USA > Alabama > History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I > Part 46
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Fraternal Orders .- All of the fraternal or- ders enjoin, both by precept and practice, all forms of charitable and relief activity. They not only cooperate with associated charities
232
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
and similar agencies, but in all of their lodges, camps, halls or other local assemblies, com- mittees are provided, through which system- atic work is done, not only among their own members, but throughout the bounds of their respective communities. The Masons have established a masonic home at Montgomery, and the Odd Fellows a home for widows and orphans at Cullman.
See Benevolent Institutions; Child Wel- fare; Confederate Pensions; Defective Classes; Masons; Odd Fellows; Old Age Relief; Pen- sions, Teachers; Pensions, United States; Poor Relief; Religious Organizations.
REFERENCES .- Code, 1907, secs. 1192, subdiv. 11, 1276, 1277, 1287; Mclaughlin and Hart, Cyclopedia of American Government (1914), vol. 1, pp. 243-247; Montgomery Associated Charities, Reports, and other publications; Birmingham Welfare Department, Publications.
CHARLOTTE, FORT. A British (later American) fortified post, at Mobile, formerly called Fort Condé by the French. By the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, when West Florida became a British possession, Major Robert Farmer was placed in command of the Mobile district. The old brick French Fort Condé, built by Bienville in 1717 to re- place the earlier Fort Louis, was immediately repaired and garrisoned. It was renamed Fort Charlotte, in compliment to the young queen of England.
Little interest was shown in Fort Charlotte for many years, owing perhaps to the bad health of the place. In March, 1771, the fort underwent many repairs. However, in June of that year, Holdimand removed 12 12-pounders from Fort Charlotte to Pensa- cola, replacing them with small pieces.
In 1780, Galvez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, made an attack upon Mobile. The Fort was under the command of Elias Durn- ford, with a garrison of only 279 men beside the minister, commissary, surgeon's mate, and about 52 negro servants. Captain Durnford finally surrendered March 14, 1780.
The first Spanish commandant at Mobile was José de Espeleta, followed by perhaps a dozen others. Among them were the well known Folch and Lonzas and Osorno. Perez was the last.
Under act of Congress in the spring of 1813, President James Madson directed Major-Gen. James Wilkinson to take Mobile. Command- ant Perez was in no condition to resist and after negotiations, surrendered the Fort, April 15, 1813, without bloodshed.
During French, British and Spanish rule, Fort Charlotte had been the important center of Mobile life, but now that Florida had be- come a part of the United States, and Mobile was growing up around the Fort, there was a feeling that it should be torn down and the ground be converted into city lots.
Although Major-General Bernard on Decem- ber 23, 1817, made report to the U. S. chief engineer that of all the forts in Louisiana, Fort Charlotte was the only one well built, and recommended it be retained, the sale of the old Fort was authorized by act of Con-
gress, April 20, 1818. This act was not car- ried into effect, however, and it remained garrisoned until 1820. The sale actually took place in October, 1820, much of the property going to a syndicate, calling itself the Mobile Lot Company.
REFERENCES .- Pickett, Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900), pp. 321, 516; Hamilton, Mobile of the five flags (1913), pp. 130, 190, 211; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), pp. 217, 252, 255, 266, 309, 412, 478.
CHATOKSOFKI. An Upper Creek town in Tallapoosa County. The name is Tchatu aksu'fki, meaning "rock precipitous," or "rock bluff." Tchatu is "rock," and aksufki, "deep down into." The word sufki alone is "deep." This town and Abikudshi, Niuyaka and Okfuski were originally one town. There- fore, the inhabitants of each came together at one place for their annual busk. They were the most famous ball players in the old Creek nation in Alabama.
REFERENCES .- Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 394; Hand- book of American Indians (1907), vol. 1, p. 237.
CHATTAHOOCHEE AND GULF RAIL- ROAD COMPANY. See Central of Georgia Railway Company.
CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER. An impor- tant stream draining a large area in the southern half of eastern Alabama, and the boundary between that portion of the State and the State of Georgia. The lower part of the Chattahoochee, or that lying within the State of Florida, below the confluence of the Flint River, is known as the Apalachicola River, and the basin drained by the two riv- ers is known as the Apalachicola Drainage Basin. The Chattahoochee River is 418 miles in length, averages 300 feet in width, and from 1 foot to 20 feet in depth at low water. It rises in the northeastern part of the State of Georgia and flows in a south- westerly direction as far as West Point, Ga., where it first touches Alabama soil, and thence southwardly until it joins with the Flint to form the Apalachicola.
From its source to near Gainsville, Ga., it flows through the Appalachian Mountains. At Gainsville it enters the Piedmont Plateau, and at West Point, begins the descent of the Piedmont escarpment to Columbus, Ga., where it enters the Coastal Plain. Following are the surface elevations at various points: Gainsville, 1,030 feet above sea level; West Point, 555 feet; Columbus, 18512 feet; at its confluence with the Flint, 45 feet. The drain- age area of the Chattahoochee is 15,300 square miles.
Originally Columbus, Ga., was the head of navigation of the Chattahoochee, and boats drawing 22 inches were able to reach Colum- bus during nine months of the year. How- ever, navigation was difficult and dangerous during daylight and impossible at night, due to the large accumulations of logs, snags, and overhanging trees, and to sand, rock, and marl shoals, which obstructed the channel.
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
In 1874 the Government began improving this stream for navigation. The plan con- templated a low-water channel, 100 feet wide and 4 feet deep, from Columbus to the mouth of the river. At the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, the work was about 90 per cent completed. The total expenditure to that time had amounted to $1,163,099.08. An appropriation of $2,000 was made by Congress on February 24, 1835, for the improvement of the Chattahoochee, but it is not known whether or not any work was done at that time.
There are many power and storage possi- bilities on the Chattahoochee above Colum- bus, especially for power development along the Piedmont escarpment, where the river falls 370 feet in 35 miles. Power has already been developed in this section at the follow- ing places, the horsepower named for each being the maximum development: Eagle & Phoenix Mills, at Columbus, 6,150 horse- power; City Mills, 34 mile above Columbus, 2,750 horsepower; North Highlands, 2.07 miles above Columbus, 11,520 horsepower; Goat Rock, 11.35 miles above Columbus, 48,600 horsepower; Riverview, 28.1 miles above Columbus, 1,060 horsepower; Lang- dale, 30.2 miles above Columbus, 4,034 horse- power. In the Piedmont Plateau above West Point large developments of power have also been made, aggregating nearly 20,000 horse- power.
Appropriations .- The dates, amounts and the aggregate of appropriations by the Fed- eral Government for improvement of this stream, as compiled to March 4, 1915, in Appropriations for rivers and harbors ( House Doc. 1491, 63 Cong., 3d sess., 1916), are shown in the appended table: Feb. 24, 1835.
$
2,000.00
June 23, 1874, Mar. 3, 1875, Aug. 14, 1876. 52,000.00
June 18, 1878.
18,000.00
Mar. 3, 1879
15,000.00
June 14, 1880
20,000.00
Mar. 3, 1881
20,000.00
Aug. 2, 1882
25,000.00
July 5, 1884
35,000.00
Aug. 5, 1886.
20,000.00
Sept. 19, 1890
20,000.00
July 13, 1892
25,000.00
Aug. 18, 1894
30,000.00
June 3, 1896.
25,000.00
Mar. 3, 1899
50,000.00
June 13, 1902.
100,000.00
Apr. 28, 1904 (allotment) ...
32,650.00
Mar. 3, 1905.
75,000.00
Mar. 3, 1905 (allotment)
10,000.00
Mar. 2, 1907 ..
150,000.00
Mar. 3, 1909 (allotment)
115,000.00
June 25, 1910
75,000.00
Feb. 27, 1911.
75,000.00
July 25, 1912.
50,000.00
Mar. 4, 1913
80,000.00
Oct. 2, 1914. 65,000.00
Mar .. 4, 1915
75,000.00
$ 1,279,650.00
REFERENCES .- U. S. Chief of Engineers, An- nual report, 1873, App. R, pp. 12-20; 1897, App. P, pp. 1616-1621; 1906. App. Q, pp. 341-343; 1909, App. Q, pp. 395-397, 1393-1394; 1915, pp. 724-726.
CHATTAHOOCHEE VALLEY RAILWAY COMPANY. Organized June 7, 1900, under the general laws of the State, and purchased the property of the Chattahoochee Valley Railroad Co .; extends from Standing Rock to Jester; mileage operated June 30, 1915- main tracks, 31.53, side tracks, 2.18, total, 33.71; capital stock authorized and outstand- ing-common, $110,000, no preferred stock; shares, $100, voting power, one vote a share; and funded debt, $280,000. The West Point Manufacturing Co. owns 1010 shares of the capital stock.
The Chattahoochee Valley Railroad Co. was chartered under the general laws of Alabama in 1895; and had completed its road between West Point, Ga., and Riverview, Ala., 10 miles, in January, 1897. The new company extended the road to Jester. The road con- nects at West Point, Ga., with the Atlanta & West Point and Western of Alabama railways, and at Standing Rock, Ala., with the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad.
REFERENCES .- Railroad Commission of Ala., Annual reports, 1897 et seq .; Poor's manual of railroads, 1900 et seq .; Annual report of company to Ala. Public Service Commission, 1915.
CHATTANOOGA AND ATLANTA RAIL- ROAD COMPANY. See Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad Company.
CHATTANOOGA RAILROAD COMPANY. See Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company.
CHATTANOOGA SOUTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY. See Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad Company.
CHATTOOGA RIVER AND VALLEY. The valley of the Chattooga River includes the country between Dirt Seller Mountain and Gaylor's Ridge. Its extent in Alabama is wholly within Cherokee County. It opens out into a great body of flatwoods on the south- east, from which it is separated by the Rome- Cahaba thrust fault. Its length is about five, and its width about two miles. Like Broom- town Valley (q. v.), it is a denuded sub- ordinate anticlinal fold of a broad unsym- metrical complex anticlinal that includes both Dirt Seller Mountain and Gaylor's Ridge. Its northeast end is a symmetrical valley, but its southwest end, with its steep strata and a fault along its northwest edge, is not sym- metrical. As a whole it is a rugged country, made up mainly of the broken central belt of cherty ridges. Its limestones in places would answer very well for marble, being hard enough to take a good polish. The valley is drained by the Chattooga River into the Coosa River. The Chattooga River rises in
Aug. 11, 1888.
20,000.00
234
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
Georgia, and flows southwestwardly only a few miles in Alabama before emptying into the Coosa. It is a small stream and not navi- gable, nor has the United States Government undertaken any improvement projects in con- nection with it.
REFERENCE .- McCalley, Valley regions of Ala- bama, Pt. 2, Coosa Valley (Geol. Survey of Ala., Special report 9, 1897), p. 14.
CHATTOOGA VILLAGE. On a map of the Cherokee country, by John Bethune, Surveyor General of Georgia, 1831, a village of this name is noted on the Chattooga River, a few miles south of Brainard. No other facts have been discovered.
REFERENCES .- Manuscript data in the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
CHATTOS. A small coast tribe, of the Muskoogean linguistic stock. Although the name bears a resemblance, they are wholly distinct from, and are not to be confused with the Choctaws.
The first record of the Chattos is as a small tribe in Florida, whence they were driven by the Spaniards in 1708. The fugi- tives, men, women, and children came to Fort Louis de la Mobile, and begged D'Artaguette and Bienville for lands, upon which they might settle. They were given a tract of land on the site of the present city of Mobile, but in 1709, Bienville having determined to change the site of the fort, removed them to another point, two leagues lower down on Dog River. Fort Louis was in 1711 erected on the lands originally assigned to the Chattos.
This tribe in its personal names, showed the evidences of social contact with the Spaniards. Some of the names assigned to them, as appears from the Catholic Church register in the cathedral at Mobile, are Ouan, or Juan, the name of their chief, Pharesco, a corruption of Francisco, Domingo, Lucia, Maria and Theresa.
Numerically the tribe was never strong, and some time after 1822 was absorbed or incorporated into the six towns divisions of the Choctaws. In 1720 they numbered three hundred members, with forty cabins. In 1805 they had thirty warriors; and in 1822 Morse's report to the Secretary of War gives them a total population of two hundred and forty. According to Baudrey de Lozieres, they spoke the Choctaw language. They were always great friends of the French, and nearly all were adherents of the Cath- olic faith.
REFERENCES .- Margry, Decouvertes (1883), vol. 5, pp. 479, 481, 482; Pickett, History of Ala- bama (Owen's ed., 1900), p. 118; Hamilton, Co- lonial Mobile (1910), pp. 113, 137; Swanton, Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast ( Bureau of American Eth- nology, Bulletin 43, 1911), pp. 8, 9, 32, 42, 45; and Manuscript data in the Alabama Depart- ment of Archives and History.
CHATTUKCHUFAULA. An Upper Creek town, probably in Lee County, on the Talla-
poosa River. It was probably settled from Tallassee, near Tukabatchi, the former in Tal- lapoosa, and the latter in the present Elmore County. The town was the home of Peter McQueen, one of the hostile Creeks. It was burned in August, 1813, by the Indians friendly to the government.
REFERENCES .- Gatschet, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 394; Hand- book of American Indians (1907), vol. 1, p. 238; Woodward, Reminiscences (1859), p. 35.
CHAUTAUQUA ORGANIZATIONS AND WORK. The new form of educational and recreational activity, commonly known as Chautauqua, combining entertainment and in- struction for a limited period, has been gen- erally supported in Alabama. Every season numbers of Alabamians, including teachers, club women and many other classes are in at- tendance on the Chautauqua assembly, N. Y .; and throughout the year Chautauqua circles and individuals carry on the courses of study locally. The Redpath Chautauqua for several years has included the principal Alabama cities and towns in its circuits. Local Chau- tauquas have been held.
In 1905 the Citronelle Chautauqua Asso- ciation, which had been incorporated May 5, 1904, held its first assembly at Citronelle in the pines. It covered the period from March 2 to 29, practically a whole month. Subse- quent assemblies were held, but the assocla- tion is not now active. The Alabama Brenau Chautauqua was inaugurated at Eufaula in the summer of 1906 under the management of Dr. H. J. Pearce, associate president of the Brenau group of colleges. It was designed to take the place of the conventional college commencement, and to stimulate interest in the cause of education. As many as four ses- sions were regularly held. The Mobile Sum- mer Chautauqua and Teachers' Outing School had an assembly at Mobile in 1909. The Southern Chautauqua, organized in 1916, with headquarters at Macon, Ga., bas on its board of directors, Gov. Charles Henderson, of Alabama.
REFERENCES .- Programs, announcements and circulars of the Chautauquas named, all irregu- larly issued; and manuscript data in the Ala- bama Department of Archives and History; Paul M. Pearson, "The Chautauqua movement," in American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, 1912, pp. 211-216.
CHAWOCELAUHATCHEE. A Creek In- dian town in the southern part of Lee County, on the south side of Nufata Creek, at its con- fluence with Sawacklahatchee Creek.
REFERENCE .- Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report (1899), pt. 2, map 1.
CHEMIST, THE STATE. A State office, constituting a branch of the executive depart- ment of the government. The professor of agricultural chemistry of the Alabama Poly- technic Institute is the official chemist of the department of agriculture and industries, and is popularly known as state chemist. The office was established by act of February 17,
235
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
1885, and its duties are to make certified analyses of samples of fertilizers upon request of the commissioner of agriculture and indus- tries; to attend conventions of agricultural chemists when possible; to make reports of such matters as he may deem of sufficient interest to the department; and to render such other professional services as the com- missioner may require. He is also required by law to analyze any sample of cottonseed meal sent him by any consumer in this State, and his certificate of such analysis shall be accepted as prima facie correct in all the courts of the State. He may deputize the ranking member of the staff of the state chemical laboratory to report and sign analy- ses, and to make reports upon such other matters as the state chemist may refer to him. He is allowed his necessary traveling expenses while on duty assigned him by the commissioner, out of the funds of the depart- ment.
In 1911 it was made the duty of the state chemist to analyze samples of commercial feed stuffs submitted by the commissioner of agriculture and industries, and, to expedite that work, he was authorized to employ an additional assistant chemist, at an annual salary of $800, payable from the proceeds arising from the operation of the law regu- lating the manufacture and sale of commer- cial feed stuffs in the State.
Under the law creating the office, the state chemist was entitled to such compensation as the commissioner of agriculture and indus- tries deemed reasonable, not exceeding $500 annually and his necessary expenses while traveling on department business. In 1907 it was provided that the analyses should be made without charge to the department of agriculture and industries.
Prior to the enactment of February 17, 1885 above referred to, under the act of February 23, 1883, creating the department of agriculture, section 17, the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now the Ala. Pol. Inst.) was required to make all analyses of fertilizers that might be required, and with- out charge.
Chemists .- W. C. Stubbs, 1883-1885; N. T. Lupton, 1885-1893; J. T. Anderson, Acting, 1893; Bennett B. Ross, 1893 -.
PUBLICATIONS .- The official reports of the state chemist are to be found in the Bulletins of the agriculture and industries department, passim.
See Agriculture and Industries, Depart- ment of; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Fertilizers.
REFERENCES. - Code, 1907, secs. 46-48, 50; Acts, 1882-83, p. 196; 1884-85, p. 176; 1898-99, p. 22; General Acts, 1907, p. 341; 1911, p. 107.
CHEROKEE. Post office and station on the Southern Railway in the northern part of Colbert County, sec. 35, T. 3, R. 14, 16 miles west of Tuscumbia. Population: 1900- 261; 1910-269. Altitude: 514 feet. It has a branch of the Tennessee Valley Bank (State). Its industries are marble quarries, sawmills, gristmills, and cotton ginneries.
The town was named in commemoration of the fact that nearby was the line dividing the Chickasaw lands on the west from the Chero- kee lands on the east. The Cherokees sold the land composing Colbert, Lawrence and Morgan Counties to the United States Gov- ernment and moved east of Guntersville. The white settlers took possession of the site of their abandoned village, and named it Cherokee. The first comers were J. C. Craig, Whit Dean, Jack Rutland, and William Dick- son. Whit Dean, Robert Lindsay, and Wil- liam Bell were the first merchants of the town; Drs. William Duprez, W. E. Cross and James M. Houston, the first physicians; Rev. Isaac Milner, the first preacher; Prof. John Craig, the first teacher; Whit Dean, the first postmaster. Among Cherokee's promi- nent citizens are Dr. W. C. Wheeler, scholar and physician, and Rev. Henry Williams, theologian and author.
Magnesia and black and white sulphur wells abound in the vicinity of Cherokee. Among others, there are the well known Newsome Springs, also Colbert Springs, named in honor of Levi Colbert, an Indian chief. George's Cave is a natural curiosity near Colbert Springs, which is named in honor of George Colbert, another Indian chief. Cherokee is on the old "Natchez Trace," now the principal road of the section.
REFERENCES .- Saunders, Early settlers of Al- abama (1899); Northern Alabama (1888), pp. 103-105; Polk's Alabama gazetteer, 1888-9, p. 261.
CHEROKEE COUNTY. Created by the legislature January 9, 1836. Its territory lies wholly within the old Cherokee country, ceded by the treaty of New Echota, December 29, 1835. For a brief period after the ces- sion, these lands were attached to St. Clair County for administrative purposes. It lost much of its western section by the creation of Etowah, then Baine County, December 7, 1866. The county has 577 square miles, or 369,280 acres.
Its name was given to commemorate the occupation of the Cherokee Indians. The word is an English corruption of their tribal name Tsalagi or Tsaragi, which is supposed to be derived from the Choctaw Chiluk-ki, "Cave People." in allusion to the numerous caves in their mountain country. There ap- pears to be no foundation for the genesis of the word from Chera, said to be the Cherokee word for "fire."
From the date of its establishment for more than ten years there was a continual agitation over the county seat. During this period the legislature was frequently called on for relief or other action. On June 24, 1837, an act definitely located it at Cedar Bluff, below William Woodley's ferry, on the Coosa River, and Z. McKraiken, J. J. Humph- ries, B. B. Thompson, A. S. Copeland, John C. Rhea, Henry L. Smith and John M. Hen- dricks were appointed commissioners "to lay off the town into lots, and provide for and superintend the public buildings."
236
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
The first officers, all appointed by the gov- ernor n 1836, were George Bridewell, judge of the county court; Robert Bell, sheriff; Henry L. Smith, clerk of the circuit court, and John S. Wilson, clerk of the county court.
There was evidently dissatisfaction over the selection, for January- 15, 1844, James Montgomery, Magnus G. Williams, Andrew J. Copeland. Thomas Garrett, Joseph Wharton, Aaron Clifton and Asa R. Brindley were ap- pointed commissioners to ascertain the cen- ter of the county and to certify the point se- lected to the sheriff. An election was then held on the first Monday in April, 1844, at which Cedar Bluff and the central point so selected were voted for. Cedar Bluff lost in the election, and the name Center was ap- plied to the new location. The town was then laid off. On January 27, 1846, further provisions were made with reference to the sale of lots. A still later act of February 22, 1848, named a new commission, consisting of Joseph Wharton, Aaron Clifton, Thomas Gar- rett, Asa W. Allen and Asa R. Brindley "to lay off, plan and superintend the erection of a court house in the town of Center, and County of Cherokee, under such rules and regulations as the commissioners court of said county may prescribe."
Location and Physical Description .- It is located in the northeastern section of the state. On the north it is bounded by DeKalb County, on the east by the State line and Chattooga and Floyd Counties, Ga., on the south by Cleburne and Calhoun, and west by Etowah and DeKalb Counties. 1t lies largely in the western division of the Appalachian Province, and has many of the marked char- acteristics of that geographical area. These characteristics consist of broad, level pla- teaus, and alternating with narrow valleys. The character and position of both the plateaus and the intervening valleys are closely connected with the character and structure of the underlying rocks. The ele- vations and the valleys have a northeast and southwest trend. To the northwest is Look- out Mountain. Shinbone Ridge and Tucker Ridge lie wholly within the county. The in- tervening area is known locally as Broomtown Valley. The Coosa River flows through entire extent of the county. Its principal tributary streams from the north are Chattooga and Little Rivers, and Yellow Creek. The streams flowing from the south are Spring, Cowan, and Terrapin Creeks. The exposed rocks are all of sedimentary origin, and belong to the Paleozoic Age. The coal measures include about 150 square miles, and the Coosa Val- ley, a fine agricultural region, about 436 square miles. The soils of the county vary, but are principally red and brown loams, to be found in the valleys and along the princi- pal streams. One type of this soil is the Chattooga loam, found principally along the river of that name. The DeKalb stony loam, Fort Payne stony loam, DeKalb sandy loam, and Hagerstown loams and clays largely con- stitute the soils of the northern section of the county. Throughout the county are many acres of what are locally known as flatwoods,
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