William Wyatt Bibb was Alabama’s first governor. He entered politics in 1802 at the age of 21, first as a Georgia state legislator, quickly followed by US Congress and then Senate. James Monroe appointed him governor of the new Alabama Territory in 1817 and he set his sights on creating the future state capital at Cahaba, now a “ghost town.” Elected governor of the state in 1819, he was thrown from a horse and succumbed to his injuries in 1820. Cahaba County was renamed Bibb County in his honor.
Photos courtesy of: Alabama Department of Archives and History