1818

1818 was 53 years before the founding of the City of Birmingham and one year before Alabama became a state.

Events

• January 19: The first Alabama Territorial Legislature went into session at St Stephens.
• February 6: Tuscaloosa County was established.
• February 7: Blount, Cahawba and Shelby Counties were carved out of Montgomery County by the Alabama Territorial General Assembly.
• April 18: Ebenezer Hearn began preaching at Bear Meat Cabin and founded Bethlehem Methodist Church at Rutledge Springs.
• September 5: Canaan Baptist Church was organized at the Isaac Brown residence in Jonesboro.
• November 20: St Clair County was established.
• Bear Meat Cabin Road was improved as a federal trade route.

Individuals

• Daniel Davis moved to Alabama Territory.
• James Hamilton became Shelby County Sheriff.
• Hosea Holcombe came to Alabama Territory.
• Ninian Tannehill settled in Roupes Valley.

Births

• February 3: William C. Eubank, Jefferson County Sheriff
• February 6: Joseph Riley Smith, surgeon, newspaper publisher, merchant and developer of Smithfield.
• May 26: Josiah Morris, majority owner of the Elyton Land Company and co-founder of Birmingham
• August 25: John Westbrook, entrepreneur
• Duncan McLaughlin, fourth white child born in Jefferson County
• Jesse Pearson
• Frank Pfaffenschlaeger, Civil War veteran and musician
• Thomas Rowan

Context

In 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published. Chile proclaimed its independence from Spain. Congress passed legislation specifying the flag of the United States have 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state. Brooks Brothers opened its first men's clothing store. The Treaty of 1818 between the U.S. and the United Kingdom establishes the northern boundary as the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Illinois was admitted as a state. The music for "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber. The first Farmers' Almanac was published.

Notable births in 1818 included abolitionist Frederick Douglass, political philosopher Karl Marx, composer Charles Gounod, astronomer Angelo Secchi, novelist Emily Brontë, and physicist James Prescott Joule. Notable deaths included patriot Paul Revere and Emperor Egwale Seyon of Ethiopia.

1810s

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