Autaugaville in Autauga County: Incorporation Dates Disputed, Population Under 1,000

Autaugaville faces a basic historical puzzle that has practical consequences for town planning and preservation: one authority reports the town incorporated in 1839, while another cites 1907, and neither source in the public excerpts resolves the discrepancy. The ambiguity matters in a community of under 1,000 residents that sits along Alabama State Route 14 roughly 14 miles west of the county seat Prattville and markets itself as a mill and river community.

The town’s 19th century industrial record is concrete in several places. The first settler arrived around 1820 and built a gristmill and sawmill on Swift Creek about three miles upriver from the Alabama River. A cotton mill opened in 1849 on Swift Creek, and Alabama Historical Commission material attributes a Planters Cotton Factory operating on Swift Creek in 1850 that grossed $107,000 and was featured in De Bow’s Review. By 1851 the town reported a population of 351, four stores, two churches and two schools; downtown was seriously damaged by fire in 1853 and rebuilt, and a two-story hotel advertised as the Autauga House served stagecoach routes between Montgomery and Selma.

Historical records diverge on local newspapers, complicating a clear timeline. The Encyclopedia of Alabama states “Autaugaville's first and only newspaper, the Autauga Citizen, also began publication in 1853, existing until 1873.” Alabama Historical Commission files instead list an Autauga Mercury edited by L.D. Bloom in 1853–1854 and a second locally initiated paper begun in 1856 that lasted only a few years. That contradiction illustrates why the incorporation date conflict needs archival follow up in county or state records.

Today the town operates under a mayor/city council form of government and has a 2020 Comprehensive Plan that sets specific land-use and economic priorities. The plan instructs that “Commercial Land Uses. Should be located in the core of Autaugaville along Highways 14. Strip patterns of commercial development should be strongly discouraged in favor of development patterns with visually pleasing layouts and architectural elements.” It adds, “In this way Autaugaville can preserve and in some instances reestablish the small-town atmosphere that is so strongly valued by her citizens,” and recommends coordinating support for existing businesses through Town leadership and the Prattville-Autauga Chamber of Commerce.

The Comprehensive Plan supplies hard figures for current land use: institutional land use accounts for approximately 137 acres or 2.76 percent of the town’s land area, with the largest institutional pockets north of Highway 14 near Town Hall and Autaugaville School; recreational land use is about 166 acres or 3.33 percent. Named public facilities in the plan include Fitzpatrick Arena and the Autaugaville Fire Station. The plan also documents local economic continuity: Autauga Farming Company, established in 1919, is a multi-generational farm in Autaugaville that still farms cotton and other crops.

Preservation priorities intersect with these planning goals. Alabama Historical Commission documentation identifies the Autaugaville Commercial Historic District at 2402-2416 Dutch Bend Street and 226 North Pickett Street as eight resources - seven buildings and one cemetery - that include a bank, two grocery stores, a general merchandising store, a service station/general store, a doctor’s office and a residence; the file notes an altered shotgun house omitted from the district that “should be added.” As Autaugaville balances agricultural ties, a compact commercial core on Highway 14 and recreational acreage, resolving whether incorporation dates to 1839 or 1907 will anchor restoration grants, zoning precedents and the legal record that underpins preservation and economic development decisions. The town’s documented past from Swift Creek mills to a 20th century farming company makes that legal-historical clarity a practical priority for planners and officials.