12. Establishing Phenix City.

12. Establishing Phenix City.

In June 1832, local entrepreneur Daniel McDougald and Robert Collins from Macon paid $35,000 for the one square mile grant directly across the Chattahoochee from Columbus that the Treaty awarded to mixed blood Benjamin Marshall. They published in the newspaper that they intended to sell lots in a town created on the falls “for milling and manufacturing purposes.” Early in its existence the community was called Sodom. This became Girard, then eventually Phenix City, Alabama. A second town, Brownsville, was located to the north of Girard, and Brownsville was renamed Phenix City in 1883. From its early frontier status, the city evolved in the later part of the nineteenth century as a bedroom community for mill laborers who crossed the bridge each morning to work at the Eagle and Phenix Mill. Girard and Phenix City were consolidated in 1923 and retained the name Phenix City
Wiygul, L. 2009. Encyclopedia of Alabama: Phenix City. [online] Available at: http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2133 [Accessed:12 Mar 2014].

Plan of the City of Girard, Russell County, a Detail View.  (Courtesy Columbus State University)