Jefferson, Alabama

32°23′8.88″N 87°53′53.41″W / 32.3858000°N 87.8981694°W / 32.3858000; -87.8981694CountryUnited StatesStateAlabamaCountyMarengoElevation233 ft (71 m)Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)ZIP codeArea code334

Jefferson is an unincorporated community in Marengo County, Alabama, United States.^[1] It is the birthplace of sculptor Geneva Mercer.^[2]

Demographics

Historical population

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1870	233		—
1880	204		−12.4%
U.S. Decennial Census[3]

Jefferson appeared on the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Censuses. In 1870, it reported 233 residents. Of those, 143 (61%) were black and 90 (39%) were white.^[4] Racial demographics in 1880 were not reported. These were the only two occasions on which it appeared on census records.

History

It was founded in 1810, before Marengo was a county or Alabama was a state. Most of the original settlers were veterans of the American Revolution, including John Sample, John Gilmore, and Reuben Hildreth.^[5] The village was named Jefferson in 1820, after Thomas Jefferson, and that year saw the first church established.^[5] The population had reached 200 people by 1860 and the village contained two dry goods stores, one drugstore, a male and a female academy, a Masonic Lodge, a hotel, two tanneries, a wagon shop, and a blacksmith shop.^[5]

Geography

Jefferson is located at 32°23′09″N 87°53′53″W / 32.38580°N 87.89817°W / 32.38580; -87.89817 and has an elevation of 233 feet (71 m).

Historic sites

• Jefferson Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places on 13 December 1976.

Further reading

• Angela McMillan Howell. Raised Up Down Yonder: Growing Up Black in Rural Alabama (University Press of Mississippi; 2013) 224 pages; an ethnographic study of high school students in fictional Hamilton a pseudonym for the community near Jefferson and John Essex High School.

References