Alabama was not designated by Congress as a formal territory of the United States until 1817, but thousands of white settlers of all economic classes began to pour into the area well before it achieved territorial status and continued to do so all the way into the 1850s. In search of fertile land on which to grow crops, these people were accused of having “Alabama Fever.” They came mostly from the southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Thomas Bibb (1784–1838), scion of a prominent Georgia family, was among the early Alabamians in search of landed wealth. In 1811 he settled near the Tennessee River in what became Limestone County, established a cotton plantation, and later built a mansion called “Belle Mina.” His older brother William Wyatt Bibb (1781–1820) came to Alabama six years later, but he was no ordinary settler.
William had already achieved fame and distinction before he came to Alabama. A graduate of William and Mary College and the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, he began practicing medicine in Elbert County in northeastern Georgia in 1802, but he soon engaged another career for himself in politics. William was elected to the US House of Representatives from Georgia in 1806 at the age of twenty-five and was twice re-elected. In 1813 he was elected by the Georgia legislature to fill an unexpired term in the US Senate. William voted for an unpopular bill in the Senate raising congressional salaries, and the resulting backlash against him in Georgia was so great that he resigned his office, followed his brother to Alabama, and resumed his political career. His connections in the nation’s capital won him the appointment as Alabama’s territorial governor in 1817.
William came first to the territorial capital at St. Stephens in Washington County, but he acquired an extensive estate in Autauga and Elmore Counties in central Alabama. He had close relationships with other Georgia settlers who came to central Alabama, and together with former Georgians in the Tennessee Valley they created a powerful political base to support his ambitions. His political opponents referred to him and his allies as the “Royal Party.” An astute behind-the-scenes politician, the governor overrode a recommendation of a commission that the state capital be located at Tuscaloosa and successfully got the territorial legislature to agree to locate the future capital at Cahawba instead. This decision infuriated settlers in the northern part of the state who wanted a more centrally located state capital.
In 1819 Alabama was admitted to the Union and adopted one of the most democratic constitutions in the nation. Governors would be chosen every two years by a vote of the people. Those who believed that William had unfairly treated them in the dispute over the state capital were determined that he would not become the state’s first governor, and Marmaduke Williams of Tuscaloosa emerged as William’s opponent. William was also linked to wealthy interests that had passed legislation lifting any limit on the
amount of interest that could be charged for loans in the state, which irritated the state’s small farmers. In the hot election campaign that followed, he was accused of aristocratic tendencies, but he managed to win a little more than 53 percent of the vote in Alabama’s first gubernatorial election.
The governor of the new state worked to solidify the hold of Cahawba on the state capital and called for spending on both education and improved transportation, but he did not live long enough to see his dreams come to fruition. In July 1820, while at his Autauga County plantation, William was severely injured in a fall from a horse, and he died a few weeks later. The 1819 Constitution provided
that the president of the state senate, who happened to be Thomas Bibb, would succeed a governor who died or was otherwise unable to continue in office.
Thomas had not been particularly ambitious to hold a political office and was more interested in the success of his plantation and business investments, but William’s allies had supported Thomas’s election to the state legislature, making him presiding officer of the senate. Thomas made it clear that he would not seek election in 1821, and he simply served out the remainder of his brother’s unexpired term. At the conclusion of Thomas’s term in office, he returned to his plantation at Belle Mina in Limestone County, where he died in 1838.
The Bibbs had few achievements beyond the location of the first capital at Cahawba, and that decision would soon be reversed. Their connection to wealthy banking interests would eventually lead to the downfall of the “Royal Party” that had put them in office.
Photo Caption: William Wyatt Bibb (top) followed his younger brother Thomas (bottom) to Alabama, becoming the governor of the Alabama Territory and then the first governor of the new state. When William died in office as the result of a riding accident, Thomas, as president of the senate, succeeded his brother and completed his term. [Alabama Department of Archives and History]
This article was first featured in Alabama Heritage magazine Issue 115.
About the Author
Samuel L. Webb, a native of York, Alabama, holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law and a PhD in history from the University of Arkansas. He taught history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1988 to 2009 and is now an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama.
