Colonization Organizing first in
Philadelphia, French expatriates petitioned the U.S. Congress to sell them property for land to colonize. Congress granted approval by an act on March 3, 1817, that allowed them to buy four townships in the
Alabama Territory at $2 per acre, with the provision that they cultivate grape vines and olive trees. Following advice obtained from experienced pioneers and geographers, they estimated that Alabama would provide a good climate for cultivating these crops, which proved not to be the case. By July 14, 1817, a small party of pioneers had settled at
White Bluff on the Tombigbee River, at the present site of Demopolis, founding the
Vine and Olive Colony. Among the wealthiest and most prominent of the group was
Count Lefebvre Desnouettes, who had been a cavalry officer under Napoleon, with the rank of
lieutenant-general. He had ridden in Napoleon's carriage during his
failed invasion of Russia. Other prominent figures among the immigrants included Lieutenant-General Baron
Henri-Dominique Lallemand, Count
Bertrand Clauzel,
Joseph Lakanal, Simon Chaudron, Pasqual Luciani, Colonel Jean-Jerome Cluis, Jean-Marie Chapron, Colonel Nicholas Raoul, and Frederic Ravesies. Most of these expatriates had little interest in pioneer life and sold their shares in the colony, remaining in Philadelphia. By 1818, the colony consisted of only 69 settlers. The party encountered a variety of adversities. Following a survey in August 1818, they learned that their new properties did not fall under the territories encompassed by the congressional approval, and the Vine and Olive Colony was soon forced to move. Their actual land grants began less than a mile to the east of their newly cleared land. After abandoning the settlement of Demopolis, they soon established two other towns,
Aigleville and
Arcola.
American settlement in 2008 in 2010, built from 1843 to 1861 on what was then the outskirts of town. and a portion of Riverside Cemetery overlooking the Tombigbee River. Upon learning of the survey and that the French grants lay elsewhere, American settlers began to quickly purchase the property of the former French settlement, intending to develop it as a major river port on the Tombigbee. A land company, the White Bluff Association (later renamed as the Company of the Town of Demopolis), was formed in 1819 with the express purpose to purchase the land and lay off a town.
George Strother Gaines was named as the company spokesman, and he bought the town site atop White Bluff as soon as it was offered for sale. Commissioners for the company were George Strother Gaines,
James Childress, Walter Crenshaw, Count Charles Lefebvre Desnouettes, and Dr. Joseph B. Earle. By the 1830s Demopolis had developed into a regional commercial river hub, attracting American and European-born craftsmen and merchants. Numerous
plantation owners also established townhouses in the community or on its outskirts. Present in Demopolis from the beginning, with the French Catholic immigrants, the Catholic congregation in town was listed in 1851 as a mission of Saint John the Baptist in
Tuscaloosa. It was switched to being supported by a church in
Selma in 1880. They met in a small frame church and private homes until 1905, when the current Saint Leo the Great was built. The Jewish congregation,
B'nai Jeshurun, was established in 1858, although the community had been present since the 1840s. B'nai Jeshurun was the fourth Jewish congregation established in Alabama. They initially met in homes and businesses until eventually building a
Moorish Revival-style temple in 1893. By the 1850s several palatial
steamboats were visiting the town as a regular stop on the
Mobile to
Columbus, Mississippi, route along the Tombigbee. These included the
Forest Monarch,
Alice Vivian, and the ill-fated
Eliza Battle. Several others were dedicated almost exclusively to Demopolis and the cotton trade, including the
Allen Glover,
Canebrake,
Cherokee,
Demopolis,
Frank Lyon,
Marengo, and the
Mollie Glover. Major hotels during this same period included the Planter's Hotel, later known as Madison House Hotel, and the River Hotel. In 1853 a
yellow fever epidemic struck the city. Some people were buried in an ill-defined two-acre cemetery to the north of town in the river bend. The Jewish Cemetery was established in 1878 to the east of town on Jefferson Street. The
Glover Mausoleum had been completed on the banks of the Tombigbee in 1845, with the burial of many family members in and around it. Finally the city established its main burial ground, Riverside Cemetery, selling plots to the public in 1882. By 1860, the population within the town limits had grown to approximately 1,200 people.
Civil War and aftermath troops. Marengo County, with its large number of slaveholders, favored secession from the
Union and the formation of the
Confederate States of America. White residents of Demopolis shared these sentiments. Prominent secessionists included Nathan B. Whitfield, Francis S. Lyon, Goodman G. Griffin, Kimbrough C. DuBose, George B. Lyon, Dr. James D. Browder, and George E. Markham. But many other powerful men in town opposed secession, including Benjamin Glover Shields, William H. Lyon, Jr., William B. Jones, Pearson J. Glover, Gaius Whitfield, Alfred Hatch, Joel C. DuBose, Robert V. Montague, and
Henry Augustine Tayloe. In the end, most men on both sides of the argument joined in the Confederate cause once secession was inevitable. It is not known whether the Jewish community supported or not the Union or opposed slavery. With the start of the
Civil War, several
Confederate companies recruited from the population of Demopolis and Marengo County. The 4th,
11th, 21st, 23rd, and 43rd Alabama Infantry Regiments, in addition to the 8th Alabama Cavalry, Company E of the
Jeff. Davis Legion, and Selden's Battery, were all established by local men. During the course of the war, more of these men would be lost to disease, exhaustion, and malnutrition than to battle casualties, as happened in both armies. The city, based on two navigable rivers and a railroad, was used as the base for a number of Confederate installations and offices. These included
commissary and
quartermaster offices and warehouses, engineers' offices and workshops, a large
ordnance depot, two large hospitals, and offices of the medical purveyor of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. A huge military encampment was established at the fairgrounds in Webb's Bend. After the
fall of Vicksburg and
Port Hudson in July, 1863, several regiments of paroled Confederate troops were sent to a camp at Demopolis to await
exchange. Thousands of soldiers entered the town at a time, which had only one thousand inhabitants prior to the war. Residents struggled to provide and secure sufficient food and accommodations. Many hundreds of the soldiers who died in the hospitals during the war were buried in a Confederate cemetery on the south end of Webb's Bend. Today the site is underwater, following the damming of the river below Demopolis in the 20th century. During Reconstruction, the new authorities in charge of the government decided to move the
county seat of Marengo from its central location in
Linden to Demopolis by an act approved on December 4, 1868. The county appointed Richard Jones Jr., Lewis B. McCarty, and Dr. Bryan W. Whitfield to build or buy a new courthouse in Demopolis. They negotiated the purchase of the Presbyterian church on the town square, now known as Rooster Hall, for the sum of $3,000. It was conveyed to the county on April 8, 1869. The county built a fireproof brick building next door to the former church in 1869–70 to house the probate and circuit clerk offices. This building serves as Demopolis City Hall today. The move of the county seat was highly controversial, and the
Alabama Legislature set April 18, 1870, as the date for a county-wide referendum to decide if
Dayton, Demopolis, or Linden would become the county seat. Due to the closeness of the vote and voting irregularities, a run-off between Linden and Demopolis was set for May 14, 1870. Irregularities appeared again and votes from Dayton, mostly in favor of Linden, were rejected by the board of supervisors. Linden continued an attempt to persuade the state legislature to move the county seat back to their town, with success in February 1871. The former courthouse buildings reverted from county ownership to Demopolis and remain city property today.
20th century at Demopolis in 1903 The struggle to rebuild the economy of Demopolis and the surrounding region continued into the 20th century. The growing, trading, and
milling of cotton continued to be a major basis of the economy up until the
World War I-era. The
boll weevil infestations of the 1920s and the
Great Depression of the 1930s finally ended the one-crop farming system. Demopolis had
electric lights,
water works and a
sewerage system,
chert-covered streets, paved sidewalks, and a
fire department by the second decade of the 20th century. It was increasingly serving as a major banking and retail hub in the region during this time. Major financial institutions included the Commercial National Bank, City Bank and Trust Company, and
Robertson Banking Company. One of the first large
department stores of note in the area, Mayer Brothers, built its three-story brick building across from the public square in 1897 and operated for most of the 20th century. That building is now utilized by Robertson Banking Company. The Rosenbush Furniture Company was established in 1895 and operated until 2002. The J. H. Spight Grocery was established in 1901 as one of the earliest and most successful
grocery stores for more than 50 years, prior to the era of corporate chain stores. Although the community had many newspapers throughout its first 100 years, the only one to survive into the 21st century,
The Demopolis Times, was established in 1904. Theaters sprang up in the city, beginning in the late 19th century. Rooster Hall, following its incarnations as a church, courthouse, and then a city property, was leased for use as the Demopolis Opera House from 1876 to 1902. It hosted live dramatic performances, civic lectures, and
minstrel shows. The
Braswell Opera House, with its ornate interior and private
box galleries, opened on October 23, 1902, with a performance of Louisiana playwright
Epsy William's
Unorna, from
Francis Marion Crawford's
The Witch of Prague. It continued as an entertainment venue into the 1920s and was eventually demolished in 1972–73. The first theater built for the presentation of motion pictures, the Elks Theater, opened on October 1, 1915. It was renamed the Si-Non in 1916. The building was restored during the 1990s. Following the demise of cotton production, beef cattle farming and, more recently,
catfish aquaculture became new major agricultural pursuits. Industrial activities became the major sources of employment by mid-century, with the cement,
lumber, and paper industries playing a prominent role in the city's economy into the 21st century. ==Geography==