Irony In Utopia: the Discovery of Nancy Lewis
Paul M. Gaston
I was born and reared in Fairhope, Alabama, a "utopian" community, a single-tax colony founded on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay in 1894, but until a few years ago I had never heard of Nancy Lewis. I might never have learned about her if I had not decided to write a book about the town's history. I knew, or thought I knew, all of the main characters in the Fairhope story. It seemed ironic, then, that the first person my research in the colony archives led me to was Nancy Lewis, a person about whom I knew nothing. Before long, caught up in more ironies, I was obsessed with a need to discover everything I could about her and to learn what she had discovered about Fairhope.
An enigmatic entry in the minutes book of the Fairhope Industrial Association introduced me to her. The date was Jan.22, 1895. Negotiations were under way for the purchase of a 200- acre parcel of land, the second acquisition since the arrival of the colonists two months earlier. The minutes betrayed concern over a claim one Nancy Lewis was apparently making to part of the desired tract. Later, in the February 2 entry, I found out more about her and about the delicate negotiations. She and some of her family were, in fact, living on land which was said to belong to the estate of a John Bowen. Now, however, she was retreating from her previous position, admitting that the Bowen estate, not she, had the title to the land. She also was reconsidering her previous refusal to sell out and move and was reported to be "favorably inclined" toward the idea. The February 7 minutes report a successful outcome for the association: Nancy Lewis agreed to "surrender all her claims" to the land and, for $100, to sell to the association all her improvements on it.
