History of Village Point
A Brief Historical Timeline of our Park's Lands
1702 - Old Mobile was established near St. Stephen's. French colonists were clustered on both sides of the bay in outposts where they had farms and cattle. One such outpost grew sizably by the second half of the century into The French Village - now known as Daphne.
1763 - End of the French and Indian War. The British rule Mobile Bay and Ft. Louis is renamed Ft. Charlotte.
1766 - There are about 17 plantations, 124 people and over 2,000 head of cattle in and around The Village.
1770 - Dominique D'Olive arrives in Mobile Bay from France.
1780 - Spain takes Mobile from the British.
1781 - Bloody Revolutionary War battle at The Village* as Britain attacks a Spanish garrison but loses and retreats to Pensacola. (*Some believe this battle was further north at Spanish Fort.)
1787 - Dominique D'Olive receives Spanish land grant for this property. He continues to live in Mobile but has an overseer to manage the farm and cattle on the Eastern Shore.
1803 - The US acquires the Louisiana Purchase. Dominique D'Olive dies at age 64 and is buried at the Cathedral in Mobile. His son Louis manages the family plantation and builds the La Belle Rose Hotel on Mobile Bay, but possibly does not move his family onto the plantation until near the time of the Creek Indian War.
1813 - Ft. Mims Massacre and Creek Indian War bring danger to Mobile Bay residents. The D'Olive Plantation is attacked.
1814 - William Yancey (1799-1896) was born in Tennessee where he resided until 1810. He left with his father to travel to New Madrid, a Spanish post on the Mississippi River where both enlisted in the U.S. Army. From there, as a drummer boy, he proceeded to New Orleans later traveling to Mobile. When he was mustered out of service, he then settled in Baldwin County choosing The Village as his home. It is his family's story that in 1814 General Andrew Jackson, along with his soldiers, left Mobile to capture Pensacola, crossing the Mobile Bay on their way. At The Village, they stopped for food under a large oak tree covered in moss. He then proceeded with his men to Pensacola where they captured Pensacola with little difficulty. Today that same oak is known as "Jackson's Oak."
1819 - Alabama becomes a state. Fort Morgan is built (1819 - 1834). Louis D'Olive and his uncle, Turner Starke, make most of the bricks used to build Fort Morgan and ship them from Starke's Wharf.
1820 - Census shows 25 people living on the D'Olive Plantation.
1836 - Map shows only five (5) structures at The Village.
1841 - Louis D'Olive dies at age 68.
1865 - Union troops march across D'Olive property near current Scenic Highway 98 after landing at Starke's Wharf then proceed to Blakely. Louis's sons J.L. and Mederick served in the Confederacy.
Historical Points of Interest in Village Point
The Village
The Village, just above Daphne, Dr. H.H. Holmes says, “As far back as history reaches we have stories of the Indians who roamed the woodlands of what is now Alabama and of their meetings just north of the Daphne of today. It was there that the Tensaws, the Alabamas, and later the Choctaws, the Creeks and the Seminoles, were to meet and plan, in their respective ages, the relationships of their tribes. It was there that the French in the days of Fort de la Mobile reconnoitered and planned for their overland trips to Fort Toulouse and other mountain fortresses from Quebec to the Gulf. …. It was there that the Spanish Cavaliers bivouacked, as they journeyed to Spanish Fort, only a few miles to the north. It was there that Andrew Jackson held his last council prior to marching upon Pensacola. It was there that a little city with homes of comfort, well laid out streets and lawns, where pioneer settlers dwelt, was built beside the sea a hundred years ago. It was there that Farragut’s men landed the troops to join and re-enforce those who marched overland to capture Spanish Fort and Blakeley just to the north. It was there that yellow fever, more than a hundred years ago, laid waste those happy homes. And it was there than an old city lies obliterated by the passing of the century.”
Jackson's Oak
The Historic Village Point Park Preserve is home to one of the largest and most historic live oaks in Alabama. This giant tree, which is now over 95 feet tall, with a circumference of over 28 feet, was a landmark in the eighteenth century and shown as a survey line marker in the original Spanish Land Grant survey map of 1787. How did Jackson’s Oak get its name? According to local traditions, General Andrew Jackson made a speech to his troops from one of its massive limbs while he was en route from Pensacola during the War of 1812.
Protection and preservation of this magnificent live oak is a top priority of the City of Daphne and the Village Point Foundation. An observation platform was carefully constructed around the tree to offer an excellent view and to provide protection from pedestrian traffic, which research has shown would eventually compact and erode the soil, causing root damage to the tree.
D'Olive Cemetery
This burial site dates back to the early 1800s, making the D’Olive family the oldest recorded family in Daphne and one of the oldest in Baldwin County. There are several graves remaining in the cemetery dating back to the 1800s with headstone inscriptions in French. It was customary to bury on one’s own plantation, often these silent reminders are all that is left to tell the story of the early pioneers.
The entirety of the D'Olive Cemetery is roughly one acre, The family section was originally surrounded by a wrought iron fence with a gate bearing the family name. It is unknown how many people were buried in this cemetery, as many are unmarked. The fence and gate were vandalized and stolen years ago.
(Birth records of the Catholic church show Louis' birth as February 15, 1773, and not 1769 as on the marker.)
An inscription reads “IN MEMOIiY OF LOUIS D'OLIVE, Born 1769 Died 1841 and his wife LOUISA LE FLEAU, Born 1782 Died 1841. Both natives of Alabama this stone is erected as a token of filial Love”.
The oldest marked grave is Mary Blue, a neighbor who died in 1826. She was married to Major Uriah Blue, an officer who served with General Andrew Jackson. Uriah was born in Kentucky around 1776 and married Mary around 1818. When they married, he was 42 and she was 28. In 1820, Blue resigned his commission and relocated to Baldwin County where his campaign had brought him during the Creek Indian War. Their home was built along the bay's bluff just south of the D'Olive Plantation.
A Brief History of the D'Olive Family
Dominique D'Olive came to the Mobile area from Toulouse, France around 1770-1771 during British rule. He was around the age of 31 and lived on Mon Louis Island south of Mobile at the home of his future father-in-law, whose oldest daughter, Dominique married. He farmed and raised cattle with his father-in-law and later invested in land of his own. D'Olive received a Spanish Land Grant for the Eastern Shore property in 1787. He never lived on the property, which was most likely run by an overseer. His family spent some summer months at the plantation and Dominique acquired adjoining land as it became available. Upon his death, his oldest son Louis took over managing the family plantation. Louis built a hotel there, La Belle Rose. There were about 1,200 acres accumulated by this time.
The French and English were at war, and the War of 1812 between America and the British was raging. Following, there was the massacre at Fort Mims during the 1813-1814 Creek War. Sometime between 1813 and 1814, the family history claims Louis moved his family to the D'Olive Plantation. During this period, Indians plundered several plantations, includinq the D'Olive’s. The overseer and three slaves were forcibly taken to Pensacola. All the D'Olive hands were released by the Spanish there and returned to the D'Olives. On another occasion, Louis himself was taken along with a slave "and carried across the county" but Louis and his slave escaped. It was after this time that Andrew Jackson and his forces marched to Pensacola to expel the British and the Red Sticks. Besides raising crops and cattle, Louis operated a sawmill and a brickyard. In 1830, the census shows Louis D'Olive's family living there with eighteen slaves and one free servant making twenty-five total residents. Louis died in 1841 and is buried in the plantation cemetery.