Most of Baldwin County has heard the tale of the courthouse being stolen from Daphne and moved to Bay Minette in the middle of the night. The “removal” really did happen in dramatic fashion, but none of it happened in the dark.

Leaders in Bay Minette circulated a petition in early 1901 requesting that the legislature move the Baldwin County Seat to Bay Minette from Daphne. Although a counter-petition circulated in Daphne, the legislature named Bay Minette the County’s new center of government in February 1901.

Despite stout opposition from Daphne, construction began on Bay Minette’s new courthouse on July 4, 1901, and the building was nearly completed by early October of that year. However, the new county seat could not operate until the necessary fixtures of county government were moved from Daphne to Bay Minette, and city fathers in Daphne refused to turn over these items. A Bay Minette based board of “courthouse commissioners” was charged with the task of acquiring these necessities and provisioning the new courthouse.

To that end, on October 10, 1901 a group of men departed Irwin's Livery Stable in Bay Minette in horse drawn wagons, bound for the outskirts of Daphne. Once there they broke into two “companies” (Companies “C” and “D”) and camped for the night. Two of the men, J.D. Hand and Daniel Hall, spent that night with Baldwin Times publisher Abner Smith, who warned them that Daphne was armed and prepared to defend its claim to the county seat with force.

The next morning (in broad daylight) both companies arrived in downtown Daphne and began the task of disassembling the courthouse and county jail. One eyewitness “…looked and saw Company D at the Court House, moving desks, chairs, benches, lamps, carpets, nails, tacks, spittoons, books, papers and everything else.” The Baldwin Times reported the following week that in addition to the jail cell bars and doors, “Every door…and every moveable thing from the judge’s desk to the spittoons were removed and carried off in wagons…” The removal was almost complete by the end of that first day.

The press and other equipment of the Baldwin Times, previously located in Daphne, occupied three of the last wagons to depart, and according to a letter written by Abner Smith’s wife some years later, the first Bay Minette issue of the Baldwin Times rolled off the North Baldwin presses two weeks later.

Subsequent rulings of the Alabama Supreme Court confirmed the propriety of the removal. October 11, 2016 will mark the 115th anniversary of “removal day” in Baldwin County, and the names of the courthouse commissioners are still visible in the southeast wall of the courthouse vestibule in Bay Minette.