Old letter from State Historian reveals much about early Wilcox County, Alabama history

Marie Bankhead Owen

One of my favorite things to do is to look through old editions of The Wilcox Progressive Era. I never fail to run across something interesting, especially where local history is concerned. Last week, I was looking through some old 1923 newspapers and found an item that I know many local history buffs will find interesting.

In the Dec. 20, 1923 edition of The Progressive Era, editor S.C. Godbold reprinted a letter that had been sent to Camden resident J. Clark Jones by Alabama State Historian Marie Bankhead Owen. That letter read as follows:

“Replying to that section of your letter with reference to the Indian towns in Wilcox County, there is much aboriginal history connected with the locality.

“It is indicated by the Padilla narrative that the town of Nanipacna, a Choctaw word meaning ‘hilltop,’ was situated on the east side of the Alabama River in the upper part of the county. It has been suggested that it was on Boykin’s Bridge and on the south side of Pine Barren Creek. Tristan de Luna visited this town in 1560. A town of the Mobilians is located on the DeCrenay map of 1733 at or near to this place.

“In addition to that are two other place names shown on this map, one of which signifies ‘white bluff’ on the river a few miles south of Pine Barren Creek. This was Sakihata. Another, Talle Guile, more correctly spelled ‘Talihiel,’ meaning ‘standing rocks,’ was a short distance above Bridgeport. The present Gullette’s or Black’s Bluff was Bach’illi, signifying ‘dead bluff.’ These places were apparently of early historic times.

“During the French Indian occupation, we have no settlers in the county. During American times, there were two Creek Indian towns. Your Upper and Lower Peach Tree got their names from the fact that the early settlers found in these abandoned Indian villages peach trees growing. Upper Peach Tree, now called Clifton, retained this name until 1835.

“Burial mounds are to be found at Webb’s Landing, Burford’s Landing and near Mathew’s Landing.

“The county was in the Creek Indian domain and became an American possession by the Treaty of Fort Jackson, Aug. 10, 1814. Artificial head flattening, strictly a Choctaw custom, was practiced. Dr. Clarence B. Moore, working for the Philadelphia Academy of Science, noted urn burials on the Alabama River.

“Your county during early settlement and during the War of 1812, was connected with the war of that time in several ways. The county was infested with roving bands of Indians who were much given to violence. Precautions were taken by the citizens even as late as 1817. Fort Claiborne, the present Claiborne, was the rendezvous for that locality at that time.”

In the end, I thought it worthwhile to reprint this letter again. Owen, the letter’s author, served as the director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History for 35 years, so the letter above comes from an expert in the state’s early history. No doubt readers today will find the information above as interesting as newspaper readers did nearly 100 years ago.