Eufaula, Alabama

==History==
[[File:1859.11.10.daily.confederation.article.about.purchase.of.slaves.to.build.montgomery.eufaula.railroad.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Slaves worth $150,000 to be purchased for construction of railroad (''Daily Confederation'', November 10, 1859)]]
The site along the [[Chattahoochee River]] that is now modern-day Eufaula was occupied by three [[Muscogee|Muscogee Creek]] [[tribe (Native American)|tribe]]s, including the [[Eufaula people|Eufaulas]].<ref name=besson>{{cite book|author=J. A. B. Besson|title=History of Eufaula, Alabama: The Bluff City of the Chattahoochee|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofeufaula00bessiala|year=1875|publisher=Franklin Steam Print. House}}</ref>{{rp|3}}  By the 1820s the land was part of the Creek Indian Territory and supposedly off-limits to white settlement.<ref name=besson/>{{rp|4}}  By 1827 enough illegal white settlement had occurred that the Creeks appealed to the federal government for protection of their property rights. In July of that year, federal troops were sent to the Eufaula area to remove the settlers by force of arms, a conflict known as the "Intruders War".<ref name=besson/>{{rp|4}}

The Creeks signed the [[Treaty of Washington (1826)|Treaty of Washington]] in 1826, ceding most of their land in Georgia and eastern Alabama to the United States,<ref>{{cite book|author=Francis Paul Prucha|year=1997|title=American Indian Treatires: The History of a Political Anomaly|page=150|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0-520-20895-1}}</ref> but it was not fully effective in practice until the late 1820s.  The 1832 [[Treaty of Cusseta]], by which the Creeks ceded all land east of the [[Mississippi River]] to the United States, allowed white settlers to legally buy land from the Creek.  However, the treaty's terms did not require any natives to relocate.<ref>{{cite book|author=Herbert James Lewis|title=Clearing the Thickets: A History of Antebellum Alabama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZbIfdhs4TkC&pg=PT217|date=March 2, 2013|publisher=Quid Pro Books|isbn=978-1-61027-166-0|page=217}}</ref>  By 1835 the land on which the town was built had been mostly purchased by white settlers, and had a store, owned in part by William Irwin, after whom the new settlement was named "Irwinton".<ref name=besson/>{{rp|5}}

By the mid 1830s downtown Irwinton was platted out and development was well underway.<ref name=besson/>{{rp|9–16}}  Much of its historic character has been preserved and is now known as the [[Seth Lore and Irwinton Historic District]]. In 1842<ref name=besson/>{{rp|18}} or 1843<ref name=bunn/>{{rp|18}} Irwinton was renamed "Eufaula", possibly<ref name=bunn/>{{rp|18}} to end postal confusion ensuing from its proximity to [[Irwinton, Georgia]].<ref name=besson/>{{rp|18}}  The town was officially incorporated under that name in 1857.<ref name=williams>{{cite book|author=David Williams|title=Rich Man's War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-U2z9lk833EC|date=March 15, 2011|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4079-1}}</ref>{{rp|10}}

In 1850 [[secessionist]]s in the town formed a vigilante committee which terrorized any white people who had [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] sympathies. Thus captain Elisha Bett was driven from the town and only returned after he had signed a written agreement not to express his views again.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rachleff|first=Marshall|title=An Abolitionist Letter to Governor Henry W. Collier of Alabama: The Emergence of "The Crisis of Fear" in Alabama|journal=The Journal of Negro History|date=1981|volume=66|issue=3|pages=246–253|doi=10.2307/2716919|jstor=2716919|s2cid=150114358}}</ref>

Significant numbers of Jewish settlers came to Eufaula in the middle of the nineteenth century from Germany and from neighboring states. The community founded a cemetery; the first burial took place in 1845.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isjl.org/alabama-eufaula-encyclopedia.html|title=Eufaula, Alabama|publisher=Institute of Southern Jewish Life|date=2017|access-date=March 11, 2019}}</ref>

By the late 1850s, Eufaula's advantageous location on the Chattahoochee made it a major shipping center for cargo bound for the [[Port of Apalachicola]] and, from there, to major world markets such as [[Liverpool]] and [[New York City]].<ref name=bunn/>{{rp|19}}  By this time, planning for the [[Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad]], which was to include a new bridge over the Chattahoochee, was well underway.<ref>{{cite news|work=[[Ledger-Enquirer|Daily Columbus Enquirer]]|date=October 26, 1859|title=Eufaula Railroad|page=2}}</ref>  By November 1859 the railroad company authorized its president to purchase slaves worth $150,000 to use for the construction of the railroad.<ref>{{cite news|title=Montgomery and Eufaula Rail Road|work=The Daily Confederation|date=November 10, 1859|page=3}}</ref>  Grading for the track bed began in January 1860.<ref>{{cite news|title=Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad|work=Daily Columbus Enquirer|date=January 9, 1860|page=2}}</ref>  By 1861, when it had become clear that the [[American Civil War]] was imminent, work on the railroad was suspended to allow the laborers to lay track between [[Montgomery, Alabama]], and [[Pensacola, Florida]], to facilitate the transport of Confederate troops to the [[Gulf of Mexico]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Speedy Completion of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad|work=The Daily True Delta|date=April 6, 1861|page=2}}</ref>  Work on the railroad was resumed after the war, and, in October 1871, the tracks finally reached the city limits of Eufaula and a depot agent, John O. Martin, was appointed to run that terminal station.<ref>{{cite news|title=Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad|work=Daily Columbus Enquirer|place=Columbus, Georgia|date=October 15, 1871|page=3}}</ref>

===The Civil War in Eufaula===
Very little is known about the history of Eufaula during the [[American Civil War]] because very few contemporary records or newspapers survive.<ref name=bunn>{{cite book|author=Mike Bunn|title=Civil War Eufaula|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmOSv-_nWrEC|year=2013|publisher=The History Press|isbn=978-1-62619-244-7}}</ref>{{rp|10}} Alabama [[Secession in the United States|seceded]] from the United States on January 11, 1861. By the end of the month a military encampment was founded at Eufaula with soldiers ready to decamp to [[Fort Pickens]] or elsewhere as needed at the onset of hostilities.<ref>{{cite news|title=Alabama Military|work=The Macon Daily Telegraph|date=January 28, 1861|page=1}}</ref>  Ultimately six companies of the [[Confederate States Army]] (CSA) were raised at Eufaula and Barbour County.  One of these was the Eufaula [[Zouave#American Civil War|Zouaves]], one of dozens of military units on both sides that adopted that name, patterning their uniforms and [[order of battle]] after the French light infantry units on which they were modeled.<ref>{{cite book|author=Terry L. Jones|title=Historical Dictionary of the Civil War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ET6CDfczq9gC&pg=PA1657|date=July 15, 2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7953-9|page=1657}}</ref>

The CSA operated a military hospital in Eufaula during the conflict.<ref>{{cite book|author=Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein|title=The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fVZeGtxiMcYC&pg=PA265|date=April 1, 2008|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3078-0|page=265}}</ref> Eufaula's strategic position on the Chattahoochee river involved it in the naval component of the Confederate war effort, and at least one [[Ironclad warship#First battles between ironclads: the U.S. Civil War|ironclad warship]] was constructed in the city.<ref>{{cite news|title=Intelligence; Richmond; Eufaula|date=October 16, 1863|work=New London Daily Chronicle|page=2}}</ref>  By April 1865, the [[Union Army]] had occupied [[Selma, Alabama]], and plans were made to move the Alabama state government to Eufaula should Montgomery fall to Federal troops.<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama|work=Augusta Chronicle|date=April 9, 1865|page=2|place=Augusta, Georgia}}</ref>

Montgomery was captured on April 12 and governor [[Thomas H. Watts]], with other state officials, fled to Eufaula,<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama|work=Augusta Chronicle|page=2|date=April 16, 1865|place=Augusta, Georgia}}</ref>  establishing what the ''[[New York Daily Tribune]]'' called "the fugitive seat of Government of Alabama".<ref>{{cite news|title=From Alabama March Through the Country-Conduct of the Slaves-Cruelty of Masters|work=New York Daily Tribune|date=June 3, 1865|page=3}}</ref>  On April 29, 1865, Union general [[Benjamin Grierson]] had reached [[Clayton, Alabama]], and word had finally made it to Eufaula that the war was over.<ref name=williams/>{{rp|183}}  The mayor of Eufaula and some members of the city council rode over to Clayton to escort Grierson into Eufaula, thus ensuring a generally peaceful transition to Federal control of the city.<ref name=williams/>{{rp|183}}

Eufaula was the site of what may have been the last battle of the Civil War. On May 19, 1865, at Hobdy's Bridge near Eufaula a Confederate detachment attacked a 44-man detachment from companies C and F of the Union's [[1st Florida Cavalry Regiment (Union)|1st Florida Cavalry Regiment]], resulting in one soldier killed and three wounded.<ref>[http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/hobdys2.html "Skirmish at Hobdy's Bridge - Pike and Barbour Counties, Alabama"]. ''ExploreSouthernHistory.com''. Retrieved July 20, 2018.</ref>

By May 1865 the ''[[Daily Intelligencer (Atlanta)|Daily Intelligencer]]'' of Atlanta reported that 10,000 Union troops had occupied Eufaula.<ref>{{cite news|title=Yankee; Eufaula; Alabama; Grierson|work=The Daily Evening News|place=Macon, Georgia|date=May 4, 1865|page=2}}</ref>  In the immediate aftermath of the occupation there was a food riot and an "attempt to illegally distribute the public stores".<ref>{{cite news|title=Eufaula; Jasper Sawyers; Capt. Frank Brady|work=The Macon Daily Telegraph|date=May 24, 1865|page=2|place=Macon, Georgia}}</ref>  By the end of May Eufaula was sufficiently pacified that a special agent of the [[United States Post Office]] was able to deliver mail from [[Providence, Rhode Island]], to the town via [[Macon, Georgia]], without need for any of the twenty-five armed guards he had brought with him to defend him with violence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Another Evidence of Peace|work=Providence Evening Press|place=Providence, Rhode Island|date=May 30, 1865|page=3}}</ref>

===Reconstruction in Eufaula===
By August 1865 cotton shipping out of Eufaula was increasing again, mostly in barter for household goods, which were arriving by ship in increasing quantities.<ref>{{cite news|title=Business at Eufaula|work=The Macon Daily Telegraph|place=Macon, Georgia|date=August 4, 1865|page=2}}</ref>  However, the quantity of cotton being shipped out was nowhere near antebellum levels, and ships bound for [[Port of Apalachicola|Apalachicola]] were far below capacity.<ref>{{cite news|title=Shipping on the Chattahooches|date=August 9, 1865|page=4|work=Daily Constitutionalist|place=Augusta, Georgia}}</ref>  In November 1865 the Federal garrison that had been occupying Eufaula was relieved of duty by two companies of the [[8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment]], whose commander, John Bell, assured the citizens that they would not "be disturbed in their lawful business."<ref>{{cite news|title=Another Garrison at Eufaula|work=The Daily Sun|place=Columbus, Georgia|date=December 1, 1865|page=2}}</ref>

In March 1867, the [[United States Congress]] passed the first of four [[Reconstruction Acts]] and the [[Reconstruction Era]] began in earnest.  Alabama, and therefore Eufaula, was placed in the [[Third Military District]] under the command of General [[John Pope (military officer)|John Pope]].  By the time the first elections were held under the new regime, in October 1867, Barbour County had about 5,000 registered voters, with about 1,500 white and 3,500 black.<ref name=firstday>{{cite news|title=The First Day's Election Under the 'Military Bills' in Alabama|work=[[New York Herald]]|date=October 13, 1867|page=7}}</ref>

Municipal elections were held in March 1870 and white candidates won all offices except for the two fourth (of four) [[Wards of the United States|ward]] positions as [[alderman|aldermen]], which were won by black candidates Washington Burke and Melvin Patterson.<ref>{{cite news|title=From Eufaula|work=Georgia Daily Telegraph|place=Macon, Georgia|page=3|date=March 8, 1870}}</ref>  Election officials set aside Burke's and Patterson's victories for election fraud and replaced them with their white competitors R. A. Solo and T. E. Morgan as fourth ward aldermen.<ref>{{cite news|title=Eufaula|work=The Daily Sun|place=Columbus, Georgia|page=2|date=March 8, 1870}}</ref>  In the same election a [[radical republican]] candidate named Keills won the post of City Court Judge.<ref name=keills>{{cite news|title=Latest by Mail|date=March 13, 1870|page=1|work=Mobile Register|place=Mobile, Alabama}}</ref>  According to the ''[[Press-Register|Mobile Register]]'', Keills's "election turned upon sectional differences. The negroes made their usual noisy demonstrations, marching in from the country with [[Fife (instrument)|fife]] and drum."<ref name=keills/>

On November 3, 1874, members of the [[White League]] instigated the [[Election Riot of 1874]] in Eufaula on election day, massacring at least 7 black Republicans, shooting at least 70 more, and preventing over 1,000 others from voting. They hijacked the vote count, fraudulently electing white candidates by excluding votes cast by blacks. Federal officials attempted to hold the white mob members accountable, but police falsely charged and convicted a witness with perjury, intimidating other witnesses. By 1876, with Reconstruction ended and black voters intimidated with [[lynching]], there were just 10 black voters in the city, compared to 1,200 in February 1874.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 16, 2022|title=Ambushed in Eufaula: Alabama's forgotten race massacre|url=https://www.al.com/news/2022/01/ambushed-in-eufaula-alabamas-forgotten-race-massacre.html|access-date=January 29, 2022|website=al|language=en}}</ref>

By 1866 there was a general movement of black Baptists to [[Southern Baptists#Formation and separation of black Baptists|separate from the white churches]] and form their own congregations.  Black Baptists applied for permission to separate in May 1866.  The permission was granted, and, after negotiations, the black Baptists were allowed to purchase an old church building to house their own congregation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Wayne Flynt|title=Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm41b65DOEMC&pg=PA138|year=1998|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-0927-5|pages=138–9}}</ref>  This congregation formed the basis of the Eufaula Association, one of two black Baptist associations formed in Alabama prior to the founding of the state association of black Baptist churches in 1868.<ref>{{cite book|author=Wilson Fallin|title=Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LImKo9-w60MC&pg=PA16|date=August 17, 2007|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=978-0-8173-1569-6|page=16}}</ref>  By 1869 the site for the new white [[First Baptist Church of Eufaula]] had been purchased and $16,000 out of an estimated $25,000 necessary for its construction had been raised.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Flying Visit to Eufaula|work=Georgia Weekly Telegraph|place=Macon, Georgia|date=April 9, 1869|page=4}}</ref>

===Civil rights movement===

====Eufaula housing case====
For a number of years after the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]]'s 1954 decision ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', which overturned ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' by declaring racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional, the schools in Eufaula remained unintegrated.<ref name=gray>{{cite book|author=Fred D. Gray|title=Bus Ride to Justice: Changing the System by the System : the Life and Works of Fred Gray, Preacher, Attorney, Politician|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bc4DqcUSi4C&pg=PA131|date=October 1, 2012|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-58838-286-3|pages=131–9}}</ref>  In 1955 the Eufaula Housing Authority sought to use [[eminent domain]] to condemn land on which a number of black families had lived since emancipation in order to build public housing, a park, and an expansion of the white high school.<ref>{{cite news|title=Suit Claims Segregation In Housing|work=Times Daily|date=June 10, 1958|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bhYsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2026%2C1035955}}</ref>  The residents of the neighborhood, surrounded on all sides by white areas, thought that the city's motive was actually to keep their children out of a newly built high school once the now-inevitable racial integration occurred.<ref name=gray/>

In 1958 civil rights attorneys [[Fred Gray (attorney)|Fred Gray]] and [[Constance Baker Motley]] filed a suit in the [[U.S. District court]] claiming that their clients' constitutional rights were being violated by the plan.<ref name=gray/>  The federal case was dismissed, but Gray (now appearing without Motley)<ref name=gray/> appealed to the Alabama Circuit Court, where the case was heard by then-judge [[George Wallace]].<ref name=negro/> As before, Gray claimed that since the new development would allow white residents only, their civil rights were being violated by the City.<ref name=negro>{{cite news|title=Negro Requests White Residence|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=October 21, 1958|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Wy0eAAAAIBAJ&pg=4750%2C2871781}}</ref>  Although his appeal of the constitutional issue was unsuccessful, Gray also appealed the city's valuations of his clients' properties and, arguing before [[all-white jury|all-white juries]] in Wallace's court, managed in most of the cases to win much higher prices.<ref name=gray/>

====Voting Rights Act of 1965====
After the passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] the [[United States Department of Justice]] sent federal observers into 24 southern counties to enforce its provisions regarding voter registration for the Fall 1965 elections.  Many of these counties saw a significant increase in black registration, but Eufaula, not having federal supervision, had comparatively low rates.  For instance, on August 16, 1965, 600 black citizens waited in line at the County courthouse in Eufaula to register, but by the time the office closed, only 265 had managed to fill out the paperwork.<ref>{{cite book|author=Adam Fairclough|title=To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFSgLg1S7gIC&pg=PA265|year=2001|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2346-6|page=265}}</ref>

In 1966 the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) responded by appointing a local Eufaulan, Daddy Bone, to organize [[voter registration drive]]s in Eufaula.  Bone initiated a series of nonviolent protests and boycotts of local stores that refused to hire blacks which attracted SNCC supporters from around the [[Southeastern United States]].  The city of Eufaula, under some pressure from the businessmen whose stores were targeted, passed anti-picketing laws and began arresting demonstrators ''en masse'' for violating them.  Bone brought in civil rights lawyer [[S.S. Seay|S. S. Seay]] to defend the protestors, who were mostly convicted, and in such numbers as to overwhelm the county jail.<ref>{{cite book|author=Solomon Seay Jr. |title=Jim Crow and Me: Stories from My Life as a Civil Rights Lawyer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EsFdRQDPmNMC&pg=PA63|date=December 1, 2011|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-60306-142-1|pages=63–6}}</ref>

====School integration====

In July 1968 the [[United States Department of Justice]] filed suit against 76 Alabama school districts, including that of Eufaula, in an attempt to bring them into compliance with ''Brown v. Board of Education''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Area Schools Named in Suit|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uqofAAAAIBAJ&pg=673%2C1792349|work=Gadsden Times|date=July 15, 1968}}</ref>

Schools in Eufaula remained segregated by race until the fall of 1966 and the first blacks graduated with the senior class of 1967.<ref name=first>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ytwiAAAAIBAJ&pg=4209%2C5989077|title=No Incidents at School's First Integrated Prom|work=The Tuscaloosa News|date=May 22, 1991}}</ref>  After integration began the school stopped sponsoring social events, such as [[prom]]s<ref name=first/> although unofficial segregated events were still held.  By 1990, students at [[Eufaula High School (Eufaula, Alabama)|Eufaula High School]] had begun pressuring school officials to allow them to hold integrated proms, and the first such was held in 1991 without incident.<ref name=first/>

===Other recent history===

In 1963, the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] created [[Walter F. George Lake]] (unofficially named Lake Eufaula) behind the lock and dam of [[Fort Gaines, Georgia]], once again assuring Eufaula's importance as an [[inland port]].

In the early 1960s, the [[United States Coast Guard]] set up an Aids to Navigation Team in Eufaula that is still active today servicing from [[Columbus, Georgia]], to [[Apalachicola, Florida]], and the Flint River.

In 1964, the [[Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge]] was established along Lake [[Walter F. George]] to serve and protect many endangered and threatened species such as the American [[bald eagle]], the [[American alligator]], the [[wood stork]] and the [[peregrine falcon]].  The refuge is a major [[tourist]] attraction for visitors from around the country.

On March 3, 2019, a tornado hit the city as part of a [[Tornado outbreak of March 3, 2019|larger tornado outbreak]].<ref>[https://www.dothaneagle.com/eufaula_tribune/news/tornado-causes-major-damage-to-eufaula-airport-industrial-park-no/article_b02b607c-3e14-11e9-9ee8-170edce7bc06.html "Tornado causes major damage to Eufaula airport, industrial park; no injuries reported". ] ''Eufaula Tribune''. March 3, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.</ref> On March 31, 2020, another tornado struck the city. There were no reports of fatalities or injuries.<ref>Fuentes, Carmen (March 31, 2020). [https://www.wtvy.com/content/news/Eufaula-tornado-runs-through-neighborhood-569268011.html "Eufaula tornado runs through neighborhood"]. ''WTVY.com''. Retrieved April 2, 2020.</ref>

Eufaula has never had an African American mayor. Jack Tibbs Jr. won his third term as mayor in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wtvy.com/2020/08/25/candidate-profile-three-candidates-in-eufaulas-mayoral-race/|title = CANDIDATE PROFILE: Three candidates in Eufaula's mayoral race}}</ref>