More details come to light about historic Rose’s Trail between Old Cahaba and Fort Claiborne

Last week in this space I shared some historical information that I ran across about an old road between Cahaba and Claiborne known as Rose’s Trail. This information was originally published in the Feb. 26, 1953 edition of The Monroe Journal and was originally written by amateur historian Samuel Pressly Dale of Oak Hill.

Dale had apparently already discovered a great deal of information about this old trail, but he was wanting to learn more and was asking for “anyone who has any scrap of information regarding this trail to write him.” Dale was compiling information on the trail because he planned to erect a historical marker about the trail on State Highway 10 near Oak Hill.

“While he has assembled considerable information about Rose’s Trail, Dale says that he wants to find out more about it, particularly as to its exact location all the way from Cahaba to Claiborne, who lived on the trail, who ‘Rose’ was and the like,” the article said. “The trail is reported to have run from Cahaba to or near Pleasant Hill, possibly crossing the Alabama River at ‘Rose’s Ford’ near Sardis, thence to Swinks’, Carlowville, Ackerville, Oak Hill, Neenah, Chestnut Corner, Buena Vista, River Ridge and on to Claiborne.”

The trail was said to have been in use in the days before steamboats appeared on the Alabama River, but Dale didn’t know when it originated or when the trail fell out of use. Dale did uncover that a Judge Thomas of Georgia had made a trip through Alabama and traveled along Rose’s Trail from Claiborne to Cahaba and kept a journal of his trip.

Not long after last week’s paper hit the streets, I received a nice e-mail from local history buff, Hub Broughton, who had some information to share about Rose’s Trail. As it turns out, Broughton has been trying to learn more about Rose’s Trail for years, especially its exact route through our part of the world.

Broughton found in the August 1844 minutes of Bethel Baptist Church that the church members had agreed to move its building. Brethren Bayles, Pollard, Massey, John Reaves, R. Reaves, Thompson and Levi Davison were appointed “to select a suitable piece of ground to build our church.”

One month later, in September 1844, the church minutes said that this committee met on Aug. 24 and selected a place to build the church. This location was “one-quarter mile east of John Thompson on the Roses Trail Road.” In the church’s February 1845 minutes, it was reported that the church “met in conference in the new church house on Saturday before the third Lord's Day in February 1845.”

Broughton noted that an article published by Dale in The Selma Times indicated that Rose’s Trail was named after a person, presumably a man, named Rose, who “lived in the vicinity of Pleasant Hill, Alabama.” This Pleasant Hill is a community located in Dallas County and is not the Pleasant Hill community located southwest of Frisco City near Manistee.

In the end, I know that I’m not alone in wanting to hear from anyone else in the audience with any additional information about Rose’s Trail. Perhaps someone has done more research on the subject and can enlighten us on exactly where it passed through Monroe County. Some readers might be surprised to learn that they live along one of the earliest paths between two of the state’s early prominent cities.