Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

the town. “Fort Claybourn is situated on the east bank of the Alabama, on a most beautiful Bluff. In theTown there is several Bluffs Springs of pleasant water and it’s probable the Inhabitants may enjoy goodhealth, but in the adjacent Country It Cannot be as healthy.” 40The preeminence of cotton in the economy of this part of south Alabama during the ante-bellumperiod was responsible for Claiborne’s continuing prosperity. The famously long cotton chute atClaiborne efficiently conveyed 500-pound bales of raw cotton rapidly to boats – flatboats at first, thensteamboats – for transfer to the international port of Mobile (Figure 5-43). Claiborne today is truly a ghosttown, with no standing structures in place. But several important Claiborne buildings were moved to otherlocations and some can be seen today in nearby Perdue Hill, east of Claiborne on the Old Federal Roadbranch. Among these is an 1820s cottage occupied briefly in 1831 by William Barrett Travis, later cocommanderof the Alamo during the 11-day siege of San Antonio de Bexar in the 1836 War of TexasIndependence (Figure 5-44). Also in Perdue Hill is Masonic Lodge #3, originally built in Claiborne in1824 and moved to its present location in 1884. General Lafayette addressed the citizens of Claibornefrom this lodge (Figure 5-45).Figure 5-43. “Loading cotton onto the steamboat ‘Magnolia’ on the Alabama River,” from Ballou’sPictorial Drawing-Room Companion May 4, 1861 (courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives andHistory, file name Q4654).136