Editing Demopolis, Alabama (section)

===American settlement===
[[File:Bluff Hall 01.jpg|thumb|[[Bluff Hall]] in 2008]]
[[File:Rooster Hall.JPG|thumb|Rooster Hall in 2010. Built in 1843 as the Presbyterian church, it served as the county courthouse from 1868 to 1871.]]
[[File:Gaineswood by Highsmith 007.jpg|thumb|Nathan B. Whitfield's [[Gaineswood]] in 2010, built from 1843 to 1861 on what was then the outskirts of town.]]
[[File:Glover Mausoleum in Riverside Cemetery 01.JPG|thumb|The [[Glover Mausoleum]] 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.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

The commissioners were responsible for overseeing the site survey, lot sales, and the early operations of the town. The commissioners laid off the site into streets, blocks, and lots, with a block of roughly two acres divided into eight lots. [[Demopolis Town Square]], encompassing one city block, was established in 1819. The first lots were sold beginning on April 22, 1819. When Count Desnouettes died in 1822, Allen Glover was appointed to replace him. As other commissioners retired, they were succeeded by David E. Moore, William H. Lyon, Thomas McGee, and George N. Stewart.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

The streets were laid off using a [[grid plan]], with the city of Philadelphia as a model. The original streets running north–south were named for trees, such as Ash, Cedar, Cherry, and Chestnut. Exceptions were made for Commissioners, Strawberry, and Market (now Main) streets. Several short north–south streets were also named for commissioners, such as Desnouettes, Earle, Glover, Griffin, and McGee. The east–west streets were named for national and local heroes, as well as commissioners, such as Childress, Fulton, Gaines, Lyon, Monroe, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Jackson. Most streets were designed to be {{convert|66|ft|m}} wide. A strip of land that remained public property, for the use of all, was the land adjoining the Tombigbee River. This extended from where Riverside Cemetery is today, to the southwest of the city proper, to the Upper Landing in the north, with Arch Street following the route along the top of the cliff. Only the portion of Arch Street adjacent to the cemetery remains intact.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

Some flaws and limitations of the original town plan became apparent by the late 1820s and 1830s. The typical town lots, at {{convert|75|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|150|ft|m}} deep, were not conducive to construction of the stately homes desired by the more prosperous residents. Some grand mansions were completed by the late 1820s. One of the first was the brick {{frac|2|1|2}}-story [[Federal architecture|Federal]]-style Allen Glover house at the foot of Capitol Street. It was one of the, if not the first, neoclassical structures to be built in Marengo County. Glover built [[Bluff Hall]] (1832) for his daughter, Sarah Serena, and son-in-law, [[Francis Strother Lyon]].<ref name="peoplescity"/>

The town plan was also lacking a clearly defined business district, resulting in commercial and residential buildings mixed together all over town. As development shifted, some areas became blighted because of less desirable uses. Some stores opened around the town square, however, and warehouses started to appear adjacent to the town's three major river landings, Upper Landing, above the modern Demopolis Yacht Basin and Marina; Webb's Landing at the western terminus of Washington Street; and Lower Landing to the west of Riverside Cemetery and the Whitfield Canal.<ref name="peoplescity"/><ref name="gnis1">{{Gnis|137596|Demopolis Upper Landing}}</ref><ref name="gnis2">{{Gnis|157225|Webb's Landing}}</ref><ref name="gnis3">{{Gnis|137595|Demopolis Lower Landing (historical)}}</ref>

By the 1830s Demopolis had developed into a regional commercial river hub, attracting American and European-born craftsmen and merchants, including the Beysiegle, Breitling, Breton, Dupertuis, Foster, Hummell, Kirker, Knapp, Marx, Michael, Mulligan, Oberling, Rhodes, Rudisill, Rosenbaum, Schmidt, Shahan, Stallings, and Zaiser families. Numerous [[List of plantations in Alabama|plantation]] owners also established townhouses in the community or on its outskirts, including the Allen, Ashe, Curtis, DuBose, Foscue, Glover, Griffin, Lane, Lyon, McAllister, Prout, Reese, Strudwick, [[Tayloe (disambiguation)|Tayloe]], Whitfield, and Vaughan families.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

But Demopolis was not dominated by a homogeneous elite planter class, as happened in other towns of the region. During these years and in the future, the river trade also brought numerous people with a desire for raucous entertainment. This created a profitable and brisk trade for those operating taverns and did much to earn early Demopolis a reputation for decadence.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

During the 1840s many of the streets laid out by the town fathers had yet to be opened to traffic. The town council focused attention on clearing the intended streets and opening them to traffic, making other street improvements, and building wooden sidewalks along major thoroughfares to lift pedestrians above the mud. The council also approved measures to protect trees in the common areas and streets.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Several town ordinances were enacted in 1842 to restrain the [[History of slavery in Alabama|enslaved]] African-American population. They were prohibited from selling or purchasing any article or commodity from or to a slave without written permission from their master or overseer. No slave was allowed to purchase alcohol without written consent; if any slave were convicted of assault upon "any white man, [[negro]], or [[mulatto]]", the owner would be fined $50; any slave caught running "any horse, [[gelding]], or [[mule]]" through town would be subject to fifteen [[flagellation|lashes]] unless the owner paid a fine of $1; any slave caught driving any wagon or cart or driving a horse or mule on or across the sidewalks of the town would be subject to 10 lashes, unless the owner paid a fine of 50 cents.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

The robust, frontier river town did not support the orderly organization of churches. A group of [[United Methodist Church|Methodist]] ministers who convened nearby in 1843 said that Demopolis was "wholly irreligious".  [[Mainline Protestant]] churches were slow to take root; no churches were built in Demopolis until 1840. Prior to that time, various denominations met in a log assembly house on the town square. It was torn down in 1844. A [[Baptist]] group was established in the 1820s but disbanded due to a lack of support. The [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]] established a congregation in 1834, but did not build Trinity Episcopal Church until 1850. A [[Presbyterian Church (USA)|Presbyterian]] congregation was established in 1839 and completed its first church in 1843, a brick structure on the town square. The Methodist congregation was established in 1840 and completed its first building in 1843.<ref name="peoplescity2">{{harvp|Smith|2003}}</ref>{{rp|6–8}}

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, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]]. It was switched to being supported by a church in [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]] in 1880. They met in a small frame church and private homes until 1905, when the current Saint Leo the Great was built.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

The Jewish congregation, [[Temple B'nai Jeshurun (Demopolis, Alabama)|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.<ref name="MSJEOVER">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/main_al.htm |title=Alabama |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities |publisher=Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life |access-date=October 5, 2010}}</ref> They initially met in homes and businesses until eventually building a [[Moorish Revival architecture|Moorish Revival]]-style temple in 1893.<ref name="peoplescity2"/>{{rp|6–8}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Marengo County Heritage Book Committee |title=The heritage of Marengo County, Alabama |pages=34–46 |location=Clanton, Alabama |publisher=Heritage Publishing Consultants |year=2000 |isbn=1-891647-58-X}}</ref>

By the 1850s several palatial [[steamboat]]s were visiting the town as a regular stop on the [[Mobile, Alabama|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.<ref name="peoplescity5">{{harvp|Smith|2003|pp= 16–19}}.</ref>

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.<ref name="peoplescity"/>

A circular [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]]-style [[amphitheater]], complete with a [[battlement|crenelated]] roof-line, was completed in 1859 north of town in Webb's Bend at the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds and its buildings covered approximately {{convert|20|acre}} and hosted a variety of events until the outbreak of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name="peoplescity6">{{harvp|Smith|2003|pp= 73–74}}.</ref>

By 1860, the population within the town limits had grown to approximately 1,200 people.<ref name="peoplescity2"/>{{rp|339}} The town began to attract new entertainments, such as musical and dramatic performances, concert artists, lecturers, circuses, and carnivals.<ref name="peoplescity4">{{harvp|Smith|2003|pp= 105–156}}.</ref>