Benjamin Moses Mordecai's father was Abraham Mordecai. Abraham was among the earliest white residents, and likely the first Jewish resident,
of what is now Alabama. Mordecai played a role in virtually all of the events
that shaped the Southeast, including the American Revolution, the War of 1812,
and the Creek War of 1813-14, and in Alabama's early statehood and economic
development. During his long life, he was variously a negotiator between the
Creeks and federal and state agents, a trader, a military guide and scout, and
an early founder of the cotton industry around Montgomery.
When Abraham Mordecai first
settled in Montgomery County in 1785, he was certain that he had discovered a
Lost Tribe of Israel. When he spoke to the Creek and Chickasaw people, he
fervently believed that one day he would understand their dialect, which he
assumed was a derivation of Hebrew.
Muccose, Old Mordecai, and the Little Chief, were among the
names given to Montgomery County’s infamous first white settler; but before he
was any of those he was simply born as Abraham in 1750, the son of Jewish
merchants in Pennsylvania. In his twenties, he served in the War for
Independence. At the war’s end, he ventured into the unsettled west of Alabama.
He worked along the Pensacola Trading Trail, running missions for trading
companies, and traveling with a horde of pack ponies. In 1785, Abraham
eventually came to the western bank of the Alabama River, previously untouched
by European settlers, where he established his solitary trading post in Creek
and Chickasaw territory. The local tribes were not immediately hostile to
Mordecai. They must have viewed him quizzically as he greeted them with a
hearty Shalom, expecting them to understand. Apparently, Mordecai thought he
recognized Hebrew words in the rituals of the Creek corn festival. He was
convinced they were praying to his very same God.
Mordecai lived with the Creek, Chickasaw, and Coosawda for nearly twenty years. He conducted trade in furs, hickory and nut oil, paddling his canoe as far as Mobile and New Orleans. He brought the first cotton gin to Alabama. Often, Mordecai acted as a liaison between the tribes and white settlements in the east, negotiating ransom for captives or trade deals. Though he lived in relative stability with the native groups, his time there was not without a skirmish or two. In an oft-recounted tale, Chief Towerculla of the Coosawda tribe appeared outside of Mordecai’s cabin with twelve of his soldiers one day in 1802. They were angry. In one version of the story, Mordecai had upset the tribe by trying to seduce an already married woman. In another, Mordecai had trampled over Coosawda corn fields, in an attempt to seize more land for himself. For whichever reason, Chief Towerculla and his soldiers surrounded him, pinned him to the ground, beat him with sticks, and cut off his ear. They also raided his home and destroyed the cotton gin.
He encountered more serious danger when he served with the
Georgia Militia during the War of 1812. Upon his return from that service, he
was immediately involved in the U.S. effort in the Creek War in 1813, acting as
a trail guide through Creek territory for Gen. John Floyd. Allied with the
traditionalist faction of the Creek Nation, Mordecai aided the federal troops
in tracking down members of the Red Stick faction who had participated in the
attack on white settlers and allied Creeks at Fort Mims on August 30.
Despite the occasional confrontation, Mordecai did live more or less peacefully with the local tribes, learning their language and customs. Eventually, he was successful in marrying an Indian woman. After the war, Mordecai returned to his trading store and continued to serve as a cotton broker until 1836, when the Creeks were forcibly removed from their land by the federal government. As a white man, Mordecai remained behind. Some reports indicate that his wife and an unknown number of children removed west to Arkansas and then Oklahoma. Other reports state that his wife had already died by 1836 and his children had moved from the area. In either case, Mordecai moved to Dudleyville, and opened a store there. A popular storyteller in the town, Mordecai was interviewed by a reporter from the Columbus Enquirer in 1843 about his life among the Creeks and his experiences in the Creek War.
During his final years, Mordecai lived simply in Dudleyville. In 1847, Albert James Pickett a journalist from Montgomery, discovered Mordecai in a remote mountain cabin near Dudleyville. Mordecai in his old age had become increasingly eccentric, having built his own coffin on the floor next to his bed. Relishing the company of another human being, he told Pickett all about his life as a trader living among the strange, lost tribe of Israel. Albert Pickett conducted extensive interviews with Mordecai during his research for his opus History of Alabama: And Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi from the Earliest Period. Pickett also published an interview with Mordecai in Montgomery's Flag and Advertiser that same year.
After that final interview, Mordecai died three years later at 99 years-old on August 25, 1850. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the Dudleyville Cemetery in the coffin he built himself. The Montgomery Evening News proposed the construction of a monument to the Little Chief, who they deemed “the cradle rocker of Montgomery’s infancy.” On July 4, 1933, the Tohopeka Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a granite marker on his grave in honor of his service during the American War of Independence that stands to this day.
- http://www.isjl.org/alabama-montgomery-encyclopedia.html
-http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3135
