I have written articles in the past about how Columbus was founded and recognized in 1819 by the Alabama Legislature as the Town of Columbus, Alabama. Among the first county officials of Marion County, Alabama, were three Columbus residents: Silas McBee, representative to the legislature; Bartlett Sims, sheriff; and Richard Barry, notary public. The first inkling that Columbus might actually be in Mississippi, and not Alabama, surfaced 204 years ago on Aug. 21, 1820.
When the state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory separated in 1817, it was commonly believed the state line would roughly follow the Tombigbee River or the route of the St. Stephens Trace just west of the river. The trace went from John Pitchlynn’s at Plymouth Bluff, across the river from Columbus to St. Stephens, Alabama, about 50 miles north of Mobile. It closely followed the route of present-day Highway 45 from Columbus to Meridian. It was not until late 1820 that the survey of the state line was completed, and Columbus and Cotton Gin Port (near Amory) were discovered to be in Mississippi.
When the survey of the state line commenced Columbus was a small town with the 1820 Census showing a population of 107 people, but it appeared to only count those living along the Military Road, now Second Avenue North, and present-day Main Street as being in Columbus. With only a few exceptions the town’s buildings were of log construction.
Before the official survey of the state line was run, a guideline was run along, which the full survey of the state line would be made. In August 1820, Gen. John Coffee and Major Freeman, under whom the survey was being made, released the preliminary findings of the guide line survey. The apparent route of the Alabama-Mississippi line was published in several Alabama newspapers. The account in the St. Stephens, Alabama, Halcyon of Aug. 21, 1820, was typical and had first been published in the Cahaba (Alabama) Press.
“BOUNDARY LINE
The line between the state of Mississippi and Alabama has been commenced under the direction of General Coffee and Major Freeman – they have run guide lines from the mouth of Bear Creek on the Tennessee River, to the north west corner of Washington County, and from the latter point to the Gulf of Mexico – and they are now engaged in cutting out the true line. We learn the line will run from the mouth of Bear Creek south six degrees west leaving in the state of Mississippi a considerable, portion of the best land in Marion County; It will pass about 15 miles east of Cotton Gin, (Cotton Gin Port was on the Tombigbee’s east side near present day Amory) and 10 miles east of Columbus, and will cross the Tombeckbe river at least twenty miles below that place. The strip of land left in Mississippi taken from Marion county, will be sixty miles in length, and will average from ten to twelve miles wide. The lower end of the line will run from the north west-corner of Washington county south about two and a half degrees east of the mouth of Pascagola.”
Though it was clear by the late fall of 1820, that the survey of the state line would put Columbus and Cotton Gin Port in Mississippi, no legal steps took place in Columbus or Cotton Gin Port until the state line became official.
When yearly postal routes were set in October 1820 for Alabama, mail would run between Tuscaloosa and Columbus by way of the Marion County Courthouse every other week. The county seat of Marion County in 1820 was at the house of Henry Greer, which was located at the present site of Columbus Air Force Base. A settlement known as Hamilton quickly arose just across the Buttahatchie River from Greer’s house. The mail would run between Cotton Gin Port, Courtland and Russellville, Alabama, on a weekly schedule. Mail would leave Russellville at 6 p.m. on Saturdays and arrive at Cotton Gin Port by 6 p.m. on Sunday. Mail would leave Cotton Gin Port at 6 a.m. on Thursdays and arrive in Russellville by 6 p.m. Friday.
The survey of the state line was completed in late 1820 and on Jan. 3, 1821, Mississippi Gov. George Poindexter announced, “a considerable population on the waters of the Tombigbee formerly attached to Alabama fall within the limits of this state (Mississippi).”
On Feb. 9, 1821, the Mississippi Legislature responded by creating Monroe County out of what had been the northwestern part of Marion County, Alabama. The legislature also quickly legitimized all marriages performed in Monroe County under color of Alabama law. The next day, Feb. 10, the Legislature chartered the Town of Columbus, Mississippi.
The 1819 Town of Columbus, Alabama, became the 1821 Town of Columbus, Mississippi. However, a Pickens County, Alabama, voting precinct remained in the southeast corner of what is now Lowndes County into the early 1820s.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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