History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 55

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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The average crop-growing season in the northern counties is 200 days, the middle counties 210 to 240 days, and in Mobile and Baldwin Counties 250 to 260 days. The average dates of the last killing frost in spring are, in the more northern portion, April 1 to 11; in the middle counties, March 21 to April 1; and in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, March 1 to 11. The average dates of the first killing frost in autumn are, in the northern counties, October 21 to Novem- ber 1; in the middle counties, November 1 to November 11; and in Mobile and Baldwin Counties, November 11 to November 21. Hail and thunderstorms occur occasionally in the spring and summer months, and are most severe in the west-central and Gulf counties. Snow rarely falls except in the more northern counties, and then does not remain on the ground longer than 48 hours. Droughts when they prevail at all, occur generally between May and November. The rivers do not freeze; and when freezing temperatures occur, they do not continue for more than 48 hours. Fog, when it does occur, is usually confined to the coast region. The prevailing wind direction for the year is south.

Alabama is a section of the United States Weather Service and has four Weather Bureau offices, of which Montgomery is the section center. The others are located at Mobile, Birmingham and Anniston. Sixty-two substations are located in various parts of the State, and report to either the Mobile or Montgomery offices. During the cotton sea- son, all offices report daily to the section center, but between seasons make only monthly reports. Weather Bureau offices and substations report at least once a month to the section center at Montgomery.

The meteorologist at Montgomery has general supervision over the climatological service of the State and is the section direc- tor. The meteorologist at Mobile has super- vision over the local territory, both for weather and river forecasts and reports for the Mobile and Tombigbee Rivers. The local forecaster at Birmingham makes local observations only, and the observer for An- niston reports only for that territory.

A monthly summary, Climatological Data, Alabama section, is compiled by the director of the Montgomery office, from reports sent in from all other offices. It shows the sum- mary of weather conditions for all stations for the month. Atmospheric pressure, tem- perature, humidity, precipitation, wind, sun- shine, cloudiness, and miscellaneous data are given in detail for the four regular Weather Bureau offices, and temperature and precipi- tation are given for all cooperative stations. The Anniston, Birmingham and Mobile offices issue a monthly summary in card form of local conditions only, and they also issue forecast cards. The Montgomery and Mobile offices issue daily maps, daily forecast cards, and river forecasts.

The section director has supervision of the distribution of weather forecasts for the whole State, but makes river forecasts for his river districts only. Two river districts only are located in the State. The Alabama River and tributaries include the Cahawba, Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers and extend to Canton, Ga., and the Tombigbee River and tributaries which extend to Aberdeen, Miss.

The four Weather Bureau offices in the State are in charge of regular officials of the United States Weather Service, but of the station observers, some are voluntary and some are paid officials. Those not receiving remuneration receive the publications of the Weather Bureau free of charge. Sketches of the four offices follow. For fuller details, and for early history of the several substa- tions, and for stations no longer active, See the three titles first noted under "References" below.

Mobile Station .- Established by the Signal Service, November 6, 1870, and located at 48 St. Michael Street, removed May 1, 1872, to Government and Royal Streets; November 18, 1880, to the Battle House; November 1, 1881, to Manser Building; and on July 1, 1884 to the customhouse. It was located in the customhouse for a number of years, but is now at No. 823 City Bank Building. The topography of the surrounding country is generally low but reaches 140 feet at Spring Hill, 6 miles away.

Elevation, 57 feet. Latitude, 30° 41'; Longitude, 88° 02'.

Montgomery Station .- Established by the Signal Service, September 4, 1872; first lo- cated at 49 Dexter Avenue at an elevation of 222.6 feet; removed August 1, 1892, to Moses Building; and on April 1, 1895, to the Federal Building, corner of Dexter Avenue and Lawrence Street. This station is now the section center. The Montgomery and the Mobile stations were established at the time the Signal Service of the United States Army took charge of the weather service of the country. The station has always been in charge of a paid official.

Elevation, 240 feet. Latitude 32° 23' North; Longitude 86° 18' West.

Birmingham Station .- Established as a Cotton Region Station by the Signal Service, April, 1882, and continued during the grow- ing seasons, . 1882 to 1886 inclusive. Re-

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established as a voluntary station, April, 1893, and continued until September 1, 1895, when a paid agency was inaugurated. During both the voluntary and station agency periods it was located at 2011 First Avenue. On the creation of a full Weather Bureau station on September 1, 1903, new quarters were secured, and the station was located in the Title-Guarantee Building, 21st Street and 3d Avenue. On November 30, 1907, a separate observatory building was occupied. It was constructed by the Government at a cost of $16,009, on a lot at the corner of 12th Ave- nue and 13th Street, North, at what is locally known as Fountain Heights. The lot was deeded to the Government by the city of Bir- mingham. Ben M. Jacobs, a progressive business man of Birmingham, served from the beginning of the voluntary service until Sep- tember 1, 1905. When the Weather Bureau station, requiring the full service of an observer, was established, he resigned, and a regular employee of the bureau was placed in charge.

Elevation 700 feet. Latitude 33° 32' North; Longitude 86° 37' West.

Anniston Station .- Established by United States Weather Bureau at Oxanna, a suburb of Anniston, in September, 1891, and desig- nated as "Oxanna" from that date until Feb- ruary 1, 1903, since which time it has been known as Anniston. It is located 4 miles north of Anniston proper and in a valley. The highest mountains in the State are 4 miles east.

Elevation, 650 feet. Latitude 33º 39' North; Longitude 85° 49' West.

First Organized Weather Service .- Early weather observations in the State were made by voluntary reporters to the agricultural journals of the day. Shortly after 1850 the Smithsonian Institution took charge of this work, and while the reports were more or less irregular, there were some records made, and the observations were published in the Patent Office Reports, and in Transactions of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1870, the system was transferred to the Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army, who estab- lished two stations in the State, one at Mo- bile and the other at Montgomery. These were both in charge of paid observers. These were the only regularly organized stations until 1880, when sets of thermometers and rain gauges were installed in a number of railway stations, and the agents were placed in charge. They were compensated for tele- graphing the observations, during the crop seasons, to the central stations at Mobile and Montgomery.

In February, 1881, a meteorological station was established at Auburn by the Agricul- tural and Mechanical College. By direction of the Chief Signal Officer, in 1884 Auburn was made the central station of the Alabama Weather Service. In March, 1884, the first bulletin was issued, compiled by Capt. W. H. Gardner, containing reports from 22 observ- ers. During the first three months, the num- ber of observers was increased to 45. On the organization of the service at Auburn,

the commissioner of agriculture and indus- tries agreed to publish the bulletins as a part of the transactions of his department, but this support was withdrawn in February, 1885, and the publication of the bulletins was transferred to the college. Bulletins were issued monthly, and during the crop seasons, weekly on Saturdays. Special bul- letins were issued at irregular periods. The method of indicating changes of weather in advance by the present system of flags was introduced in Alabama in September, 1884, more than a year before it was adopted for the entire country by the Chief Signal Officer. A cold wave flag, however, did not belong to the Alabama system.

Rainfall .- The earliest influence of weather conditions on the history of the territory now embraced in the State was the removal of Mobile, in 1711, from Twenty-seven Mile Bluff to its present location because of over- flows. The heavy rainfall south of the moun- tain sections practically all drains into Mobile River, and the cause of the high waters is therefore apparent. Records for more than a hundred years are meager, but a few have come down sufficient for illustrative purposes.

The year 1817 was a year of constant and general rains throughout the newly estab- lished Alabama Territory. In the winter of 1833, all rivers reached the flood stage. The largest annual rainfall recorded in the State was at Mount Vernon Arsenal in 1853, when 106.57 inches was noted. In 1877 a West Indian storm swept the State. At Tuscaloosa 14 inches of rain fell in two days, and the Warrior River reached 63.6 feet above low water. All crops in this section were de- stroyed. The highest stages ever reached over the State generally were in 1886. All crops on the lowlands were destroyed in the spring, and the rains continued through June, greatly damaging cotton. Practically every stream in the State overflowed its banks, and many improvements were destroyed. Indian mounds all over the central and southern parts were partly washed away, and many remains and relics uncovered.

Droughts .- The year 1840 was the dryest of which there is record. Fish died in great numbers in the Warrior River, which came very near drying up. The Alabama was too low for navigation. The total rainfall at Huntsville was only 29.08 inches. An im- mense cotton crop was produced on this account. The years 1854 and 1855 were very dry and only 37.85 inches fell at Auburn during the entire year. In 1870 a very dry year resulted in a large cotton crop, but in 1883 the same conditions resulted in the opposite way, since the drought continued through October. General droughts have been recorded for 1825, 1839-40, 1845, 1851, 1853, 1857, 1860, and 1904.

Storms .- Storms have usually come in March and April. The prevailing direction is southwest to northeast. The highest hourly wind velocity recorded in the State was at Mobile, on the 18th of October, 1916, when 115 miles from the east was reached. The

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year of greatest frequency was 1884, when there were 19 storms.

A destructive cyclone on the Gulf coast in 1740, totally ruined the rice crop, and much privation resulted. More than 300 head of cattle were drowned on Dauphin Island. From August 31 to September 3, 1772, a destructive storm visited Mobile Bay. Ves- sels were driven into the heart of the town of Mobile, and the salt water, forced over the ground, destroyed all vegetation. In August, 1794, a tornado is recorded. On August 25, 1819, and again on August 25, 1852, occurred violent storms in Mobile, and on the Gulf coast. In 1878, 1880, 1881, 1882, and 1883, storms occurred in March and April, and on September 9 and 10 in 1882.

The year 1884 witnessed 19 violent storms throughout the State. The most remarkable was on February 19, in the afternoon, and passed through Montgomery, Perry, Elmore, Coosa, Jefferson, Cherokee, and Calhoun Counties. Nineteen were killed and thirty- one wounded. Leeds in Jefferson County was almost destroyed. Tornadoes occurred on March 11, 24, 25, April 2, 14, 15, 16, and December 12, 1884. Numbers of people were killed, and there was much property damage. On January 11, April 30, May 6, and Novem- ber 6, 1885, there were tornadoes, resulting in much property damage and a number of deaths. On March 27, 29, and 30, 1886, storms did considerable damage in Clarke, Lee, and Bullock Counties.

A cyclone lasting two days, March 26 and 27, 1888, accompanied by heavy rainfall, caused much damage to railroads and tele- phone and telegraph communication over most of the State.

West Indian storms on the Gulf coast in 1907 and 1916 resulted in millions of dollars loss of property and some deaths. The storm of July, 1916, was the most destructive in the history of Mobile, where there was a property damage of nearly $2,000,000. During the storm of 1907 there were many deaths on the coast below Mobile, and much damage to shipping.

Cold Records and Snow .- The earliest reference to cold weather in the Gulf section is by Cabeza de Vaca. In his narrative of the Narvaez expedition to Florida in 1528, in describing the stay of 25 days in June and July at Apalache, probably near the present Tallahassee, Fla., he says: "The country is very cold." Records show the years 1748, 1768, 1772, 1779-80, 1793, 1794, 1796, and 1799 to have been severely cold during the winter months. The winter of 1779-80 was extremely cold, beginning November 15. Snowstorms continued throughout the entire winter, rivers and creeks froze over, wild turkeys froze in the forests, domestic fowl on their roosts, deer sought refuge around the settlers' cabins, and many wild animals perished in the forests. The year 1783 was cold during the entire period, July and August being cold enough to resort to winter clothing.

The years 1807, 1816, and 1823 were very cold, and the lowest temperature up to that time recorded at Mobile, was registered on

February 16, when 5° above zero was reached. February 16, 1807, was so cold that the sap in trees froze, causing the bark to explode. Killing frosts formed every month in the year, as far south as latitude 34°, and on June 8, frost reached 33° South. During the year 1825 there was little cold weather, and immense crops were produced.

On May 27, 1827, a killing frost damaged the cotton crop. After winter had set in the ground continued hard frozen until March, 1828. The winters of 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835, 1846-47, 1852, 1855-56, and 1857 were ex- tremely cold. In the winter of 1855-56 the streams froze over, and there was skating at Mobile, a most unusual occurrence for that latitude. For 1823, 1835, and 1857 the low- est mean average temperatures were shown.

On April 13, 1857, there was a very heavy snow; and on December 30, 1876, occurred the fiercest snowstorm ever known in Ala- bama. During the first week in January, 1877, the Tombigbee River as high up as Columbus, Miss., was frozen over. The tem- perature at Columbus reached zero. The years 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1887 were severely cold. In 1886, during the early part of the year, considerable stock was killed. During the month of December snow- storms of unusual intensity occurred. On December 5, a fall of 20 inches was recorded in north Alabama, and as much as 12 inches was reached in the southern counties.

The winters of 1898 and 1899 were severe, and the temperature reached at Mobile, on February 13, 1899, the lowest record for that section of the State, recording 1º below zero. Snow fell over most of the State on February 23, 1914.

Crops .- Weather conditions affected the crops favorably in 1823, 1825, 1835, '1837, 1839, 1840, 1842, 1844, 1855, 1858, 1859, 1870, 1872, 1875, 1878, 1879, 1885, 1886, 1889. On account of unfavorable conditions, poor crops were produced in 1817, 1827, 1838, 1843, 1846, 1847, 1849, 1850, 1851, 1853, 1854, 1857, 1867, 1868, 1871, 1876, 1884.

Meteoric Display .- The most spectacular meteoric display ever recorded in the history of the State occurred November 13, 1833, during the early part of the night. The event has long been known as the "night the stars fell."

REFERENCES .- Henry, "Climatology of the United States," U. S. Weather Bureau, Bulle- tin Q (1906), pp. 364-381; U. S. Weather Bu- reau Report, 1900-1901, vol. 2 (Serial No. 4320) ; U. S. Weather Bureau, Climatological data, Alabama section, 1901-1916; F. P. Chaf- fee, in Alabama Official and Statistical Reg- ister, 1907, pp. 348-351; P. H. Smyth, "ClImate of Alabama," in Alabama's new era, 1911, vol. 1, pp. 96-101, also in the Alabama land book, 1916, p. 22 and also in Montgomery Journal, Nov. 17, 1913; Dr. P. H. Mell, "Climatology of Alabama," ( Alabama Experiment Station, Bul- letin No. 18, n. s., August, 1890). The last named title contains the fullest available de- tails as to actual weather conditions in the State, and was compiled from all available his-

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torical and other sources, including meteorolog- Ical observations from 1811 to 1890. The history of the meteorological service in Ala- bama is fully described in Henry, Climatology, etc.

CLIO. Incorporated town in the south- western corner of Barbour County, on the Central of Georgia Railway, about 6 miles southwest of Louisville and 16 miles south- west of Clayton. Population: 1888-200; 1912-580. It was incorporated in 1892, and adopted the municipal code in 1907. The corporate limits extend three-fourths of a mile in every direction from the crossing of Pine Street and the Elba public road. It has a small, privately owned electric light plant, and waterworks for the business section only; also paved sidewalks in business section. Bonded indebtedness: $10,000. There are two banks in the town, the Farmers' Bank (State), and the Clio Banking Co. (State). The Clio Free Press, a Democratic weekly, established in 1906, is published there. Its principal industries are 2 cotton ginneries, 2 cotton warehouses, and a fertilizer plant. It is the location of the Barbour County High School. Its churches are Baptist, Presbyte- rian, and Methodist Episcopal, South. Among the early settlers of Clio were the Faulk, McRae, and McKinson families.

REFERENCES .- Polk's Alabama gazetteer, 1888- 89, p. 273; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.

CLOVER. See Grasses and Forage.

COAL. The coal region of Alabama is the southwestern termination of the great Appa- lachian coal field. It embraces an area of about 8,400 square miles. This is divided into three distinct fields, separated from each other by narrow anticlinal valleys, and taking their names from the main streams that drain them, viz, the Coosa, the Cahaba, and the Warrior. Of these, the last named is by far the most important. Each of these fields is a trough, or valley, with its axis near the southeastern border, and its strata dipping generally toward the southwest, thus causing the greatest thickness of the coal measures in each to be near the eastern border and at or toward the southwestern end. The maxi- mum thickness of these measures is nearly 4,000 feet, while the coal seams vary in thick- ness from a few inches to 16 feet. How- ever, the thick seams are always more or less shaly. About 25 of the seams are more than 18 inches thick.

The Alabama coals are all bituminous and of a quality to compare favorably with the coal of other States. A large proportion of the total production is consumed in the Bir- mingham district in making coke for the steel and iron furnaces, and by the railroads and industries centering in that locality; but, at the same time, large quantities are shipped out of the district and sold on the general market, particularly in the cities and towns of this and of neighbor States, for steam and commercial uses. A considerable tonnage is

used at the Gulf ports as bunker coal, and further large amounts are exported, chiefly to Mexico. The mines are comparatively free from fire damp, and most of them equipped with modern machinery and appliances for mining and raising the coal, and for the safety of their employees. State convicts are worked in some of the mines. (See Convict Depart- ment.) The State maintains a bureau for the inspection and regulation of the mining in- dustry. (See Mine Inspectors, and Mine Boss Examiners.)

It has been estimated that the total coal production of Alabama previous to 1874 did not exceed 480,000 tons. In 1914 it was 15,- 593,422 tons whose value at the mines was $20,849,919. This was a decrease, as com- pared with the year 1913, of 2,085,100 tons and $2,233,805 in value. The earliest min- ing was done during the "forties," in the Trout Creek and Broken Arrow regions of the Coosa field, and in the Montevallo dis- trict of the Cahaha field, although coal seams outcropping in the beds of rivers and creeks had been worked with pick and shovel for many years previous to the commencement of shaft or drift mining. The earliest record of the existence of coal in the State, so far as known, was made in 1834. The first offi- cial report of coal production is contained in the United States census report for 1840, being given as 946 tons for that year. The census report for 1850 makes no mention of coal production in this State, but the report for 1860 credits Alabama with the produc- tion of 10,200 tons. There are no records covering the period of the War, but it is known that the mines of the State were worked to a considerable extent. In 1870 the Census Bureau reported 11,000 tons of Ala- bama coal produced, and 10 years later, 323,- 972 tons.

Warrior Coal Field .- As has been stated, the Warrior is the most important coal field, both in area and production. It consists of two great natural divisions which are known to geologists as the plateau region and the Warrior Basin.

The Warrior Plateau includes the north- eastern part of the field, extending from near the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to the borders of Georgia and Tennessee, together with the spurs of the Cumberland table-land on the western and northern side of the Ten- nessee River. It embraces parts of Blount, Etowah, DeKalb, Cherokee, Marshall, and Jackson Counties. The altitude of these up- lands ranges from 1200 to 1800 feet above tidewater in the northeastern part, to 700 or 800 feet in the vicinity of the railroad. The greatest thickness of the coal measures (about 1800 feet,) with 15 or more seams of coal, is found along the southern limits of the plateau where it merges into the basin, while near the northern edge adjoining Georgia and Tennessee, the strata are not over 200 feet in thickness with one or two coal seams. The seams in the plateau region are not of uniform thickness, but occur in "bulges and squeezes." The coal is usually good, hard and solid, though at times containing con-

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siderable pyrites; but it has not been so ex- tensively mined as the hasin coal because of the variable thickness of the seams.

The Warrior Basin consists of the larger, southeastern portion of the field, extending from the line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad down to where the coal measures pass helow the Cretaceous formations and appear no more at the surface. It embraces all of Walker County, most of Jefferson, Tus- caloosa, and Fayette, and smaller parts of Blount, Winston, and Marion Counties. The greatest thickness of the measures is here found at the southwest, in Tuscaloosa County. Six principal groups of coal seams character- ize these measures, in ascending order, namely: the Black Creek group with three seams, the Horse Creek group with five, the Pratt group with five, the Cobb group with three, the Gwin group with two, and the Brookwood group with five. The seams of a group are seldom more than 25 feet apart, though the groups themselves are usually separated by 200 to 300 feet of barren measures. The thickness of the seams varies from a few inches to 16 feet, but the thicker seams are somewhat shaly. Most of the coal of the basin is free-burning and good both for steam and domestic purposes and for coking. It has, as a rule, a jointed struc- ture, causing it to break into cubical or rhomboidal blocks, though some of it is hard and compact. In recent years, three fields of this region, known as the Brookwood, the Pratt, and the Mary Lee, have produced most of the coking coal mined in the State, and more than half of all the coal mined in the Warrior district.

Cahaba Coal Field .- The Cahaba Basin is the second in importance. It is the central of the three coal fields, being a long, narrow syncline, 68 miles long and about 6 miles wide. It occupies parts of St. Clair, Jefferson, Shelby, and Bibb Counties. Its northwestern border is made by the escarpment of Shades Mountain, and its southeastern, by a fault of 10,000 feet displacement which brings the Cambrian strata up to the level of the Coal Measures. The wider part of the field -- southwest of the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road-is divided by an interior faulted anti- clinal, which separates the Blocton Basin from the Montevallo Basin. The Cahaba resembles the Warrior field in that the general dip of its strata is toward the southwest. The great- est thickness of the measures is found near the southwestern border, where they attain an aggregate thickness of as much as 5,500 feet, and hold more than 50 coal seams, half of which have in places a thickness of more than 2 feet. As a rule the Cahaba coals are of excellent quality, some of them being the finest steam and domestic coals in the State, and from some, first-class coke is made. The coal of this basin is cleaner and harder than the Warrior coal, and is exported to Mexico and South America in large quantities. In 1914 the production of the Cahaha field was slightly over 18 per cent of the total for the State.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I, Part 55

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