For those who are interested, the John Wayne movie, The Fighting Kentuckians was set in this location.

The following information was taken from:

History of Alabama 1540-1900

as recorded in diaries, letters and other papers of the times

by Lucille Griffith,(deceased), Professor of History, Alabama College,

pp.47-40,p>Colonial Press, Northport, Alabama, 1962.

THE VINE AND OLIVE 'COLONY

Most settlements in early Alabama were typical of the American frontier. The French colony at Demopolis however, is a colorful exception. A group of Bonapartists, fearing for their lives after the fall of Napoleon, sought refuge in the United States. Congress granted them 92,160 acres of public land on the Tombigbee River. The settlers were to pay $2.00 per acre within 14 years time. In 1818 the first refugees arrived from Philadelphia via Mobile aboard the McDonough. A total of 347 were granted a quantity of land. The principal portion of the French grant lay in Marengo County but some of it was in Greene, including some very good lands around Greensboro. The French had great difficulty about their locution, and finding their settlement on land other than their own, three times had to move from theirclearings.

The colony was a failure from the start. The French were unable to grow either vines or olives ill ally profitable way. Furthermore, they were continually annoyed by American settlers who settle(l on their lands with no legal right. Gradually the French settlers returned to France, moved to Mobile, or joined relatives in New Orleans until by 1830 there were few of the original families left in the Demopolis area.While it lasted, the colony had been a bright spot in the wilderness. A.J. Pickett describes the happy French "in the midst of their trials and vicissitudes.Ó ÒBeing in the habit of much social intercourse, their evenings were Spent in conversation, music, and dancing. The larger portion were well educated, while all had seen the world, and such materials were ample to afford elevated society. Sometimes their distant friends sent them wines and other luxuries, and upon such occasions parties were given.... The female circle was highly interesting. They had brought with them their books, guitars silks, parasols and ribbons, and the village . . . resembled at night a miniature French Town." A. J. Pickett , History of Alabama (Sheffield, Alabama, 1896), 663. Pickett used information he gained from conversationswith George N. Stewart of Mobile who had been secretary of the French Vine Company.Two accounts about the vine and olive colony are given here. The first (a) is from a report of William L. Adams agent of the treasury department, dated February, 1827, and shows what was being done toward cultivating vines and olives. The second (b) is a letter from Frederick Revesies, "agent of the Tombeckbee Association, dated at Aigleville, February 27, 1827, explaining why the French had not carried out their part of the agreement. Both passages are quoted in Gaius Whitfield, Jr., The French Grant in Alabama (Montgomery, 1904), 348-350.

(a)

From my own examination, and the best information I could obtain, there are seven thousand four hundred and fourteen acres cultivated in vine, corn, cotton, small grain, etc . The quantity of land planted and cultivated in vine within the four townships granted is two hundred and seventy-one and one-half acres, and the manner of planting the vine is by putting the vines ten feet a part in one direction and twenty the other, and fastening the vine to a stake put in the ground for that purpose, of a size and height to suit the vine.The plantings are in their cotton fields, and are cultivated in the same manner as their cotton is. The number of olive trees planted within the four townships granted has been three hundred and eighty-eight, some of them about six years ago and the latest three years since. Two hundreds were imported, and perished on the way, and twenty-five thousand have been planted. The tree perishes with every winterÕs frost, but puts up fresh shoots in the spring, which also perish with the succeeding winterÕs frost; and I feel confident in the belief that the tree will not succeed in this climate.

(b)

It will be recollected that the members of our association were chiefly composedof officers and merchants, possessing an extremely limited knowledge of either the science or practice of agriculture; that the region of countrywhich they were to remove was a perfect wilderness; and, under circumstances like these, it is to be expected that very many unforeseen and unexpecteddifficulties would present themselves; and as the common necessaries andmeans of support must he obtained before an entrance could be made upon the principal object of the association (the culture of the vine), we have, in many instances, been obliged to neglect the performance of our contract, and yield to the more immediate and pressing demands upon our industry for a bare competency and support. Many of the grantees, unfortunately for themselves, came prematurely to their lands, they came to the trackless desert or country, almost impervious to the approach of man, without a road or passway; consequently, the means of transportation to their particular allotments of land was so impracticable and expensive that many persons upon their arrival were compelled to settle, temporarily, on their small allotments around the town of Aigleville, where their funds were exhausted and they became unable to make a second settlement upon their large allotment .The surveyors report of these lands will exhibit the difficulty of passing through the country, their notes showing that for many days they could not proceed more than 2 or 3 miles per day.Many of us were obliged to pay as much as four or five dollars per bushel for corn, and a proportionate price for many other articles of provisions, which prices were very frequently doubled by the difficulties of transportation to their residences. 40 or 50 dollars have often been paid for a cow and calf, which can now be purchased for 8 or 10 dollars. Thus commenced our strangers to the language, the manners, and habits of the people of this country, we have been greatly retarded from making the rapid progress which perhaps the citizens of the United States would have made.

ln addition to those natural difficulties under which we labored, we had other and more serious ones to encounter: for upon almost all that part of our grant which was the easiest to settle and cultivate, the squatter, who is the pioneer of all new countries, settling a new country, at once became hostile to our claims, and sternly refused possession to the grantees, in some instances denying the right of the emigrant and in many others threatening the most violent and determined vengeance upon any person who would interfere with his settlement. From these circumstances many were deterred coming to their lands and in many instances those difficulties exist until this day, there having been as yet but one decision upon the subject, which was in 1825, which judged to the grantee the right of possession and entry, but many continue wrongfully to hold our lands, and refuse possession.

Again many of the allotments, from their natural locality, being within the prairie country, admit of no settlement, on account of the impracticability of procuring water, many having dug a great depth unsuccessfully; these still remain unsettled and unimproved. I further will remark that for several years the colony was remarkably unhealthy, scarcely a family escaped sickness, and many of the grantees died. These, sir, are some of the reasons why failures have occurred in regard to the conditions of settlements, etc. You willnow permit me to mention some of the causes which have produced the failure in the condition relative to the vine; and here some of the same reasons present themselves that have been previously statedÑthe necessity of first acquiring the means of subsistence; the difficulty and length of time required in preparing and clearing land for that, that the 7 years had nearly elapsed before this was accomplished; yet very early importations of the vine were made long before the time necessary for planting them. But a large quantity of those first imported arrived out of season; and when we consider the lateness of the season in Europe when the cutting must be taken, and the early time at which they must be planted here, it will be seen that any delay in the arrival of vessels must prove fatal to the vines, and they will arrive out of due season. Many more vines have been shipped in due time, and had they all safely arrived, those would have been more than requisite to comply with the condition of the contract, upon all of the allotments, by the time required. All that have arrived alive have been carefully planted, and none wasted; as evidence of which they sold at first for 25 cts. a piece, then twelve and a half, and the last year at six and a quarter cents. A great number died after planting, owing as we believe to the newness of the soil on which we were obliged to plant. The vine required old land which we have not; and at first, not knowing the cause, the result was discouraging. Those planted in older soils grew better, and are not so apt to die. Again, many kinds of the vine have been imported which do not succeed in this country, and it is but very lately that we are enabled, in some degree, to ascertain the quality and kind of vine best adapted to this climate. At this time the great question seems to be the proper mode of cultivation, and, instead of seven, perhaps seventy years may be required to ascertain this fact. This will be readily conceded when it is known that in France, in many places, the mode of cultivation is radically different on opposite sides of the same river or mountain, and on differently situated in the same country. Your excellency is well aware how many years, nay centuries, Europe has requiredto obtain this experience and perfection. We can assert that from our own , experience, seven years are not sufficient to enable us to cultivate the vinesuccessfully in an old country, and much more so in a wilderness.