USA > Alabama > Hand-book of Alabama. A complete index to the state, with map > Part 30
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* For descriptions of these railroads, see post, "The Raitroads of Alabama."
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machine works; gas works; boiler and sheet iron works; compress and warehouse; foundry; rolling mill; two ice factories ; two planing mills, and a number of other industries, with capital stocks aggregating a large amount. The city has an elevation of about 800 feet above sea level; is situated at the foot of Blue mountain, and has most perfect natural drain- age. Picturesque slopes present inviting building sites, and the healthfulness of the city is excellent. ' The winters are mild and the heat of the summer never extreme.
HUNTSVILLE.
Lying in the beautiful, salubrious and fertile valley of the Tennessee river, in Alabama, which is formed by the southern- most spurs of the Cumberland mountains; eighteen miles south of the northern boundary of the State, and about ten miles north of the river, is Huntsville, one of the most attract- ive cities of the State. It has an elevation of 612 feet above tide water at Mobile, and is in latitude 34° 40' 44". Nestling among the hills and mountains of that high region, the city is noted for its picturesque natural beauty and attractiveness, no less than for the historic incidents which have transpired within its limits ; while in massiveness and stability of struc- ture, it compares favorably with any city of its size in the union. It was settled in 1807, by John Hunt, an East Tennes- sean, and the tide of immigration, which set in immediately, was rapid. The original settlers of Huntsville were, princi- pally, from Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, with some from Georgia. Notwithstanding Hunt was the founder. the first name given the new settlement was "Twickenham." In 1811 the name was changed to Huntsville, in honor of its founder. The town of Huntsville was incorporated in 1811. The soil of the valley in which Huntsville is located is a rich chocolate colored loam, with a subsoil of pure red clay-very fertile, and producing large and varied crops of cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, barley, clover, millet, timothy, blue grass and red top and orchard grass, etc .- while the geological forma-
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tions underlying it belong to the sub-carboniferous groups of limestone. The health of Huntsville is excellent, while its elevated location and mountain surroundings free it from the enervating heats of some parts of the lower country. The mean temperature throughout the year is 57° Farenheit-heat in summer, 74° ; cold in winter, 40°. In the reported opinion of the war department, Huntsville, in a sanitary point of view, is said to be the best military post in the United States. Within half a mile, to the eastward of the city, its summit reached by a railroad from the city, rises, to the height of 1,040 feet above the plain, a mountainous elevation, known as Monte Sano, a cool refuge during the summer months, with a elimate closely resembling that of the northern portion of North Carolina and the valley of the French Broad. The city is laid out in the form of a square, its corporate limits extend- ing three fourths of a mile on either side of the court house, as the centre of the square. The general structure of its public buildings is of a character for durability and elegance seldom seen in a city no larger, while its church edifices are very handsome and costly. The character of its private resi- dences is not inferior to that of its public buildings. The streets of the city are broad, well graded, solidly and smoothly macadamized, and almost exempt from mud and dust, with superior drainage. Among the many natural advantages of Huntsville, may be mentioned the large and famous limestone spring, known as " The Big Spring," which issues from under a rocky bluff, seventy-five feet high, on the top of which is the public square. The spring is said to be the largest in the United States-so large that, in times past, the stream flowing from it was utilized to float, to the Tennessee river, boats with a capacity of fifty bales of cotton. Its water, which is clear, cold, only moderately hard, and of excellent quality, is forced, partly by steam, but mainly by its own power, to a reservoir, which supplies the city. A system of sewers, water works, an electric light factory, a gas factory and an ice factory, fur- nish to Huntsville the conveniences and luxuries demanded in this day. The educational advantages of Huntsville are fine, for here are located the Huntsville Female College and a number of other excellent schools. The State Colored Normal and Industrial School is also located at Huntsville. Ilunts.
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ville has two newspapers and two banks. It is the county seat of Madison county .* The population of the city in 1890 was 7,995, against 4,077 in 1880. Huntsville has probably given to the State more illustrious names than any other city within its borders, and is indellibly connected with its history. It was in Huntsville that the convention met, in 1819, which gave to the State its first Constitution, and here, in the same year, was convened the first Legislature of the newly created State of Alabama. The country around Huntsville is admir- ably suited to all classes of farming and stock raising. Several large stock farms are in successful operation in the vicinity. and fruit, grain, cotton and vegetables are successfully culti- vated in every part of the county. Of late years Huntsville is aspiring to become a manufacturing centre, for which her proximity to, and excellent railroad connections with, the supplies of raw material admirably fit her. The two great rival railway systems of the south-the Louisville & Nashville and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia-come together here and give her access to all the agricultural, coal, mineral and timber fields of Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The branch of the Birmingham Mineral, now building, will put her in close connection with all the riches of the Birmingham mineral district, and the Tennessee & Coosa, now building, will cross the Coosa coal field and the ore beds of upper Murphrees valley. In addition to this, there is a large tract of coal land in the northern part of the county, within a few miles of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. Among the industries already located in Huntsville may be noted a large cotton mill, which employs 150 persons and consumes several thousand bales of cotton per annum ; a cotton compress, which ships many thousand bales to the coast annually for export ; one of the largest cotton seed oil mills in the south (several thousand head of cattle are fattened during each winter on the cake from this mill); a foundry for the manufacture of a patent coulter; the Lownes foundry, for the manufacture of novelties in iron, copper and brass; another cotton mill, now building and soon to be completed, at a cost of $500,000.00, will give employment to 900 persons.
*For description of Madison county, see page 310, ante.
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SELMA.
Selma, the county seat of Dallas county,* is situated on the north bank of the Alabama river, about ninety-five miles, by river, west from Montgomery, and 308 miles northeast from Mobile. The distance, by rail, from Selma to Montgomery is fifty miles, and from Selma to Mobile, 163 miles. The site of the city is a spacious plateau and about 100 feet above the river's level at low water. The founder of Selma was Thomas Moore, who located there in 1816, and the settlement was first called " Moore's Bluff;" but afterwards the name of Selma was given to it-the original of which is to be found in Ossian, the " Songs of Selma." The city was incorporated by the latter name, December 4, 1820. Selma was a very impor- tant military depot of the Confederate States, and, during the late war, a large powder mill, extensive nitre works, arsenal, and shot and shell foundry were successfully operated there. April 2, 1865, Selma was stormed and captured by United States troops, who burned all these works, with much of the business portion of the city. No city in the south presents a more, attractive appearance than Selma. The streets of the city are broad, well graded, level, and most of them beautifully shaded with evergreen water oak, while the elegant flower yards on the lawns attached to nearly every residence, and which bloom nearly all the year, give to the streets the ap- pearance of a veritable bower of roses. Population in 1890, 7,622. The city government is administered by a mayor, ten councilmen, clerk, treasurer, chief of police, superintendent of education and city physician. The city is composed of five wards, each choosing two aldermen. The city has a well ordered fire department, gas and electric lights, street railway, telephone exchange, and complete system of underground sewers. The water supply, drawn from artesian wells, is abundant and of purest quality. Besides the supply furnished by the water works, which are among the finest in the State, there are in the city no less than seventy-five constantly flow- ing artesian wells, some of them possessing valuable mineral properties. Climate and health excellent. Public school sys-
* For a description of Dallas county, see page 289, ante.
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tem equal to that of any city in the State, and the city has a number of excellent private and preparatory schools. All the leading religious denominations are represented in Selma by churches, and some of the church edifices are very hand- some. City has two daily and two weekly newspapers; three banks, with combined capital of $750,000.00; good hotels; an opera house, and a number of fine buildings. The Hotel Albert, long unfinished and now under construction, when completed, will cover a whole block and be one of the finest in the State. The city has a cotton exchange and board of trade, which look closely after its commercial interests. Assessed value of real and personal property in city in 1891, 84,642,- 366.00. Total tax rate, State, county, city and special, 24 mills. The city is located in the very heart of the finest agri- cultural lands in the State and is, also, very favorably situated with reference to the timber and mineral regions of Alabama. On the west, stretching from the Alabama to the Tombigbee river, lie the far famed black prairie lands of the State, noted for their fertility ; on the north, south and east, other lands, very productive under the modern system of fertilizing and improved culture, while to the north and northeast, not far distant, are valuable forests of yellow pine timber and rich measures of coal, iron, marble and other minerals. City re- ceived during the season of 1891-92, 116,900 bales of cotton. The railway lines entering the city are: Western of Alabama (Selma division) ; East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia (Selma division, Meridian division, and Cincinnati, Selma & Mobile division) ; Mobile & Birmingham ; Louisville & Nashville (Pensacola & Selma division), and Birmingham, Selma & New Orleans .* Besides the railways, Selma has the Alabama river, navigable throughout the entire year, and which affords the city excellent water transportation facilities. The location of the city with reference to the cotton fields of the State makes it a most desirable point for the manufacture of cotton goods, and its proximity to the iron and coal district gives it peculiar advantages for the manufacture of iron. A number of large and important manufacturing industries are located in the city, among them the Mathews cotton mills, with 10,216 spindles and 261 looms : Central City oil mills; the shops of
* For descriptions of these railroads, see post, " The Railroads of Alabama."
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the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, covering ten acres of land and having 500 employees on its pay rolls ; the Union iron works ; the Peacock iron works, and a number of others. ' The city has, also, two powerful cotton compresses, ' and the Standard Oil Company and the Armour Packing Company both make it a distributing point, while there are many large wholesale and retail houses in all the leading lines of trade. The Alabama river at Selma is spanned by one of the finest iron wagon and foot bridges in the south. This bridge was built by a company composed of Selma capitalists, at a cost of $60,000.00. It is a toll bridge, and pays hand- somely on the investment. Over the channel is a draw so truly balanced that a ten year old boy can turn it with ease. The building of this bridge has been the means of greatly angmenting Selma's trade and her trade territory, and is another evidence of the enterprise of her business men. The citizens of Selma are law abiding, industrious and hospitable ; proud of the reputation of their promising city, and anxious to have strangers come and settle among them. Located in the centre of one of the garden spots of the south, with trans- portation facilities by rail and water unsurpassed by any city in the land; with a delightful and healthful climate; at the very door of some of the richest mineral deposits in the world ; surrounded by wealthy and populous counties, which, of themselves, could support handsomely large manufacturing enterprises located here ; at a point of the State where all the great through lines of travel must cross; with valnable min- eral wells and an abundant supply of pure water for drinking and manufacturing; with a quality of soil, and conformation of streets for perfect drainage, easy grading and street railway building perhaps unsurpassed in the world ; with an intelli. gent and law abiding population, Selma must move rapidly and far to the front in the great race of southern progress, and is a most inviting field for enterprise and capital.
FLORENCE.
Florence is the county seat of Lauderdale county,* Alabama, and is situated in the extreme northwestern portion of the
. For description of this County, see page 303, ante.
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State, and on the north bank of the Tennessee river. Its site is a rolling plateau, about 150 feet above the river's level. City was laid out in 1819, by General Andrew Jackson and others. Its present charter is the act of February 26, 1889, as amended by the act of February 18, 1:91. City governed by a mayor and five aldermen. Population in 1-30. 6.012; in 1880, 1,359; gain, 4,653. Streets wide and well kept : shaded, and paved with an excellent natural concrete found in the vicinity. City has fine natural drainage. which has been supplemented by quite an elaborate system of sewerage con- structed by the city. City has a fine system of waterworks, built at a cost of $150,000.00 ; an electric light plant : efficient police force and fire department ; two banks ; three newspa- pers ; one hotel ; a street car line ; several fine public buildings, and many handsome and attractive private residences. Edu- cational advantages excellent, and the city is one of the educational centres of the State. The Florence State Normal College, Florence Synodical Female College. and the Southern Female University * are located in the city. All the leading religious denominations have churches in Florence, and the society is of the highest type. Climate excellent all the year round, and the city has a reputation for health of which it is justly proud. The air seems to be a specific for catarrh and like diseases. A porous soil, upon a gravelly subsoil. absorbs the surface water quickly and dries with rapidity, and the surplus drainage is into the rapidly flowing river. City enjoys exceptional transportation facilities. It is naturally located at the head of deep water navigation on the Tennessee river, which is here a beautiful and majestic stream, more than a half mile wide; t and has, in addition, the Louisville & Nash- ville Railroad, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, and the Birmingham, Sheffield & Tennessee River Railroad. The Florence Northern Railroad, reaching up from Florence to tap the great ore fields and virgin forests of Wayne county, Tennessee, is graded and ready for the ties to a point twenty- seven miles north of Florence, and the Florence & Paducah Railroad, now completed from Paducah, Kentucky, to Hollow Rock, Tennessee, is rapidly closing the gap between that point
* For descriptions of these institutions, see pages 17s and 237. ante.
+ For description of this river, see post.
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CITIES AND TOWNS.
and Florence. In addition to the railroads named above, there is now being surveyed, at the expense of the State (under the act of the general assembly of Alabama, approved February 18, 1891, the object being "to set before the world the cost of build- · ing and the value and importance of said railway to the builders and to the State of Alabama " ), a line of railroad from Flor- ence, via Tuskaloosa, to Mobile. Around Florence stretches - the great valley of the Tennessee, famous for its beauty, its healthful climate, its agricultural wealth and its industrial prosperity. Eighteen miles north of Florence is the southern limit of the " western iron belt of Tennessee," covering over 5,000 square miles, and containing inexhaustible deposits of limonites or brown hematite ore. In places, the beds are seventy-five feet in thickness and the ore is mined with steam shovels. The ores are rich and can be worked very cheaply. The iron is a high silicon iron, similar to Scotch pig. The coal supply of Florence is drawn from the great Warrior coal fields of Alabama, which lie just south. The city is admira- bly located for successful manufacturing, especially such as has for its basis, iron, cotton or wood, and among its present industries are the Philadelphia iron furnace, the Florence wagon works, the Florence shoe factory, stove and manufac- turing company, woodenware works, iron railing and fence factory, Rash Bros' saw mill, North Alabama furnace, wood noveity works, Florence planing mills, Reynolds' pump fac- tory, Bennie bucket factory, and Cypress cotton mill. As illustrating the growth of Florence in recent years, it may be stated that in 1887 the taxable values of Florence were assessed at $800,000.00; in 1891 they were assessed at $3,021,- 812.00 ; in 1887 the city's revenue from all sources was $2,800.00; in 1891 it amounted to $25,000.00; the amount expended in Florence since 1887 in the construction of fur- naces, factories, public buildings, stores, private dwellings and other improvements is estimated at $2,000,000.00. City debt, $100,000.00-6 per cent. bonds, issued for the construction of sewers and other public improvements. Total tax rate, State, county, city and school, 14 mills, or $1.40 on each $100.00. All manufacturing plants established in the city are exempted from city tax for ten years.
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HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
BESSEMER.
Bessemer, the latest star in Alabama's bright galaxy of mineral cities, is situated in Jefferson county,* about twelve miles southwest of Birmingham. It lies near the southern extremity of the famous Jones valley, in which Birmingham is located, and in the very heart of the great mineral district of the State. The story of Bessemer's phenomenal rise and progress is a remarkable one, and illustrates the wonderful riches of a region in which nature has stored with bountiful hand those mighty twin agencies-coal and iron. It was founded in the spring of 1887, by the Bessemer Land and Improvement Company, which had been incorporated for the purpose, and which had purchased 4,000 acres of land as a site. The two pig iron furnaces of the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company, within the present city limits, then in process of construction, formed a nucleus. The first sale of lots took place April 12, 1887. The sale was well attended ; the lots were sold at reasonable prices, and the purchasers were mostly those who intended to become actual settlers, or, at least, to build upon and improve their property. The city was first incorporated in 1887, and its present charter is the act of December 12, 1888. It is divided into four wards, and is governed by a mayor and eight aldermen. Population in 1890, 4,544. The city has an efficient police and fire depart- ment, and is well lighted by electricity. The city's water supply-pure spring water, in sufficient quantity for all the present purposes of the city-is furnished by the Bessemer Water Supply Company, through nine miles of mains. The company's stand pipe is 100 feet high ; the fire pressure is ninety-five pounds to the square inch, and there are fifty fire hydrants. The cost of the works was $125,000.00. The leading industries and enterprises of Bessemer are the DeBar- deleben Coal and Iron Company, capital $10,000,000.00; the Bessemer Rolling Mill Company, capital $500,000.00; the Howard-Harrison Iron Company (manufacturers of iron pipe), capital, $1,000,000.00 ; the Alabama Soil Pipe Company, cap- ital, $100,000,00; the Woodward Furnace Company (within one mile of the city), capital, $1,000,000.00. Besides these,
*For description of Jefferson county, see page 301, ante.
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there are more than thirty smaller industries, all contributing to the business and prosperity of the city. The combined capital of the industries of Bessemer is more than $14,000,- 000,00. The city has, also, two banks and two newspapers. Bessemer is built upon an enduring foundation of iron ore, coal and limestone, the three elements entering into the production of pig iron, lying side by side, in wonderful profusion. The ge- ology of Alabama shows the existence at Bessemer of a moun- tain of fossiliferous hematite or red fossiliferous iron ore. This mountain, which is a range of mountains, forming the south- east boundary of the valley in which Bessemer is located, is within a stone's throw of the corporate limits of the city, and has a varying heigln above the valley of from 250 to 500 feet. The ore is in regular veins or strata, varying in thickness from five to twenty feet, with medium partings, aggregating at this point a thickness of forty feet iron ore within a sixty foot measurement at right angles to their direction. The ore veins crop ont on the summit, or on the northwestern trend of the range. The strata of ore have a declination to the southeast of about thirty degrees. Centuries of persistent mining, with yearly outputs of ore sufficient to make the present iron product of the United States, will not exhaust the deposits within four miles of Bessemer. Four-fifths of the total out- put of iron ore in the State of Alabama is mined within four miles of the city of Bessemer, and from these mines ores are furnished to the Chattanooga, Gadsden, Birmingham, Ensley City and many other furnaces. Besides the deposits of the Red mountain range, the Rock mountains, bordering the Bes- semer Valley on the southwest-separating it from the great Black Warrior coal fields-contains large deposits of both the red and brown ores. A mile to the west of Bessemer an immense body of brown hematite has been uncovered, and a few miles to the southwest, at Greeley and Gothite, are the largest bodies and masses of brown hematite ore, as well as the most famous, in this country. These deposits are owned by the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company and the (Thomas) Pioneer Iron Company. The red ores yield practically from forty to fifty per cent. of metal, while assaying from forty-five to sixty-three per cent., while the brown ores yield forty-five to fifty-five per cent., while assaying fifty to sixty-five per 24
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cent. The measures of the Warrior coal fields reach within one mile of the corporate limits of the city, and the Cahaba coal fields lie some half a dozen miles to the south. The bulk of coal from both of these fields is of excellent coking quality. The Blue creek basin, in the Warrior coal fields, belonging to the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Company, and said to be the richest and most remarkable field of coal in the south, lies five miles southwest of Bessemer. The Bessemer Blue creek coal makes a coke not excelled in this country. Coal is delivered in Bessemer at a cost of less than eighty cents a ton to the operator, and coke is made from it in Bessemer at a cost of about $1.75 per ton. The Woodward coal mines are three miles from Bessemer, while the Pratt coal mines are eight miles, and the Blocton mines are twenty miles to the south- west. There are within twenty-five miles of Bessemer 600,000 acres of coal fields, which, at lowest estimate, will practically yield 30,000,000,000 tons-a daily supply of 10,000 tons for 8,000 years. The Trenton limestone crops out vertically throughout Jones valley, and at points it is found in enormous masses, projected high above the level of the valley, and in places forming the bulk of the huge mountains. This is noticeably the case at Gate City, sixteen miles above Bessemer. The limestone is of the purest quality, analyzing ninety-eight per cent. of lime. It is delivered at the Bessemer furnaces at sixty cents per ton. In addition to its mineral resources, Bessemer possesses another source of wealth in the timber of its surrounding country. The extensive forests of Alabama abound in yellow pine, oak, cedar, hickory, ash, walnut, gum, cherry, and the proximity of Bessemer to this abundant supply of timber, combined with its wealth of coal and iron, makes it unsurpassed as a location for all kinds of woodworking manu- factures and for railroad car building. Yellow pine lumber is sold in Bessemer at from $5.00 to $10.00 per 1,000 feet. Fire clay for fire brick and furnace blocks, clay for building brick, pure sand for glass making, crystallized limestone or marble for finishing or ornamentation. and quarries of both sand and lime stone are here in immense beds. Nine lines of railway enter the city, namely : the Alabama Great Southern, the Louis- ville & Nashville. Bessemer & Nashville, the Georgia Pacific, the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham, the Bessemer &
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