sentences:  Upon settlement by Euro-Americans, Loachapoka—temporarily renamed Ball's Fork—became the regional trade center, a position that was reinforced in 1845 when it became the easternmost point on the railroad to Montgomery.Loachapoka's influence peaked in the early 1870s, when her population reached nearly 1,300.Within a few years, a collapse of trade due to the Panic of 1873 and additional rail lines in the area sent Loachapoka into economic decline.