became more apparent. Enrollment dropped below 100, cash flow trickled and faculty morale fell.

As with any great undertaking, there have been bumps along the road. Without Marietta there to continually inspire students and large donors, enrollment, leadership and funding have become reoccurring concerns. In the 1940’s, a Page 19 Board and 3-person Executive Committee managed the school. For a time, the Organic School property was used as security to obtain a loan from the Single Tax Corporation to pay off debts and sponsor operation of the school. In the 1950’s many of Fairhope’s prosperous families rallied around the school and enrollment rebounded to 120 students. But with that effort the Corporation yielded to pressure and violated one of Mrs. Johnson’s basic tenets; teachers were instructed to grade students and issue report cards to parents. The format switched back and forth in the early ‘60’s between the classes and hand-on-training practices that Ms. Johnson had insisted upon. Enrollment ranged between 110 and 140 students.

Over the years, the Organic School continued to receive help from generous benefactors. A major bequest from the estate of longtime supporter Georgianna Ives funded a capital improvement program. The Board was able to reclaim the school’s assets from the Single Tax Corporation in 1967. In the late 1970’s, Harold Dahlgren donated funds to retool the workshop, restore the old high school building and help the school become solvent again. In 1989, the Board accepted the City of Fairhope’s offer of $334,000 to rebuild the school at a new site on Pecan Street, so that Faulkner State Community College could open a branch campus downtown on the original 10-acre Organic School site. The Ives Probate Trust Fund continues to underwrite about half of the School’s budget and to offer generous scholarships to worthy students each year.

The school got negative publicity in 2004 when it used treated wood in the organic wood shop, where students were exposed to dust and treatment chemicals. This was a major contributing factor to a drop in enrollment, teachers quitting and the PTA Roundtable being dissolved. High school level classes were eliminated thereafter due to lack of funding and students. “Home School” high school was conducted for a few years, but was discontinued at the end of the 2011 – 2012 school year. Classes from Kindergarten through 9th grade are now taught at the school.

Fairhope Museum Director Donnie Barrett was a teacher at the Organic School during the years 2003 through 2006. He says, “Teachers were required to send home report cards, but that lasted only for a short while. ‘Progress Reports’, not report cards, now go home to parents.”

The Organic School continues as a haven for creative thinking and free-spirited activities. And the School, along with the Single Tax Corporation, are the most prominent remaining vestiges of our EPCOT in Alabama!

Page 20 The Fairhope “People’s Railroad” 1912 - 1923 Submitted by Robert M. (Bob) Glennon

This actual ervice car No. 1 used by the People’s Railroad, here loaded with bags and barrels, is now on dis- play in the Fairhope Museum of History

In August 1912, a petition was signed by almost one hundred people to establish a “People’s Railroad” in Fairhope. By 1914, it was well underway. The rails began at the far end of the wharf and ran up the hill on Fairhope Avenue to Bancroft Street, south to Morphy Street, then east, but never got further than School Street, barely turning onto Morphy.

Morphy Street was the main road into town from the East. The original plan was for the railroad to continue east when funds became available, to “Bellforest Road” (Hiway 181), north to AL highway 104, then east to Silverhill and Robertsdale, where it would connect to another railroad.

The first railcar to run on the railroad, People’s Railroad Car No. 1, was built by Frank Brown in his sawmill near the southeast corner of Morphy and Greeno Roads. It was built on the chassis of a Thomas-Flyer automo- bile. Page 21 According to the Fairhope Courier, the rails for the project were scheduled to arrive in Mobile around August 7, 1914 on the steamer, “Mallory” and promptly be loaded onto a barge destined to Fairhope. In fact, the steam- boat, “Nemesis”, arrived at Fairhope on August 14, with the barge and the first mile of rails. The Courier reported that on September 4, “track laying was suspended… until the service car was available to bring forward the rails from the wharf, as pushing them up the grade on a hand car was proving too slow and expensive a job especially as the distance increased.” A trestle was built from a short distance out on the wharf to the top of the hill, to engineer the required grade incline. The tracks were narrow gauge spacing, with 80 pound weight rails. On Saturday, September 18, the Courier said, “Last Saturday, the People’s Railroad Car Number 1 was hastily outfitted with rough temporary seats and an older car added as a trailer with seats, met the ‘Apollo’ and brought up a full load of passengers. And it has since met the boat regularly, morning and evening, handling passengers, freight and supplies for the railroad construction crew.” The fare from the pier, up the steep grade to the water tank in the center of town, was 5 cents.

The full mile of track was finished on October 9, stopping on Morphy, near School Street. This completed the initial project funds. The pressures of the Great War in Europe side-tracked additional funding while national attention was turned to matters “over there.”

After the Doughboys returned home, attempts were made to stimulate further financing for the Railroad, but keen competition from other wharves, truck lines and use of personal automobiles, diluted interest. The railroad went out of business in 1923.

Page 22 Index

A R Aaron Burr 6 Reuben Kemper 7 Alabama Building Commission 17 Alabama Constitution 13 S Alabama Historical Commission 17 Alabama Statehood 13 single-tax theory 18 B T Battle of Burnt Corn 10 Tecumseh 9 Bibliography 15 Tombigbee 6 blockhouse 17 Transylvania College 4 C W Chickasaw 6 War of 1812 8 Children of Judge Harry Toulmin 16 West Florida 6 Choctaw 6 Constitutional Convention 13 Creek 6 F Fairhope 20–23 Museum of History 20–23 People’s Railroad 20–23 Fort Mims 17 Fort Mims Massacre 9 Fort Stoddert 11 Ft. McCreary 17 H Henry Clay 5 J James Madison 5–16 Joshua Toulmin 3 Judge Harry Toulman 3 L Louisiana Purchase 6 M Marietta Johnson 18 Mississippi Constitution 13 Mississippi statehood 13 Mississippi Territory 6 Mobile Society 7 O Organic School of Education 18

Page 23 Slate of Current Officers: President/Secretary – Joseph Baroco Treasurer – Al Guarisco Archives Committee – Helen Baroco Cemetery Committee – Doris Allegri, Al Guarisco Program Committee – Central/Southern Section – Al Guarisco Mickey Boykin Program Committee – North Section – vacant at this time Publication/Editor – Kennard Balme Website Committee – Maria Baroco

Submission Information We invite all who read this publication to submit articles of historic interest pertaining to Baldwin County for publication in future issues. Our definition of history has no set age. Although we prefer articles dealing primarily with people, con- ditions and events of the past we recognize that today’s stories will become part of tomorrow’s history. Don’t hesitate to bring your stories, especially family stories, up to date.

We have no set limits on lengths of articles to be submitted. We prefer electronic transmission of articles and photographs, but hard copies of text and photographs may be submitted. Digital texts should be submitted as .rtf files and photographs as .jpg files of at least 240 dpi. Digital texts should be formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 pages.

We welcome excerpts from nonfiction publications. The source of all excerpts must be clearly identified with the- cor rect title of the publication, name of the author(s), publisher, dates of copyright and publication and the page numbers which included the excerpts. Materials for publication should be sent to our Editor, Ken Balme as follows. Email address: [email protected] Mailing address: Mr. Kennard Balme, 28880 Canterbury Rd., Daphne, AL 36526. Questions concerning articles to be published may be directed to the Editor at 251-644-7816. This work (The Quarterly Vol. 10, Number 3 by Various), identified by Kennard Balme, is free of known copyright restrictions. Neither The Baldwin County Historical Society nor the Editor assumes responsibility for errors of fact or opinion expressed by contributors.

Membership in the Baldwin County Historical Society is currently $10.00 per person per year. Anyone wishing to join the society may do so at any of our scheduled programs. Anyone desiring to receive program notices may request this by submitting their name and address (email address if avilable) to Joe Baroco at PO Box 485, Daphne, AL 36526 or to [email protected].