June 2022
Alexander City 150th
Watch our videos on the founding of Alexander City by scanning this QR code with your smartphone’s camera.
collector, a justice of the peace and a constable. A historical marker for the Town of Youngsville placed in 1993 by the Alabama Historical Submitted photo Association details the The Train Depot has had a few different homes over early years of the budthe last 150 years. This photo taken in the 1940s ding town: shows the Depot behind Carlisle Drug Store. “Following the Creek Cession in 1832, settlers, mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas, occupied this section of the former Creek Nation. Among the first settlers was James Young who purchased land a half-mile west near a trading post called Georgia Store. Community life can be dated from 1837 when Griffin Young opened a post office in his store and eight men and women, ‘The Baptist brethren settlers of Youngsville’ organized Fellowship Primitive Baptist Church. The store and the church were within view of this site. For the first thirtyfive years of its existence, Youngsville was a country hamlet of scattered farms, a store-post office and a church. The Civil Ware delayed the construction of the railroad, an ambitious plan by Griffin Young to promote a ‘town’ on his property. Anticipating the arrival of the railroad, the Town of Youngsville was incorporated in 1872 and, the next year, the town’s name was changed to Alexander City in honor of the president E.P. Alexander of the Savannah and Memphis Railroad.”
The Railroad
T
he installation of the Savannah and Memphis Railroad in 1874 was especially helpful for the gold mines nearby, like Hog Mountain. The trains brought miners and prospectors to the ever-growing city throughout the 1800s. Before the tracks were laid through the middle of the town, the decision was made to rename Youngsville to Alexander City, as a tribute to General Edward Porter Alexander, who was president of the railroad at that time. A historical marker sits downtown, near the tracks running parallel to Jefferson Street. The marker reads: “The transformation of Youngsville from a country hamlet to a market town can be traced from the arrival of the railroad. The Savannah and Memphis Railroad was completed from Opelika to the east side of the Tallapoosa River at Sturdivant in 1872. Anticipating the extension of the railroad to Youngsville, the grateful citizens in 1873 changed the village’s name to Alexander City
Submitted photo
The Alabama Historical Association erected this historical marker for The Savannah and Memphis Railroad in 1999. This marker tells the store of the railroad coming to Alexander City in 1874.
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