USA > Alabama > History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume I > Part 77
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Water Power and Recent Projects .- The engineers and geologists who made the earliest explorations of the Coosa River were impressed with the magnificent possibilities for the development of water power. This subject has been discussed in various reports on the river down to the latest. An act of Congress approved March 4, 1907, granted a franchise to the Alabama Power Co. to con-
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
struct a dam for power purposes at the loca- tion of Lock and Dam No. 12, 40 miles above Wetumpka. This dam was completed on March 4, 1914, and a plant capable of devel- oping over a hundred thousand horsepower for the generation of electric power has been installed. In 1904 the Ragland Water Power Co. was granted a franchise to raise Dam No. 4 an additional 3 feet to permit the development of water power. No work has yet been done under this frachise. About 1906 the Coosa River Electric Power Co. was authorized to construct a dam near Lock No. 2, but this authority was allowed to lapse. A successor to this company has recently been organized known as the Peoples' Hydro- Electric Power Co., which has made applica- tion for authority to construct a dam at that location.
The river and harbor act of 1909 provided for an examination of the Etowah, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers, with a view to their im- provement for navigation. This act stipu- lated that, "such examination for the improve- ment of the navigation of said rivers, includ- ing the Alabama River in connection there- with, shall include investigations necessary to determine whether storage reservoirs at the headwaters of said rivers can be utilized to advantage, and if so, what portion of the cost of any such improvements, including res- ervoirs, should be borne by owners of water power and others." Examinations were made pursuant to these directions, and the reports estimated the Government's proportion of the expense at $15,003,000, and the cost of the combined navigation and water power im- provement at $24,537,000. This plan contem- plated 14 dams on the Coosa between Gads- den and Wetumpka and a storage reservoir on the Etowah near Cartersville, Ga., which should secure a navigable depth of 4 feet from Rome to Gadsden, 6 feet from Gadsden to the Tallapoosa, and 6 feet in the Alabama to its mouth. After the reports had been submitted, efforts were made by the Govern- ment to secure from interested power com- panies a definite offer of co-operation, but there seems to be no immediate prospect of securing such co-operation. The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors, in its report of July 30, 1913, disapproved the proj- ect, even if the power companies should co- operate on the terms proposed, and the mat- ter is now in aheyance.
History .- The Coosa River was discovered by DeSoto in 1540 and he is believed to have marched down its entire length. Little is known of its history after its discovery until it became the theatre of General Jackson's campaign against the Creek Indians during 1813-14. The word Coosa is said to be de- rived from the Choctaw word "Coosha," mean- ing "reedy," and the river is supposed to have taken its name from the tribe of Indians which inhabited its valley at the time of De Soto's march along its banks.
Appropriations .- The dates, amounts, and aggregate of appropriations by the Federal Government for improvement of this stream, as compiled to March 4, 1915, in Appropria-
tions for Rivers and Harbors ( House Doc. 1491, 63d Cong., 3d sess., 1916), are shown in the appended table:
Between Rome, Ga., and East Tennessee, Vir- ginia & Georgia R. R. bridge-
Aug. 14, 1876. $ 30,000.00
June 18, 1878
75,000.00
Маг. 3, 1879. 45,000.00
June 14, 1880 75,000.00
Mar. 3, 1881 ..
60,000.00
Aug. 2, 1882.
83,700.00
July 5, 1884. 50,000.00
Aug. 5, 1886. 45,000.00
Aug. 11, 1888 60,000.00
Sept. 19, 1890
150,000.00
July 13, 1892. 130,000.00
Aug. 18, 1894
110,000.00
June 3, 1896.
50,000.00
Mar. 3, 1899.
20,000.00
June 13, 1902.
27,844.20
June 13, 1902.
10,000.00
June 13, 1902 (allotment) .
7,500.00
Mar. 3, 1905.
25,000.00
Mar. 2, 1907.
48,000.00
Mar. 3, 1909 (allotment)
38,000.00
June 25, 1910
247,500.00
Feb. 27, 1911
271,039.00
July 25, 1912
144,000.00
Mar. 4, 1913.
136,000.00
Oct. 2, 1914.
40,000.00
Mar. 4, 1915.
106,000.00
$2,084,583.20
Between Wetumpka, Ala., and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia R. R. bridge-
Sept. 19, 1890.
150,000.00
July 13, 1892 100,000.00
Aug. 18, 1894.
110,000.00
June 3, 1896.
50,000.00
Mar. 2, 1907 ..
2,000.00
Mar. 3, 1909 (allotment)
2,000.00
$414,000.00
Transferred by act of June 13,
1902, to section between
Rome and E. T. V. & G. R.
R. bridge
10,000.00
$404,000.00
Operating and care of locks and dams: Fiscal year ending
June 30-
1890
326.42
1891
2,530.67
1892
6,137.49
1893
9,366.56
1894
3,418.16
1895
3,982.66
1896
8,797.12
1897
6,137.92
1898
2,281.98
1899
7,141.60
1900
5,907.16
1901
8,510.75
1902
42,106.40
1903
22,638.72
1904
5,572.81
1905
8,442.57
1906
9,016.35
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HISTORY OF ALABAMA
1907
11,444.11
1908
16,037.14
1909
5,218.84
1910
6,064.20
1911
3,777.92
1912
5,919.78
1913
3,400.51
1914
6,036.67
1915 (to Mar. 4) .
12,428.10
$222,642.61
Grand total $2,711,225.81
REFERENCES .- U. S. Chief of Engineers, An- nual report, 1878, App. S, pp. 762-766; 1882, App. W, pp. 1855-1857; 1890, App. Q, pp. 1640- 1645, 1658-1690; 1891, App. P, pp. 1743-1756, with maps and charts; 1892, App. P, pp. 1424- 1432; 1896, App. O, pp. x-xl, 1407-1424; 1897, App. P, pp. 1642-1655; 1899, App. R, pp. 1682- 1694; 1905, App. Q, pp. 1351-1391; 1906, App. Q. pp. 351-355, 1262-1266; 1911, App. Q, pp. 486- 490, 1690-1695, with map; 1912, App. Q, pp. 599-605, 1907-1913; 1914, App. Q, pp. 670-676, 2171-2178; 1915, pp. 746-752, 2517-2523; U. S. Chief of Engineers, Report of survey of Coosa River (H. Ex. Doc. 243, 42d Cong., 2d sess.) ; Ibid, Reports of surveys made under river and harbor act of March 3, 1879 (S. Ex. Doc. 42, 46th Cong., 3d sess.), Coosa River, pp. 38-51; Ibid, Examination of Coosa River, Alabama (H. Ex. Doc. 94, 51st Cong., 1st sess.), with map; Ibid, Coosa and Alabama Rivers, Georgia and Alabama (H. Doc. 219, 58th Cong., 3d sess.) ; Ibid, Alabama and Coosa Rivers, Ala- bama (H. Doc. 1089, 60th Cong., 2d sess.) ; Ibid, Coosa River at Horseleg Shoals, Georgia (H. Doc. 1115, 60th Cong., 2d sess.) ; Ibid, Dam No. 5, Coosa River, Alabama (H. Doc. 1421, 60th Cong., 2d sess.); McCalley, Valley regions of Alabama, Pt. 2 (Geol. Survey of Ala., Special report 9, 1897), passim; Berney, Handbook (1892), pp. 508-511; D. M. Andrews, "Dam No. 5, Coosa River: the problems of loca- tion and construction," in Professional Mem- oirs, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, vol. vili, No. 40, July-Aug., 1916, pp. 488-503; U. 8. Chief of Engineers, Reports on examination and survey of Etowah, Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Alabama Rivers (H. Doc. 253, 63d Cong., 1st sess.); Chamber of Commerce, Rome, Ga., A heritage at stake (1916, p. 22) ; Leon W. Fried- man, in Birmingham News Magazine Section, August 2, 1914.
COOSA VALLEY. The wide valley with prevailing calcareous soils, lying between the Talladega Mountains on the east and Look- out Mountain and the Coosa coal field on the west, has received the name of Coosa Valley, from the river which drains it, flowing through its entire length. It is the continua- tion and terminus of the Valley of East Ten- nessee and the Great Valley of Virginia. It lies between the metamorphic region on the east and the Coal Measures on the west, its general trend of direction being southwest- ward from the eastern border of the State, in Cherokee County, for about 120 miles. Its width varies from 30 to 40 miles. Its area is about 2,580 square miles. The geologic
formations occurring in this valley range from the Cambrian up to the Pennsylvanian series. The most prominent of these groups is the Knox dolomite. There are also other important limestones and calcareous shales, of Cambrian age, which form the floor of parts of the valley. All these limestones are interbedded with sandstones which stand out as subordinate ridges that diversify the valley. The Coosa Valley is thus a great trough, more than 30 miles wide, fluted with scores of par- allel smaller ridges and valleys. Its terri- tory includes the whole or the major portion of Cherokee, Cleburne, Etowah, Calhoun, St. Clair, Talladega, Shelby, Coosa, and Chilton Counties.
The Coosa Valley region is the most varied portion of Alabama in its physical features. In general its surface is much broken and characterized by parallelism of its mountains, ridges, and subordinate valleys. The moun- tains are often majestic in size and abounding in wild scenery, and the valleys beautiful and fertile. Its soils are of almost every kind from a very poor, light gray, siliceous, or sandy, soil to a very rich black, waxy, limy soil. The different soils are in long narrow belts corresponding with the ridges and val- leys, or with the underlying strata, from which they are largely derived, and of the following three general classifications: (1) calcareous, sandy, red loams; (2) slightly cal- careous, gray, sandy soils; and (3) highly calcareous, clayey soils. The agricultural capabilities of this region are very great. The principal crops are corn, cotton, oats, sor- ghum, millet, wheat, field peas, sweet pota- toes, and some clover and grasses. The soils and climate are suitable for a much greater diversity of crops, and progress is being made toward greater diversification and the raising of live stock.
The mineral resources of the valley are great and varied. The chief, or most valu- able, mineral substances found there are coal, iron ore, aluminum minerals (bauxite and clay), barite, manganese ore, lead ore, gold, marble, building stones, paving stones, curb- ing stones, slates, millstones, grindstones, whetstones, lithographic stones, road and bal- last materials, hydraulic-cement rocks, min- eral paints, tripoli or polishing powder, sands, mineral waters, etc. Of these, coal is by far the most important because the most plen- tiful.
Mineral springs are dotted about over most of the region. Some of them have more than local reputations for the medicinal properties of their waters. Most of them are sulphur and chalybeate, though other minerals fre- ouently occur in connection with either of these. The best-known springs are Saint Clair Springs, (sulphur) St. Clair County, in the Coosa shales; Shelby Springs, (sulphur) Shel- by County, in the Montevallo (variegated) shales; Talladega Sulphur Springs, Talladega County, in the Pelham limestones; Choco Springs (sulphur), Talladega County, in the Weisner formation; Chandler Springs (chaly- beate), Talladega County, in the Talladega slates; and Piedmont Springs, (chalybeate)
397
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
Calhoun County, in the Weisner formation. There are many other mineral springs in the valley whose waters doubtless are just as good, though less well known, than the fore- going.
The Coosa Valley is one of the most his- toric sections of Alabama. DeSoto discov- ered the Coosa River and marched down its entire length, traversing a portion of the val- ley in the year 1540. At that time it was inhabited by a large Indian population. This territory is described by the chroniclers as the Province of Cosa. The Creek Indians oc- cupied the region for generations, and it was against them that Gen. Jackson conducted his campaigns in the Creek Indian War of 1813- 14. The earliest white settlements were made probably about 1827, at least five years prior to the final cession of this section of the State in 1832. Most of the immigrants came from Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, although quite a number came from North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. The valley was settled rapidly, after immigration began, and soon became one of the most pros- perous sections of the State.
REFERENCES .- McCalley, Valley regions of Alabama, Pt. 2, Coosa Valley (Geol. Survey of Ala., Special report 9, 1897) ; Gibson, Report upon the Coosa coal field (Ibid 7, 1895) ; Smith, Underground water resources of Ala- bama (Ibid, Monograph 6, 1907), passim; Ber- ney, Handbook (1892), pp. 426-430; Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900) ; Brewer, Alabama (1872); West, History of Methodism in Alabama (1893).
COOSADA. Post office and station on the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in the southwestern part of Elmore, but originally in Autauga County. It is lo- cated on Coosada Creek, about 4 miles north- west of the Alabama River, and about 2 miles north of Prattville Junction. It is about 12 miles north of Montgomery, and 10 hiles west of Wetumpka. Population: 1910- 140. It has a graded public school, and churches. It was named for the Indian vil- lage of Koassati (q. v.), situated a little nearer the Alabama River.
It was settled by a colony of Georgians, as early as 1818, including Bolling Hall, James Jackson, Benjamin Pierce, William Wyatt Bibb, Richard Bibb, Thomas Brown, Gen. John A. Elmore, Dixon Hall, and the Reese, Rives and Harris families. It was a center of wealth and culture; and after Montgomery was selected as the capital of Alabama, Coosada became the fashionable summer home for many families. It is a fine farming section; and many descendants of the first settlers still hold and cultivate their lands. The home of William W. Bibb, first governor of Alabama, was in Coosada; and the family cemetery contains his grave and those of others of his house- hold.
REFERENCES .- Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 237; Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900, index; Northern Alabama (1888), p. 194; John Hardy, "History of Autauga County," in
Daily State Sentinel, Montgomery, Aug. 10, 1867; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.
COOSADA. A small mixed town of Creeks and Cherokees, established about 1784, and situated on the south bank of Tennessee River at what is now called Larkin's Land- ing in Jackson County. An Indian trail pursuing the same general course now fol- lowed by the public road, extended from this village to the point where Guntersville is located. This trail constituted the first mail route ever established in Marshall County, and so continued until 1837. Helicon P. O. (now Guntersville) was the southern termi- nus of this route, and over it passed one mail a week each way.
REFERENCES .- Bureau of American Ethnology, Fifth annual report (1887), plate 8; O. D. Street, in Alabama History Commission, Report (1901), vol. 1, p. 417.
COOSAK HATTAK FALAYA. large canebrake, somewhere in the northern part of Washington County, but unindentified. It is mentioned by Bernard Romans, who crossed it, September 23, 1771, in his jour- ney to the Choctaw country. The word is Choctaw, Kushak hvta falaiya, meaning "Long white reed-brake," that is, Kushak, "reed-brake," hvta, "white," and falaiya, "long."
REFERENCE .- Romans, Florida (1776), p. 305.
COPPER AND PYRITE. Copper has been mined at two different localities in Cleburne County-one at Stone Hill, near the southern border, originally known as Wood's copper mine, the other, about 2 miles northeast of the first, known as the Smith copper mine. The discovery of these deposits of copper ore was made about 1870, and considerable min- ing was done during the years 1874-1876. The ore for the most part consists of chalco- pyrrhotite and chalco-pyrite, along with a good deal of pyrite containing very little cop- per. Mining was first confined to the acces- sible decomposition products of the weathered portions of the vein, the ores being hauled in wagons to Carrollton, Ga., for shipment to smelters at Baltimore. Later smelters were erected at the mines, and from 1876 to 1879 copper ingots were shipped. From 1879 to 1896 work was suspended. The Copper Hill Mining Co. was organized in 1896 and took over the property. The old mines were pumped out, a new house built over the slope, new machinery installed, and mining opera- tions resumed. For want of transportation facilities, most of the ore was stored near the mine opening, as it could not profitably be hauled by wagon to the railroad shipping point, and the old smelter had not been re- built. The ore body was found to be about 24 feet thick, at a depth of 80 feet or more, and lying between walls of igneous rock of the general nature of diorite, with the richest ore nearest the walls. The best of it averages 7 per cent copper, while the entire ore body
398
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
probably will average 3 per cent. Very little mining was carried on at the Smith mine.
Pyrite .- This substance occurs at intervals in the Hillabee schist, a greenish. igneous rock, along the eastern base of the Talladega Mountain and in the counties of Chilton, Coosa, Clay, and Cleburne. It is usually in the form of crystals disseminated through the mass of rock, and in more or less com- pact beds of crystalline pyrite. The most im- portant deposit extends from near Dean post office, in Clay County, northwestward for sev- eral miles. Here the pyrite is virtually free from impurities and the bed several feet in thickness. This bed was first worked for copper, of which it contains a small per- centage, and during the War considerable quantities of blue stone and perhaps other copper salts were manufactured there. Ruins of the furnaces and other buildings are still to be seen. Later the Alabama Pyrites Co. began working the bed formerly worked by the Montgomery Copper Co., and a railroad was constructed from Talladega to Pyriton, the station at the mines. Analyses of the ore from this bed have shown an average of 42 per cent of sulphur. There are other deposits of pyrite in Clay County, near Hatchet Creek post office and at the old Mc- Gee copper mines. Quite a large quantity of the ore has been mined and shipped from the former.
REFERENCE .- Smith and McCalley, Index to mineral resources of Alabama (Geol. Survey of Ala., Bulletin 9, 1904), pp. 56-58.
COPPERAS, ALUM, EPSOM SALTS. Min- eral salts which occur in open caves under overhanging rock ledges of the Devonian and Carboniferous formations, where the rocks contain iron pyrites, furnishing the sulphuric acid, in addition to the iron, alumina, and magnesia derived from the country rock. The Claiborne and the Tertiary formations in Choctaw, Washington, Clarke, Escambia, and other counties, contain pyritous earths from which the sulphates of iron and alumina have been leached out and sold as "mineral ex- tract," "acid iron earth," etc. A well-known example of these acid sulphates is the "Match- less Mineral Water," obtained from a shallow well at Greenville, Butler County, and much esteemed for its medicinal properties.
REFERENCE .- Smith and McCalley, Index to mineral resources of Alabama (Geol. Survey of Ala., Bulletin 9, 1904), pp. 63-64.
CORDOVA. Post office and incorporated town in the east-central part of Walker Coun- ty. on the Southern Railway and the North- ern Alabama Railroad, about 30 miles north- west of Birmingham, and 10 miles southeast of Jasper. Altitude: 312 feet. Population: 1900-567; 1910-1,747.
It was incorporated in 1902, and includes portions of secs. 4, 5, 8, and 9, T. 15, R. 6. It has electric lights, 1,000 feet of concrete sidewalks, privately-owned waterworks sys- tem for business center of town, a volunteer fire department established in 1902, and pub-
lic schools. The city tax rate is 5 mills. It has no bonded indebtedness. It has the Cor- dova Bank (State) ; and the Cordova Herald, an Independent weekly established in 1911, is published there. Its principal industries are the Indian Head Cotton Mills, using 600 operatives, and nearby coal mines. It has public high school and grammar school. Its churches are the First Methodist Episcopal, South, Long Memorial Methodist Episcopal, South, Baptist, and Christian.
Among the early settlers were the Long, Howlette, Miller, Davis, Robertson, Morgan, Hancock and Sullivan families.
REFERENCES .- Armes, Story of coal and iron in Alabama (1910), p. 54-55; Brewer, Alabama (1872), p. 572; Northern Alabama (1888), p. 171; Polk's Alabama gazetteer, 1888-9, p. 283; Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1915.
CORN. Maize, or Indian corn, the one universal American field crop, native to the country. In Alabama it is second only in importance to cotton.
Columbus found maize cultivated at Hayti. Harsberger, a leading student of the subject, however, finds its original home in southern Mexico. The Indians encountered by DeSoto, in his expedition through the Gulf country in 1540, had extensive fields of maize, and the production appears to have been sufficient to sustain a large population. Undoubtedly this was their principal food crop, although they appear to have had melons, pumpkins, squash and beans. In 1702, the year in which Iberville planted Fort Louis at Twenty- seven Mile Bluff, he bought corn from the neighboring Indians. Only fragmentary glimpses of production are preserved. Ro- mans states that in the vicinity of Black's Bluff on the Tombigbee in 1772, the yield was 60 to 70 bushels per acre. Explorers, trappers, traders, Indian agents, pioneers and later settlers all found it growing every- where. However, settlers usually brought seed corn with them on their hunt for suit- able locations in the new lands. A claim was staked out, a small clearing made, and a "patch" or field of corn planted. They would then either return to their old homes, or make still further explorations. About harvest time they were back on the claim, the corn was gathered, and plans for home- making progressed.
Local annals do not preserve the facts connected with crops in pioneer times and in the early days of Statehood. It is generally believed, however, that the production of corn increased with each decade, and through- out the entire history of the State there appears to be a steady increase, even if for individual years there is a falling off. It would not be unnatural to find variation from year to year, during a long period of more than 100 years, in increase, production, value and percentage of farms raising corn.
No effort is made to analyze the meager returns of the censuses prior to 1900 and 1910. In the latter year (season of 1909) a comparison of returns indicates that corn
399
HISTORY OF ALABAMA
acreage was quite generally distributed throughout the State. Out of every 100 farms, corn was reported by 87. In 1899 the per cent was 92, In 1909 most counties reported increases, although the total acre- age in that year was less than for any year of the preceding ten years but one. Coffee County reported the largest absolute increase; and the largest absolute decrease was in Sumter County. The average corn yield in the State from 1900 to 1910 was 13.5 bush- els, the average yield for 1909, 13.5 bushels, and for 1910, 18 bushels per acre.
As will appear below, an apparent revival in corn growing dates from 1903. This in- terest was quickened by many influences, including the combined campaigns of the Alabama Experiment Station at Auburn, the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and In- dustries. The persistent call of the press and the agricultural leadership of the country have been contributing causes. As a part of the extension activities of the experiment station, hoys' corn clubs have for several years heen actively promoted, in which the Alabama Department of Agriculture and In- dustries has cooperated. Prizes have been offered, the local public has lent its aid, and the promoters of State and local fairs have joined forces. In 1910 Hughey Haden, of Banks produced 110 bushels; in 1911 Eber A. Kimbrough, of Alexander City, 224 34 bushels at a cost of 19.3 cents per bushel; and in 1913 Walter L. Dunson of Tallapoosa County, 232 39/56 bushels on one acre, at a cost of 20 cents per bushel, the highest cer- tified yield ever produced in the United States. In 1911 a corn palace was built at the State Exposition and Fair at Montgomery. The building was designed by N. C. Curtis, professor of architecture at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, and was in charge of the experiment station. In 1916 boys' corn clubs were in operation in all of the 67 counties, with an enrollment of 3,870.
Corn grown in Alabama has been wholly for local consumption. The State has not for the past 50 years produced sufficient for its needs. Prof. L. N. Duncan is authority for the statement made in 1911, that Ala- bama was importing 11,000,000 bushels an- nually. This home product as well as the importation is largely used for live stock.
One of the institutions, both picturesque and serviceable, made necessary for the com- munity by corn production was the old water mill. On every stream, and the streams of the State are happily adapted to such use, a public grist mill was erected. A dam thrown across the stream produced a pond which afforded the power. In 1811 the territorial legislature passed an act "to encourage the building of public mills, and directing the duties of millers." They were required to grind "according to turn," and the grain was to be well and sufficiently ground. At first the county courts fixed the toll, but in 1820, an act was passed fixing one-eighth part of the grain to be ground as a lawful toll. The
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