History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 102

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: 724

USA > Alabama > History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II > Part 102

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Presidents .- J. A. B. Lovett, 1893 -; Wm. C. Griggs, 1899-

REFERENCES .- 1st annual catalogue of Spring- ville High School, 1891-92; catalogue of Spring- ville Institute, 1889-90; catalogue of Spring Lake College, 1893-1901, and 1893.

STANDING ROCK. Postoffice and station on the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad, and the northern terminus of the Chattahoochee Valley Railroad, in the north- east corner of Chambers County, about 20 miles northeast of LaFayette. Population: 1912-175. An old settlement on the his- toric Lagrange-Roanoke-Wedowee Road. It is in the lumber and mineral regions of the county.

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

STARKE'S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL. A

home school for boys, founded in 1887, by Prof. J. M. Starke, and located at Montgom- ery. The school grew out of the cooperative effort on the part of Gen. W. W. Allen, S. J. Anderson, F. S. Boykin, Henry Crommelin, H. C. Davidson, W. H. Garside, John C. Hur- ter, George O. Janney, Dr. M P. LeGrand, S. W. Mitchell, Valentine Opp, Capt. John W. Powell, Maj. W. W. Screws, Maj. Emmett Seibels, William M. Teague, Col. John S. Win- ter, J. B. Trimble, and S. W. Westcott to pro- vide a high grade institution for the careful and thorough education of their sons. A school house was secured at the northwest corner of Montgomery and Moulton streets, and Prof. J. M. Starke of Virginia was chosen principal. The first session began early in October. At the close of the year the school

was taken over wholly by the principal, by whom it has since been conducted. It re- moved to the present two story red brick school building, No. 514 Dexter avenue, in 1896. Its purpose is to surround its pupils with the wholesome restraint and refining influences of home life, while affording them thorough preparation in the usual branches of the high school course. A dormitory and boarding department are provided in connec- tion with the home of the principal. Military discipline is maintained. Courses are offered in all high school branches. Diplomas are awarded on the completion of a four year course, or its equivalent. Athletics and field sports are encouraged, but made subordinate to study. A large athletic field has been spe- cially provided.

Its report to the State Superintendent of Education, September 30, 1918, shows build- ings and site valued at $36,000.00; equip- ment, $8,000.00; 4 teachers; 70 pupils; and total receipts from tuition and incidentals, $7,026.

PUBLICATIONS .- Catalogues, 1887-1918; An- nouncements and miscellaneous publications, various dates; and University School Boy.

REFERENCES .- Publications, supra.

STATE BANK AND BRANCHES. By an Act of the Legislature passed at the Session of the General Assembly of 1820, the State Bank was provided for.

No steps to organize the Bank were taken, until 1823, when the Assembly of that year, incorporated the bank.

On the removal of the State Capital from Cahaba to Tuscaloosa in 1826, the property of the Bank was disposed of at Cahaba, and it was relocated at Tuscaloosa.

The Session of 1832 of the General As- sembly established banks at Montgomery, De- catur, and Mobile, and in 1835, a branch was established at Huntsville.

On January 9, 1836, direct taxation of the people was abolished by legislative enact- ment, the expenses of the State Government, to be defrayed by the operation of the State Bank.

The Bank venture of the State was not suc- cessful, and led to much dissatisfaction. Many local abuses having crept into the man- agement of the several banks, and Benjamin Fitzpatrick's views on this subject, in a great measure, was responsible for his election as Governor in 1841, when he defeated James White McClung. . Legislation was urged dur- ing the Session of 1841, but it was 1842 be- fore the measures looking to the liquidation of the banks were enacted. John A. Camp- bell led this fight.

A Revenue Bill re-establishing State Taxation was passed at this session, and the subsequent session, gradually liquidated the affairs of these institutions. On February 4, 1846, an Act was passed placing the later assets of the institu- tions in the hands of three commissioners only with comprehensive powers of adminis- tration. These commissioners, Francis Lyon, William Cooper, and C. C. Clay, Sr. After their first report Mr. Lyon was made sole

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commissioner and as such, completed the work of liquidation and adjustment.

The branch banks in Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville and Decatur was first placed in liquidation and one year, 1843, the original bank or State bank at Tuscaloosa, followed suit. The banking system as fostered by the State, had engrossed a large share of the attention of the General Assembly, since it was instituted in 1823, and during the two or three years prior to 1841, the distrust and ill will of the people of the State had con- centrated against the system, on account of the abuses and blunders which characterized its measure. At this beginning may be credited large public debt of the State at the beginning of the administration just prior to the War of Secession. The administration completed by Mr. Lyon saved the state from financial ruin. Only a small number of the people of the State favored the repudiation of the State's indebtedness, brought on by the banking venture, but it was generally discussed. Mr. Lyon wound up the affairs of the State banks, largely with the assistance of his own personal credit and fortune.

REFERENCES .- Pickett, History of Alabama (Owen Edition) (1900), Annals, 1820-1860; Mss. data in Alabama Department of Archives and History.

STATEHOUSE. See Capitol, the State.

STATE INSTITUTIONS. See Institutions, State.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR COLORED STUDENTS. Public school for the educa- tion of colored males and females. Formerly located at Marion, and known as the Lin- coln Normal University, was established by Act of December 6, 1873, with the following trustees: Porter King, John Harris, Joseph H. Speed, A. H. Curtis, John Dozier, J. H. Sears, John T. Foster. In 1887 there were about 400 students in attendance and the State was contributing annually $6,000 to its support. About this time it was deemed expedient to remove the school from Marion and after a careful investigation the directors determined to select Montgomery as the site and accord- ingly in 1889, it was re-opened under the name of "The State Normal School for Col- ored Students." The object of the school is: "a normal school for the education of colored teachers for the schools of the State. As such, the aim is to give thorough instruction in the elementary branches of study, and so dis- cipline the student as to fit him for the work of teaching." The property of the school con- sists of five acres of land, one two story brick building and five frame buildings. The land, building and equipment is valued at $75,000. Literary, domestic and industrial departments are maintained, while special instruction is given in music, art and business courses. Four literary societies are maintained and a Y. M. C. A. and a Y. W. C. A. are supported by faculty and students. Mr. W. B. Patter-

son took charge of the school as president in 1878 and served as such continuously until his death in 1915. He was succeeded by J. W. Beverly, who had been associated with him in the work for many years.

REFERENCES .- Catalogues, 1879 -; announce- ments, folders, circular letters, cards, reports to trustees and bulletins of information.

STATE OFFICERS. See Officers.

STATE TROOPS. See Military Forces of the State.

STATE WAR HISTORY ORGANIZATIONS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF. The first conference of representatives of State War Historical agencies met September 9 and 10, 1919, in Washington city and from their meeting the National Association of State War History Organizations grew. The Ala- bama State Department of Archives and His- tory was invited to become a member of this organization.

The purposes for which the organization was perfected are: the collection and preser- vation of the participation of the various activities of each of the states in the recent World War and the collection and compiling of all data in government departments at Washington and other places, which might throw light upon the participation of the United States, its territories or possessions in the World War.

For Alabama's part see State War His- torian.

REFERENCES .- Manuscripts and letters in the Alabama State Department of Archives and History.

STEAMBOAT TRANSPORTATION. Water craft, plying the State's extensive system of waterways, prior to 1861, constituted the most conspicuous and the most effectual ele- ment in her commerce development. It was the navigable stream, not the railway, that then formed the "artery of trade"; the steam- boat, not the freight train, that was the ar- biter of a community's industrial growth. The rapidly growing towns were those along the rivers, and in them scentered the commercial and financial interests of the entire State. Ante bellum Alabama was preeminently agricult- ural. Cotton was by far the most important product; and it was to the towns situated on navigable waters, usually at the head of navi- gation, that the planters came to market their cotton, to purchase supplies, and to borrow capital with which to finance the next year's crop. First the flatboat and then the steam- boat carried the cotton to Mobile, or to New Orleans, and brought back the needed supply of food and manufactured articles.

Waterways of the State .- In the natural channels of transportation Alabama is pecu- liarly favored, and it seems scarcely open to question that, even had railroads never been developed, it would have attained a preemi- nent commercial, even an industrial, develop- ment entitling her to high rank among the States. The capital, or at least a part of it,

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that has gone into the extension and improve- ment of railroad facilities would have gone into the improvement of the hundreds of miles of navigable waterways and the devel- opment of steamboat transportation, by which practically every part of the State might have been served at no prohibitive financial outlay.

Alabama was settled too late, and the requisite density of population and accumu- lation of capital were not secured early enough to permit the people to realize upon the advantage afforded by its great system of natural highways. The accident of railroad invention was so timed as to neutralize this advantage and deprive the people of its fruits. In Alabama the development of its natural transportation advantages constitutes a lost opportunity.

Early Navigation of Streams .- The earliest navigation of Alabama's rivers doubtless was by Indian canoes. The earliest commerce was carried on flatboats, or keel-boats, which were built in the upcountry, loaded with produce, and floated downstream to market, where the boats were usually sold, or sometimes re- loaded and poled back upstream. The neces- sity for transportation became so urgent as the communities along the rivers and larger creeks grew, that quite an extensive river commerce developed in the State before the advent of the steamboat. Even after the steamboats had secured the whole of the up- stream traffic, many of the flat-boat men con- tinued to float their rude craft downstream; and because of its cheapness, their system of transportation long continued to be patron- ized, especially for bulky freight like cotton, which then as now formed the principal money crop, particularly in those sections of fertile country contiguous to the streams. By de- grees, however, the steamboats supplanted the flatboats, and for years enjoyed a prac- tical monopoly as public carriers of freight.

Early Steamboats in Alabama Waters .- The first river steamboat built to navigate Alabama waters is said to have been the "Ala- bama." It was built at St. Stephens in 1818 by the St. Stephens Steamboat Co., equipped with boiler and engine, and launched upon the Tombigbee; but it could not stem the current of the placidly flowing stream, and thus was little better than a flatboat. It was sent to New Orleans, but met with no better success, and was permitted to fall into decay. An- other vessel soon appeared in Alabama. It

came from Philadelphia, rigged as a three- masted schooner, but also equipped with ma- chinery. Its career was brief, and its fate similar to that of the "Alabama." Very soon another steamer arrived, this time from Bos- ton. It was named the "Mobile," and was a more powerful boat than the others. "In May, 1819, she started for Tuscaloosa," says Frazer in his Early History of Steamboats in Alabama (p. 4). "Her (sic) passage was necessarily long, for she was obliged to lay by at night and spend much time in procuring fuel, as there were no wood yards along the river at that time. On the 18th of May she reached Demopolis, to the wonder and delight of the citizens, and then started on her way

to Tuscaloosa. The Warrior, as is usual at this time of the year, had too strong a cur- rent for the little steamer, and she was com- pelled to retire to Demopolis. She forwarded her goods by barge to their destination. Freight on this boat was $3.00 a barrel."

On October 22, 1821, the first steamboat arrived at Montgomery, having been 10 days enroute from Mobile, including three spent at Claiborne, Cahaba, and Selma. It was the "Harriet," commanded by Captain Morril, and her coming was a gala event. The interest engendered was such as to result in the prompt organization of a company in Mont- gomery, to establish a line of steamboats to ply between Montgomery, Mobile and Blake- ley. The following spring another boat as- cended the Alabama as far as Montgomery, the "Tensas," in charge of Captain Romer, or Sonsby. It was shortly followed by others, and the era of sumptuously fitted boats for the accommodation of passengers as well as freight on the Alabama and the Tombigbee was fairly begun.

Early Steamboat Companies .- As has been noted, the first company organized in Ala- bama for the purpose of building and opera- ting steamboats was the St. Stephens Steam- boat Co., chartered by legislative act of Feb- ruary 10, 1818. The incorporators were James Pickens, David Files, Silas Dinsmoor, Henry Bright, Benjamin S. Smoot, and Daniel B. Ripley. The second charter was issued to the Steam-Boat Co., of Alabama, on Novem- ber 28, 1820, and fixed the amount of the company's capital stock at $182,000. The in- corporators and first board of directors were Francis B. Stockton, Francis W. Armstrong, James L. Seabury, Nicholas Pope, and Jona- than Woodward. In 1821 two such com- panies were chartered: the Mobile Steam- Boat Co., on November 27, with an authorized capital of $200,000 and a stipulated corpor- ate existence of 30 years; and the Navigation Steam-Boat Co., on December 13, with the same privileges and restrictions as the one first named. . From this time forward many such companies were launched, and met with more or less success.

Steamboat Accidents .- The losses to the owners of steamboats caused by accidents were enormous, due sometimes to faulty con- struction of the boats and machinery, occa- sionally to negligence or incompetence of the officers or pilots, and frequently to unfavor- able conditions in the rivers themselves, all of which were more or less obstructed by logs, fallen trees, snags, sand bars and shoals. The freight rates assessed were high, but the risk involved was great. The most of these accidents were due to fire or to the explosion of the boilers. A few of the more important are here listed: February 6, 1827, the steam- boat "Harriet" burst her boilers at Coffee- ville, killing one man and injuring others; February -, 1836, the steamboat "Bonnets of Blue" sank near Montgomery, on the Ala- bama River, drowning C. B. Turner of Mobile, and J. Wilbur of Kentucky; March 13, 1836, the steamboat "Ben Franklin," while backing from the wharf at Mobile in order to make

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her regular trip to Montgomery, exploded, killing a large number of persons, some of whom were not identified; March 1, 1842, the "Star" blew up near Mobile, killing 7 men and 4 women, and wounding 7 others; June 5, 1848, the "Kenney" exploded on the Tom- bigbee River, 50 of the crew and passengers being lost; May 25, 1826, the "Alabama," while moored at Vernon, Autauga County, was burned to the water's edge during the night; March 5, 1830, the "General Brown," lying at Mobile, was consumed by fire, sup- posed to have been of incendiary origin; March 4, 1850, the steamboat "Orline St. John," was destroyed by fire within 4 miles of Montgomery, her destination, causing the loss of about 70 lives; on the night of Janu- ary 28, 1854, the steamboat "Georgia" was burnt on Alabama River between Montgom- ery and Mobile, having 230 passengers on board, 30 or 40 of whom were believed to have perished.

There were probably more accidents from striking snags or shoals than from both the above-mentioned causes, but they involved, as a rule, no loss of life and smaller property losses, as the cargo-occasionally the boat it- self,-usually could be saved.

Improvement of Streams for Navigation .- Soon after the demonstration in Alabama waters of the practibility of steam as a mo- tive power for river boats simultaneously with the introduction of steamboats, in fact- the question of the improvement of the rivers, and even some of the larger creeks, so as to make them safely navigable during all or most of the year, began to engage the peo- ple's attention. Sporadic attempts to connect isolated towns and communities with the markets by means of channels in the smaller streams, dug or improved by individuals or associations of individuals interested, had oc- curred even before the advent of steamboats. The incorporation in 1820 of the Indian Creek Navigation Co. (see Indian Creek) and the Flint River Navigation Co. (see Flint River), and the authorization of a lottery to raise funds for the improvement of the But- tahatchee River (q. v.) for navigation are examples.

Gov. Bibb, in his message of October 26, 1819, recommended the appointment of a "skilled engineer" to examine the rivers of the State and ascertain the expediency and the expense of improving the navigation of each, "and also the nearest and most eligible approaches which can be made between the waters of the Tennessee and Mobile rivers." The general assembly authorized the appoint- ment; and examinations were made of some of the more important streams. In 1821 Gov. Pickens suggested the establishment of a per- manent and disinterested board of internal improvements to formulate plans of improve- ment and administer the finances. He also emphasized the desirability of a canal to con- nect the Tennessee River with the Alabama, or, in other words, to bring about commer- cial intercourse between the Tennessee Val- ley, or "North Alabama," and the port of Mobile.

This question of a physical connection be- tween the fertile farms of the Tennessee Valley and Mobile, the State's only seaport and "commercial emporium," early assumed paramount importance in the economics and the politics of Alabama. At first the desid- eratum was thought to be a canal connecting the two great river systems (see River and Drainage Systems); but later a railroad to connect the southernmost point on the Ten- nessee River with the head of navigation on the Alabama came to be considered the proper solution of the problem. Hence the political issue of public aid of internal-improvement schemes may be said to have remained the same from the organization of the State until the close of the Reconstruction period, except for the substitution of railroad enterprises for river-navigation projects about the year 1850. This aspect of the subject has been discussed with some fulness under the titles, Railroads; Internal Improvements; and South and North Railroad Company.

REFERENCES .- Toulmin, Digest, 1823, pp. 72, 73, 74, 75; Gov. Wm. W. Bibb, "Message," Oct. 26, 1819, in House Journal, 1819-20, pp. 7-17; Lloyd's steamboat directory, 1856, pp. 74-75, 207- 209, 252-253, 284-288; Clark, "Railroads and navigation," in Memorial record of Alabama (1893), vol. 1, pp. 318-321; Blue, Montgomery (1878), pp. 13-15; Hardy, Selma (1879), pp. 168-169; Martin, "Internal improvements in Ala- bama," in Johns Hopkins University, Studies in historical and political science (1902), pp. 33- 63; Frazer, Early history of steamboats in Alabama (in Ala. Pol. Institute, Historical Studies. 1907).

STEEL. See Iron and Steel.

STEVENSON. Post office and junction of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Rail- way, and the Southern Railway, in the north- east corner of Jackson County, near the Ten- nessee River, and 18 miles northeast of Scottsboro. Population: 1888-600: 1890 -586; 1900-560; 1910-574. It has electric light and waterworks systems. It

was named for one of the surveyors of the route for the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, who bought the land, laid out the town, and sold the lots. Among the old settlers were the McMahan, Washington, Rud- der, Cotnam, Timberlake, and Anderson fami- lies.

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

STEVENSON COTTON MILLS, Stevenson. See Cotton Manufacturing.

STILLMAN INSTITUTE. Presbyterian school for the education of colored preachers, located at Tuscaloosa, was founded in 1876 by the Rev. Charles Stillman under the name of the "Tuscaloosa Institute for the education of colored ministers." In 1897 the name of the school was changed to Stillman Institute in honor of the founder. The property of the school is located on a forty-five acre farm, about a mile from Tuscaloosa. The build-

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ings, six in number, are situated in a grove of handsome oaks. The Stillman Hall con- tains the library, two recitation rooms, six sleeping rooms on the second floor, beside the kitchen and dining room. The Wilson Hall is the residence of the assistant superintend-

ent. Liston Hall i the dormitory of the school, containing on the first floor, a work shop, assembly hall and recitation room, and on the second and third floors twenty sleep- ing rooms. The laundry and carpentry shop occupy two small buildings, and the barn is a model of its kind. There are also two buildings for teachers on the campus. The curriculum contains three departments, the- ological, academic, and agricultural. Still- man has no endowment fund, and the students work on the college farm for their board. The school is denominational but not sec- tarian. Organizations: Bible study classes, the Y. M. C. A., and the Lyceum Literary Society.

Presidents .-

1878-93-Rev. Charles A. Stillman.

1893-98-Rev. A. L. Phillips.

1898-00-Rev. O. B. Wilson.

1900-03-Rev. D. Clay Lilly.

1903-Rev. J. D. Snedecor.

REFERENCES .-- Catalogues, folders, circulars of Information, letters, pamphlets, etc.

STOCK LAWS. See Live Stock and Prod- ucts.

STOCKTON. Postoffice and interior town in the western section of Baldwin County, on the Appalachee River; on the St. Steph- ens base line, south; about 10 miles north- west of Bay Minette. Population: 1888- 400; 1910-750. This is a depot for lum- ber, turpentine and naval stores. From the early settlement of the country to 1860, it was an important shipping point. With the building of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, its business was diverted if not almost wholly destroyed.

At or near Tensas Bluff or its vicinity, the Indians had lived and had their villages. High mounds in the vicinity attest their presence and industry. Relics are numerous. English and French settlers resided here; and the statement is made that it was first occupied by Tory refugees from the Atlantic States in the period of the American Revo- lution. Its most noted resident was Major Robert Farmer, the English Commandant of Mobile. He was visited here by William Bartram, the botanist, who describes his stay and his excursions in the surrounding country for specimens, with great particu- larity. It was about this time an English trading post. A later citizen of Stockton was John G. Aiken, a lawyer of prominence, and compiler of the Alabama Digest, 1833, that bears his name.

REFERENCES .- Pickett, Alabama (Owen ed., 1900), p. 416; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile (1910), pp. 5, 6, 298, 513; Bartram, Travels (1792).

STODDERT, FORT. An American fort lo- cated on the first bluff on the Alabama, near its junction with the Tombigbee River, about 50 miles above Mobile. That portion of the Mississippi Territory lying to the south of Fort St. Stephen was wholly without defense, and to protect the frontier and maintain or- der the Federal Government directed Capt. Bartholomew Shaumberg of the Second United States Infantry to establish a post near the confluence of the Tombigbee and the Alabama Rivers. Here they built, in July, 1799, a stockaded work with one bastion, which was named Fort Stoddert, in honor of Benjamin Stoddert, Secretary of the Navy and Acting Secretary of War. Fort Stoddert rapidly be- came a thriving settlement as well as military post. It was typically American, and for the next 12 years was an important headquarters for the transaction of Federal business in the Alabama section of the Mississipi Territory. It was made a port of entry, the seat of a court of admiralty, and of the revenue dis- trict of Mobile. Capt. Shaumberg remained in command until 1804, when he was suc- ceeded by Capt. Peter Philip Schuyler. At this time the garrison consisted of 80 men. Capt. Schuyler in turn was succeeded in 1807 by Capt. Edmund Pendleton Gaines.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 102

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: 724

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: 724