Pickensville "Pickensville is the oldest and most prominent of old towns. First called Boomtown, then Pickens, and incorporated as Pickensville in eighteen and thirty-five, it was the first county seat. It grew into a flourishing village. It was at its heyday during the riverboat days. The first postmaster was Aleck McCarter, appointed postmaster in eighteen and thirty-one. At one time the village had three prominent doctors: Dr. Hill, Dr. McMichael, and Dr. Morehead. Later Dr. Gauss, and Dr. Wilkins ministered to the sick. Five attorneys practiced law there at one time. It boasted of two hotels, the Prude House and the Pickensville Hotel, which advertised the best food this side of Mobile. And an old newspaper tells that one day the Pickensville Hotel had guests registered from Mississippi, Texas, Mexico, Louisiana, Tennessee, Vienna, and Fairfield. There were two busy saloons in Pickensville, and activity there equaled that in Dodge City. The old newspapers blamed crimes and deaths on whiskey. As one reads of the shootings and fights in Pickensville in those days, they can easily see why there were so many attorneys. The five in Pickensville must have been kept busy.
In eighteen ninety-nine Pickensville went dry because there were so many complaints from the two churches that the saloons were moved one mile north of town, and the boats were required to close their bars if they were in five miles of the city limits. The three drugstores licensed to sell drugs in Pickensville were Wilkins and Long, T. Stringfellow, and Dr. R. E. McMichael. Other businesses were Pulliam's, Peterson's, Spragin's, Nance, Ivey's, Stinson's, Henley and Bush, and Long. The first mayor of Pickensville was Captain Newell, a riverboat captain. When he died in eighteen forty-three the people wore black crepe on their arm for thirty days. Captain Newell also organized a military company in the county, and on October third, eighteen forty, he ordered his chief of staff, J. T. Stinson, to have Beat Company Number Two appear on the parade ground for drill and inspection. They were ordered to come armed with guns suitable for manual exercise.
In eighteen forty-two an ad appeared in the Pickensville Register asking for bids on the Methodist Church. It was to be built thirty-four by forty-six and elevated two feet above ground. The building committee was made up of Darby Henley, James Stinson, A. P. Bush, J. M. Cameron, and B.B. Bell. In eighteen forty-seven the Pickensville Baptist Church was received into the Association. Prior to that time most of the citizens of Pickensville had attended services at Big Creek, which had been established in eighteen twenty-nine. In eighteen, the Pickens, in eighteen and forty the Pickensville Register with Dr. D. W. Lyles as proprietor began publication in Pickensville. It was moved to Carrollton in eighteen forty-five, where competition with the Pickens Republican forces it out of business. The Pickens Republican had as its editor Nelson F. Smith. In eighteen eighty-one, a news not.., another newspaper, the Riverside Press, began publication in Pickensville, but lasted only two years. In all, Pickensville had five newspapers: the Pickensville Register, the Pickensville Journal, the Pickensville Courier, the Riverside Press, and the Pickens County Press.
Pickensville Female Institute was built in eighteen forty-seven; Darby Henley donated a two acre site. Subscribers such as Dr. A. M. Wilkins, A. P. Bush, James Stinson, J. J. Lee, James Chalmers, and William Ferguson financed the building. Tuition at that time ranged from a dollar and fifty cents to three dollars, depending on what class the child was in. Board was ninety dollars for a session, and this included room, fuel, lights, and meals. Prior to this time the Masons had organized in Pickensville, and the cornerstone to the school was placed with Masonic honors. In eighteen fifty-six the enrollment was nearly one hundred young ladies, with fifty-eight boarders. The young ladies were required to wear uniforms: dark green in winter, pink and white in summer. Students came from all parts of west Alabama and east Mississippi.
Many people traveled by boat back then, and when the boats landed, and often there would be three or four a day, a crowd would gather at the landing. People traveled from one village to another to visit friends and relatives or to attend to business. Many traveled to Mobile, to sell their cotton, settle up their bills, and buy supplies for another year. Some went to Mobile and on to New Orleans for a taste of city life. A round trip from Pickensville to Columbus by boat, with your meals furnished only cost one dollar and fifty cents.
Skating rink came to Pickensville. People came from miles around to skate. It caused much excitement. People came from Vienna, Fairfield, and Memphis, and rode the boats to Pickensville just to skate. For two bits one could get a black eye, a cracked rib, a broken hip, and even embarrassment.
Dr. Whitely, a celebrated Mexican tooth-puller, made an annual trip to Pickensville, staying two days each time. He pulled the teeth with his naked fingers, and guaranteed scarcely any pain, but did not guarantee how much blood would be lost.
I want to mention one of the old-timers who made the history of Pickensville interesting: Captain Stephen P. Doss, who came here in eighteen eighteen with his bride. Having married in Tuscaloosa Elizabeth Miles who was a granddaughter of General Edward Lacy, a Revolutionary soldier. They were the parents of Edward, the first male child born in Pickens County. Captain Doss served with General Harrison in eighteen eleven. He fought in the battle of Tippicanoe, and was the last survivor. He drew a pension for his services in the War of 1812, and after the war was in charge of seven keelboats which ran between Nashville and New Orleans. After the battle of New Orleans he took a keelboat from New Orleans to Mobile, the second to ever land there. He later ran keelboats on the Black Warrior River, up as far as Tuscaloosa. The Captain and Mrs. Doss had a large family. They had seven sons in the Confederate army at one time. One son served as the colonel of the Fourteenth Mississippi Regiment. For over half a century he was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church.
Tape 3-4,Old Homes, Early Schools, Mr. Kelley's Home, Reconstruction
In eighteen sixty-two Big Creek held a memorial service for five members at one time. The dead were John E. Gordon, John Thomas Jones, James Israel Seaman, James Harris McGraw, and Hansford Duncan Jones. In July of eighteen sixty-two, the McShan family received a letter from Richmond. This letter told them that their son William had been killed in the battle there. It listed others from Pickens County killed in the same battle: Ashford Morgan, Alonza Going, Thomas Taylor, James Seaman, John Sanders, Thomas Jay, and Josiah Steward. The Stewart family received a letter from a Mrs. F. H. Caine, telling them that their son Josiah Stewart had died after being wounded on June the twenty-seventh. She described his wounded and wanted them to know that he received every attention and kindness that was in her power to bestow upon him. She said she closed her eyes in death. Such messages arrived almost daily, as practically every home lost a loved one. A copy of this letter is in the hands of Mrs. T. E. Stewart, Carrollton, Alabama, at this time."
