Also at the Milledgeville land sales, General John Scott bought land adjacent to Dexter's and laid out the town of East Alabama. The two towns, of course, became rivals, the residents of Alabama Town derisively calling New Philadelphia "Yankee Town."
Finally, in 1819, the year Alabama became a state, the two towns merged and became the town of Montgomery on December 3.
While Montgomery County was named for Major Lemuel Purnell Montgomery, who was killed in 1814 at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, the town of Montgomery was named for General Richard Montgomery, who was killed in 1775 during the battle of Quebec in the American Revolution.
Peter A. Remson of New York passed through this area on his way
to make a new home in Mobile. On January 12, 1818, he wrote, "I
visited New Philadelphia, one mile back from the river. A high,
pleasant place and bids fair to flourish ... Lots sell in this
place for $50 to $150 per lot. It has 800 laid out and Mr. Dexter
is about to have grist and sawmills in operation shortly about
five miles distant." An article in the March 19, 1871, Montgomery
Advertiser, widely attributed to Wallace W. Screws, gives us some
insight into the life and character of Andrew Dexter. An article
written by Phil Holleran, an economics professor at
Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, is not nearly as kind to
Dexter. Both agree that Andrew Dexter was bom in 1779 in Rhode
Island. His was an eminent family, celebrated in Rhode Island and
other New England states from earliest times. Some of them were
remarkable for intellect and culture; others for success in the
financial and commercial world. Screws states that, "At a
suitable age, the founder of our city was entered at Dartmouth
College where during his entire college course he was the
class-mate of the great Daniel Webster. He frequently stated in
Montgomery that he was awarded at graduation the first prize
while Mr. Webster obtained only the second." Holleran, in his
article states it differently: "Shortly after graduating from
Brown University in 1801, Dexter went to work for his uncle at
the Treasury. In his later years, Dexter claimed to have
graduated first in his class, not at Brown, but at Dartmouth,
never failing to add that Daniel Webster had graduated second.
Apparently he thought his listeners would be more impressed with
a Dartmouth than a Brown education." Screws says that Dexter,
after graduation and possessing ample means, entered the
financial world. Failing to obtain a charter for a bank in
Massachusetts, he secured one in Rhode Island where his bank had,
for a time, a great degree of success. The bills, or banknotes,
of the Farmers' Exchange Bank circulated widely, even coming down
into the Southern States. The power of the bank was keenly felt
by other banking institutions in the country. Holleran paints a
much darker picture, as follows: On demand, these bank notes
could be exchanged for specie (silver or gold coins). Of course,
a bank could safely print more notes than it had specie to cover,
since not all the note holders would demand payment every day.
The more banknotes that a bank had in circulation in proportion
to its holdings of gold or silver, the more money the bank could
make. In 1808 Dexter built what was probably America's first
hotel. His Boston Coffee House was built at a cost in excess of
$500,000 and contained over 200 rooms. The hotel never succeeded
financially, and burned to the ground in 1818, uninsured. This
disaster probably convinced Dexter that he should stick to
banking. In a spirit of speculation, Dexter began printing vast
amounts of Farmers' Exchange bank notes. Dexter wrote his
cashier, William Colwell, on May 21, 1808, telling him to
discourage the redemption of banknotes. In the letter, Dexter
wrote that
the note holders who demanded their silver and gold "should be
plagued as much as possible, by detaining them as long as it will
naturally take to count all kinds of specie change, intermixed,
in the most
deliberate manner." Dexter received a letter from Colwell, the
bank's cashier in March, 1809 stating that "Our situation becomes
every day more disagreeable. The discontent and irritation among
the people is very great. We have been sued to-day, and our bank
is the topick [sic] of conversation through the country." On
March 24, the state closed the bank, at which time it was
discovered that the bank held only $86.48 in specie. The loss to
the note holders was $580,000, a huge amount at that time.
According to Holleran, the Providence Gazette of March 25,
1809, said that Andrew Dexter had "practiced a system of fraud
beyond which the ingenuity and dishonesty of man cannot go." In
their articles, both Wallace Screws and Phil Holleran agree that
to escape imprisonment for debt Dexter moved with his family to
Windsor, Nova Scotia. Eight years later, he appeared at the
Milledgeville Land Sales, as mentioned above, and bought the land
which was to become part of the City of Montgomery. According to
Screws, Mr. Dexter was not able to comply with the terms of his
purchase, but fortunately became acquainted with Mr. John
Falconer, who advanced the money. This is why the early deeds for
lots in New Philadelphia emanate from Mr. Falconer, who,
incidentally, became Montgomery's first Postmaster. Screws says
that "notwithstanding his rapid sales of lots at good prices Mr.
Dexter seemed to be continually involved in debts and lawsuits.
He was endowed with energy and perseverance combined with unusual
intelligence, but he was a visionary; too sanguine without a due
amount of business prudence and foresight. His calculations on
paper were splendid and convincing to him but he could not manage
to realize them in practice. Hence the major part of his grand
purchases of land now in our present city passed from his
possession with scarcely any lasting profit to him." Screws
states further that Dexter, disappointed here and smitten by the
"Texas fever" in 1833, visited the eastern part of Texas from
which he wrote back glowing accounts. Upon his return, he
resolved to dispose of the remainder of his real estate in this
city and try his fortune in that new country. He swapped off many
of his lots to merchants here for dry goods. He was overreached
in that trade by having old goods palmed upon him which had lain
on the
shelves for years. This last transaction about closed him
out financially. Both Screws and Holleran agree that Dexter was
arrested for debt in Mobile and died there in prison in 1837. The
location of his grave is unknown. Dexter was married to the
former Charlotte Apthorpe Morton, sister of governor Morton of
Massachusetts. She died on August 17, 1819, and was one of the
first burials in Oakwood Cemetery, part of the land for which had
been donated to the city by her husband. Her son, Andrew Alfred
Dexter, is buried by her side. Thomas McAdory Owen, in his
History ofalabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, states
that Andrew Dexter was born on March 28, 1779, in Brookfield,
Massachusetts, and died in Mobile, of Yellow Fever, on November
2, 1837. He does not mention that Dexter died in jail, while the
other writers do not attribute his death to any cause. Owen says
that Dexter inherited from his father's estate, in 1816, a
considerable amount of Georgia land script, which he turned into
the land comprising the site of New Philadelphia. Owen gives a
detailed acount of Dexter's illustrious ancestry, but mentions
none of Dexter's financial problems, nor does he mention the
crucial financial aid furnished by John Falconer in the laying
out of New Philadelphia.
The name of the wide avenue leading up to the Capitol was changed from Market Street to Dexter Avenue in his honor. There have been attempts in the past to place Dexter's statue in a public place. To date this has not happened.
Andrew Dexter was probably an intellectual, often ineffectual, dreamer, but he did found the City of Montgomery, he did give a portion of his land for a city cemetery, and he did have the vision to set aside the site of the present State Capitol. With a little luck, he might have become one of the more famous and wealthy citizens of early Montgomery.
