June 30, 2016 Minutes
Submitted by Tommy Fulton, Contributing Editor
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Les Greer. Norman Nicholson gave the invocation, followed by Larry Sindel, who led us in song and the Pledge. Tom Martenstein introduced our guests along with visiting Rotarians.
Student Guest: Saty Putcha introduced Sarah Jane Bruton from Davidson High School as our Student of the Week.
New Member: John Dukes introduced Bill Kleinschrodt as a new member.
Announcements: The Rotary Children’s Foundation distributed grants to MARC-$8,500.00, UCP-$7,500.00 and Mobile Infirmary’s Center for Women & Children-$8,000.00.
Sally Roberts and Tom Harris were honored as Paul Harris Fellow recipients.
Program: Win Hallett introduced our speaker, David Bagwell, who spoke regarding Louis LeClerc Milfort.
Mr. Bagwell established his credentials by stating that he would be from his own authority, “Bagwell’s B.S. of Mobile History!”
Milfort served in the French army from 1764-1774, before emigrating to Boston. Apparently, this was was a decision made after he had killed a servant of the king’s household in a duel. He then moved to Indian territory in what was to become Alabama.
During the Revolutionary war, Colonel Alexander McGillvray, chief of the Creek Indians relied on Milfort as his War Chief, or “Tustunneggee”, which meant “Top Warrior.” After the war, this area was mostly occupied by the Spanish, French and British, but was ruled by the Spaniards. However, the Creek Indians moved in and took over the area. They were son-named because of their daily habit of bathing in the creeks.
Mr. Bagwell described the two Creek factions, the Upper Creeks and the Lower Creeks as similar to the Tea Party and the Country-Club Republicans, respectively. The economy of the Creek Indians was mainly trade with Britain in deerskins, such as, buckskin pants, gloves and bookbindings.
When Milfort first came to America, he almost starved to death until being rescued by Alexander McGillivray of the Creek Indian nation. Milfort took Alexander’s sister as his wife. Bagwell then described Mobil in 1781, as a little Garden of Eden, where hunting and fishing were excellent, and everyone had loaded guns behind their front doors, “not unlike today.”
One peculiarity described by Mr. Bagwell dealt with the relationships between men and women. He said, “The sky was the limit with women, for men during harvest time. All other times, the women were known to be very chaste and loyal.”
Les Greer then thanked Mr. Bagwell for his presentation and presented a certificate to him, noting that a donation in his honor had been made to the Rotary International Foundation.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.