Peter A. Brannon: Old Claiborne is Monroe County's 'chief claim to historical fame'

Pete A. Brannon

The Perdue Hill-Claiborne Foundation will host its 2024 Spring Hall Party this coming Saturday to raise funds for next year’s bicentennial celebration of Lafayette’s visit to Claiborne. Saturday’s event will be held at the Masonic Hall at Perdue Hill and will include live music, food and fun. Adult tickets to the event, which will begin at 2 p.m., can be purchased at the door on Saturday for $75 each.

Many in the reading audience will remember from Alabama History class that the famous French general, the Marquis de Lafayette, visited Claiborne in April 1825. The Masonic Hall that is now at Perdue Hill was built at Claiborne in 1824, and it hasn’t changed much since Lafayette stepped through its doors nearly two centuries ago. The lodge was moved to Perdue Hill in the late 1800s and is now the oldest building in Monroe County.

With all of this in mind, I was reminded of a Riley Kelly column that I read in an old 1954 edition of The Journal. In early October of that year, noted historian Peter A. Brannon, who was than an archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, spoke to the Monroeville Kiwanis Club. He told club members that the local Chamber of Commerce and other civic and social groups had an “ideal opportunity” when it comes to promoting “Monroe’s chief claim to historical fame – old Claiborne.”

Brannon noted that historical references to the Claiborne area go back as far as 1540, which was 80 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and 60 years before the first colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Brannon, who would go on to serve as the director of the Department of Archives and History from 1955 to 1967, went on to list several “historic milestones” associated with the Claiborne area.

According to Brannon, Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto first met Indian chief Tuscaloosa at a point somewhere above Claiborne. Twenty years later, when Spanish explorer Tristan DeLuna came to what is now Alabama, his expedition passed through the same site. When these Spanish explorers and soldiers returned to Spain, they took some of their “Indian wives” with them, and when these women returned to the Americas, they returned to a location near Claiborne, Brannon said.

Brannon noted that a youngster named Justis Wyman once lived at Claiborne and worked as a clerk in one of Claiborne’s early stores. Wyman grew up to become the mayor of the City of Montgomery. Brannon added that he’d been unsuccessful in his attempts to get a street in Montgomery named after Wyman.

At the time of Brannon’s visit to Monroeville in 1954, the Claiborne post office was located in the old W.E. Deere store. At this time, Claiborne’s post office was one of the oldest continuously used post offices in the South. The post office eventually closed in 1963.

Another unusual bit of trivia that Brannon shared concerned the first black man to have died in what is now Alabama. This man, who died at Claiborne, was not a slave. Instead, he was a Moorish man from northern Africa who was part of the DeLuna expedition in the 1500s.

In the end, the history of Claiborne is a fascinating subject. For individuals interested in learning more about Claiborne, I highly recommend Steve Stacey’s 2018 book, “Claiborne: A River Town.” It’s the best single-volume book on Claiborne that I’ve ever read.