Editing Autauga County, Alabama (section)

==History==
Autauga County was established on November 21, 1818, by an act of the [[Alabama Territory|Alabama Territorial]] Legislature (one year before Alabama was [[Admission to the Union|admitted]] as a State). As established, the county included present-day Autauga County, as well as [[Elmore County, Alabama|Elmore County]] and [[Chilton County, Alabama|Chilton County]]. At the time, [[Autauga (tribe)|Autauga]] (aka, [[Tawasa (tribe)|Tawasa]]) [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] lived here. They were concentrated at ''Atagi'' (meaning "pure water") village  situated on the banks of a creek by the same name (called "Pearl Water Creek" by settlers); it is a tributary of the [[Alabama River]]. Other scholars suggest the [[Muscogee language|Creek]] word ''atigi'', meaning "border," as the source of the name Autauga.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Read |first1=William A. |title=Indian Places Names in Alabama |date=1984 |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=9780817302313 |page=6 |edition=2nd |url=https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817302313/indian-place-names-in-alabama/ |access-date=1 September 2024}}</ref>

The Autauga were a band of the [[Alabama (people)|Alibamu]] tribe, and named after their geographic location. The Alibamu eventually were absorbed into the Creek Confederacy. During [[Andrew Jackson]]'s invasion of the area during the [[Creek War]], as part of the War of 1812, the Autaga sent many warriors to resist. The county was part of the territory ceded in 1814 by the Creek Confederacy in the [[Treaty of Fort Jackson]].

The territorial legislature designated the first county seat as [[Jackson's Mill, Alabama|Jackson's Mill]], but the court met there only briefly, choosing to select a permanent seat at [[Washington, Alabama|Washington]]. The new county seat was built on the former site of Atagi village in the southeast corner of the county. With population growth more in the west of the county, the county seat was moved to a more central location at [[Kingston, Alabama|Kingston]] in 1830. Losing business and residents to the new county seat, the town of Washington dwindled until it was completely deserted by the late 1830s.

[[Daniel Pratt (industrialist)|Daniel Pratt]] arrived in Autauga County in 1833 and founded the new town of Prattville, north of Atagi on the fall line of Autauga Creek. His [[cotton gin]] factory quickly became the largest manufacturer of gins in the world; it was the first major industry in Alabama.

Pratt financially backed the recruitment at his factory of men for the [[Prattville Dragoons]], a fighting unit for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. It was organized in anticipation of the [[United States Civil War|Civil War]]. Other units formed in Autauga County included the Autauga Rifles (Autaugaville), The John Steele Guards (western Autauga Co.) and the Varina Rifles (northern Autauga Co.). None of the fighting of the Civil War reached Autauga County. Pratt was able to secure payment of debts from Northern accounts soon after the war, lessening the disabling effects of the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] period in the county.

Immediately after [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]] in early 1863, [[Charles Atwood (Alabama)|Charles Atwood]], a freedman who had formerly been enslaved by Daniel Pratt, bought a house in the center of Prattville. He became one of the founding investors in Pratt's [[South and North Railroad]]. It was exceptional for an [[African American]] to become so economically successful and prominent, and to own land in an Alabama city in this period.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1866 and 1868, the legislature established [[Elmore County, Alabama|Elmore]] and [[Chilton County, Alabama|Chilton]] counties from Autauga County. The county seat was newly designated as Prattville, which was the population center of the redefined jurisdiction. A new courthouse was completed there in 1870 by local builder George L. Smith. In 1906, a new and larger courthouse was erected a block north; it was designed in a modified [[Richardsonian Romanesque]] style. The building was designed by Bruce Architectural Co. of [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]] and built by Dobson & Bynum of [[Montgomery, Alabama|Montgomery]].