Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

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sources were consulted to identify location of forts, inns, stands, stores, churches and cemeteries thatdeveloped along the historic road. These sources included Fletcher Hale’s maps, Rumbley and Straughn’s1891 survey notes of the Monroe-Conecuh county line, travelers’ accounts, oral histories, local histories,and other books relevant to the historic road.Fletcher Hale served as County Engineer for Monroe County in the 1930s and 1940s. Using aerialphotographs from the 1920s through 1940s, Hale created plat maps depicting his estimate of the OldFederal Road route based on old roads visible on the photographs. Hale’s maps were scanned, uploaded,and georeferenced in the same manner as the GLO land survey plats. Many of the roads visible on theearly aerial photographs were not paved, and therefore were likely situated much as they were duringprevious decades. While the route segments identified by Hale are certainly old roads, we disagree innumerous instances with his assessment that they comprised the Old Federal Road route. In particular,Hale did not have access to Lt. Luckett’s survey, and, consequently, most of our route for the Old FederalRoad in northern Baldwin County differs dramatically from Hale’s route. Elsewhere, however, Hale’sassessment of the Old Federal Road seems both precise in detail and accurate in overall route. In MobileCounty, in particular, Hale provides our most reliable route reconstruction. In a surprising number oflocations, sections of entrenched roadbed are still visible today in the right-of-ways where slightrealignments of the road have occurred during paving, hill removal, and other modern modifications.Comparing Hale’s maps and the other historic sources with modern road maps allowed us to identifysome of these entrenched roadbeds with considerable confidence as remnants of the Old Federal Road.The survey notes of T. A. Rumbley and J. Straughn, Monroe and Conecuh county surveyors in1891, were useful for identifying structures possibly standing during the road’s active years for thesegment of the Old Federal Road that coincides with the Monroe-Conecuh county line. Fletcher Haleincorporated information from Rumbley and Straughn’s notes in his sectional survey maps, whichallowed us to estimate fairly accurately the locations of those structures in Monroe and Conecuh counties.Thomas D. Clark’s Travels in the Old South: A Bibliography and Jeffrey C. Benton’s The VeryWorst Road contain a wealth of travelers’ accounts relating to the Old Federal Road. Travels in the OldSouth is an extended bibliography that highlights the contents of a large selection of published traveleraccounts. The Very Worst Road is a compilation of excerpts from 1820 to 1847 accounts by travelerscrossing the portion of east-central Alabama that once comprised the Creek Nation. Full texts of indexedand excerpted historical sources are available online at http://www.archive.org/.The U.S. National Archives houses the returns of military posts from the early nineteenth centurythrough the early twentieth century. Army regulations required commanding officers of military posts,9
and other troop units to submit reports at specified intervals (most often monthly) to their commandingofficers or to the War Department. These reports generally described the units stationed at a post and theirstrength, the number of officers present or absent, the names and duties of the officers, a listing of officialcommunications received, and a list of notable events occurring since the last report. Relevant reports arepreserved on microfilm in Record Group 94 (Records of the Adjutant General’s Office) and RecordGroup 393 (Records of the United States Army, Continental Commands, 1821-1930). The NationalArchives website provides a PDF listing of all returns by location with the microfilm roll number(http://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m617.pdf). For this project, microfilm reels for all fortsalong the Old Federal Road were reviewed.Public OutreachPerhaps the single greatest source of knowledge on the Old Federal Road is the people who grewup and live along its historic path. These men and women are not only well-informed, but remarkablyenthusiastic about sharing their information and eager to preserve and promote the historic sites in theirregions. We found that an effective approach to meet the locals was to organize county-wide meetings.These meetings served three primary objectives: (1) to gather additional historical resources regarding theOld Federal Road; (2) to meet knowledgeable locals who were interested in the Old Federal Road andcould potentially preserve sections of road or sites along the route; and (3) to tour the Old Federal Roadwith people familiar with the history of the county and surviving portions of the old road bed that deviatefrom modern roads. Without the assistance of the many people who attended these meetings and guidedus through their county, the field survey could not have been successful.Prior to each meeting, we reviewed our historical research conducted to identify points of interestfor that county in advance. These sites, along with the Old Federal Road route transcribed from early landplats and Fletcher Hale’s maps, were placed on topographic maps and brought to the meeting for reviewand discussion by attendees. After an initial exchange of information, a tour of the road generallyfollowed. A Garmin GPSmap60 was used to track our route and record coordinates of sites along the way.These data points were later uploaded into the GIS mapping program ArcMap and compared to the routesand sites identified during earlier research.The Mobile County meeting took place on March 21, 2011, at the Train Depot Museum in MountVernon. Our goal for the meeting was to gather information on the two main sites associated with the OldFederal Road in Mobile County, Fort Stoddert and the Mount Vernon Cantonment and Arsenal (now10
Page 2 and 3: Table of ContentsList of Figures ..
Page 4 and 5: Chapter 8: Montgomery County ......
Page 6 and 7: 4-1. Alabama county map highlightin
Page 8 and 9: 6-7. Butler County detail of John L
Page 10 and 11: 10-7. Detail of John LaTourette’s
Page 12 and 13: Chapter 1Project Goals and MethodsI
Page 14 and 15: Brief Historical BackgroundThe Old
Page 16 and 17: the road, and surveyed the relevant
Page 19: shown on historic maps, while many
Page 23 and 24: Figure 1-2. Robert Leslie Smith at
Page 25 and 26: Figure 1-5. Jeff Ross, Paul Merritt
Page 27 and 28: Figure 1-7. Annie Crenshaw, Raven C
Page 29 and 30: newly appointed Commissioner of the
Page 31 and 32: various historical sources. Phyllis
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 2Early History of the Old F
Page 35: quality stones, copper and mica fro
Page 38 and 39: would become the southern portion o
Page 40 and 41: Meigs (U.S. agent to the Cherokees)
Page 42 and 43: same instant, and the chance of dis
Page 44 and 45: In his latitude calculations Briggs
Page 46 and 47: force rapid mail service through an
Page 48 and 49: Traveling the Federal Road, 1811-18
Page 50 and 51: According to Hawkins, “Thomas Mer
Page 52 and 53: Moniac’s “Statement of property
Page 54 and 55: Federal Road west of Line Creek are
Page 56 and 57: Figure 2-7. Detail from John Melish
Page 58 and 59: and 1811 have not been found. In 18
Page 60 and 61: 14 Walter Lowrie and Walter S. Fran
Page 62 and 63: 56 Walter Lowrie and Walter S. Fran
Page 64 and 65: Piatt at Fort Stoddert. Piatt was i
Page 66 and 67: Figure 3-4. Detail of Abraham Bradl
Page 68 and 69: Figure 3-7. Detail of William Darby
Page 70 and 71:
Figure 3-9. Detail of Fletcher Hale
Page 72 and 73:
He also complained Fort Stoddert di
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command of Capt Skyler. The discipl
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Brett McWilliams, a local artifact
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now in poor condition (Figures 3-14
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Historic Sites in Washington County
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19 Gregory A. Waselkov, A Conquerin
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The Old Federal Road traversed the
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Figure 4-4. Detail of James Weakley
Page 88 and 89:
The condition of the Old Federal Ro
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The Old Federal Road crosses the Ba
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Figure 4-12. A possible remnant of
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Historic Sites in Baldwin CountyFor
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Figure 4-16. View of the old Mims
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and were not accessible for revisit
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Figure 4-18. Military buttons from
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Figure 4-21. Military artifacts fro
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Figure 4-23. Tunstall house on High
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Figure 4-26. U.S. military buttons
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Historic Sites in Escambia CountyTh
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Archives, National Archives and Rec
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earlier survey. Segments of the roa
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Figure 5-5. Detail of John Melish
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Figure 5-8. Detail of John LaTouret
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Figure 5-10. Fletcher Hale’s copy
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Figure 5-13. The Old Federal Road i
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Figure 5-16. Dirt section of Conecu
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Figure 5-19. The Old Federal Road i
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The portion of the Old Federal Road
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McMillan Stage Stop. Scotsman Dunca
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Figure 5-26. Map showing McMillan
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Figure 5-27. Lowrey’s Store, Post
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Dr. Watkins’s House. Dr. John Wat
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Longmire’s Inn/Fort Warren. Sever
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not be investigated archaeologicall
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Figure 5-35. Anderson Stage Stop in
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provisions depot. However, when the
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When spring 1818 brought more murde
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Figure 5-41. William Weakley’s 18
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Figure 5-44. William Barrett Travis
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Henneberry, 1895), 241-242; Robert
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Figure 6-3. James Weakley’s 1847
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Henry Tanner’s 1823 map of Alabam
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The Old Federal Road spans the nort
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Figure 6-13. Entrenched section of
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Figure 6-14. The Palings stage stop
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the county. The landowners granted
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1 John Buckner Little, History of B
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Figure 7-2. Federal Road on Thomas
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John Melish’s 1818 map of Alabama
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Figure 7-8. Fletcher Hale’s map d
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Figure 7-11. Old Federal Road and G
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Figure 7-14. Entrenched section of
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morning salute, then turning our ca
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Chapter 8Montgomery CountyTracing t
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Figure 8-4. Old Federal Road (not l
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Figure 8-7. Detail of John Melish
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Fletcher Hale’s maps depict the o
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A short distance beyond where the G
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Where the Old Federal Road crosses
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modern Alabama place names, Opelika
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stopped “near Macnac’s” to co
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prairies which you have frequently
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Figure 8-21. Topographic map with a
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Figure 8-22. Unit 2 chronologically
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Pickett says she settled on the eas
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contained 84 gravesites dating from
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16 Clarence Edwin Carter, The Terri
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Figure 9-2. Old Federal Road on Jam
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Figure 9-5. Detail of an anonymous
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east onto County Road 2 (Figure 9-9
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Figure 9-12. The Old Federal Road t
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Figure 9-15. Dirt segment of Boromv
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of Little Prince and Opothle Yoholo
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Redsticks, marched from the Chattah
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Figure 9-19. Fletcher Hale’s map
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Warrior’s sons-in-law Captain Wal
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Chapter 10Russell CountyTracing the
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Figure 10-3. Detail of Abraham Brad
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Figure 10-7. Detail of John LaToure
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Figure 10-10. Old Federal Road on p
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Figure 10-13. Section of Old Federa
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Figure 10-16. The Old Federal Road
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Kendall Lewis, son-in-law of Big Wa
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Fort Mitchell, Creek Agency, and An
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A National Cemetery was created at
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6 Benton, The Very Worst Road, 65-6
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The Old Federal Road RouteOur archa
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We have devoted considerable effort
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Our 1723 Chickasaw map offers a gli
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of the old-growth forests and to pl
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Figure 11-6. Detail from David Tait
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As we have seen, most Americans saw
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towns and settled for a time at Pol
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home on the left, the 1902 Hinson h
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parks or educational centers. The m
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Appendix 1Extracts from Benjamin Ha
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E. Bearing east.32 + c. r. 15/ oak
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N.EBearing northeast.36. path to th
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Course and Admeasurement2 pole Chai
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S. 61 E. 17 “N. 83 E. 7 “N. 82
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E. 16 “S. 83 E. 9 “S. 87 E. 8
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N. 34 E. 14 “N. 30 E. 16 “N. 24
Page 276 and 277:
N. 64 E. 9 “N. 40 E. 9 “N. 25 E
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N. 19 E. 5 “N. 44 E. 7 “[page 5
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N. 72 E. 16 “N. 71 E. 10 “N. 79
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N. 77 E. 5 “N. 69 E. 4 “N. 64 E
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N. 36 E. 7 “N. 54 E. 9 “N. 52 E
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[page 97]N. 61˚ E. 7 Chains. The S
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N. 12 E. 7 “N. 32 E. 10 “N. 36
Page 290 and 291:
N. 66˚ E. 4 ChainsN. 28 E. 7 “N.
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XIIIIIII. Prairies or Glades the qu
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N. 27 E. 1 “N. 1 W. 2 “[page 14
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No 9: Joseph Wheaton to Gideon Gran
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Blue Spruce, Duane, and Tanya Thras
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Ethridge, Robbie, Creek Country: Th
Page 302 and 303:
Potter, Stephen R., and Gregory A.
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Archaeological Survey of the Old Federal Road in Alabama

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