As we approach the 200th anniversary of ALABAMA TERRITORY in less than 6 months...
an 1819 MOBILE GAZETTE article reprinted in the May 19, 1819 issue of NILES' REGISTER out of Baltimore:

..Mobile. When it is recollected that Mobile was not taken possession of, until April, 1813, and that a very great proportion of the country on which our town must depend for support, was owned by the Indians, until the close of the late war with Great Britain, and that in fact, the improvement of the Alabama territory ought not to be dated further back than the latter part of the year 1816, or the beginning of 1817; the following statement (for which we are indebted to the collector of this port) will demonstrate that no part of the United States has advanced with the same rapidity as this territory.
Entered at the custom house. Mobile, 1817:
Brigs 14
Ships 1
Schooners 158
Sloops 36- (total) 209
46 of which were from the Atlantic states.–Cleared, 152.
 - Entered at the same port, 1818:
Schooners 208
Galliot 1
Sloops 44
Steamboat 1
Brigs 19
Ketch  1
Pettiaugers  3
Keel boats 8– (total) 280
73 of which were from the Atlantic ports.
Cleared during the same time, including barges and keel boats 369
The amount of importations this year probably exceeded 3,000,000 dollars.
Registered Tonnage owned in the district, 31st December, 1818
538
Enrolled and licensed 739
Licensed under 20 tons, 939
 Total tons 2216
The amount of tonnage has more than doubled the last year.-, Mobile Gazette.