History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 35

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 35

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

LIVINGSTON MALE ACADEMY. Private school for the education of boys and young men. The school was established on Septem- ber 12. 1882, with G. F. Mellen as principal. In 1883, Prof. S. S. Mellen, formerly one of the proprietors of the Tuscaloosa Female Col- lege joined the faculty. A good build- ing had been secured in 1882, and "To sup- ply the growing demands and increasing necessities" of the school, a library room, spa- cious chapel, and additional recitation rooms, were constructed during the summer session of 1883. Prof. Joel C. DuBose was elected principal n 1886. A proficient military department was conducted in connection with the school. College preparatory and business courses were offered. The students maintained a literary society, and beside the library of the school, the books of the presi- dent were always in reach of the students. Presidents: G. F. Mellen, Joel C. DuBose, J. W. A. Wright.

REFERENCES .- Catalogues, 1886-87; 1891-93.

LIVINGSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. See Li- braries.

LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN AND ENGINE- MEN, BROTHERHOOD OF. Organized De- cember 1, 1873, at Port Jervis, New York, the beneficiary department coming into existence January, 1882, a certificate of $1,000 being issued to everyone who was a member at that time. The organization was the result of the death of one George Page, a fireman on the Erie Railroad at Port Jervis, N. Y., who was killed in the line of his duty, leaving a fam- ily practically destitute. The national grand lodge is located in Cleveland, Ohio, and the total membership 109,091, with 864 lodges, 85 of which are in the Dominion of Canada.

The first lodge in the State of Alabama was organized at Tuscumbia, August 22, 1889. The order was granted a certificate by the Insurance department of the State of Ala- bama to transact business in the State, Octo- ber 19, 1912. The membership in 1918 was 521, divided among six lodges. To that time there was no State grand body.

REFERENCES .- Letter from A. H. Hawley, Gen- eral Secretary and Treasurer, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Cleveland, Ohio, in Department of Archives and History.

LOCUST FORK. See Warrior River.

LONG ISLAND TOWN. A small Cherokee village, settled in 1783 and situated on Long Island in Tennessee River, at Bridgeport. It was the second and only other of the "Five Lower Towns on the Tennessee," situated in Alabama, and was one of the "crossings" of the Tennessee used by the Creeks in their war against the white settlers of Tennessee and Kentucky.

LOUIS DE LA MOBILE, FORT. A French fortified post at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River. The site for the town of Mobile and its old fort, called Fort Louis, was selected by Iberville. The entire super- vision of the building of the fort was placed in the hands of Bienville.

The fort was built of logs, with four bastions of six guns each. Unlike most early forts, it was not built for protection against Indian attacks but against Euro- peans. The whole western side of the fort consisted of a church. At some distance from the fort and nearer the river was a magazine built of brick. It was about 24 feet square hy 10 feet deep.

The first priest at the old fort was Father Davion, later succeeded by La Vente. To the church records is due much of our know- ledge of the times.

To add to the many and varied troubles of life at the old fort, in March, 1711, a flood swept the country, surrounding the fort. Because of the flood and the decay of the fort, Bienville decided to remove the town site of Mobile to Choctaw Point. The lands he had previously given to some fugitive Choctaw Indians, but these he persuaded to move to Dog River. Here, where the delta was wide and no fear from overflow, began

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the building of the new Fort Louis. Soon all the inhabitants and many of the friendly In- dians had removed to the new town, and the old Fort Louis and its little cemetery, where Tonty in September, 1704, had been buried, were left deserted.

The erection of the new Fort Louis was probably begun in May, 1711. It was square, was built of cedar stakes, pointed at the top, and had a bastion at each corner. This new fort was hardly more than a stockade and was built too near the river. Because of its inadequacy, Crozat in 1717 authorized the erection of a new building more within the city. It was built of brick and renamed Fort Conde.

Anniversary of Founding. - The two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the first Fort Louis at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff was celebrated in 1902, by unveiling a monument there, and also by placing a tablet on the courthouse at Mobile. In 1911, the removal of the fort to the present Mobile was also commemorated by marking the cor- ners of the old French town and by placing a splendid bronze tablet on the city hall. The legislature, February 26, 1903, declared the monument at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff public property, and placed it in the custody of the director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The same act ap- propriated $150.00 to raise the monument and fence the spot.

REFERENCES. - Hamilton, Colonial Mobile. (1910), pp. 53, 79-82, 84-87, 98; Pickett, Alabama (Owen's ed., 1900), pp. 170, 325; Hamilton, Mo- bile of the five flags (1913), pp. 42, 45-47, 51, 55, 60-62, 389; Code, 1907, sec. 807.

LOUISE SHORT BAPTIST ORPHAN'S HOME. See Child Welfare.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. See Centennials and Expositions.

LOUISVILLE. Post office and incorporated town, on the Central of Georgia Railway, in the east-central part of Barbour County, on and about 12 miles southwest of Clayton. Population: 1888-200; 1890-288; 1900- 416; 1910-483. It has the Bank of Louis- ville (State), and the Barbour County Bank (State). The Louisville News, a Democratic weekly established in 1914, is published there. By 1819 the whites had begun to encroach upon the territory of the Creek Indians, and several settlements had been made, Louisville being the most important. Among the earliest settlers were Dr. E. M. Herron, the first physician, Harrell Hobdy, Green Beauchamp, John R. Robinson, Rev. Joseph Harley, the first preacher, and John Bartley, the first teacher in the county. The first merchant was John G. Morgan. I ouis- ville was made the county seat of Pike County, when that county was established in 1821. When Barbour was created in 1832, Louis- ville was designated as the seat of justice for the new county. Two years later it was

removed to Clayton. In 1833 the first cir- cuit court was held at Louisville, Judge Ander- son Crenshaw presiding, Harrell Hobdy, sheriff, and Thomas Pugh, clerk. The grand jury was composed of Henry Faulk, Jr., fore- man, Noah Tyson, William Bennett, Richard Head, Jr., Zachariah Bush, William McRae, James Faulk, Henry Faulk, Sr., William Head, Thomas Cavanaugh, John F. Davis, Starling Johnson, Miles McInnis, Daniel Dansby, Dun- can McRae, and Stephen Lee. In 1836 there was an engagement between the hostile Creeks and a force of 200 men under Gen. William Welborn, on Pea River, near Hobdy's bridge, about 6 miles west of Louisville.

REFERENCES .- Northern Alabama (1888), pp. 182-183; "Chronicles of Barbour County," in Eufaula Times, circa, 1873.

LOUISVILLE AND NASHVILLE RAIL- ROAD COMPANY. Incorporated under the laws of Kentucky by the legislature, March 5, 1850; mileage operated June 30, 1915- main track and branches, 5,412.06, side tracks, 2,034.32, total 7,446.38; mileage operated in Alabama-main track and branches, 1,448.12, side tracks, 550.49, total, 1,998.61; capital stock authorized-common, $72,000,000, no preferred stock, actually issued, $71,719,920; shares, $100, voting power, one vote a share; and funded debt, $174,231,000. This system is controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line Rail- road Co. through ownership of 51.05 per cent of its capital stock, acquired November 1, 1902 .- Annual Report of Company to Ala. Public Service Commission, 1915.

The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. began operations in Alabama with the assump- tion, early in 1871, of the contract for the completion of the South & North Alabama Railroad (q. v.) and the Tennessee & Ala- bama Central Railroad, originally undertaken by Sam Tate and associates. The completion of these undertakings on October 1, 1872, gave the Louisville & Nashville Railroad a continuous line from Decatur to Montgomery, through Birmingham and the mineral dis- trict.

the headwaters of the Choctawhatchee River, . by which the Nashville & Decatur Railroad

On May 1, 1871, a contract was executed Co. leased to the Louisville & Nashville Rail- road Co. for 30 years, its railroad and ap- purtenances between Nashville, Tenn., and Decatur Junction, Ala., together with its con- tract with the Memphis & Charleston Rail- road Co. for right-of-way over the road and bridge of that company at Decatur, but ex- cluding the Mt. Pleasant branch which con- nected with the main line at Columbia, Tenn. The L. & N. obligated itself to take charge of the road on July 1, 1872, and to complete the South & North Alabama Railroad with all reasonable dispatch. The lease of the Nash- ville & Decatur connected the South & North Alabama Railroad with the main stem of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and opened the way for the development of that com- pany's extensive system of railroads in the State. (For the history of the South & North Alabama, the Tennessee & Alabama Central, and the Nashville & Decatur railroad

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companies see South & North Alabama Rail- road Company.)

The traffic conditions existing at the time these roads were acquired, the motives which actuated the management of the Louisville & Nashville in so doing, and the effect upon the subsequent history of the L. & N. system, were set forth by Pres. Milton H. Smith, who was the company's general freight agent at the time mentioned, in a statement before the Alabama Railroad Commission in April, 1905: "At that time the L. & N. Railroad Company was operating a railroad from Louisville to Nashville, and from a point near Bowling Green to Memphis, with some other branches. With its large investment in these lines it was necessary to secure through or interstate traffic, and to actively engage in moving property between points on and be- yond the Ohio River, and Chattanooga, At- lanta and points beyond. To do this they had to interchange traffic with the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad at Nashville. The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad was also interested in what was known as the Nash- ville and Northwestern Railroad, a line ex- tending from Nashville to Hickman, Ky. The management of the N. & C. Railroad deemed that the interests it represented would be promoted by diverting traffic, so far as it legitimately could, from Louisville and Cin- cinnati, or points reached via the L. & N. Railroad to St. Louis and other points. In other words, it was claimed by the L. & N. that the N. & C. Railroad discriminated against It on business delivered to it by the L. & N. from Louisville and Cincinnati, by exacting higher proportional rates from Nash- ville to Chattanooga and beyond that it ex- acted on traffic coming to it over its long line, the Nashville and Northwestern.

"This rendered the management of the L. & N. desirous of an outlet, and they were induced to enter into a contract with Sam Tate and associates, and the South and North Alabama Railroad Co., to complete the South and North Alabama Railroad and equip it, for which it was to receive the securities which the contract gave to Sam Tate and associates. The L. & N. Railroad Company carried out its contract, completed the road, and opened it for traffic the last of Septem- ber, 1872. At that time there was a good deal of business activity-wouldn't be con- sidered much now-but It was then considered large, and the traffic was more than could be moved at rates from 100 to 150 per cent higher than now. At the time I speak of the rate on provisions was 60 cents per 100 pounds, Louisville to Montgomery; it is now 30 cents; and it was quite an important item, Louisville being an important packing point. We had more than we could do, and had a great deal of difficulty in operating the new road. The very next spring the panic of 1873 came along and we had no business. Now the cost of constructing the South and North Alabama was very great. And with the limited capital, a first-class road was not, and in such a country could not be con- structed. The road has heavy grades, one

and a quarter per cent, and excessive curva- ture. Rails (iron rails) cost $90 per ton. Gold was worth about $1.50. The result was that the first cost of the South and North Alabama Railroad was very great. This was very materially increased by the absolute lack of credit of the South and North Alabama Railroad Company, and the then not very good credit of the L. & N. Railroad. The L. & N. at that time bought the bonds- took them in payment for the work done on the South and North Alabama Railroad-I think for the Sterling Bonds, the L. & N. Road paid the South and North 87 cents. The L. & N. endorsed them and took them to London and sold them, the first lot at a price that netted about 83 or 84 cents, and the next lot at con- siderably less; so that the discount on bonds was an addition to the cost of the road. It was supposed when the L. & N. entered upon this hazardous and unfortunate venture, that the line was going to develop valuable min- erals. It was known that coal and iron ores existed in Alabama, but they had never been developed and no one knew much about them. The road did cross a part of the Warrior coal field at a point where the veins are thin, and the lower veins in the vicinity of Warrior Station have never developed much traffic, nor have the mines been very profitable to the people who have operated them. They have struggled against the hard condition of operat- ing on thin veins, which materially increases the cost of mining. The road also crossed the red ore vein in Grace's Gap.

"I have said that the transaction was a most unfortunate one for the L. & N. Rail- road Company. It very nearly bankrupted it. It was with the greatest difficulty that the company succeeded in keeping from default- ing on its obligations. The load was heavy. It struggled as best it could, having gotten itself into a trap by entering upon the con- struction of the South and North Road, and endorsing its bonds. To extricate itself, it had to patiently encourage the development of traffic. In 1873 there was almost none. There was scarcely a sawmill that could operate successfully, and practically no coal and ore. The directors, officers, and others interested did what they could to aid in estab- lishing the manufacture of iron. The ore un- smelted and the coal not mined, mineral de- posits were of no benefit. The agricultural products were insignificant. When the con- struction of the road was entered upon, there was but one community between Montgomery and Decatur, I think, of over ten families, and that was at Lime Kiln, now Calera. Ely- ton, the small county seat of Jefferson County, of perhaps two or three hundred people, was not directly on the line-it was on the Ala- bama Great Southern Road, four or five miles off. One of the first things was to aid in a venture to manufacture iron at Oxmoor. The directors and officers of the road con- tributed. Mr. Sloss, President of the Nash- ville and Decatur Railroad and of the South and North Alabama Railroad Company in- vested. Other officers or directors invested something. The L. & N., notwithstanding its

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impecunious condition, put in about $125,000, and made very low rates on pig iron. I re- call that I made for that furnace the first sliding scale rate, which, so far as I know, had ever been made in the South; that is, when pig iron was worth so much, we were to have so much for hauling it to the Ohio River, and when prices increased rates in- creased. It having been demonstrated that iron could be made, the L. & N. contributed to some of the other companies, and its friends contributed to the capital of the rolling mill; aided in opening some of the coal mines.

On July 1, 1878, the Wetumpka branch, between Wetumpka and Elmore, 6 miles, was opened. In 1880, the Louisville & Nashville acquired the Mobile & Montgomery Railway (q. v.) whose line extended from Mobile to Montgomery; the New Orleans & Mobile Rail- road, connecting the cities named in the title; the Pensacola & Selma Railroad, projected between Selma and Pensacola Junction and completed between Selma and Pineapple, 40 miles (see Selma & Gulf Railroad Co.); and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Rail- way (q. v.) and its subsidiary lines.

In 1881 the L. & N. began building the 64 miles of road between Pineapple, the southern terminus of the Pensacola & Selma, and the northern terminus of the Pensacola Railroad, which would complete a through line between Selma and the port of Pensacola. The por- tion of the connecting link between Escambia Junction and Repton, 29.36 miles, was com- pleted within a few months and there the work stopped.

Southern Alabama Railway .- On January 27, 1899, the Southern Alabama Railway Co. was chartered under the general laws to build the line from Repton to Pineapple, 44.5 miles. The work was completed in January, 1900, and the entire line opened March 19. In the autumn of 1899 the disconnected sections of the Pensacola & Selma were sold to the Southern Alabama Railway Co., which, in turn, was purchased by the Louisville & Nash- ville Railroad Co. for $1,680,000. The Cam- den branch from Nadawah to Camden, 11.61 miles, was acquired with the Southern Ala- bama Railway.

New Orleans & Mobile Railroad .- The New Orleans & Mobile Railroad, another of the roads merged into the Louisville & Nash- ville in 1880, as stated above, had its begin- ning in Alabama as the New Orleans, Mobile & Chattanooga Railroad Co., organized by Oakes Ames, Peter Butler, William Sprague, James A. Raynor, William S. Williams, Charles W. Durant, John M. Courtenay, Charles Walsh and William O. Winston, and chartered by the legislature November 24, 1866, for the purpose of building a railroad from Mobile toward the Mississippi line in Mobile County, and to operate in connection therewith a line through Mississippi and Louisiana to New Orleans; also to build a road from Mobile to the Tennessee line or the Georgia line, and to operate a line to Chattanooga. This was a subsidiary com- pany of the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas

Railroad Co., which projected a railroad across the continent. An amendment of February 12, 1867, authorized the company to receive grants of land, franchises, privi- leges, etc., from the United States or any State.

An act of August 12, 1868, confirmed the authority of the company to consolidate with other roads and repealed the forfeiture clauses of the charter so as to allow un- limited time in which to build the road. The line between New Orleans and Mobile, 140 miles, was completed and put in operation in 1870. On January 1, 1873, default was made in payment of interest and the property was sold under foreclosure in New Orleans on June 6, and purchased by the first-mortgage bondholders. An act of December 17, author- ized the purchasers of the property of the New Orleans, Mobile & Texas Railroad Co., east of the Mississippi River, to organize under the name of the New Orleans & Mobile Railroad Co.

That part of the road between New Orleans and Mobile having been unable to pay its interest was put in the hands of trustees for the purchasers, E. D. Morgan, of New York, and J. A. Raynor, of New Orleans, on Feb- ruary 1, 1875, and operated by them until the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. took possession, May 8, 1880, having acquired $3,990,000 of its $4,000,000 capital stock. The New Orleans & Mobile Railroad Co. made a formal lease of the property to the Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad Co. for 50 years.

On May 1, 1880, the Louisville & Nash- ville took a lease for five years upon the Western of Alabama Railroad (q. v.) be- tween Selma and Montgomery, a distance of 50 miles, at an annual rental of $52,000.

Nashville, Florence & Sheffield Railway .- In 1878 the L. & N. management decided to build a road from Columbia, Tenn., to the mineral deposits between that point and Florence, Ala. For this purpose the Nash- ville & Florence Railroad Co. was chartered in Tennessee in 1879, with the financial back- ing of the Louisville & Nashville. The road was opened to State Line, Ala., 51 miles, November 26, 1880. On May 16, 1887, the Nashville & Florence Railroad Co. was con- solidated with the Tennessee & Alabama Rail- road Co., a Tennessee corporation, to form the Nashville, Florence & Sheffield Railway Co., a subsidiary of the Louisville & Nash- ville, which rapidly pushed to completion the extension of the road from the Tennessee-Ala- bama line to Florence. The road was opened to Florence June 16, 1888, and by means of trackage rights over the road of the Memphis & Charleston (q. v.), was operated to Shef- field and later to Tuscumbia. The property was sold under foreclosure April 10, 1900, and purchased by the Louisville & Nashville, which assumed the payment of $2,096,000 outstanding first-mortgage 5 per cent bonds, and merged the road with the L. & N. system.

Birmingham Mineral Railroad .- In 1884 the development of the Birmingham Mineral division of the L. & N. system was projected by the incorporation, under general laws, on

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March 19, of the Birmingham Mineral Rail- road Co. On June 1, roads built under this charter were opened between May-Ella and Sloss, 7.76 miles, and Grace and Redding, 2.71 miles, and operated in connection with the South & North Alabama division.

On May 1, 1885, the lease of the Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad Co. of the line between Selma and Montgomery expired and was not renewed, the road reverting to the Western Railway of Alabama.

During 1889, additions were made to the lines of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad, as follows: Boyles to Bessemer, 15.38 miles; the road between Graces and Redding ex- tended to Bessemer, making its length 10.56 miles; the May-Ella-Sloss line extended to Bessemer, making its total mileage 7.99; a road built between Bessemer and Blocton Junction, 27.02 miles; Chamblee and Goe- thite, 3.65; Gate City branch, 7.90; total, 72.50 miles.

Alabama Mineral Railroad .- On January 1, 1891, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. purchased the Alabama Mineral Railroad, which was a reorganization and consolidation. July 28, 1890, of the Anniston & Atlantic Railroad, from Anniston to Sylacauga, 53 miles, and the Anniston & Cincinnati Rail- road, from Anniston to Attalla, 35 miles. The former was chartered May 24, 1883, under the general laws; road opened from Anniston to Talladega, 30 miles, May 15, 1884; to Sycamore, 45 miles, September 15, and to Sylacauga, December 1, 1886. This company purchased and merged with its line the Clifton Railroad, which extended from Jenifer to Ironaton, about 9 miles. The An- niston & Atlantic was purchased for account of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. in February, 1890.

The Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad Co. was incorporated in February, 1887, and its road opened October 17, 1888. The Louis- ville & Nashville Railroad Co. purchased the property in February, 1890, and consolidated it with the Anniston & Atlantic on July 28. The new company built an extension from Sylacauga to Calera in the latter part of the year. The Shelby Iron Co.'s railroad between Shelby and Columbiana, 5.19 miles, was pur- chased in the same year and added to the Alabama Mineral Railroad. The entire prop- erty was taken over for operation by the L. & N. on January 1, 1891.

L. & N. System .- The system of short lines and branches connecting the mines, furnaces, and other industrial plants of which the Bir- mingham Mineral and Alabama Mineral rail- roads formed the nucleus, has since been so extended and developed as to form one of the most important transportation groups in the State. Since it acquired the two original lines, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. has added to its mileage, from time to time, as follows: in 1888, July 2, Blue Creek ex- tension, Bessemer to Blocton, 29 miles, and the Pioneer branch, Chamblee to Goethite, 4 miles; September 22, Gate City branch, Boyles to end of track, 17 miles; December 21, Self Creek branch, Palmers to Bradford,

4 miles, and Gurley Creek branch, Village Springs to Compton, 3 miles; in 1889, Feb- ruary 1, Muscoda branch, Muscoda Junction to Muscoda, 3 miles; November 1, Dudley branch, Yolande to Milldale, 4 miles; in 1890, March 14, Red Gap branch, Red Gap Junction to Graces, 9 miles; July 17, H. & B. branch, Tacoa to Gurnee, 11 miles; in 1891, May 7, Fossil and Spring Gap branch, Winetka and Wades Gap, 3 miles; in 1896, October 5, Readers Gap branch, Readers to Leogusta, 1 mile; in 1902, September 6, Long Branch Coal Road, Gurley Junction to Lehigh, 7 miles; in 1903, August 18, Dunn branch, Mineral Springs to Dunn, 1 mile; Cain Creek branch, Black Creek to Kosmo, 7 miles; and Nickel Plate branch, Mineral Springs to Rilma, 3 miles; December 24, Crocker branch, Crocker Junction to Crocker, 1 mile; in 1904, April 12, Crocker branch, Crocker to Durant, 1 mile; April 23, Sayre branch, Chetopa to Vulcan, 2 miles; February 1, Graystone branch, Mattawana to Deming, 2 miles; June 2, Graves branch, Genoa to Graves Mine, 3 miles; August 4, Nebo branch, Udora to Erskine, 1 mile; in 1907, February 20, Skel- ton Creek branch, Vulcan to Globe, 8 miles; and Globe branch, Globe to Hecla, 1 mile; February 21, Banner branch, Chetopa to Ban- ner, 4 miles; April 22, Colta branch, Colta to Blacree, 1 mile. In addition the following short connections or branches the length of which is not obtainable: May 28, 1905, Hunts- ville branch, No. 2, Oneonta to Moragne; and August 22, 1907, Acton branch, Helena to Acton.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 35

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