Two early Alabama postal routes intersected in Wilcox County

'Postal Routes of 1820' historical marker near Catherine.

I read with great interest in last week’s Progressive Era that the Wilcox Historical Society will hold its first meeting of the new year on Jan. 18 in Oak Hill. The speaker for that day will be Dr. Gary Burton, a past president of the Alabama Historical Association. Burton’s presentation will focus on the Old Federal Road and the early settlers who came to our part of Alabama along this pioneer roadway.

As many history buffs in the reading audience will know, the Old Federal Road was the major roadway that connected Washington, D.C. to New Orleans from 1806 through the late 1830s. Originally built by the federal government as a postal and military road, thousands of settlers and pioneers came to Alabama along this road in the early 1800s. Famous historic figures known to have traveled along this road include former vice president Aaron Burr, “Star Spangled Banner” author Francis Scott Key, the Marquis de Lafayette and naturalist William Bartram.

There is little doubt that the Old Federal Road is the most historic roadway in all of Alabama, but it wasn’t the only government road during this time period. As early as the 1820s, government postal routes existed between St. Stephens, Cahaba, Tuscaloosa and Prairie Bluff. In fact, these early postal routes actually intersected within the confines of present-day Wilcox County.

Today, if you drive north on State Route 28 from Camden toward Catherine, you’ll encounter an historical marker about these old postal routes near the intersection with State Highway 162. This marker, which was erected on March 4, 1961 by Edward Waters and the Selma Chapter of the Daughters of American Colonists, reads as follows: POSTAL ROUTES OF 1820 – Two miles north of this point was the intersection of two important postal routes of early Alabama, the Saint Stephens-Cahawba Road and the Tuskaloosa-Prairie Bluff Road.

The cities and towns listed on this historical marker were important settlements during Alabama’s early history, which is why they were linked by postal roads. St. Stephens, which is located on the Tombigbee River in present-day Washington County, served as Alabama’s territorial capital from 1817 to 1819. In 1819, the year that Alabama became a state, the capital was moved to Cahaba.

Cahaba was Alabama’s first real capital, that is, the first capital after Alabama officially became a state. Located near where the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers run together in present-day Dallas County, Cahaba served as Alabama’s capital until January 1826. Today it’s a state historic site, and if you ever get the chance to visit Cahaba, I encourage you to do so.

In 1826, due to flooding at Cahaba, Alabama officials moved the state capital to Tuscaloosa, another city that’s mentioned on the historical marker between Millers Ferry and Catherine. Tuscaloosa, which sits on the banks of the Black Warrior River in present-day Tuscaloosa County, is a thriving city of nearly 100,000 residents today. It served as the state capital from 1826 to 1846, when the capital was moved to its present site in Montgomery.

The other early settlement mentioned on the historical marker described above is Prairie Bluff, which is now a ghost town compared to what it was in its heyday. Located on the Alabama River, roughly halfway between St. Stephens and Cahaba, Prairie Bluff thrived as an early river town between 1819 and the start of the Civil War. However, with the rise of the railroads and the decline of commercial river traffic, Prairie Bluff slowly faded into history.

In the end, if you’re interested in learning more about historic roads of this type, especially the Old Federal Road, you’ll be well served to attend the upcoming Wilcox Historical Society meeting on Jan. 18. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the McWilliams residence on the southwest corner of State Highway 21 and State Highway 10 in Oak Hill.