Side 1
Abram Mordecai
1755-1849
Born October 24, 1755 in Pennsylvania; settled 1783 in Georgia where he became a successful trader among the Cusseta Indians. First U.S. citizen to settle (1785) in what became Montgomery County. Living and marrying among the Creeks, he established a trading house for skins, furs, and medicinal barks two miles from Line Creek. Alabama historian A.J. Pickett visited him in Dudleyville in 1847. Fiercely independent to the end, he died and was buried there two years later.(Continued on other side)
Side 2Mordecai's Cotton Gin
Alabama's First
(Continued from other side)In 1785, Abram Mordecai, a Jewish veteran of the Revolutionary War, settled in this area which was still Indian country. On the Alabama River near here in 1802, he installed a cotton gin manufactured by Lyons & Barnett of Georgia. Until Indians burned his equipment, he ginned his own cotton and that of his Indian neighbors. His gin, the first in Alabama, was the forerunner of those that sprang up after the Territory was formed in 1817 and pioneers with "Alabama Fever" rushed to claim the fertile soil. The restored Old Alabama Town gin is typical of those operated until the early 20th century.
Comments 0 comments