This week's Dauphin Island history post is a portion of an 1822 U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Military Affairs' investigation into the potential fortification of Mobile Bay and the map which was used to make their conclusion which was that THERE WAS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR FORTIFYING DAUPHIN ISLAND.

The map in this post is not the original one used by the Congress in 1822 but it is based up the original drawn by Mobilian Curtis Lewis in 1820. The posted map was published in 1896 by Alabama native, William Trent Rossell.

Not only did Curtis Lewis map Mobile Bay in 1820 but he also had some other strong ties to Dauphin Island. His wife was the granddaughter of Major Robert Farmar, namesake for D.I.'s Major Farmar Street. At the time Lewis produced his map, his wife's family's estate had filed a private claim with the United States for ownership of Dauphin Island based upon a deed obtained by Major Farmar in the 1760s. Lewis' father-in-law, Louis de Vaubercey, who married Farmar's 2nd child, Mary Elizabeth, established a lime kiln on D.I. in the early 19th century using the Indian shell mounds as raw material to produce mortar. Vaubercey died on Dauphin Island on April 10, 1837. http://dauphinislandhistory.blogspot.com