1873 Jefferson County seat referendum

James Powell

The 1873 Jefferson County seat referendum was a county-wide referendum to decide whether to move the Jefferson County Courthouse and seat of government from Elyton to the newly-built city of Birmingham.

The referendum held on May 5, 1873, was initiated by James Powell, then president of the Elyton Land Company, over the objections of citizens of Elyton, who had recently renovated their courthouse and did not care to see the center of government and the attendant business moved to an infant upstart city, and to be doubly insulted by contributing their taxes to pay for the move.

By law, Jefferson County Sheriff James T. Eubank organized the referendum, but Powell was a far more visible orchestrator. Reconstruction-era laws allowed residents to vote from any precinct. Powell arranged for special trains to bring masses of voters, many of them newly-enfranchised former slaves, to Birmingham. He met the crowds at the depot in front of the Relay House and then led them, on horseback, to the proposed site of the new courthouse on 3rd Avenue North where he had provided an enormous barbecue feast. A rumor circulated that Powell, dressed in military regalia and waving a saber in the air, was General Grant himself.

The result of the election was overwhelmingly in favor of Birmingham. The new courthouse was completed in 1875.

References

• Caldwell, Henry M. (1892) History of the Elyton Land Company and Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham: Elyton Land Company