BAY MINETTE — Local and state dignitaries were on hand Monday at Courthouse Square in Bay Minette for the dedication of the Judge Harry Toulmin monument which culminates 12 months of bicentennial activities celebrating the county’s history and Dec. 21, 1809, establishment.

“There is rich history everywhere you go in Baldwin County, and this is an historic monument,” Baldwin County Commission chairman Charles Gruber said to a group of about 100, which included members of the 28th Judicial Circuit.

President Thomas Jefferson appointed Toulmin as the first federal judge for part of the Mississippi Territory, which is now southern Alabama. He wrote the first digest of state laws, and he was Baldwin County’s only delegate to the first Alabama Constitutional Convention in 1819.

The monument will not be unveiled until completion of a commemorative plaque in about two months, according to Baldwin County archivist John Jackson.

Baldwin County was established 10 years before Alabama became a state. Previously, the county was part of the Mississippi territory until 1817, when the area passed into the Alabama territory. Statehood was gained by Alabama in 1819.