.
I haven't put it up on the D.I. History blog because it's unfinished but this is my current work on the first Dauphin Island fortification construction contract of 1818.
Less than six months from today, on Friday, March 3, 2017, THE STATE OF ALABAMA's BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION will kick off. On that day two hundred years ago, Monday, March 3, 1817, President Madison signed some legislation in D.C. and ALABAMA TERRITORY was created. For the first time the civilized world heard the word "Alabama" spoken in English by somebody other than by a bunch of drunken Indian traders along the Gulf Coast. In fact, the enabling legislation was introduced into Congress labeled as creating "Mobile Territory" but the name got changed the night before it was supposed to be submitted by some Georgia Congressmen who happened to want to promote some land they owned on some river in the new territory. The March 3 legislation, signed on the last day Madison would serve as the President of the United States, was just the first of many milestones leading up to Alabama Statehood on December 10, 1819 but those 33 months would be filled with highly eventful living for those spending their time from 1817 to 1819 on Dauphin Island and around the mouth of Mobile Bay.
As 1817 dawned on Dauphin Island, the U.S. Revenue Boat maintained vigilance inspecting ships and charging fees to an ever increasing number of those arriving around what was known as the Lower Anchorage at Mobile Point. U.S. General Bernard in New Orleans was busy designing fortifications for both Dauphin Island and Mobile Point. By the end of 1817, General Bernard submitted his plan for a Dauphin Island fortification to the government and it was approved. Thus began one of the most outrageous, monstrous frauds ever perpetrated against a government as well as against its law-abiding citizens: THE CONTRACT FOR THE BUILDING OF A DAUPHIN ISLAND FORTIFICATION.
http://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/
December 10, 1817: Congress finalized the creation of ALABAMA TERRITORY.
December 23, 1817: General Bernard at New Orleans submitted a plan for a fortification on Dauphin Island to the government and it was approved.
August 14, 1818: Harris entered into bond in the penalty of $100,000, with Nimrod Farrow as security, for fulfillment of the agreement to construct a fortification on Dauphin Island.
October 23, 1818: Nimrod Farrow executed a deed of trust with Joseph G. Swift as agent of the U.S., for "several tracts of land in Fauquier County, Virginia. This included 2,200 acres, two merchant mills, mill seats and other improvements". This property also included 130 slaves. All this property was endemnified to the U.S. for money advanced for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
November 4, 1818: Farrow and Harris entered into partnership. Harris would serve as site manager and Farrow would serve as purchasing agent with all profits divided equally.
August 2, 1819: W.K. Armistead, agent for the U.S., advanced Nimrod Farrow $50,000. Farrow had to put up an additional bond with a $111,951 penalty. N. Grigsby, J. Titball and J. Ashby signed for security and this and all other advances were to be considered part payment for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
1820: A large stone mansion, later named Wolf's Crag, is constructed on a hill overlooking Markham, Virginia on an estate owned by Nimrod Farrow. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/121610173
1820: from Theodore Dwight Weld's book , AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS , page 85 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM STEPHEN SEWALL, Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 1839. Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational church in Winthrop, and late agent of the Winthrop Manufacturing company....
" "I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public works were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor creature had no longer power to writhe under his suffering: he then took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At this moment, the gentleman referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his victim, and exclaimed, 'If you touch that slave again you do it at the peril of your life." The slaveholder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend--whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary."
April 10, 1820: Farrow and Harris contract with Turner Starke of Clarke County for partnership in the Dauphin Island fortification construction project and the Red Bluff brick kiln. This gave the project the use of Turner Starke's slaves.
April 10, 1820: Turner Starke, superintendent for the Dauphin Island fortification construction and the Red Bluffs brick kiln, deeded all property, including slaves, connected to both projects to Captain James Gadsden, U.S. Army engineer in charge of the project. This was done to prevent foreclosure by the subcontractors and other creditors.
December 27, 1820: The sloop GENERAL JACKSON sank in Mobile Bay with 12,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
1821: During its 2nd Session, the 17th Congress did not make an appropriation for the continuing of the construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
February 10, 1821: The schooner UNION and sloop Brilliant sank in Mobile Bay with 16,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
December 1, 1821: The date stipulated by the contract between the Congress and Farrow & Harris for the completion of construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
April (August) 1, 1822: Farrow and Harris sold all their assets to Turner Starke for $40,000. This gave Starke title to all the 88 slaves working on Dauphin Island.
January 13, 1823: Nimrod Farrow of Markham, Virginia, for himself and Richard Harris of Richmond, Virginia, presented a petition to Congress for an allowance equal to the potential profit they would have made if the United States had not broken the contract for the Dauphin Island fortification construction.
March 3, 1823: An act passed Congress which authorized the Secretary of War to appoint someone to determine the extent of the failure of the U.S. to uphold its end of the Dauphin Island fortification construction contract. Thomas Swan of Alexandria was appointed commissioner. He determined that the U.S. broke the contract and recommending awarding $73,747.78 and dropping all the suits against Farrow and Harris.
March 3, 1825: An act passed Congress appropriating relief for Farrow and Harris. The act includes a provision for paying subcontractors but, according to Gilbert Russell (ed. note: namesake of Russell County), the Secretary of War, Barbour (ed. note: namesake of Barbour County), refused to pay the subs.
February 24, 1827: Committee of Claims Document #21 is printed by 2nd Session of the 20th Congress.
July 14, 1832: An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Nimrod Farrow and of Richard Harris passed the Congress.
December 18, 1832: Russell County (namesake of Gilbert Russell) was established from lands ceded by the State of Alabama from the Creek Indians.
July 31, 1833: Jeremiah Austill, U.S. marshall for the southern district of Alabama, reported the killing of Hardeman Owens, commission of roads and revenue for Russell County, by a U.S. soldier attempting to evict him from Indian land.
September 24, 1833: Colonel Gadsden was deposed on the matter of Farrow and Harris.
December 16, 1833: Francis Scott Key sent his first formal communication to Governor Gayle in Tuscaloosa. Francis Scott Key, District Attorney of D.C., had come to Alabama to mediate the dispute between the State of Alabama and the Federal troops protecting the Creek Indians.
March 12, 1834: Governor Gayle wrote President Jackson that the extra Federal troops had left Alabama.
November 18, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot concerning the claims of Farrow and Harris.
December 8, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot to arrange a meeting relative to the claims of Farrow and Harris.
January 12, 1835: Report on the Dauphin Island fortification construction project printed for 23rd Congress, 2nd Session, Document No. 78 by Peter Hagner (3rd Auditor) , J.B. Thornton (2nd Comptroller) and General Gratiot (Chief Engineer).
Less than six months from today, on Friday, March 3, 2017, THE STATE OF ALABAMA's BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION will kick off. On that day two hundred years ago, Monday, March 3, 1817, President Madison signed some legislation in D.C. and ALABAMA TERRITORY was created. For the first time the civilized world heard the word "Alabama" spoken in English by somebody other than by a bunch of drunken Indian traders along the Gulf Coast. In fact, the enabling legislation was introduced into Congress labeled as creating "Mobile Territory" but the name got changed the night before it was supposed to be submitted by some Georgia Congressmen who happened to want to promote some land they owned on some river in the new territory. The March 3 legislation, signed on the last day Madison would serve as the President of the United States, was just the first of many milestones leading up to Alabama Statehood on December 10, 1819 but those 33 months would be filled with highly eventful living for those spending their time from 1817 to 1819 on Dauphin Island and around the mouth of Mobile Bay.
As 1817 dawned on Dauphin Island, the U.S. Revenue Boat maintained vigilance inspecting ships and charging fees to an ever increasing number of those arriving around what was known as the Lower Anchorage at Mobile Point. U.S. General Bernard in New Orleans was busy designing fortifications for both Dauphin Island and Mobile Point. By the end of 1817, General Bernard submitted his plan for a Dauphin Island fortification to the government and it was approved. Thus began one of the most outrageous, monstrous frauds ever perpetrated against a government as well as against its law-abiding citizens: THE CONTRACT FOR THE BUILDING OF A DAUPHIN ISLAND FORTIFICATION.
http://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/
December 10, 1817: Congress finalized the creation of ALABAMA TERRITORY.
December 23, 1817: General Bernard at New Orleans submitted a plan for a fortification on Dauphin Island to the government and it was approved.
August 14, 1818: Harris entered into bond in the penalty of $100,000, with Nimrod Farrow as security, for fulfillment of the agreement to construct a fortification on Dauphin Island.
October 23, 1818: Nimrod Farrow executed a deed of trust with Joseph G. Swift as agent of the U.S., for "several tracts of land in Fauquier County, Virginia. This included 2,200 acres, two merchant mills, mill seats and other improvements". This property also included 130 slaves. All this property was endemnified to the U.S. for money advanced for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
November 4, 1818: Farrow and Harris entered into partnership. Harris would serve as site manager and Farrow would serve as purchasing agent with all profits divided equally.
August 2, 1819: W.K. Armistead, agent for the U.S., advanced Nimrod Farrow $50,000. Farrow had to put up an additional bond with a $111,951 penalty. N. Grigsby, J. Titball and J. Ashby signed for security and this and all other advances were to be considered part payment for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
1820: A large stone mansion, later named Wolf's Crag, is constructed on a hill overlooking Markham, Virginia on an estate owned by Nimrod Farrow. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/121610173
1820: from Theodore Dwight Weld's book , AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS , page 85 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM STEPHEN SEWALL, Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 1839. Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational church in Winthrop, and late agent of the Winthrop Manufacturing company....
" "I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public works were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor creature had no longer power to writhe under his suffering: he then took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At this moment, the gentleman referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his victim, and exclaimed, 'If you touch that slave again you do it at the peril of your life." The slaveholder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend--whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary."
April 10, 1820: Farrow and Harris contract with Turner Starke of Clarke County for partnership in the Dauphin Island fortification construction project and the Red Bluff brick kiln. This gave the project the use of Turner Starke's slaves.
April 10, 1820: Turner Starke, superintendent for the Dauphin Island fortification construction and the Red Bluffs brick kiln, deeded all property, including slaves, connected to both projects to Captain James Gadsden, U.S. Army engineer in charge of the project. This was done to prevent foreclosure by the subcontractors and other creditors.
December 27, 1820: The sloop GENERAL JACKSON sank in Mobile Bay with 12,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
1821: During its 2nd Session, the 17th Congress did not make an appropriation for the continuing of the construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
February 10, 1821: The schooner UNION and sloop Brilliant sank in Mobile Bay with 16,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
December 1, 1821: The date stipulated by the contract between the Congress and Farrow & Harris for the completion of construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
April (August) 1, 1822: Farrow and Harris sold all their assets to Turner Starke for $40,000. This gave Starke title to all the 88 slaves working on Dauphin Island.
January 13, 1823: Nimrod Farrow of Markham, Virginia, for himself and Richard Harris of Richmond, Virginia, presented a petition to Congress for an allowance equal to the potential profit they would have made if the United States had not broken the contract for the Dauphin Island fortification construction.
March 3, 1823: An act passed Congress which authorized the Secretary of War to appoint someone to determine the extent of the failure of the U.S. to uphold its end of the Dauphin Island fortification construction contract. Thomas Swan of Alexandria was appointed commissioner. He determined that the U.S. broke the contract and recommending awarding $73,747.78 and dropping all the suits against Farrow and Harris.
March 3, 1825: An act passed Congress appropriating relief for Farrow and Harris. The act includes a provision for paying subcontractors but, according to Gilbert Russell (ed. note: namesake of Russell County), the Secretary of War, Barbour (ed. note: namesake of Barbour County), refused to pay the subs.
February 24, 1827: Committee of Claims Document #21 is printed by 2nd Session of the 20th Congress.
July 14, 1832: An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Nimrod Farrow and of Richard Harris passed the Congress.
December 18, 1832: Russell County (namesake of Gilbert Russell) was established from lands ceded by the State of Alabama from the Creek Indians.
July 31, 1833: Jeremiah Austill, U.S. marshall for the southern district of Alabama, reported the killing of Hardeman Owens, commission of roads and revenue for Russell County, by a U.S. soldier attempting to evict him from Indian land.
September 24, 1833: Colonel Gadsden was deposed on the matter of Farrow and Harris.
December 16, 1833: Francis Scott Key sent his first formal communication to Governor Gayle in Tuscaloosa. Francis Scott Key, District Attorney of D.C., had come to Alabama to mediate the dispute between the State of Alabama and the Federal troops protecting the Creek Indians.
March 12, 1834: Governor Gayle wrote President Jackson that the extra Federal troops had left Alabama.
November 18, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot concerning the claims of Farrow and Harris.
December 8, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot to arrange a meeting relative to the claims of Farrow and Harris.
January 12, 1835: Report on the Dauphin Island fortification construction project printed for 23rd Congress, 2nd Session, Document No. 78 by Peter Hagner (3rd Auditor) , J.B. Thornton (2nd Comptroller) and General Gratiot (Chief Engineer).
posted by robertoreg at 9:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home