Mobile Stories
from the month of
JULY
Fourth of July
1866
The quiet of the town on Wednesday was not disturbed. Most of the citizens in the morning went on in the usual routine of their business but towards evening many of them shut up their shops and stores, as though their hearts responded to a desire to give some respect to the illustrious dead body of the Declaration of Independence. It was a tender tribute to the memory of the past.
New Orleans Times, July 8, 1866
1898
Hurricane of 1916,
July 5th - 6th
Steamship Charles E. Cessna washes ashore in
Mobile after 1916 Hurricane
SNAKES in MOBILE , July 5, 1888
About half-past 10 o’clock Sunday night an upward-bound car of the Frascati line had just reached the corner of Conti Street, when screams were heard and a commotion was seen to exist on board the car. The men on board appeared to be as excited as were the ladies and were apparently engaged in fighting with umbrellas and walking canes. Presently the cause of the trouble was discovered in the shape of a moccasin snake, two feet long, which had somehow found its way upon the car, and had begun to crawl around in an uncomfortable manner. The snake was haunted out, killed and thrown in the roadway. Then the car moved on.
It must be said that Mobile is a most dangerous city to attempt to live in in its present primitive condition and strangers, especially those from seaport towns, like Pensacola, should avoid it. In New Orleans after a heavy rain it frequently happens that an aged darky picks up a festive conger eel from the gutters. That is a sport. In the wilds of Mobile no one is safe. There are vicious reptiles in every street and snakes at every corner. When a Mobile man says he sees snakes there is nothing to laugh at. He sweats with terror until his neighbors see the same snakes. Where it will end the Lord only knows.
Daily Picayune, July 5, 1888
Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Born in Mobile
July 7, 1906
Clotilda Lands, Captives Arrive in Mobile, July 9, 1860
From the Journal of Captain William Foster,
Mobile Public Library Digital Archives
July 9th went ashore, gave a resident twenty-five dollars for horse and buggy to take me to Mobile. There I got a steam tug to tow schn [schooner?] up Spanish river into the Ala. River at “Twelve Mile Island.” I transferred my Slaves to a river steamboat and sent them up into the canebrake to hide them until further disposal. I then burned my schr. to the water’s edge and sunk her.
​
July 9th. When anchored off “P. of P.” Miss. The mates and crew did not want me to leave the vessel until they were paid for voyage and said they would kill me if I attempted to take the negroes ashore without their money. Capt. Tim Meaher and party were to have met me there for the purpose of landing negroes, and pay the crew off, and I had made arrangements with the mates and crew, to take the vessel to Tampico and change her name and get clearance for New Orleans – the parties failing to meet me in time, compelled me to come up to Mobile. I hired a tug and went to the vessel to tow her up to Mobile into Spanish River and crew refused to let me have her because I didn’t have time to get the money to pay them. I came back to Mobile and took on board the tug five men and $8,000 dollars, landed at vessel 9 p.m. Went aboard and settled with them according to my first arrangement in Mobile.
​
We put the mates and crew on steamer and sent them to Montgomery on their way to the northern states.
Mobile Bears Return to Hartwell Field
Southern Association Baseball in Mobile
1908 - 1917 Sea Gulls
1918 - 1931 Bears
JULY 14, 1944 Bears Return to Mobile from Knoxville
1944 - 1961 Bears
Anniston Star, July 9, 1944
Mobile Journal, July 14, 1944
Knoxville Journal, July 15, 1944
Eight- Mile-An-Hour Speed Limit Enforced
July 22, 1908
Montgomery Advertiser, July 23, 1908
Issues of Urban Slavery, Justice and Domestic Tranquility
Mobile County Court Report, July 30, 1846
​
Elizabeth Humphreville asks for a divorce from Joseph D.Humphreville, who, she asserts, has never contributed to her support and has been nearly all the time since their intermarriage a great burthen; For the past five years, he has treated her in a most cruel barbarous and inhuman manner. By her own industry, she acquired two slave women, Polly and Ann, worth about four hundred dollars each. Now her husband has abandoned her to live with one of her slaves.
A twenty-six inch alligator was caught at 50 N. Julia St. Sunday afternoon, well within the downtown residence section. No one has been able to account for the saurian’s presence. He will be given to the Catholic industrial gardens tomorrow.
​
Times Picayune, July 27, 1914
​