Ordinances Adopted and Fines Levied

From "Selma; Her Institutions, and Her Men" by John Hardy, pub. 1879:

At the election on the first Monday in April 1832, R. H. Crosswell, S. F. Jones, Gilbert Shearer, Hugh Ferguson and R. N. Philpot were elected councilmen, Gilbert Shearer was elected Intendant by the Council James Douglas elected Clerk, Tax Collector and Treasurer, Wm. Huddleston Constable, and T. P. Ferguson, overseer of reads and streets. A contract was made with the Southern Argus, Cante & Bunnell, proprietors to do the printing of the Council for the year for fifteen dollars. An ordinance to prevent bathing in the river within three hundred yards of the ferry, under a penalty of one dollar, was adopted. The road overseer was ordered to clean out Selma street form Broad to Church street. Another public well was dug at the crossing of Alabama and Broad streets. An ordinance was passed on the 8th of May 1832, to suppress vice and immorality, providing among other things, that the doors of all places of business should be kept closed on Sunday, and that any one who is caught drinking liquor on Sunday should be arrested and fined. At that time, it is said, there were only about two men in Selma who did not visit "McKeagg‘s" every Sunday. The Council itself was divided upon the question and it was with only one vote majority the ordinance was adopted. The consequence was there was no election for town officers on the first Monday of April, 1833, as the law provided, nor was there an election in 1834, during which time the town "run itself." and upon a pretty fast schedule at that.

The Legislature, however, having amended the act incorporating the town in some respects, among other things changing the day of election; on the 3d day of January 1835, an election was held at the house of Gilbert Shearer and John Simpson, which resulted in the election of T. P. Ferguson, Robert H. Crosswell, Wm. Tredwell, John Simpson and Gilbert Shearer as Councilmen, who organized by the election n of Gilbert Shearer, Intendant, Henry Traun, Clerk and Treasurer, and Stephen J. Elliot, town constable. A committee, composed of John Simpson and T. P. Ferguson to collect up all the books a papers belonging to the town of Selma, and to settle with James Douglas, the last Clerk, was appointed. Mr. Douglas delivered all the books and papers in his possession, and reported that he held sixteen cents of the town’s funds. An ordinance was adopted re-enacting all former ordinances, and James Douglas, was appointed overseer of the roads and streets. John Simpson resigned his membership of the Council, and James Cante was elected to fill the vacancy. Henry Traun, as Captain of the patrol company, returned Hugh Ferguson, W. H. V. Franklin and Adam Taylor as defaulters, for not performing patrol duty, who were fined by the Council one dollar each, which they paid. James Hall was fined two dollars for obstructing Franklin street, between Water street and the river bluff, by offering crowds of negroes for sale.

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