| Once a busy town with a population
of several thousand and bustling with business and commerce,
the area has since become overgrown by wilderness. At first
glance, only an old road-bed, and a few bricks scattered here
and there give any indication that a frontier town was once
located near the Hobuckintopa Bluffs of the Tombigbee River.
There are very few records that account for the activities
that took place at St. Stephens from its beginning in the
early 1800's to its decline in the late 1820's. Our goal for
this project is to gather information. According to George
Shorter, field archaeologist for the Expedition, "Sometimes
the absence of specimens tells us more about the activities
that took place than random artifacts can reveal. For instance
if we are excavating a structure and we don't find broken
ceramics, personal items and the like, then there is a possibility
that the structure was never occupied as a dwelling."
Much of the work we were doing would help to support George's
theories and eliminate the possibilities of what something
'might' have been.
Until now, there was only speculation about where the buildings
were located and how they might appear. After four weeks of
field research, we are able to confirm that a significant
structure, possibly two stories in height, built with the
finest materials of the day, was once located on the lot.
It had a brick patio laid in a herringbone pattern, columns
on the front and two doors leading into the entrance. The
glass windows were of the best quality, the walls were made
of plaster and the rooms were painted. The fine china was
made in England and shipped in from Mobile. Other evidence
leads us to believe that there are two more structures that
were located behind the building and they were occupied up
until the 1840's.
Walking through the woods along what would have been High
Street, the main avenue of commerce in St. Stephens about
185 years ago, one can see the remnants of the past exposed
on the dirt surface. Pieces of broken ceramics, glass, bricks,
nails and other hardware have made their way to the surface
during the four weeks as participants kicked up the dirt while
walking from camp to the archaeology site. "Its great
to have life back in that old town," said the park director
and sixth generation descendent of St. Stephens, Jim Long.
"Its been a long time since there were people living
on that ridge above the river."
The road was once lined with hotels, taverns, stores, businesses,
schools, a bank and even a newspaper. About a mile outside
of town there was horseracing track called the Pebble Spring
Jockey Club. The frontier town boasted a population of nearly
3,000 during its boom around 1819, but interestingly enough
there was not a single church among the structures. However,
there was a theater where church services were occasionally
held.
Long tells a story about a circuit rider preacher, Lorenzo
Dow, who came to the area in the early 1800's to preach Christianity
to the 'heathens' but he apparently was not very well received.
As the story goes, the rowdy townspeople became fed up with
his preaching and they tarred and feathered him and pushed
him out on a log raft to float down the Tombigbee River. According
to the legend, Dow cursed the town and said, "Bats and
owls will inhabit the city and pestilence will soon drive
the people from this place." Whether Dow's curse took
hold or not, no one knows, but St. Stephens did dry up and
now nearly 200 years later it's a ghost town with hardly even
a trace of where the buildings once stood.
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