History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 109

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 756

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FARMERS' INSTITUTES. Formal gather- ings, held under the direction of the Depart- ment of Agriculture and Industries, for the purpose of improving the standards of farm- ing, farm life, and the general betterment of agricultural conditions in the State. For many years meetings had been held, inspired by the Commissioner of Agriculture, or by the Experiment Station at Auburn, on occa- sions of local need experienced by progressive farmers, but it was not until August 9, 1907,

that the legislature formally recognized the work, making an appropriation of $4,000 for the use of the Department of Agriculture and Industries. Among other purposes for which this sum was to be expended was "for holding of farmers' institutes, making experiments, gathering statistics and carrying into effect all laws now in existence or may hereafter be passed for the betterment of the agricultural interests of the State."

Activities .- These meetings have not been held with fixed regularity, nor in conformity to a rigid schedule, but every year they have been arranged in such way as to meet the immediate demand. The work has taken in part the form of special campaigns, as for illustration, to promote diversification, to combat the boll weevil, the promotion of the live stock industry, better farming methods etc. At all general meetings, the widest range of discussion is permitted, and includes do- mestie and farm economy, farm sanitation, farm machinery, good roads, rural schools, diversification, live stock industry, horticul- ture, floriculture, cultivation of cereals, cotton production and the many other subjects of interest to farmers. The funds are employed in meeting the expenses of advertising meet- ings, the payment of expenses of the mem- bers of the staff of the Department of Agri- culture and Industries and all outside speak- ers in attendance.

In the farmers' institute work, the several departments of the Alabama Polytechnic In- stitute and the Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion at Auburn, and state and local farm demonstration agents cooperate with the De- partment of Agriculture and Industries. The work of the institutes is regarded as a part of the extension activities of the State.

See Agriculture and Industries, Department of: Farmers' Organizations.

REFERENCES .- General Acts, 1907, p. 751.

FARMERS' ORGANIZATIONS. Voluntary associations of farmers and other persons en- gaged or interested in agricultural pursuits for the promotion of their common interests and welfare. The early societies were mainly educational, but later questions of coopera- tion in marketing products and buying imple- ments and supplies came into prominence. . As ways and means of improving the social and economic status of the agricultural and the industrial classes began to occupy a more conspicuous place in their councils, the socie- ties assumed more and more a political char- acter, for it was early determined that the chief dependence for relief and betterment of such conditions must be put in the obtain- ment of remedial legislation, national and state. A concomitant phase of this gradual development of a tendency toward organized political activity was the growth of a class consciousness which prompted the use of secrecy in the deliberations and business transactions of the societies, as well as in their purely social affairs. The first agricul- tural organizations in the State apparently had no secret features, nor were they active politically. They were intended to be the in-

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

struments of increasing the knowledge, the ambition, and the competence of farmers through the dissemination of technical and general information, and by the exchange of ideas pertaining to their calling at the meet- ings, conventions and fairs held from time to time and through agricultural papers and periodicals. They hoped by self-improvement to transform their calling from labor to an occupation which should afford comfortable surroundings, "leisure for society, or books, or the fine arts, or the cultivation of their noblest faculties," which they conceived to be the condition in life best for the race. So while agricultural fairs were held, at which methods and tools and products were exhib- ited and compared, and doubtless advertised, eminent scientists and literary men were in- vited to address their gatherings upon the larger questions of life, as well as upon the technical details of the science of agriculture. It was not until many years after the War that the farmers declared themselves mem- bers of the laboring class and made common cause with the industrial unions. The names of the farmers' organizations, in chronolog- ical order, indicate more or less accurately the trend of their objects and methods. The first two were agricultural "societies;" the third, a "grange" of patrons of husbandry; the fourth, a farmers' "alliance," which later became a farmers' and laborers' "union," and finally the "National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union;" the fifth, an agricultural "wheel," which joined with the "alliance" to form the "alliance and industrial union;" and the sixth, a farmers' "educational and cooper- ative union."

Many years before the organization of the first state agricultural society, the advisabil- ity of public patronage of agriculture had been brought to the attention of the legisla- ture. In his message of November 21, 1826, Gov. John Murphy discussed this subject with some fullness.

"It may admit of doubt," he said, "whether in any of the States, this subject has re- ceived that regular and systematic attention, by the public authorities, which its great importance demands. This is the source, the principal fountain of all our prosperity. Indi- vidual intelligence and enterprise, where so many are engaged in the same pursuit; the ardor inspired by interest, the sagacity ac- quired by continual experience, are surely good sources of reliance, but they may not be exclusively sufficient, for the perfection of this essential and primary branch of indus- try. Something even here may be done by the forecast and care, and fostering patron- age of the public authorities; and certainly none of their functions can have a higher or more beneficial aim. Such are the changes wrought by human industry, and such the constant tendency to occupy too much some branch of agricultural labor, for the present more profitable than others, that no sure reli- ance can be placed, for a great length of time, on any single staple commodity. New sources of contingent and profitable labor ought to be constantly devised, and held in reserve, that

the community may be protected against the consequences of any fluctuation in the prin- cipal productions. Those climates admitting of a great variety of productions, have advan- tages over others, which ought not to pass unimproved. The soil and climate of this state, in this respect, furnish very great re- sources. It is only necessary to be fully acquainted with them, and prepared to bring them into operation, in order to be but little affected by the changes, which may be pro- duced by the industry of other countries in our particular pursuits. It might be useful to have this subject regularly given in charge to a standing committee, to recommend the formation of agricultural societies, in the several counties or larger subdivisions of the State; to invite those Societies to communi- cate with the standing committees for public information, and to obtain at the public ex- pense, such seeds and plants as may be less open to the enterprise and research of indi- vidual agriculturalists. The impulse thus publicly given, will not be lost on a popula- tion, active, enterprising, and studious of their interests. The multiplication of our productions cannot prove otherwise than a source of necessary and beneficial caution."

Local Agricultural Societies. - Notwith- standing the governor's suggestions, local agricultural societies appear not to have been formed in the State until the late forties or early fifties, and a state-wide organization was not undertaken until several years later still. About 1850, local societies, intended primarily to promote the holding of neighborhood and county fairs, began to be organized in various sections of the State. The pioneer organiza- tion was the Chunnenuggee Horticultural So- ciety of Macon County. There was a similar society in the city of Mobile, known as the Mobile Agricultural, Horticultural and Flori- cultural Society. There were also agricul- tural societies in Pickens and Lowndes Coun- ties and possibly in others.

Several years previous to the organization of a state agricultural society, interest had been aroused in Alabama, as well as in the other Southern States, through the activities of the Agricultural Association of the Slave- Holding States, which had its inception at a meeting in Macon, Georgia, in October, 1852, and was organized May 2, 1853, in the cap- itol at Montgomery, with Dr. W. C. Daniels of Georgia in the chair and Dr. Charles Lucas of Alabama acting as secretary. The chief objects of this association were "to im- prove our own agriculture, yielding peculiar productions through the agency of a normal labor, requiring a distinct economy, and de- pendent on a climate of its own; to develop the resources and unite and combine the en- ergies of the slaveholding states so as to increase their wealth, power and dignity as members of this confederacy." While it does not appear that any local branches of this general organization were instituted in Ala- bama, yet the State had a fair representation in the membership of the general association.

State-wide Organizations .- About two years after the association began its work, sufficient

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interest had been aroused in Alabama to bring about the organization of the Alabama State Agricultural Society, which was incor- porated by the legislature, February 14, 1856, having been organized January 10, 1855. The society was encouraged and assisted by an appropriation of $5,000 from the State treasury. Its activities were largely confined to the promotion of a yearly state fair at Montgomery. The first state fair was held in the fall of 1855; the last, in 1860. During the War, the society became inactive, and was never revived.

Aside from some strictly local organiza- tions whose activities were confined to the immediate vicinity of their headquarters, there were no further associations or combi- nations of farmers in the State until the institution of several local lodges of the Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry (q. v.). This order continued in active existence until about 1890, when it was gradually super- seded or absorbed by the Farmers' Alliance. The organization of the National Grange, or the Patrons of Husbandry, was a part of the general movement for the protection of the interests of the agrarian and industrial classes by means of combinations which should be strong enough to join issue with the capitalist interests.

In February, 1885, the new Alabama State Agricultural Society was organized and con- tinued active for several years, holding an- nual and occasionally semiannual meetings. This organization, like the "Grange," grad- ually declined both in interest and member- ship. The chief difficulty in keeping up active interest in the farmers' organizations seems to have been the collection of membership dues. The proceedings of nearly every an- nual meeting of all the orders represented in this State show this matter to have been under discussion. Each of the six different state agricultural associations was organized with great enthusiasm, but all were lacking in coherence and failed to attain the prime object of their organization, namely, a full appreciation of the community of interest among the agricultural and industrial classes of the State.

The fourth state-wide organization in Ala- bama was the Farmers' Alliance, later known as the National Farmers' Alliance and Indus- trial Union. This order entered the State by the organization of a local alliance at Beech Grove, Madison County, in 1887, A. T. Jacobs, of the Texas Alliance, having charge of the installation. All of the principles for which the older organizations had stood were in- cluded in the declaration of principles of the "Alliance," which almost from the first was active politically. The end of its active exist- ence began with the formation of the People's or Populist Party in 1892. While the Ala- bama members did not follow their northern brethren into the new political party, yet the national organization split upon the ques- tion, and it was a matter of only a few years until the alliance, like its predecessors, be- came dormant.

In 1888 or 1889, the Agricultural Wheel

entered the northern part of the State, and within a year attained considerable numerical strength and influence. Its objects were vir- tually the same as those of the other associa- tions which had preceded it. In 1889, it was consolidated with the Alabama Farmers' Alli- ance under the title of the Alabama Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America. The wheel itself had never had a state organization, the local wheels being affiliated with the parent hody in Arkansas.

The latest of the farmers' organizations in the State is the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America, Alabama Divi- sion, which was instituted at Cordova, August 23, 1905, and is still in active existence. Its objects are mainly educational and coopera- tive; however, it has concentrated its ener- gies on the establishment and maintenance of union cooperative warehouses for farm produce. It has some secret features, and most of its business is therefore transacted in executive session.

Most of the farmers' organizations which have had representation in this State origin- ated as local movements in various sections of the country. In many cases, these orders sent out organizers to other States to insti- tute local lodges, so as to extend the sphere of their influence. Frequently representa- tives of three or four different associations would be sent into one State. This resulted in competition between the different orders, which operated to frustrate the combination which was the underlying principle of them all. This probably accounts for the enthusi- astic beginning and the early decline of every farmers' organization represented in the State before 1905.

See Agricultural Society, Alabama State; Farmers' Alliance; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry of Alabama; Wheel, The Ala- bama Agricultural.

REFERENCES .- Ala. State Agricultural Soc., Proceedings, annual sessions, 1884-1888, 5 vols., semiannual sessions, 1885, 1887, 1888, 3 vols; Ibid. Constitution and by-laws (n. d. pp. 8); Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry of Ala., Proceedings, annual sessions, 1873-1876, 1888- 1891, 8 vols .; Mortimer Whitehead, Origin and progress of the Grange, Ill. ( Brooklyn, N. Y., n. d.); National Grange Patrons of Husbandry, Report of legislative committee (Washington, D. C., Mar. 15, 1899, pp. 4); State Grange of Alabama, Memorial in regard to protection of insectiverous birds (H. Doc., Dec. 15, 1874, Montgomery, 1874, pp. 5); S. J. Buck, "The Granger movement, 1870-1880," in Harvard his- torical studies, xix (Harvard Univ. Press, 1913), pp. 56-63, 108, 117, 253, 265, 291, 297; Hawkins, "Achievements of the Grange in the South," in Labor and Capital (1891), pp. 477- 493; and editor, "Grange Department," in Montgomery Advertiser, circa, July, Dec., 1888; Alabama Farm Journal, Montgomery, vol. 3, May, 1880, pp. 46-47; Southern Plantation, Montgomery, Nov. 2, 1876-Apr. 26, 1877; N. A. Dunning, ed., Farmers' Alliance history (1891) ; W. S. Morgan, History of the Wheel and Al- liance (1891); Farmers' Educational and Co-

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operative Union of America, Minutes. 7th an- nual session, 1911; Ibid, Alabama Division, Minutes 5th annual session; Age-Herald, Bir- mingham, Aug. 23, 1905, Mar. 9 and Ang. 23, 24, 25, 1906; American Cotton Planter, Jan. 1855-Dec. 1859; J. O. Prude, "Work of Farmers' Union," in Tuscaloosa News, Mar. 7, 1913; Gov. John Murphy, Message (S. Jour., 1826, pp. 5-12) : U. S. Com. of Patents, Report, 1858; Bar- rett, Mission, history and times of the Farmers' Union (1909), pp. 183-185; O. H. Kelley, His- tory of the Patrons of Husbandry, 1866 to 1873 (1875), passim; Bailey, Cyclopedia of Ameri- can agriculture (1909), vol. iv, pp. 289-297.

FARMERS' PROTECTIVE LEAGUE OF ALABAMA. A voluntary business organiza- tion, formed at Clanton, September 15, 1917. Its object is "to improve the farming interests of the State, to develop animal husbandry, to improve the markets for farm products, to foster closer co-operation among farmers and to better our social and educational condi- tions." Joseph O. Thompson of Birmingham was elected president, and at the second meet- ing of the league, held in Montgomery, 1919, he was re-elected. At the meeting of organi- zation co-operation among farmers, a cam- paign of education for better farming and business methods, and a program of publicity were all inaugurated. A number of organ- izers were put in the field.

Activities .- At the second meeting, held in the hall of the House of Representatives, Montgomery, March 5-6, 1919, the work of the league was reviewed, and advanced position was taken on numerous subjects of vital interest to the farming and productive agencies of the country. The attendance was representative of all parts of the State. Reso- lutions were adopted scoring cotton ex- changes, urging reduction of cotton acreage, urging crop diversification, calling for the lifting of the embargo on cotton, and scoring profiteering. Other resolutions were adopted encouraging the building of stock yards and elevators, endorsing good roads, calling for a revision of the laws on the registration of land titles, commendatory of the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union, request- ing the Secretary of War to direct the muster out of the 167th Regiment (old Fourth Ala- bama), Rainbow Division, at Montgomery, and appealing to the people of the state to support the plans for the erection of a suit- able memorial to Alabama and Alabamians in the World War.

Regulations .- The league officers are a president, five vice-presidents, a secretary and a treasurer, to be elected by the board of directors. The board is made up of the chair- men of the several county leagues and an ex- ecutive committee of fifteen members, elected annually by the Board, has charge of the busi- ness of the league ad interim. Annual con- ventions are held. County organizations are provided, to be affiliated with the state organi- zation.

See Farmers' Organizatons.

REFERENCES .- Thompson, Call for 2nd con-

vention of leagne, 1919; Farmers' Protective League, Proceedings of the Convention held in Montgomery, March 5-6, 1919.

FARMING. See Agriculture.

FAUNSDALE. Post office and incorporat- ed town on the Southern Railway, in the northeast corner of Marengo County, on Cot- tonwood Creek, 21 miles northeast of Lin- den, 5 miles west of Uniontown, 16 miles east of Demopolis. Altitude: 202 feet. Popula- tion: 1888-250; 1890-211; 1900-333; 1910-352. It is incorporated under the mu- nicipal code of 1907, with corporate limits extending one-half mile in every direction from the southwest corner of Main Street. The city owns its electric light plant, water- works, and power-house, and school house. It has a volunteer fire department, and 3 miles of wooden sidewalks. Its tax rate is one-half mill, and there is no bonded indebt- edness. Its banking institutions are the Bank of Faunsdale (State), and the Watkins Bank- ing Co. ( State). Its industries are a cotton- seed oil mill, 2 cotton ginneries, 2 cotton warehouses, a sawmill and lumber plant, a gristmill, stores, the municipal light plant, and the power-house for waterworks with a standpipe of 50,000 gallons capacity. Its churches are Episcopalian, Methodist Episco- pal, Sonth, and Presbyterian.

The first settlers were W. M. Selden and Hugh Nelson. Later came the Watkins, Skin- ner, Hollis, Bradfield and Duggar families. The public road from Uniontown to Demop- olis passes through the town. REFERENCES .- Polk's Alabama gazetteer, 1888-9, p. 348; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.

FAYETTE. County seat of Fayette Coun- ty, in the southwestern part of the county, on the Sipsey River, and on the Southern Railway, 80 miles west of Birmingham, about 40 miles northwest of Tuscaloosa, about 35 miles southwest of Jasper, and 45 miles north- east of Columbus, Miss. It is in the western edge of the Warrior coal field. Population: 1870-250; 1880-800 ;. 1900-452; 1910- 636. It is incorporated under the general laws, with mayor and aldermen. The Ala- bama State Bank & Trust Co. is located there; and the Fayette Banner, a Democratic weekly, established in 1851, and the Fayette County Times, also a weekly, established in 1914, are published in the town. Its churches are Methodist and Baptist. The Fayette County High School is located there, and it also has city public schools. Judge E. P. Jones was one of the most prominent of the early set- tlers of Fayette.

REFERENCES .- Polk's Alabama gazetteer. 1888-9, p. 348; Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 255; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915; Northern Alabama (1888), p. 140.

FAYETTE COUNTY. Created by the legis- lature December 20, 1824. Its territory was originally a part of Tuscaloosa and Marion Counties. It lost its western section with the

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

formation, February 4, 1867, of Jones County, the name of which was changed first to San- ford, and still later, to Lamar. 1ts area is 643 square miles or 411,520 acres.

It was named in honor of Gen. LaFayette, the distinguished Frenchman and patriot of the American Revolution, who was making his second tour through the United States at the period of the formation of the county.

Location and Physical Description .- It is situated in the northwest central section of the state. It is bounded on the north by Marion, on the north and east by Walker, on the south by Tuscaloosa and Pickens, and on the west by Lamar County.

Its topography is varied, but without fea- tures of special interest. It lies wholly with- in the Cretaceous formation, and is a part of the Warrior coal fields. Its drainage system is divided by a ridge, running north and south, known as Byler Ridge. West of this elevation the drainage is through the Luxa- pallila and the Sipsey Rivers into the Tom- bigbee. The drainage to the east is through North River into the Warrior. The eastern section is also drained by Lost, Cane and Wolf Creeks. Hell and Yellow Creeks are tributaries of the Luxapallila. The ridges average about 250 to 300 feet above the streams.

The character and distribution of the soils of the county are dependent upon the Coal Measures and the Stratified Drift, which con- stitute its two geological formations. The latter constitutes the entire surface formation except in the stream valleys. Underneath the entire county, however, may always be found the sandstones, shells and other strata of the Coal Measures. The most widely distributed soil is brown loam with red clay loam sub- soil. There are also many localities in which the sandy soils are found, of sandstone and conglomerate formation. The county is well timbered. The post and red oak, blackjack, chestnut and shortleaf pine are found through- out its entire extent. Along the streams are to be found cypress, beech, gum and some other hardwoods in limited number.

The mean annual temperature is probably about 61.4ºF. The maximum is 101° and the minimum, 80-F. The average annual precip- itation is about 53.05 inches. Details of the extent and character of production are noted in the statistics below.

Aboriginal History .- The territory included in this county is off the early trails, and there are no references to Indian towns within its limits in contemporary literature. In the extreme northern section of the county, just south of the village of Texas, is a town site, where pot sherds, arrow and spearpoints, and some broken pipes have been recently noted. The site is a half mile back on the high ground. On the McConnell plantation along the road running northeast from the town of Fayette, and about half a mile off Sipsey River, near Antioch church, is a group of mounds. The name Luxapallila (popularly referred to as meaning "Floating Turtle," but more properly "Creek where the terrapin

crawls"), given to the river of that name, indicates aboriginal occupancy. The territory in the county was undoubtedly a common hunting ground of the Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws.

Farm, Livestock and Crop Statistics, 1918. -The statistics below are given for illustra- tive purposes, and, in tabular form, without any attempt at comparison or analysis. They were gathered under the direction of the Bureau of Crop Estimates, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 109

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 756

Author: Owen, Thomas McAdory, 1866-1920; Owen, Marie (Bankhead) Mrs. 1869-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 756