Jonathan Coggswell Farley
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Montgomery's First Election

Jonathan Coggswell Farley, also, Montgomery's First Election. . Side A Jonathan Coggswell Farley 1798-1864. Farley acquired two lots on this site in 1817. Here he built both the town's first frame store and first frame two-story building, his house. In Farley's store, an election was held January 3, 1820 to create Montgomery's first governing body. Farley and three others were named in an act of the Alabama General Assembly to conduct and manage this first election., Farley was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1798. About 1816, he sailed from Portland, Maine to the port of Mobile then proceeded to Ft. Jackson (Toulouse) to establish a trading post. Coming to Montgomery, he opened the town's second store. Her served as foreman of the first Grand Jury and, later, moved to a plantation outside of town near Cross Keys., The town's first newspaper, The Montgomery Republican, also occupied the store., Side BMontgomery's First Election January 3, 1820. At this site, in Jonathan Coggswell Farley's store, an election was held to establish Montgomery's first government. The Alabama General Assembly, meeting in the capital at Huntsville, approved an act on December 3, 1819 to combine the communities of New Philadelphia and East Alabama into the new town of Montgomery. Named in the act to conduct and manage the election were Jonathan C. Farley, Walter B. Lucas, Ebenezer D. Washburn and Andrew Dexter., Elected to the first town council were Nimrod E. Benson, William Graham, Clement Freeney, Ebenezer D. Washburn, John Goldthwaite, Rhodes L. Smith and Daniel Carpenter. They chose Graham as the first intendant (mayor)., Walter B. Lucas proposed that the new town be named for Gen. Richard Montgomery, the Revolutionary War hero.