History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 26

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

USA > Alabama > History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I > Part 26

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

BASSI LAWA. Bashailawau, as printed in Romans, and Basheelawa, as noted on his manuscript map, was the name of a creek in Choctaw County, evidently the present Tuck- abum. The map form of the name shows that it is the Choctaw "Bassi lawa," Sedge grass plenty. Romans writes: "at the last Occhoy field, by a creek called Bashailawau." From this statement, it may be assumed as a positive fact that this abandoned Occhoy field was overgrown with sedge grass, whence the creek and locality were called by the Choc- taws "Bassi lawa." Romans writes of having traveled all the previous day "through the remains of the Coosada and Occhoy settle- ments."

REFERENCES .- Romans, Florida (1775), p. 327.

BATESVILLE. Post office and station on the Central of Georgia Railroad, in the north- central part of Barbour County, on Cowickee Creek, and about 15 miles northeast of Clayton. Population: 1900-137; 1912- 143. Altitude: 280 feet.

BATTLES. See Creek Indian War, 1813- 14; Creek Indian Troubles, 1836; Mexican War. See also names of battles occurring in Alabama.

BAUXITE. A metal ore, hydrate of alum- ina, used as a source of the metal aluminum

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

and of some of its compounds, mainly alum. Deposits in this State are in Cherokee, Cle- burne, Calhoun, and DeKalb Counties. It occurs mainly in the Knox dolomite and in the Weisner quartzite formations. The ore is commonly concretionary or pisolitle though sometimes compact, homogeneous and fine grained. The best of it is of gray to white colors, but much of it has iron oxide replac- ing part of the alumina which gives a reddish and mottled appearance to the ore. Asso- ciated with the bauxite are mixtures of clay and bauxite in varying proportions, and in places irregular streaks or bands of pure halloysite occur in the midst of the bauxite. These bauxitic clays are exceedingly refrac- tory and might be used for the manufacture of fire brick. White china clays, lignite, man- ganese, and limonite also occur in association with bauxite. In the limonite banks at Rock Run, in Cherokee County, the iron ore appar- ently grades into the bauxite, both ores hav- ing been obtained from the same digging. The bauxite is mined or quarried from open cuts and pits which sometimes are 60 to 70 feet deep. It is easily mined, being rather soft below the surface. Only the very best grade of the ore is sold at present, but prob- ably it all will later be used in the manufac- ture of fire brick, as well as of various aluminum compounds. The best grade of bauxite has been shipped to the eastern mar- kets, and to Germany.

REFERENCES .- Publications of Geol. Survey of Ala., viz: Smith and McCalley, Inder to min- eral resources of Alabama (Bulletin 9, 1904), pp. 19-20; McCalley, Valley regions of Alabama, pts. 1 and 2 (Special Reports, 8 and 9), passim; Phillips, Iron making in Alabama, 3d ed. (Mon- ograph 7, 1912), passim; Gibson, Report on geo- logical structure of Murphree's Valley (Special Report 4, 1893); U. S. Geol. Survey, Mineral resources of the United States, 1914, pt. 1, pp. 183-209, with bibliography; and Ibid. 1915, pt. 1, pp. 159-174.

BAY MINETTE. County seat of Baldwin County, in the central part of the county, on the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and the northern terminus of the Foley branch of that road, at the headwaters of Bay Minette and White House Creeks, 31 miles northeast of Mobile, 50 miles north- west of Pensacola and 35 miles north of Foley. Altitude: 278 feet. Population: 1888 -250; 1910-749. It is incorporated under the municipal code of 1907. The corporate limits are circular, extending three-fourths of a mile in all directions from the courthouse. It has a city hall, jail, waterworks, 4 miles of paved sidewalks, 5 miles sanitary sewers, electric lights, and volunteer fire department. The Baldwin County Bank (State) is located there, and the Baldwin Times, a Democratic weekly newspaper established in 1890, is published in the town. Its principal indus- tries are 10 turpentine and rosin plants, 2 sawmills, 2 gristmills, 2 feed mills, 1 fertil- izer plant, hamper and crate factory, ice and power plant, city electric plant installed In 1915 at a cost of $10,000, city waterworks

installed in same year at a cost of $20,000, and equipped with an elevated tank of 80,000 gallons capacity. Its public school building is valued at $15,000. It has Methodist, Bap- tist, Presbyterian, Christian, Episcopal, and Latter Day Saints Churches.

It is the third county seat the county has had since 1809. Blakely was the first, and Daphne the second. Bay Minette was chosen by the legislature, February 5, 1901. By act approved March 4, 1903, the proceedings in the erection of public buildings and in removing the records of the county from Daphne were legalized and approved. The town is on the old road from Stockton to Daphne. It is the center of extensive ship- ping activities, as the products of the truck- ing district along the Foley branch converge there.

Bay Minette was first settled by the French. It took its name from a French woman, who lived on a bayou at the mouth of Bay Min- ette Creek. The town was established in its present location in 1861 when the railroad was constructed. The first settler was Wil- liam Wright; the first physician, Dr. J. D. Trammell; first preacher, Rev. Mitchell, Bap- tist; the first school teacher and postmaster, Miss Annie Byrne. Among the early settlers were the Stanmeyer, Thompson, Hastie, Silva, Byrne, Dolive and Carney families.

REFERENCES .- Acts, 1900-01, p. 754; Local Acts, 1903, p. 168; Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 114; Berney, Handbook (1892), p. 268; Riley, Conecuh County (1881), pp. 184, 205; Northern Alabama (1888), p. 230; Polk's Alabama gazet- teer, 1888-9, p. 107.

BEANS. See Leguminous plants; Veg- etables.

BEAR CREEK. See Big Bear Creek.

BEAR CREEK. Post office and station on the Alabama Northern Railroad, in the north- east corner of Marion County. sec. 16 T. 9, R. 11; on the headwaters of Big Bear Creek, about 20 miles from Hamilton, the county seat. Population: 1910-214. Altitude: 791 feet. Before 1861, it was known as Allen's Factory, for the first settlers of that name who built a cotton factory which was burned during the War but afterwards rebuilt. One of the owners of the factory, Langdon C. Allen, represented Marion County in the Secession Convention of 1861.

REFERENCES .- Official and Statistical Register, 1915.

BEAR CREEK SWAMP. See Green Cyp- ress Lake.

BEAR CREEK VILLAGE. There were several Indian towns and villages on Big Bear Creek, in the western part of the pres- ent Colhert County, as early as the first part of the eighteenth century, and, though be- lieved by some to have been Cherokees, their tribal relation is not known with certainty. Details as to number and extent are not available. See Colbert County.

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

REFERENCES .- O. D. Street, in Alahama His- tory Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 416.

BEARD'S BLUFF AND ELYTON RAIL ROAD COMPANY. See South and North Ala- bama Railroad Company.

BEAVERS, INDEPENDENT ORDER OF. A social, fraternal and insurance order, orig- inating in Birmingham. The lodge is called a "dam," and the members are referred to as "builders." The principles of the order are claimed to be a combination of the best in all other fraternal orders. The first sub- ordinate dam, "Birmingham Dam No. 1," was organized by H. W. English, March 9, 1904, with 300 members, and Col. J. M. Caldwell was elected president. The trustees were Gen. R. N. Rhodes, James Kelso and Hon. John L. Parker. The order consists of a Supreme Dam, which is located at Birming- ham, and 97 subordinate dams in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missonri, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Florida and South Carolina. The pres- ident of the Supreme Dam in 1917 was R. S. English. The total membership was 9,000.

REFERENCES .- Official literature and a letter from H. W. English, in the Alabama Depart- ment of Archives and History.

BEELOSA. One of the three branches of a lagoon on the Tombigbee, mentioned by Romans. It is the Choctaw "Bihi lusa," which means black mulberry. "Bihi," mul- berry, "lusa," black.

REFERENCE .- Manuscript data in the Ala- bama Department of Archives and History.

BEES. Bee-keeping is an important indus- try, although only indifferently developed in Alabama. However, the economic value of bee culture, wholly apart from the production of honey, is coming to be more and more recognized as of great importance in connec- tion with fruit growing. The earliest record- ed notice of the appearance of the honey bee in the southern country is preserved in the DeSoto Chronicles. At Chiaha, on the Coosa River, in the northeastern section of Ala- bama, it is noted that pots of honey were seen for the first time on the entire journey. Pick- ett says that he had often been informed by old bee-hunters and Indian countrymen that after the territory of Alabama became par- tially settled by an American population, wild bees were much more abundant than formerly. It appears that they were intro- duced from Georgia and the Carolinas, and became wild after escaping from their hives to the woods.

William Bartram, who journeyed through Alabama in 1777, relates a conversation with Dr. Grant, a physician of the garrison of Mobile, in which he says: "In the course of conversation with the doctor, I remarked that during my travels since leaving the Creek nation, and when there, I had not seen any honey bees; he replied that there were few or none West of the isthmus of Florida, and

but one hive in Mobile, which was lately brought there from Europe; the English sup- posing that there were none in the country, not finding any when they took possession of it after the Spanish and French. I had been assured by the traders that there were none in West Florida, which to me seemed extraordinary and almost incredible, since they are so numerous all along the Eastern continent from Nova Scotia to East Florida, even in the wild forests, as to be thought, by the generality of the inhabitants, aborigines of this continent."

A very interesting account is given by the great naturalist, Philip H. Gosse, of what he calls "a very interesting operation,-the tak- ing of a wild bee's nest." The discovery of the "bee-tree," the cutting of the tree, the capture of the swarm, the taking of the honey are all described. This incident could be duplicated hundreds of times over through- out the entire State, since many of the local colonies were recruited in this way.

Records are wholly wanting of early bee culture in the State, although it is known that wild swarms were domesticated and that others were imported, so that within compar- atively few years, almost every family had one or more hives. Among the pleasant and reminiscent pictures of the older people are the hives, sometimes called "bee gums," usually placed in groups in the vegetable gar- den, the flower garden, or the orchard.

Statistics gathered by the United States Bureau of the Census show 205,369 colonies, valued at $287,598, in 1900, and 135,140 col- onies, valued at $212,921, in 1910. The only other available statistics are as follows:

Value

Honey produced. 891,954

Wax produced.

of honey

1909

50,043

and wax. $ 99,977

1899

1,930,410

162,020

197,232

1880

841,535

66,876

1870

320,674

22,767

1860

47,233

100,987

REFERENCES .- Bartram, Travels (1791), p. 413; Gosse, Letters from Alabama (1859), pp. 142, 178; Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900), p. 24; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), pp. 290, 300.

BELLEFONTE. See Hollywood.

BELLE MINA. Post office and station on the Southern Railway between Decatur and Huntsville, in the southeastern corner of Limestone County, about 10 miles northeast of Decatur, about 15 miles southwest of Huntsville, and 14 miles southeast of Athens. Altitude: 600 feet. Population: 1910-150. The Belle Mina Bank (State) is the only banking institution. The community is formed mainly of the families of the original planters, many of them holding their homes under the original grants from the Govern- ment. It was the home of Thomas Bibb, the second governor of Alabama, who removed there from Madison County about 1818. The town takes its name from the plantation, on which the railroad station is located.

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

REFERENCES .- Berney, Handbook (1892), p. 307; Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 320; North- ern Alabama (1888), p. 71.

BELLWOOD. Post office and station on the Central of Georgia Railway, in the north- ern part of Geneva County, 1 mile west of the Choctawhatchee River, and about 12 miles north of Geneva. Population: 1910-201. It was incorporated in 1907.

BEN-HUR, TRIBE OF. A fraternal and benevolent society, organized at Crawfords- ville, Ind., 1894, the home town of Gen. Lew Wallace, author of the novel by that name, and on which hook the ritualistic work of the lodge is hased. The order entered Alabama in 1908. Total number of Courts in the State in 1918 was 23, with a membership of 959. There are no State hodies. The supreme or governing hody meets in the home town of the order, Crawfordsville, Ind., biennially.

REFERENCE .- Letter from John C. Snyder, Su- preme scribe, in the Department of Archives and History.

BENCH AND BAR. See Courts; Lawyers.

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. See Char- ity Organizations; Child Welfare; Institu- tions, State; Pensions; Salvation Army; Vol- unteers of America.

BERRIES. See Fruits.

BERRY. An incorporated town in the southeastern part of Fayette County, on the Southern Railway, ahout 15 miles east of Fayette, the county seat. Population: 1900 -245; 1910-372. It has the Bank of Berry (State).

REFERENCE .- Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.

BESSEMER. An important industrial cen- ter, popularly known as the "Marvel City." It is the sixth city of the State in point of population. It is in the lower section of Jones Valley, in the southern part of Jeffer- son County, and is 13 miles southwest of Birmingham. Altitude: 503 feet. Popula- tion: 1888-2,500; 1890-4,544; 1900- 6,358; 1910-10,864.

It had been selected in July, 1886, as the site for two iron furnaces. At the same time plans were projected for the building of a great manufacturing city. Bessemer was founded in the spring of 1887. Lands were secured, cleaned up, and on April 12, 1887, the first sale of lots was held. The develop- ment was the work of the Bessemer Land Improvement Co., which had heen incorpo- rated for that express purpose.

The growth of Bessemer was and is phe- nomenal. Its various industries would make a long list, all testifying to the progress of a city scarcely thirty years old. Apart from the solid foundation of these industries upon which the life and prosperity of the city mainly depend, Bessemer has well paved streets, excellent waterworks, a good system

of sewerage, fine banks, well edited news- papers, excellent schools, and churches of all denominations. To all these it must he added that it has an exceptionally industrious, law- abiding people.

BESSEMER CARNEGIE LIBRARY. See Libraries.

BETA ALPHA BETA. Local legal college fraternity; founded in 1912 among students of the law department of the University of Alahama, as Alpha Sigma Delta; and in the early part of the session of 1915-16 reorgan- ized under its present name.

REFERENCE .- Baird, Manual (1915), p. 658.

BETA SIGMA OMICRON. Women's col- lege fraternity; founded at Christian College, Columbia, Mo., December 12, 1888; entered Womans' College of Alabama in 1911 with Delta chapter, but, with other organizations, killed in 1915 by antifraternity laws. Its membership numbered 27. It has an alumni chapter in Birmingham. Colors: Ruhy and pink. Flower: Red carnation.

REFERENCE .- Baird, Manual (1915), pp. 465- 467.

BETA THETA PI. College fraternity; founded at Miami University, Oxford, O., August 8, 1839; was the first fraternity which originated west of the Alleghanies; entered Alahama in 1872 when Alpha Mu chapter was instituted at Howard College. The chapter only survived until 1879, with a total membership of 43. It has an alumni chapter in Birmingham. Periodical: "The Beta Theta Pi." Colors: Light pink and blue. Flower: Rose.

REFERENCES .- Baird, Manual (1915), pp. 79- 98; and the following official publications: Catalogue (1855), and many later editions; Fraternity studies (1894); Handbook (1907); and Baird, Betas of achievement (1912).

BETTIE FRANCIS COTTON MILLS, Alex- ander City. See Cotton Manufacturing.

BIBB COUNTY. Originally created as Ca- hawba, February 7, 1818, by the Legislature of the Alabama Territory. It was formed from the extensive territory of Monroe County as originally laid out. By act of No- vemher 20, 1818, the houndaries were altered and more definitely established. The legis- lature, on December 13, 1819, made an addi- tion on the southeast; on December 20, 1820, the southern boundaries were enlarged; and on December 17, 1821, an exchange of a half township each was made hetween Bihb and Perry Counties. As originally constituted it included much of the southern part of the present Shelby County. In 1868 part of its eastern section was cut off to form Baker (now Chilton) County (q. v.). Its area is 634 square miles, or 405,760 acres.

It was named for the Cahawha River (q. v.), which traverses the county from north to south. It was changed to Bibb, however, hy the legislature, at its session of

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

1820, December 4, in honor of the first gov- ernor, William Wyatt Bibb, who had died during the preceding summer.

The "Falls of the Cahawba" ( Centreville) was designated as the seat of justice, by act of December 17, 1819. The same act pro- vided for the election, on the first Monday

in March, 1820, of five commissioners, charged with the duty of fixing on a suitable place for the seat of justice, to be as near the centre as an eligible situation could be found and procured. Until they should agree upon a permanent location, they were author- ized to fix a temporary seat, within four miles of the centre of the county. The selec- tion of the Falls was to provide for an im- mediate contingency, before the election and action of the commissioners, but the courts were to continue there only until either a temporary or permanent seat should be se- lected. The commissioners were apparently slow in acting, since an act of December 20, 1820, required the sheriff to hold an election for new commissioners, in the event the old commissioners should fail to make a selec- tion prior to December 25, 1821. Before the date fixed, an act of November 27, 1821, named Henry W. Stephens, Agrippa Atkinson, and Ansel Sawyer as commissioners to "fix the temporary seat of justice at the centre of said county, or at the nearest eligible place within two miles thereof," on or before April 1, 1822.

By act of December 15, 1824, John Hunt, James Moore and William White were ap- pointed agents to select a quarter section of land for the use of the county, to be pre- empted by them. The lands were to be sold, and the proceeds, after paying the purchase price, were to be applied to the erection of public buildings. On December 22, 1827, the legislature authorized the people of the county "to fix a permanent seat of justice" for the county, the election to take place on the first Monday in February, 1828. The choice was limited to "Bibb Court House," the site selected under previous acts, and the "Falls of Cahaba." Commissioners Moon and White appointed under act of December 15, 1824, to select a quarter section of land for the county, having failed to perfect the pre- emption, the commissioners under the present act were to make the selection and sell the lands. Details as to the delays which oc- casioned so much legislative attention, as well as the result of the election are not at hand. The design of all of the acts appears to be the selection of a point near the centre of the county, and since the town located at the Falls of the Cahaba was named Centre- ville, it might be inferred that it was success- ful. However, such is not the case. Old maps show the designation of Bibb Old Court House, which continued for many years to be the county seat. It was located in sec. 29, T. 23 N., R. 11 E., on the public road about midway between Centreville and Randolph. The date of its removal to Centreville is not now available.

The early legislation reveals some inter- esting general facts. Apparently the very

first election held in the county was that pro- vided under the act of December 17, 1819, in which five commissioners were chosen to select a county seat. Only two voting places were authorized, at the falls of the Cahawba and at the house of Noah B. Coker, points named in an act of December 16, 1819. A year later, December 20, 1820, two other voting places were fixed at the houses of Henry W. Stephens and John Allen. Two years later, December 26, 1822, a fifth "elec- tion precinct" was established at the house of Daniel Williams on Mulberry Creek. The next legislature, December 22, 1823, discon- tinued the voting place at Coker's house, and established it at the house of Matthew Cox, evidently in the same neighborhood, and at the same time located a sixth place of voting at the home of Ezekiel Miller. On Decem- ber 24, 1824, the house of Capt. James Moore was made "an additional election precinct." The commissioners elected in 1819 were given power to contract for a court house and jail but only after posting notices in three public places, and after a thirty day adver- tisement in the Cahawba Press, published at the State capital.

Location and Physical Description .- The county lies near the center of the State, and is bounded on the north by Jefferson, on the northeast by Shelby, on the northwest by Tuscaloosa, on the west hy Hale, and on the south by Perry and Chilton Counties. The county as a whole is an elevated plain into which the rivers aud creeks composing its Even the valleys of the streams are narrow drainage system have been cut to a maximum depth of 200 feet. The process has left the general surface very hilly and often steep. and gorge-like, cut into the limestone, dolo- mite and sandstone that are predominantly characteristic of the locality, and having al- most no bottom lands within them. The char- acter of the highland soils varies with the nature of the material of which the hills are remnants. As a rule the upland areas are available for agriculture; but, the county being situated in the mineral region, its lands are of less importance agriculturally than industrially, though their value from either standpoint is more potential than actual since it is as yet largely undeveloped. The average elevation is 500 feet. There are large coal fields in the upper part of the county, be- sides deposits of dolomite, limestone, ma- terials suitable for Portland cement, and barite. There are also several mineral springs. The county is drained by Cahaba River and Its tributaries, Blue Guttee, Af- fonee, Haysoppe, Copperas, Shades, Schultz, Cane, Little Cahaba, Sixmile, Cowpens, Mahan and Sandy Creeks. The forest growth con- sists of long and short leaf pine, white oak, black oak, post oak, hickory, walnut, mul- berry, dogwood, with some black gum and cedar.

Aboriginal History .- The territory of the county lay in both Creek and Choctaw ter- ritory, the western part falling within the eastern boundary line claimed by the Choc- taws under the treaty of Hopewell, January

MEMORIAL CROSS ERECTED IN BIENVILLE SQUARE, MOBILE, BY THE ALA- BAMA BRANCH OF THE COLONIAL DAMES

Vw 1-9

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HISTORY OF ALABAMA

3, 1786. So far as is known, no Choctaws ever built villages in the region. There were two Creek towns, Penootaw village, situated on the east side of Cahaba, about three miles above Centerville, and Old Osoonee Town, also on the east side of Cahaba River, and about one mile and a half above the influx of Shade's Creek. Penootaw, in correct Muscogee orthography, Pin'-hoti, means Tur- key Home, from "Pinus," turkey, "hoti," home. The Creek claim, much the larger part, was ceded by the treaty of Fort Jack- son, August 9, 1814; and the Choctaw part, by the treaty of the Trading House, October 21, 1816.

Settlement and Later History .- The names of the first settlers in the county are not at hand. However, immigrants began to arrive in 1815 and within the next two or three years it had a sufficient population to call for the establishment of county government. In the acts creating the county, re-arranging county boundaries, providing the selection of the county seat, and fixing election precincts during the first five years of the county his- tory, are given the names of several of the settlers, as will appear above. The voting precincts were fixed at or near the houses of prominent settlers. These points were selected with reference to their convenience, and their location upon the public roads.

During the first five years of its history, the county had an uneventful record. While abounding in mineral wealth, with two ex- ceptions, its people were wholly engaged in agricultural pursuits, and lived far removed from the main currents of travel.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 26

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