One trip to Josephine is usually all it takes to fall in love with the quiet beauty that marks the drive into the community and the stunning views that are afforded by the water accesses in the area.  The locale has long been home to full time residents who made a living from the bay waters and the gulf as well as the prehistoric Indians that came to the region at least seasonally to enjoy the bounty of the local waters.  Even the famous have called Josephine home at one time or another.  Celebrated Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes once owned property in the community where he built a summer home on Roberts Bayou.

Baldwin County’s character is exceptional in that the settlement of the region was initiated along the waterways with the establishment of the interior of the county coming at a much later period as roads were improved.  The rivers, bays, and gulf provided the first means of transportation long before the interior roads were more than trails through the woods.  Josephine is a great example of settlement, at least in the last 150 years or so, based on the convenience of water travel as opposed to that of roadways.

Nevertheless, the richness of the Josephine and the Alabama coast was recognized and utilized by the earliest of visitors to the region, the American Indian.  Archaeological evidence indicates that Indians were present in Baldwin County around 10,000 years ago leaving behind their cast-off stone tools and tons of oyster shell in numerous shell midden found along the rivers and bays throughout the county.  The Josephine community displays this evidence as well.  In fact, the area is known to have produced a number of artifacts and oyster shell mounds that endorse the fact that the early native inhabitants enjoyed the seafood that the region provided.  As time passed the Woodland and Mississippian Periods gave way to the era of transition that ushered in the brief reign of Indian nations like the Creek who made use of the resources of the region even as they too were pressed upon by the Spanish, British and later Americans for control of the gulf coast.

Then as the dawn of the 19^th century witnessed the control of the coast settle firmly into the grasp of the United States communities like Josephine began to be settled by those whose descendants remain there today.  As a result Spanish land grants were transferred to U.S. patents.  One of the earliest of those U.S. patents belonged to Joseph Suarez whose government grant was given under the administration of Martin Van Buren.

The most widely known resident of Josephine must surely have been the Confederate naval hero Raphael Semmes.  Before and after the Civil War Semmes lived in Mobile yet he owned property in Josephine upon which he built a summer home.  Semmes, a Maryland native, became, at least in some ways, the face of the Confederate cause as he wreaked havoc on the Union navy for most of the war.  Semmes and his crew navigated their way into history aboard the CSS Alabama capturing no less than 64 enemy vessels before being defeated in battle off the coast of France by the USS Kearsarge in June of 1864.  After the war Semmes returned to Mobile, was elected to the office of Mobile County Probate Judge but was denied the post by the federal government.  He died in Mobile in August 1877 and is buried there.

Based on the abundance of information maintained in the Foley library, much of the land that comprises modern-day Josephine was once owned by two gentlemen, Leon O. McPherson, originally from Chicago and John McKee Climie who emigrated from Ontario, Canada.  However, the place name for Josephine comes from Amos Ross who established the first post office there in 1881.  Ross, who actually settled in the area in 1858, chose the name of his daughter when he helped create the post office.  Ross built “Moss Oaks”, a two-story home built on Ross Point, in which he and his family lived.  Later during the Spanish-American War the home became a rest and recreation club for American soldiers stationed in Pensacola, Florida.

Today Josephine is reflective of the quiet beauty that residents of the area strive to maintain even as Baldwin County continues to grow.  The views are as spectacular as they have always been and the bounty of the waters is still there even though it may be measured in a different way.  Historic Josephine’s character is intact as it provides a modern-day sanctuary for those that seek a simpler life away from the chaos that is indicative of our daily work lives.