27 comments

  1. Haha Alabama ingenuity

  2. Had a small chemical plant down there. Love the place.

  3. Very inconvenient when you need to go to the courthouse!

  4. Love Bay Minette, Alabama

  5. a beautiful town now ,,

  6. I am also told that men from Brewton did the same thing, stealing the county records from Pollard, thus making Brewton the new county seat of Escambia County.

  7. This is certainly a new information to me . Greatly impressed by your post . I am a regular reader of your blogs and I say your blogs are very informative !

  8. Making turpentine?

    1. Never mind. I saw the article.

  9. Susan Bagby Dunbar

  10. Hope the link tells the whole story – that the court had ordered the records be moved to Bay Minette.

    1. Yes, it does.

  11. Everyone forgets that in 1901 the Alabama Legislature wasn’t sure whether Mobile or the Eastern Shore would become part of the State.

    Baldwin County was formerly just above Mobile and just below Washington County.

    Who remembers the Town of Helena between Mount Vernon and Citronelle (Illinois Central).

  12. In 1896 the Mobile County land plats reflect that most of the County was not surveyed in contradiction to the Bureau of Land Management

    However, most people seem unaware that the when Congress made null and void all Choctaw Land Patents stating in the year 1835 by reason of fraud…

    American State Papers, Public Lands Volume 4 as I recall.

    In any event Congress solved the fraud problem in 1835 according to the Statutes at Large.

    They were published in 1860 which was before the war of the states over State’s Rights.

    If a State had no Right to take the Indian’s Land then how could a State exist at all…

    Kinda what the Act of 1832 by the Legislature of Alabama tried to solve.

    Which was ruled Repugnant to the Constitution in Georgia’s case and it should stand for each and every other State which stands on equal footing with every other State.

    It’s a vicious circle of fraud and explains why Alabama has been moving around counties, Towns, and everything else ever since.

    The Secret of Alabama.

  13. I was raised in Stapleton, and graduated from Baldwin County High in Bay Minette in 1948. I also like the picture – I dipped turpentine near Telco one summer. Much water under the bridge since then.

  14. some of my folks grew up there…

  15. Barking the trees will kill them. I did not realize you had to do that to collect turpentine. I guess I thought it was like tapping maple trees for syrup.

    1. Hannah Harman Brown it dic not kill the trees. Only small areas were barked and cups were placed to collect the sap. Many trees are still there and have the scars. I grew up in Covington County which was a bid turpentine area.

    2. I should say when done correctly. I remember when it was done.

    3. Bill Hansford Well that is what I always thought, but those trees have large areas of bark removed and it looks as if it goes right round which will definitely kill the tree

    4. Hannah Harman Brown i think these trees were ruined and probably died. I never saw this done to trees.

    5. My Dad “chipped” the trees when “turpentining”. I’ve never seen anything like what’s depicted in these pictures.

    6. Maybe they wanted the trees to go for some reason. It is certainly an easy way to kill a tree.