Incorporated in 1841, Camden is the county seat of Wilcox County, Ala. It’s an old, Southern town of about 2,200 residents and is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of baseball legend Henry “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron. Wilcox County has the reputation for being a sportsman’s paradise and is notable for having more miles of river frontage than any other county in Alabama.
I first heard about the historic walking tour over a year ago when I read a story about it in Camden’s newspaper, The Wilcox Progressive-Era. I made a few enquiries and eventually my friend David Johnson, who lives and works in Camden, provided me with a copy of the tour brochure. If memory serves me correctly he either got it from the Wilcox County Library or the Wilcox County Chamber of Commerce. The tour was developed by Nick Baggett as part of his Eagle Scout service project.
I arrived in Camden early Saturday morning and parked on Fail Street beside the Camden Baptist Church, near the corner of Broad Street and across from the Camden Cemetery. The tour consists of mainly two parts, that is, it guides you by several historic buildings on Broad Street and takes you through the cemetery, highlighting the numerous important figures from Camden’s history that are buried there.
Planning to finish the tour in the cemetery, I took a look at the old buildings along Broad Street first. Across from the Camden Baptist Church sits the Wilcox Female Institute building. Incorporated in 1850 as a “boarding school for Southern young ladies,” the school closed in 1910. The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, now serves as the headquarters for the Wilcox Historical Society.
Just down the street from there sits the Camden Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church building. Built in 1849, it’s the only church in Camden that predates the Civil War. According to brochure, the building is now a private residence.
The next building down Broad Street is my personal favorite, the Dale Masonic Lodge building. Housing Dale Lodge No. 25, which was organized in 1825 at Dale Town, the cornerstone of this building was laid in November 1848. According to the brochure, Union troops camped at this site while passing through Camden in April 1865.
From there, I walked back up Broad Street to the Camden Cemetery, which dates way back to the early 1800s. Just inside the entrance sits the impressive Confederate Memorial Statue, which was erected in April 1880. Built to honor the Confederate dead from Wilcox County, the monument originally cost $1,064.39 and was erected by the Ladies’ Memorial and Wilcox Monument Association.
The rest of the tour takes you through the cemetery and past the graves of many notable Wilcox County residents, including:
· William R.K. and Franklin K. Beck, the nephews of U.S. vice president William Rufus King;
· Margaret Beck, sister of U.S. vice president William Rufus King;
· Dr. John Daniel Caldwell, Camden’s first mayor who named the town after Camden, S.C. He was a survivor of the famous Orline St. John riverboat fire.
· Delitha Cook, the wife of Zo Cook, the probate judge who saved county records during the Civil War and who was the son of Enoch Cook, who had more sons in the Confederacy than any other man, 10 sons and grandsons;
· Alexander Bragg, builder of the Wilcox County Courthouse and brother to General Braxton Bragg;
· Thomas Dunn, Camden pioneer and founder, who donated 12 acres of his land to Wilcox County in 1832;
· Joseph Gilmore, a four-year-old boy who, according to his tombstone, was “intentionally drowned by a family servant” in 1853;
· James Hawthorne, Civil War soldier who won the Southern Cross of Honor, fought at Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and Bentonville;
· Ebenezer Hearn, a Methodist preacher and veteran of the War of 1812, builder of the historic home, Gaines Ridge, which is now a famous restaurant;
· William Brutus Howard, a famous lawyer, political speaker and writer, who died in 1876;
· Richard Channing Jones, former University of Alabama Chancellor who died in 1903;
· Emmett Kilpatrick, a presidential interpreter and Red Cross official who was taken prisoner during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and held in a Russian prison camp;
· Benjamin Meek Miller, former governor of Alabama who died in 1944;
· Lt. Joseph M. Wilcox, who is actually buried at Claiborne, a native of Connecticut and War of 1812 veteran, tomahawked and scalped by a Creek war party in 1814, Wilcox County was named in his memory in 1819.
One of the more interesting graves in the cemetery is a pile of bricks near the entrance that marks what is believed to be a mass grave where the victims of the Orline St. John riverboat fire were laid to rest. About 120 people were onboard the riverboat on March 1, 1850 when sparks from a furnace ignited a fire that sank the Montgomery-bound riverboat. Forty people died in the accident, including all women and children on board. The incident was reported worldwide at the time.
After the cemetery portion of the tour, I hopped back in my truck and rode downtown. I parked just off the town square, across the street across from the Matthews Hardware Co. building, and got out to get a closer look at the Old Wilcox County Courthouse building. Built in 1857-58, this building now houses the Wilcox County Public Library, which is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
In the end, I enjoyed scratching another item off my bucket list. Special thanks to David Johnson for getting me a copy of the tour brochure.
How many of you have ever been to Camden, Ala.? How many of you have taken the Camden Walking Tour? What did you think about it? Have you taken any other historic walking tours that you would recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.
(For those of you interested in taking the Camden walking tour for yourself, you can download a copy of the tour brochure at http://www.wilcoxareachamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/walkingtourbrochure_camdenv1.pdf.)
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