cahabaachaelogdocs.htm

.
Links to Some
Archaeological Documents
related to the town of
Cahawba, Dallas County, Alabama
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1860 Payment Note to H. I. F. Coleman Dry Goods, Cahaba

Account Statement, 1861, J. P. Fulks & Co., Dealer, Cahaba

Billhead Order, 1906, Kirkpatrick General Merchandise, Cahaba

Cahaba Land Grant from Pres. Jackson's administration to George B. Augustus on 14 Nov 1833

Sundown in Old Cahaba
Thomas Chalmers McCorvey
from Alabama Historical Poems by Thomas Chalmers McCorvey
Birmingham Publishing Co., Birmingham, AL, 1927

A silence dense as that which broods above
The barren rock where stood Phoenician Tyre
Lies on the cotton fields of old Cahaba
Which cradled once the infant government
Of a now mighty State. Still as of yore
Cahaba's limpid waters glide and blend
With lordly Alabama's yellow tide.
Along their homeward path, where oft there rolled
Grand carriages of state, the jaded mules
With flopping ears and jangling plow chains go,
Be-stridden by their dusky Afric guides.
The scurrying rabbit with his cotton tail
Against the brown earth draws a streak of white;
And far in sedgy grass is softly heard
The quail cock's love call to his hiding mate.
The bull bats wheel and dive for their evening meal
Of lagoon-bred mosquitos; while hungry gars
With sudden strikes upon the river's breast
Send circling waves ashore. From gnarly trees
The slowly dipping sun gaunt shadows casts
Which lengthen out into the evening dusk
And from the swamps the hooting owls proclaim
The melancholy, peaceful close of day.

While stars creep out along the horizon's rim
A spirit pageant from the past appears.
From out the night upon the selfsame site
The long dead pioneer city breathes again,

And through its veins the lusty love of life
pours its red tide. In gala day attire
The people crowd upon the river's bank
To greet the nation's guest, great LaFayette,
Who, from Montgomery's welcome, now fares on
To view the bivouac of the new-born State.
Where river willows droop their lower limbs
And lave their leaves, a band of Indian braves,
Be-painted and be-crested all, stand mute,
In staunch dugouts, and gaze in deepening awe
To see the "fire boat" come around the bend.
Upon its deck the hero-guest appears,
Bold and erect in soldier form as when
He shut the British in the Yorktown trap.
Proud at his side strong Israel Pickens stands--
Whose statecraft shaped the work the Bibbs began--
And as the boat rounds to, the frontier guns
Glad welcome roar; and from the eager throng
That lines the river's bank a mighty cheer
That wakes its echoes from Cahaba hills
Be-speaks the city's joy.

................................................The gang plank drops,
And as it grates upon the soil, the pall
Of long gone years falls on the fading scene
And leaves Cahaba to her cherished dead
And the proud history which they had wrought.