Editor’s Note: Russell County has a long and important history to the State of Alabama and its evolution from an area described in the book “Russell County in Retrospect” by Anne Kendrick Walker as a “barbaric land” to what it is today. Many of the people who set their roots in the county in its early days — including the state’s first Territorial Delegate to the United States Congress, important Native Americans who paid with their lives to cede land that created the county, a family that started a place of higher learning in south Russell County that later led to the establishment of one of the state’s most known institutions of education today, and a formerly enslaved person who placed a monument to honor his former owner — are crucial to the formation of Alabama.
The story that follows is another in a series to inform our readers about the history of Russell County. These stories are taken from books and newspaper articles about the county and its people, historical committees and commissions, and information obtained from people who have taken an interest in the county’s history.
By Mark Clark…