Beat 15 of Clarke County, known since the mid 19th century as Mitcham Beat after an early pioneer family, covered the area from Satilpa Creek at Chilton Baptist Church on the east to Harris Creek east and north of Center Point on the west, and from Prospect on the south to Forestdale on the north, with its approximate center on Alabama Highway #154 where a side road leads to the forestry fire tower. In the early 1890's, during a time of turbulence throughout Alabama when men were often at cross purposes, a regrettable series of events called the Mitcham War culminated in August of 1893. Although reliable documentation is scant, a small group of men in or near Mitcham Beat reportedly organized as a band known as Hell at the Breech and was charged with a number of unlawful acts, including murder. A much larger group from across the county, afterward known as the posse or mob, organized, took the law into their own hands, and executed several members of the smaller group. Forces contributing to this regrettable chapter in Clarke County's history included the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, the advancing or crop lien system with sometimes extortionate mortgages on land, crops, and stock that obligated farmers to grow cotton, politics at both county and state levels, carpet-bagger land speculators, and a few hot-heads who disregarded or lost respect for law enforcement or took the law into their own hands.