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| Dean Masonic Lodge at Brooklyn, Alabama |
(In 1982, The Evergreen Courant newspaper published a
six-part series called "A History of Brooklyn," which was originally
written by the late R.G. (Bob) Kendall Jr. The third installment in the series,
which you'll find reprinted below, was originally published in the April 15,
1982 edition of The Courant. Other installments of the article can be found in
the April 1, April 8, April 22, April 29 and May 6 editions of The Courant from
1982. I plan to post those installments on this blog in the coming weeks, so if
you enjoy reading Part III, keep you eyes open for the other installments in
the near future. Without further ado, here's Part III.)
“A History of Brooklyn: Part III” by the late R.G. (Bob)
Kendall Jr.
Except for the river transportation, the only transportation
was by ox cart or by horse or mule-drawn wagons over the roads of the area. The
principal roads from Brooklyn extended to the north and northeast across the
Sepulga to Montezuma, to the northwest to Evergreen, to the southwest to Fort
Crawford and due west through Sparta and Belleville to Claiborne.
There were a number of fairly large plantations in this area
with slaves in numbers of perhaps 50 to 75 and ranging down to families which
owned only two or three slaves, but most of the white settlers were small
farmers who were not slaveholders on account of the lack of capital and because
much of the area did not lend itself to slave type agriculture. The larger
plantations mainly grew cotton and the smaller, grain for food and feed for their
livestock and work stock and vegetables for their own consumption.
The navigation of the river route from Brooklyn to
Pensacola, that is on the Sepulga to the point where it entered the Conecuh
River at McGowin’s Bridge thence southwest on the Conecuh to the Florida line,
where the same stream became the Escambia and into Pensacola, was begun in
1821. Mr. George Stoner inaugurated this movement and he was speedily followed
by a number of other prominent boatmen, among them Edwin Robinson, James and
John Jones, Stark and Harry Hunter and Frank Boykin. The early craft were
called keel boats and would carry a cargo of 50 to 60 bales of cotton. In
length, they were from 60 to 70 feet and eight to 10 feet wide. It was said at
this time that the following scale or prices was used for the transportation of
freight:
300 lb. bale of cotton - $1.25
450 to 500 lb. bale of cotton $1.50
Corn in the shuck per bushel $.18 – 3/4
Flour per barrel - $1.25
Sugar per barrel - $1.25
Salt and coffee per sack - $1.25
Molasses and whiskey per barrel - $1.50
Iron per cwt. - $.50
Freight generally averaged about 37-1/2 cent per cwt.
Farmers furnishing their own blankets and provisions were permitted to
accompany these freight boats down the river so long as they capacity would
warrant. No charge was made for the transportation of the passengers, although
they did lend a hand with boat when necessary during the passage.
These primitive keel boats were steered by means of a beam
being fixed at both the bow and stern and two on either side. Coming up stream,
a different method had to be used. An instrument familiarly known among the
early boatmen as the “hook and jam” was indispensable to moving these clumsy
barges upstream. This instrument was a long smooth pole of considerable strength,
pointed with an iron spike and with a hook curving its beak a few inches from
the point. This was used for giving propulsion to the boat by being pressed
against the nearest trees or the banks of the streams. The hook was serviceable
by being hitched to the overhanging boughs, which also aided in moving the
craft up stream.
The population increased so rapidly and the demand for
transportation became so great that one time it was said that there were 17
boats working the Sepulga-Conecuh River route. These varied in capacity from
five to 200 bales of cotton. Competition has always been said to be the life of
trade, but in some cases this rule works the other way. Such was the ambition
among these early river men to control the transportation that freight was
reduced to the minimum price of 50 cent per bale of cotton from Brooklyn to
Pensacola, and other freight correspondingly low. The importance of the Conecuh
River as a commercial outlet may be estimated when the leader learns that as
early as 1823 there were 3,000 to 10,000 bales of cotton per year shipped from
Brooklyn.
The passage downstream to the Pensacola area was usually
made with comparative ease; yet after Pensacola Bay was reached, there were
some problems when barges were floated out into the open waters. Gulls Point,
or Ferry Pass, at the entrance to Pensacola Bay was an object of considerable
caution to these early boatmen. If this point could be passed without
encountering adverse winds, it was felt that the voyage had been successful.
Encouraged by the success of the keel boats and by the
widespread use of steamboats on the rivers in the South and in the country as a
whole, a meeting was held in Brooklyn in August 1845 to consider the
feasibility of undertaking the navigation of the Sepulga River by steam. It was
called the steam navigation meeting. Many of the wealthiest and most
influential men in the county attended this meeting, and after due
consideration a stock company was formed and the money paid in. Subsequently, a
steamer known as the “Shaw” was purchased, a crew obtained and a trip started
up the river from Pensacola. After the steamer had come up the Escambia to the
Conecuh and up the Sepulga to Brooklyn without trouble, the backers were
greatly encouraged. The boat was unloaded at Brooklyn of its cargo of supplies,
which had been brought up stream from Pensacola and reloaded with cotton.
However, its supporters were disheartened because before it had gone very far
downstream, the vessel struck a snag and was sunk in the river. The whole cargo
was lost. The principal shipper, George Turk, had on boat most of the cotton in
the cargo. The result of this sinking was a protracted lawsuit between Mr. Turk
and the stock company which was finally resolved in favor of the plaintiff. This
suspended efforts to have steam navigation of the Sepulga River for the moment.
A final effort to secure steam navigation between Brooklyn
and Pensacola came in 1850. On Feb. 12 of this year a bill passed the Alabama
legislature incorporating the Conecuh Navigation Co. It was headed by J.W.
Etheridge, H.L. Stearns, J.H. McCreary, C. Johns, Benjamin Hart, A. Perryman
“and their associates,” who constituted the body corporate with a capital stock
of $25,000. The company was charged with the responsibility of providing the
operation of steamboats between Montezuma on the Conecuh River and Brooklyn on
the Sepulga. Little is known of the success of this endeavor.
Upon the completion of the Montgomery and Pensacola Railroad
in 1861, Brooklyn’s importance as a trading center waned.
(To be continued)
(If you’d like to
go back and read Part I and Part II of Kendall’s “History of Brooklyn,” visit http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/part-i-of-rg-bob-kendall-jrs-history-of.html
and http://leepeacock2010.blogspot.com/2014/04/part-ii-of-kendalls-history-of-brooklyn.html.)
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