Tales of Dadeville

STORY BY BETSY ILER & PHOTOS BY BETSY, KENNETH BOONE & CLIFF WILLIAMS

The Tallapoosa County courthouse went through a series of renovations and still serves as the seat of government today

When the Spanish came to this area up through Florida in the 1540s, they found a rich country where history had been in the making for centuries. Established towns in the area were home to hundreds and sometimes thousands of people, mostly Creek clans, said Ralph Banks, a Dadeville native whose family in the area dates back to 1852.

“The Spanish came looking for gold, and early traders wanted furs and hickory nut oil. By the time of the Revolutionary War, every major chief among the Creeks was at least one-quarter European, but they were very good at playing the European powers off each other. Of course, they ran into a problem when they started dealing with the American settlers because they wanted the land,” Banks explained.

Following the Revolutionary War, the Upper Creeks and Lowers Creeks, which included the Poarch Creeks, engaged in a civil war over the influx of European settlers. The Lower Creeks were complacent with the newcomers.

“They figured there wasn’t much they could do to stop it, but the Upper Creeks wanted to fight it,” Banks said.

During the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Great Britain, four armies converged on what is now Alabama, as the U.S. troops and Federal Creeks came against the Red Stick Upper Creeks at what is now Horseshoe Bend National Military Park in Daviston.

“Horseshoe Bend was basically a fortified refugee camp, and the people there thought it was more defensible. They thought they could hold off long enough to escape by the river. That didn’t work out very well for them,” Banks said.

The Red Sticks were massacred asthey attempted to cross the river. Through the subsequent treaty, in which the Creeks ceeded most of what is now the Southeast U.S., the chiefs and their households were given land but were encouraged to sell their property and move

West, Banks said.

In 1835, Major Francis L. Dade commanded 110 U.S. soldiers who were on a resupply and reinforcement mission from Ft. Brooke, which is now Tampa, Florida, to Ft. King, now Ocala. Seminoles attacked the Army, and only one U.S. soldier survived the attack, Banks said. Dade was killed.

“When this area here was surveyed for the new county seat (1837-1838), Dade was the hero of the day, so the town was named after him,” Banks said.

The town was granted its first charter in 1838, and the first three buildings in the town were a saloon, a horseracing facility and a cock-fighting ring, said Banks.

In 1852, Philip Shepard founded the Grafenberg Medical Institute in Dadeville, the state’s first medical school. John T. Banks came to the school and established the family that still thrives in the area today.

When war came to Dadeville in 1861, local politician Michael Jefferson Bulger voted against secession but served as an officer in the Confederate Army when the State went to war.

“Before the battles, many soldiers wanted to be baptized, so they would go down to the creek, and while the Southern soldiers were being baptized on one side of the creek, the Yankees were being baptized a little ways down on the other side,” said Roy Mathis, a former city councilman and local historian.

During the war, the town of Dadeville provided salt to the Confederate effort, and when Yankees blockaded the town, people collected their wash pots and went to the gulf to get salt, Mathis said. When the Union Army came into town on Day Street one Sunday, the people on Lafayette Street dropped their silver into the wells to prevent it being confiscated. Most of it could never be retrieved.

Very few people in Dadeville owned slaves, but the men fought to protect their women and children.

“In New Orleans, which was occupied by the Union, the young ladies wanted nothing to do with the Yankee soldiers, and the soldiers resented that, so it was declared that the women were classified as women of the evening – prostitutes – and the soldiers could do anything they wanted with them,” Mathis said.

On the lighter side, he told the story of a Confederate captain whom the Yankees captured.

“His fiancé carried on so with the Yankee officer, just crying and caterwauling, that the Yankees pardoned him just to get rid of her,” Mathis said.

The first courthouse was a temporary 20-foot by 20-foot log structure with a dirt floor, which was replaced by a 60-foot by 40-foot building on the site of the present courthouse.

“A funny thing: It was against the law to sleep in church,” Banks said. “Apparently, the troops could get out of duty if they went to church, so they would come to church and stretch out on a pew and fall sleep. I think the ordinance actually is still on the books.”

The town was incorporated for the second time in 1878, and after the turn of the century, Coca-Cola

Chief Menawa was presumed dead at Horseshoe Bend but managed to escape downriver after the battle

Troops stationed across the bend in the river changed the face of the nation in March 1814 The Dickinson mural, Surrender of Weatherford, Creek Indian to Andrew Jackson – 1814, was painted through the Alabama Federal Art Project

Roy Mathis jangles the keys to Dadeville’s first jail

A Gingko tree sheds leaves of gold at Dadeville’s historic Mitchell House

Bottling Co. came to the area.

“The marketing strategy was that the colacompany would give a kid a nickel to go in a store and ask for a Coke. Of course, the store didn’t have it, so the kid would leave. About two hours later, the Coke truck would come by, and the store owners, of course, would buy a case or two,” Mathis said.

The town’s history was played out in its churches and homes, and many of these historic homes still stand in the town’s downtown area, the most prominent of which is known at The Mitchell House.

Now a popular wedding and event venue, The Mitchell House is named for its affiliation with Sidney Z. Mitchell (1862-1944), the man is credited with developing the country’s electrical grid system, which keeps power flowing continually to homes and businesses nationwide, even when the local power plant isn’t generating. He also wired the first U.S. Navy ship with electric lights to replace dangerous lanterns that had previously lit the shipping industry, and he was instrumental in the construction of our own Martin Dam.

Mitchell was the third generation of his family to live in the landmark home, which was built in 1837. Mitchell’s mother died when he was 3 years old, and his father then sent him, along with his brothers, to live in Coosa County with their maternal grandmother, Ann Jordan.

Jordan taught her grandsons to work hard, chiding them that, at 60 years old, she was an old woman, and

they must learn to find their own way. Mitchell eventually purchased land around his grandmother’s original 350-acre farm and established a hunting club that today is known as Five Star Plantation. He became the richest man in the U.S., amassing a fortune on paper and in physical assets of $44 billion before he lost his wealth in the infamous stock market crash of the late 1920s. Still, he went on to become a powerful man. He developed electrical systems around the country. Reuben and With his brother, Sidney Z. Reuben, Mitchell estabMitchell (right) lished the Alabama founded a Power Development forerunner Company, which of Alabama later was acquired by Power Alabama Power’s first holding company. Mitchell served on the War Industries Board during World War I and was instrumental in the first federal legislation to regulate electrical systems, which helped to shield the industry during the Great Depression. Though he never returned to live in the house that bears his name, Dadeville takes great pride in being the birthplace of a man who played such a large part in shaping the modern world, said Danny Hayes, a president of the Tallapoossee Historical Society in Dadeville. Today, the City of Dadeville treasures its rich history as its citizens continue to build and grow an enviable lifestyle near Lake Martin.