Union Springs, Alabama

In the early 1800s, settlers from the Carolinas and Georgia received land grants and also purchased land from Indians, then settled the area and cleared forests for farms and plantations in what became the State of Alabama in 1819 and Macon County in 1832. African men, women, and children were brought there as slaves to tend fields, do carpentry work, work as brick masons, and serve in their owners’ homes, while merchants, cabinetmakers, carpenters, tavern operators, livery stable operators, physicians, lawyers, teachers, and ministers arrived to provide goods and services. On January 13, 1844, Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick signed legislation incorporating Union Springs in Macon County, and on March 13, 184, the first Intendant, William H. Waugh, and councilmen James A. Jones, August C. Hawkins, John B. Coleman, J. T. Coxe, Micajah N. Eley, Cicero Broome, and M. D. Farris were sworn into office by H. H. Smith, Justice of the Peace. After the War Between the States ended in 1865 and slavery ended, Bullock County was created on December 5, 1866, from parts of Macon, Barbour, Pike, and Montgomery Counties, and Union Springs was chosen as its county seat. County officials were elected, a jail and courthouse were built, new brick business buildings went up, railroads were routed through town, cotton warehouses were built, two cemeteries were designated, and two fire departments and schools were established. Between 1890 and 1910, an opera house, race track, street railroad, and banks were established, and electrical, water, sewage, and telephone systems improved quality of life, while large homes in various architectural styles reflected their owners’ success. Men and women of Union Springs served in all of the country’s wars and conflicts, and the city is known as the Bird Dog Field Trial Capitol of the World and as the only city in the United States that can say “Welcome to USA.”

Union Springs, Alabama · United States