From Youngsville to Alexander City

From Youngsville to Alexander City A city 150 years in the making

By KAITLIN FLEMING

Managing Editor

The City of Alexander City was founded in 1872, when it was still known as the Town of Youngsville. In the city’s 150 years of life, things have changed. Schools and churches have been erected, homes have been constructed, an airport has been added, major commercial retail areas have been added and much more. Its namesake was one of the earliest settlers on record — James Young, who obtained 320 acres of land in modern-day Tallapoosa County, including land that is now Alexander City’s Court Square.

The Young Family

According to writings from historian J. C. Maxwell housed in the Adelia McConnell Russell Library Alabama History Room, the Young family traveled from South Carolina and settled in the area on the western outskirts of Alexander City in 1836. Also, according to Maxwell’s account of the founding of the area, Griffin Young, James’ son, opened a trading post, known as the Georgia Store, that would later house the first post office.

“Griffin Young, being of a trading disposition, was not here long before he opened a trading place for the Indians and early settlers,” writes Maxwell. “…for some reason unknown to the writer, it was called the Georgia Trading Store.”

Creek Indian villages once dotted the banks of the creeks and rivers in and around Alexander City well before the Young family settled in the area. The land for the city was forcefully seized from the Creek Indians by the government after the Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended the Creek War in March of 1814.

According to writings from Jennie Lee Kelley in celebration of the centennial of the founding of Alexander City, James Young traded with Native Americans in the area to secure his 320 acres of land.

“So, that by 1840, he had bargained for the half section of land that, under the Creek Treaty, had been reserved for Indian Clochumnee Hadgo,” writes Kelley in A History of Alexander City available for viewing at the Adelia McConnell Russell Library Alabama History Room. “There he put his roots down, and the growth that encouraged other Youngs to settle in the area, had begun.”

Kelley also writes that from the beginning “it was natural that the Youngs would be involved in politics.”

James’ nephew Harrison Young was the first of many Youngs to be Tallapoosa County Sheriff. In fact, he was the first ever sheriff for the county. Another of James’ nephews, Bird Young, was the first tax

Submitted photos ABOVE: Downtown Alexander City, Alabama as it is now. RIGHT: The Alabama Historical Association erected this historical marker for Youngsville in 1998. It tells a little of the story of Youngsville and how it became current-day Alexander City.