The Indians were there long before the white man dreamed his dreams of a land of opportunity.

The Muscogee Indians were called Creeks by the English traders because they lived and farmed around the many streams and rivers. It’s unknown exactly when the Creeks first arrived. They may have come as early as 800 A.D. with a continued migration over the Rockies for two centuries.

The Creek Indians were a North American Indian people who formerly occupied land along the waterways of present day Georgia and Alabama.

There were two groups of Creek Indians. Some were friendly and actually lived in and around the fort, while the other groups were hostile and of warrior type, known as the Red Sticks.

They hunted and fished freely, undisturbed for centuries, before the white man ever set feet on the fertile soils. The land was abundant, food was plentiful, the air fresh, and the flowing streams, unpolluted. There was very little sickness.

There was a time when Talladegans never looked beyond the point where their sunny skies bent to kiss their grand old mountains.

Then, the first explorers came ashore, bringing with them, disease and sickness which the Indians had never known and their history was changed forever.

De Soto marched into Talladega, the Spaniards were gaily arrayed, some in armor, and all bearing swords and guns. The Indians were in such awe that they fell into their marching lines.

Many of the first settlers in Talladega County were already prosperous when they arrived, bringing their families and slaves from South Carolina, Georgia, and other states in America, leaving their vast lands and memories behind, rejoicing to the news they had heard of the opportunities and prosperity in the new territory, called Alabama.

Talladega County was created by an act of the Alabama General Assembly on December 18th, 1832, from land ceded by the Creek Indians. It was located near the geographic center of the state, in the Coosa River Valley.

STOCKDALE, ALABAMA
A Town Almost Forgotten

In the late 1800s, Stockdale Plantation, Stockdale Lane, Stockdale Station, Stockdale Highway, Stockdale Baptist Church were household names in Talladega County.

Stockdale was a small community with a post office, a railroad depot, Stockdale Baptist Church and a farming community.

Although, the name disappeared from the state map sometime between 1960 - 1963, it bordered Munford and Anniston. Today, the old Stockdale plantation address is known as being in Munford. But many people who live in the area still consider it Stockdale.

On the Alabama map up until 1960, when I last researched it, the name Stockdale appeared on the map. The L&N Railroad ran down the middle of Stockdale Plantation, dividing it on both sides of the highway.

OUR MOUNTAIN HOME:

News through Our Mountain Home newspaper editor and proprietor, John Williams and how he left a mountain of information through his writings in his weekly newspaper is proof of the prosperity, organization of a town called Talladega. I am grateful for his interesting stories of events of Talladega.

STREETS OF TALLADEGA:

The is A detailed description of how the streets were laid off and named. After a selection was made to lay off a public square and streets, and have the lots surveyed and numbered, an election was held.

SOME PEOPLE OF TALLADEGA:

The Stockdales, Williams, Mallorys, Skaggs, Binghams, McCains, God fearing, church going people, were only a handful of these hardworking people who moved to Talladega after 1840. Their lives, social activities, and daily problems, were not much different from today, except for the time.

CIVIL WAR:

The Civil War was about the civil rights of a human regardless of his race, color or creed and the emancipation. The emancipation Proclamation was a proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War, declaring all “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, then, in rebellion, shall be then, thence forward, and forever free.”

The states affected were enumerated in the proclamation; specifically exempted were slaves in parts of the South then held by Union armies. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation marked a radical change in his policy; historians regard it as one of the great state documents of the United States.

LIFE AND DEATH OF JEFFERSON DAVIS

On February 18th, 1861, Jefferson Davis takes the oath of office as President of the Confederacy. Confederates officers captured and sent to northern prisons. These are only a handful of the historical events that took place in a critical period of history in America.

DEATH OF TWO PRESIDENTS:

President Lincoln had a premonition of his death in a dream.
The last day of Jefferson Davis was a sad day for the South.

DIARY OF A PRISONER ON JOHNSON’S ISLAND:

Another chapter of interest is the Diary of Maj. J. L. Stockdale, in 1863 to 1864, whilst a prisoner at Johnson’s Island Lake Erie. It was taken from the original diary that was left behind at the time of his release. It tells of the existence of life on Johnson's Island and the inhumane treatment at the prison camps as never published before. It corresponds with the daily accounts taken from the Talladega Watchtower and Our Mountain Home newspapers.

ABOLISHMENT OF SLAVERY:

The Abolishment of slavery in the south was a critical period which is written in the history books by professionals more qualified than myself, so I will not elaborate on this subject matter, but simply highlight this period, in an attempt to tie in what the Civil War was basically all about.
Even with the enormous expansion of slavery, about 75 percent of white southerners did not own slaves.

AFTER THE WAR:

Another remarkable time in history was the cotton industry after the Civil War. The early 1900s, thirty five years after the civil war, Talladega and the people who lived there were still prospering in spite of the adversity through the war-torn years and abolishment of slavery.