Historian says yellow fever was not real reason for decline of Claiborne

From “Featuring Folks” by Riley N. Kelly in the July 10, 1958 edition of The Monroe Journal newspaper:

“Claiborne Historian Compiling Colorful Record Of Old Town”

History of Claiborne, Monroe County’s chief claim to Alabama historical fame, is being accurately and colorfully compiled and documented by a longtime resident, who lives in the only well-preserved home of the old town.

Mrs. William E. Deer, well-known throughout Alabama as historian, lecturer and writer, has for over 30 years amassed one of the largest collections of material owned by a single person. She plans to author a history of the town when her research is complete.

A native of the Midwest, Mrs. Deer came to make her home in Claiborne in 1919. Some of the most interesting contents of her large assortment on the historically rich section of the state include the Dellet manuscripts, a foundation for the items now in her hands.

The manuscripts were discovered in the attic of the old Dellet antebellum residence when the Deers moved there in 1926. The home, later named for a descendant, is also referred to be the name Torrey. It was built in 1835-38 for James Dellet, Claiborne lawyer and statesman.

Now in the process of accumulating and sorting Dellet’s political letters, Mrs. Deer has spent years compiling her information into categories that will help in the history of Claiborne she is planning to write.

She was chief contributor to the Summer 1957 edition of the Alabama Historical Quarterly, an issue devoted entirely to Claiborne.

Adhering strongly to the precept of all historians, Mrs. Deer states she sincerely regrets any information published about Claiborne which has not been checked for accuracy and documented as carefully as possible.

For instance, she states Alabama daily papers have from time to time published Sunday features devoted to the once flourishing town, with information that might be called misleading.

One of the fallacies held by many people is that a siege of yellow fever “wiped out the population.” True, she states, there was a prevalence of the disease, perhaps with malaria, in 1818 and 1819 which caused a number of deaths. After that there were only isolated cases.

The real reason for the decline of Claiborne was the advent of the railroad, first built from Montgomery to Mobile in the late 1840s, Mrs. Deer points out. Prior to that time, a large portion of south Alabama depended on Claiborne as the major shipping point for river freight.

Claiborne as a town grew from the former settlement which followed the evacuation of Fort Claiborne, at Alabama Heights, on the Alabama River. De Soto and his Spaniards crossed the river there in 1540, and the chronicler of that expedition says they crossed at an Indian village high above the gorge of a stream.

Mrs. Deer’s documents contain a cross mark signature of John Weatherford, ferry operator and brother of the famed Creek Indian Chief, William Weatherford. Major Howell Tatum, topographical engineer with Andrew Jackson’s troops, who left Fort Jackson August 1814, reports while making a survey of the river that he “landed on the left at John Weatherford’s ferry at the end of the bluff.”

Mrs. Deer has a complete volume of early bills of ladings for both steamboats and sailing ships which docked at Claiborne, some of them dating back as far as the early 1820s.

In another large notebook of correspondence, she has letters and signatures of historically prominent men who played a large part in the development of Alabama and the nation. They include those of Arthur Pendleton Bagby, a resident of Claiborne, who was elected Governor in 1837 and later became an envoy to Russia. Another is that of William B. Travis, hero of fighting at the Alamo, who rather hurriedly left Claiborne for Texas after a fracas with the law about a killing. He read law in the office of Mr. Dellet while in Claiborne.

Another letter bears the signature of Francis Scott Key, “Star Spangled Banner” composer, who answered an inquiry made by Mr. Dellet in regard to a position open for negotiating treaties with the Indians.

Other illustrious signatures in the Deer collection are those of William Wyatt Bibb, who was Alabama first governor, when the State was a territory; Sam Dale, famous statesman; and Charles Tait, first federal judge in Alabama, who first publicized the ancient fossil beds lining the banks of the river near the town.

Claiborne’s history dates back to 1819 when the town was platted, and all lots were numbered and the Legislature by an act on Dec. 20, 1820 incorporated it. An early map copied by Mrs. Deer includes names of dozens of streets, bearing names of dozens of prominent residents. Also listed are a court house, Masonic Hall, park, machine factory, county clerk’s office, public square, new brick jail, new academy, new market, large spring, old market and academy, leather factory, Methodist Church and Fort Claiborne.

Other memorabilia in her collection include a registry of a hotel in 1855; an agreement for employment of a resident for $2 a month; a document whereby Mr. Dellet and other citizens obtained money to build the Masonic Hall (still standing) in 1823 – the same location where French General Lafayette reportedly came in his visit in 1825; original by-laws of the Claiborne Military Aid Society, organized primarily to make clothing for Confederate soldiers; copies of some of the number of newspapers published throughout the years including the first one, the Alabama Courier, first published March 19, 1819, and others including the Alabama Whig, Gazette, Chronicle and finally the Eagle, the publication which was supposedly moved to Monroeville.

The county courthouse was later on moved to Monroeville. And, as other forms of transportation grew, the old town, which could boast of 2,500 residents when incorporated, virtually vanished into a small settlement.

Until several years ago, the only cotton chute and stairway down the river bank where bales where loaded on boats still stood. In addition to the Dellet or Torrey home, about the only lasting remains of the town is the old cemetery up the hill from the Claiborne-Murphy bridge (dedicated Sept. 9, 1932, when Mrs. Deer was president of the Claiborne Historical Society), a Jewish cemetery and a historical marker.

Enthusiastic all the way about her work, Mrs. Deer says: “I copy everything of historical significance, save all clippings; and the further I go with my work, the more engrossing it becomes.”

She has received letters of inquiry from all sections of the nation and welcomes all correspondence about the historic old town.

[The story also featured a photo of Deer taken by Max McAliley that carried the following caption: Mrs. W.E. Deer is now in final stages of compiling colorful data for writing a history of Claiborne, historic Monroe town.]