Monroe County's Charles W. Locklin was well known early steamboat captain

Grave of Charles W. Locklin at Perdue Hill.

(The following article was originally published in the Aug. 20, 1964 edition of The Monroe Journal newspaper in Monroeville, under the headline “Aug. 19 Commemorates Anniversary Of Death Of Captain C.W. Locklin.”)

This week Aug. 19 commemorated the 59th anniversary of the death of a Monroe County man whose father is credited with manufacturing the first cotton gin in Alabama.

Bearing a prominent area name, Capt. C.W. Locklin died Aug. 19, 1905 at his residence at Perdue Hill. The influential roles he played in early development of Monroe County is graphically depicted in a March 1, 1906 edition of The Monroe Journal in an “In Memoriam” column.

Warehouse clerk, steamboat captain, prominent planter, trade company president… these occupations comprise the versatile career of this man who was described as being “of a social disposition, fond of company, with a cordial, friendly greeting for everyone, which drew to him many friends.”

Charles W. Locklin was born in the old town of Claiborne, Oct. 15, 1827, where he spent his boyhood days. His father was William Locklin and his mother, Amelia Wheeler. His father was born in Milledgeville, Ga. in 1774 of Scottish parents, where he learned to manufacture the Whitney cotton gin. Lawrence Locklin moved to Claiborne (then Fort Claiborne) in 1812 and in 1817 began the manufacture of gins. His factory is described as expanding to “quite extensive proportions.” His gins are declared to be the first made in the State of Alabama.

Captain C.W. Locklin was his parents only child. They were married in January 1827 and his father died in 1837, leaving Charles and his mother.

Young Charles was educated in Claiborne and later at the then noted Johnson Academy in Selma before the age of 15 years. His initial employment came in 1834 when he was engaged as clerk at the J.B. Walters warehouse in Claiborne, the first great warehouse erected on the bluff for the receipt and shipment of goods.

After two years in this job, he was hired as junior clerk on the steamer, Eureka, which plied the waters of the Alabama River. After one season’s work on this boat, owned by J.B. Walter, he was transferred to another and larger steamer. Promotions came rapidly and he was elevated from clerk to captain of a succession of palatial steamers navigating the river.

During the War Between the States, Captain Locklin’s line of steamers was chartered by the Confederate Government to transfer troops and munitions of war between Mobile and Montgomery.

At the close of the war, he retired to his plantation in Shelby County. Records show, however, that Captain Locklin sold his plantation in 1866 and moved to Mobile, where he again prospered in the steamboat business. In 1870, he was elected president of the Mobile Trade Company, which he successfully managed and retired from in 1872.

In the same year, Captain Locklin moved from Mobile to Perdue Hill and retirement of a quiet life amid old friends, near scenes of the days of his youth.

Captain Charley married Martha Barbara Moore in 1885. They had five children. His wife died in 1885. He married Mrs. Olivia L. Stabler, sister of his first wife, in 1886. She survived him by only a few weeks. Survivors at the time of his death included one son Lawrence L. Locklin of Perdue Hill and one daughter, Mrs. John A. Savage of Jackson, Ala., plus several grandchildren, descendants of whom today reside in Monroe County.

Insight into the character of this pioneer Monroe Countian may be found in the files of the old Camden newspaper, published in the early 1900s in a weekly column, “Ante-Bellum Floating Palaces on the Alabama River” and the “Good Old Times in Dixie,” written by Judge Fleetwood Foster, formerly of Mobile.

The section dealing with Captain Locklin states:

“Among the antebellum clerks, we know of only one who, like the great old captain mentioned, was born in that fine, old county of Monroe that has given so many noble sons to this important calling… Charles W. Locklin, now a resident of Perdue Hill, in his native county. Charley must be beyond the threescore and ten years allotted to man, yet with a disposition conducive to longevity, we trust, he may reach the fourscore mark.

“Captain Charley was ever temperate in all things, never seemed to love work, yet as a clerk was one of the hardest workers on the great packets of his day. His was a social nature. None enjoyed more than he a hearty laugh or a good joke on himself or one of his fellows.

“He lived in Mobile several years after the war, going back to Monroe in 1872, assigning as a reason, ‘won’t live in any county where I am obliged to buy wood and water.’”

Judge Foster’s column continues to relate how Captain Charley returned to his former bailiwick, Mobile, to cast a vote for his favorite candidate for Sheriff, a Monroe County native. Hoodwinked by ward politicians into voting the wrong ballot, he said: “Well, I have come 150 miles to vote for Graham Stone, and have already voted five times against him already. I am going back home and live among decent people and honorable men who are not given to such rascality in politics.”

Another man with a well known Monroe County name, N.A. Agee, wrote the “In Memoriam” to Captain Charley in the 1905 Monroe Journal, included in the tribute were verses from a manuscript yellow with age, found among Captain Locklin’s private papers, entitled “His Last Trip”:

“Mate, get ready down on deck,

I’m heading for the shore.

I’ll ring the bell, for I must land,

This boat; forever more.

Say, Pilot, can you see that light?

I do – where angels stand;

We’ll hold her jackstaff hard on that

For there I’m going to land.

That looks like death a-hailing me;

So ghastly, grim and pale;

I’ll toll the bell – must go in

I never passed a hail.

Stop her! Let her come in slow;

There, that will do no more;

The lines are fast and angels wait

To welcome me ashore.

Say, Pilot, I am going with them

Up yonder through the gate.

I’ll not come back - you ring the bell

And back her out – don’t wait!

For I have made the trip of life!

And found my landing place,

I’ll take my soul and anchor that

Fast to the Throne of Grace!