Aigleville, literally translated as Eagle Town, was a town on the

Black Warrior River The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles (286 km) to the Tombigbee River, of which the ...

in Marengo County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States that is now a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

. The settlement was established in late 1818 by former

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Bonapartist Bonapartism () is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In ...

s and refugees from

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

, as a part of their

Vine and Olive Colony The Vine and Olive Colony was an effort by a group of French Bonapartists who, fearing for their lives after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Bourbon Restoration, attempted to establish an agricultural settlement growing wine grapes and oli ...

. It was named in honor of the

French Imperial Eagle The French Imperial Eagle (, ) was a figure carried into battle as a standard by the ''Grande Armée'' of Napoleon I during the Napoleonic Wars. Although they were presented with regimental colours, Napoleon's regiments tended to carry at their ...

, the standard used by the

Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, and is now within the city of

Demopolis Demopolis is the largest city in Marengo County, in west-central Alabama. The population was 7,162 at the 2020 census. The city lies at the confluence of the Black Warrior River and Tombigbee River. It is situated atop a cliff composed of th ...

History

The Vine and Olive colonists, numbering more than 300 people, discovered in early 1818 that their first town at

did not lie within the land grants given to them by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and moved one mile (1.6 km) east to this site. There they built pioneer-style

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

s on their town lots. These were described by a visiting Treasury Department official as having

hewn In woodworking, hewing is the process of converting a trunk (botany), log from its rounded natural form into lumber (timber) with more or less flat surfaces using primarily an axe. It is an ancient method, and before the advent the sawmills, ...

log walls with plank or

puncheon Puncheon may refer to: * Puncheon (barrel), a container for wine and/or spirits * Puncheon or plank road, a road built with split logs or heavy slab timbers with one face smoothed, also used for flooring or other construction * Puncheon rum, a ty ...

floors and measuring from to . Each settler at Aigleville owned three separate

land lot In real estate, a land lot or plot of land is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the sam ...

s. These included the town lot, a garden lot (called a small

allotment Allotment may refer to: * Allotment (Dawes Act), an area of land held by the US Government for the benefit of an individual Native American, under the Dawes Act of 1887 * Allotment (finance), a method by which a company allocates over-subscribed ...

), and a farm (called a large allotment). The town lots commonly ranged from to , the small allotments ranged from less than to , and the large allotments ranged from to . The most prominent colonists also owned the largest allotments. These included Honore Bayol, Jean-Marie Chapron,

Benoît Chassériau Benoît Chassériau (also known as Benito Chassériau or Chasserieux; 19 August 1780 – 27 September 1844) was a French diplomat, French spy and Minister of the Interior of Cartagena, Colombia,‘Indiana University Publications: Social science s ...

, Jean-Simone Chaudron, General

Bertrand Clausel Bertrand, Comte Clauzel (; 12 December 1772 – 21 April 1842), was a French soldier who served in the French Revolutionary Wars, Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic wars. He saw service in the Low Countries, Italy, Haiti, and Spain, wh ...

, Colonel Jean-Jerome Cluis, Charles DeBrosse, General Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes, Édouard George, Auguste Follin, Marc-Antoine Frenage,

Joseph Lakanal Joseph Lakanal (14 July 1762 – 14 February 1845) was a French politician, and an original member of the ''Institut de France''. Early career Born in Serres, in present-day Ariège, his name was originally ''Lacanal'', and was altered to ...

, General

Charles Lallemand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

and his brother Henri-Dominique Lallemand, Michael LeBouttellier, Bazile Meslier, Stephen Nidelet, Colonel Nicholas-Simon Parmentier, Guillaume Promis, Jean Penieres, Frederic Ravesies, Count Pierre-François Réal, General Antoine Rigaud, Francis Stollenwerck, Francois Teterel, and General

Dominique Vandamme General Dominique-Joseph René Vandamme, Count of Unseburg (; 5 November 1770, in Cassel, Nord – 15 July 1830) was a French military officer, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. He was a dedicated career soldier with a reputation as an excell ...

. A few of these men, such as the Lallemand brothers, never lived in the colony. They remained elsewhere and eventually sold their allotments. With the failure of the colony at large, Aigleville was a largely abandoned by the late 1830s. Despite this, General Lefèbvre-Desnoëttes' house was noted as still standing during a governmental resurvey of the area in 1842. The site was heavily forested by the early 20th century. This gave way to open land with industrial usage during the later half of the 20th and into the 21st century, under its ownership by a local

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

plant.

Demographics

According to the returns from 1820–2010 for Alabama, it has never reported a population figure separately on the U.S. Census. Aigleville has since been annexed into Demopolis.

References

{{Marengo County, Alabama Populated places established in 1818 Ghost towns in Alabama Populated places in Marengo County, Alabama Vine and Olive Colony French-American culture in Alabama