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History of Childersburg
Childersburg, Alabama
is proclaimed as the Oldest Continually Occupied City in
America.....dating to 1540. The city's beginnings date back to Coosa, a
village of the Coosa Indian Nation that was located in the area.
Hernando DeSoto, Governor of Cuba and Adelantado of Florida, accompanied
by an army of six hundred men, began his march across the Southeastern
section of North America in June, 1539. Traveling from Espiritu Santo,
known now as Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida, northward through
Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and then into Alabama, his men began
their desperate search for gold and other riches unequal to any of those
found by others in this new wild land of North America. DeSoto’s
expedition was in what would become the State of Alabama, having
discovered it "not by sea, but after dangerous and difficult marches."
Following
seven days of slowly marching down the bank of the Tennessee River,
DeSoto entered the town of Coste on July 2, 1540. From Coste the
expedition proceeded to Tali also located on the Tennessee
River and then to the banks of the Coosa River. The middle of July saw
DeSoto and his expedition
reach the mighty empire of the great Coosa. On July 16, 1540, the vast
army of Spaniards arrived at the town of Coca Coosa, located on the east
bank of the river between the mouths of two creeks, now known as
Talladega and Tallaseehatchee. The twenty-six year old Chief of the
Coosas came out to receive DeSoto . .."bourne in a litter on the
shoulders of his principal men . . . surrounded by many attendants
playing flutes and singing." For approximately a month, these
travel weary invaders enjoyed the hospitality of the youthful chief and
his tribe, even receiving an offer of a region of land to establish a
Spanish colony. After offering many reasons for not accepting, DeSoto
and his men left the Coosa in August of 1540.
The report of the
DeSoto Commission, U. S. Congress, House, Final Report of the United
States DeSoto Expedition Commission, 76 Congress, 1st Session, 1939,
House Executive Document Number 71 which was chaired by John R. Swanton
offers telling evidence of DeSoto’s route through Georgia, South
Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. Swanton and other members of the
commission stated irrevocably that the site of Coca was noted to be the
area in proximity to the present town of Childersburg, Alabama. Dr.
Walter B. Jones, Secretary of the DeSoto Commission and noted Alabama
geologist, has written many articles in support of the
commission's conclusion.
Over a period of
approximately two hundred fifty years, explorers, conquistadors,
traders, and pioneer settlers penetrated the vicinity of what today is
known as Childersburg, Alabama. This area, so rich in Indian lore and
artifacts, abounding in culture
and traditions, and substantiated by much written documentation, can
support its claim to being the "oldest continuously occupied town in the
United States.
Compiled by Judy M. McSween
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