History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 54

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

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into effect until October 1820, when the land was sold to the Mobile Lot Company and resold to individuals. The fort was dis- mantled and the garrison and military sup- plies were transferred to Pensacola.

In 1818 the bank of Mobile was established, which marked the beginning of flush times in Alabama. The town at this time handled seven thousand bales of cotton which two seasons later amounted to ten thousand. The port all the time was full of vessels, some even from Liverpool. By an act of the legislature, December 17, 1819, the city of Mobile was incorporated. In 1822 the popu- lation of the city amounted to two thousand seven hundred and eight, and the number of cotton bales had risen to 45,425. Steamboats now began to be improved and hence became more efficient vessels for the transportation of cotton, and the successful trip in the spring of 1823 of the "Cotton Plant" up to Columbus, Miss., and return in thirteen days was the beginning of the Tombigbee River traffic which was to make almost the entire Tombigbee basin tributary to Mobile. In 1830 the city handled more than one hun- dred thousand bales of cotton and has never fallen under these figures. After cotton, lumber and naval stores from the great pine forests of the coast, became one of the great assets of Mobile.

The year 1824 was signaled by the visit of Lafayette to Mobile, the great Frenchman being received with impressive ceremonies and entertained at several places in the city. In 1836 the city and many private residences were lighted with gas. From 1818 to 1837 Mobile had a career of unbroken prosperity. In the latter year began the great panic which even for years afterwards affected the business of the entire country. The Bank of Mobile was not involved in the panic, be- ing one of the four banks in the United States that did not suspend.

Misfortune and sorrow befell Mobile in 1839 in the form of two great fires, occur- ring only a few nights apart, which destroyed a large portion of the city. This was followed by a most fatal epidemic of yellow fever, which lasted until frost. The plague how- ever, was the means of bringing into existence an institution that will ever be a lasting memorial to the women of Mobile. There were so many orphans left by the plague that it was needful to provide a home for them, and under the leadership of Mrs. Dr. Hamil- ton, the Protestant Orphan Asylum was or- ganized in 1839. It was controlled by dele- gates of women from each Protestant denom- ination who took charge of the children. In the course of time, these benevolent women were able to buy a large lot on Dauphin Street and a large brick building was erected in 1852, which still stands with its continu- ous work of charity. In 1840 the population of Mobile was 12,672 souls, a great increase from the 3,194 souls of 1830. Up to this time the city never had a satisfactory supply of water and in 1840 it adopted the franchise plan. A contract was made with Albert Stein, ratified the next year by the legislature, which

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resulted in a good supply of water from Spring Hill, through water works still in existence. The river traffic up the Tombigbee, the Black Warrior, and the Alabama Rivers was a great factor in creating the wealth and pros- perity of Mobile. Of the 800,000 hales of cotton shipped to Mobile in 1860, at least two thirds came by river. To these factors con- tributing to the prosperity of the city must be added the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. When this road was completed to West Point, Miss., with branch roads to Columbus and Aberdeen, it brought annually about 90,000 bales of cotton to Mobile. When it reached Tupelo in 1858, it brought 150,000 bales.

Mobile in the fifties had much foreign trade during the cotton season. As deep draft vessels could not come up to the city, the large business firm of Cox, Brainard and Company lightered the cotton down to what was called the Lower Fleet. Cotton was pre- pared for shipping by compressing it to one- half the original size, there heing a dozen presses in the city for this purpose.

A singular episode in Mobile history is the story of the slaver "Clotilde," or "Wanderer," as usually styled. This vessel in 1858 brought from Africa several hundred ne- groes. The vessel safely reached Mississippi Sound, where it was taken charge of by Tim Meaher, who, without being observed, ran it up the bay and river. The negroes were con- cealed in the marshes of Upper Baldwin County and the vessel taken to Bayou Conner and burned. The Federal authorities insti- tuted proceedings against Meaher and the case was ably argued by lawyers on both sides. The captain of the slaver meanwhile was kept in concealment, and Meaher proving that he was in and about Mobile all the time was acquitted. After the affair had blown over. Meaher divided the negroes among the per- sons who were interested in the slave captur- ing scheme. Some of the negroes and their descendants still remain in the neighborhood above the river and still speak their native tongue. The decade of 1850-1860 was the golden period in the history of Mobile, as it was with the entire south, which in the latter year had reached the height of her prosperity and her unique civilization. Seces- sion, followed by the great war, was ushered in in 1861.

Confederate Period .- Before the secession of Alabama, Forts Morgan and Gaines and the arsenal at Mount Vernon, by the direction of Governor Moore, were taken possession of by Alabama troops. As soon as this was done the governor notified the Federal gov- ernment that he had taken this action as a matter of precaution. After the secession of the State, Mobile was carefully fortified in all directions by the engineers, Ledbetter and Von Scheleha. Forts Morgan

and Gaines were manned, each by a strong force, and the mouth of Mobile River was defended by batteries, and at different times other points were fortified by the erection of forts, as Fort Powell guarding Grant's Pass. The city was surrounded by three lines of earth- works, and altogether General Joseph

E. Johnston pronounced Mobile the best for- tified city in the Confederacy. In the early part of the war, cotton was shipped to Ha- vana, Cuba, there unloaded, and thence car- ried in English ships to Liverpool. By the close of the year the Federal government had thoroughly blockaded all the southern ports. And as cotton commanded such a high price and was in such great demand at Liverpool, blockade running hecame a regu- lar industry, conducted by private parties, English or Confederate. The most important cargoes brought by the blockade runners were arms and medical stores for the Con- federate armies. Many blockade runners were captured, but the great majority man- aged to elude the vigilance of the Federal blockading fleet.

An interesting incident of the war occurred in 1862 in the destruction of the lighthouse situated on Sand Island between Fort Mor- gan and the blockading squadron. This structure, a hundred feet high, was some- times used by the blockaders to look over into the bay. Being an injury to the Mobile shipping, a plan was laid for its destruction. A small party under Captain N. J. Ludlow left Fort Morgan one night in a sail boat, landed on Sand Island and placed a charge of powder at the monument where it would be most effective, fired the fuse and at day- light sailed back to Fort Morgan. In a little while the explosion took place and the lighthouse was utterly destroyed. But from that time onward it was impossible for the Federals to see what was going on in the hay. The civil government of Mobile re- mained the same during the war as it had been in peace, with the exception of activi- ties for taking care of the families of the soldiers, whose meager pay of eleven dollars a month in Confederate money availed but little in the support of a family. To remedy or palliate this condition, the city authorities saw to it that soldiers' families should have everything at the lowest price, and helped in all other ways possible. Goods, fixed at special prices, were brought down the river and railroad to enable the city to take care of the poor, which in addition to the public soup houses opened in the city buildings, kept even the most destitute families above want.

The military offices were in the Custom House. There were several commanders at Mobile at various times during the war, but the best known was General Dabney H. Mau- ry, whose headquarters were the residence of Congressman E. S. Dargan, who, having sent his family up the country for greater safety tendered his residence to General Maury as his headquarters. New troops were drilled about Mobile, and the veteran regiments were camped out on the Hall's Mill road.

The courts continued in Mobile as before the war, but the busines was small. Many of the lawyers had gone into the army, and the few that remained were sufficient for such business as there was.

There was a greater need of physicians and surgeons in Mobile than of doctors. Medi- cines were very scarce and only at rare inter-

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vals when a blockade runner succeeded in running the gauntlet of the blockading squadron were calomel, quinine, and other medicinal drugs brought into the city. This lack of medicine caused the revival of many ancient pioneer remedies.

The various churches, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, were well attended during the war. In them after defeats were held services of prayer, often connected with fasting, and after victories, services of thanksgiving. The ministers of these denominations passed much of their time in visiting the sick at home and the wounded in the hospitals, and in services in the regiments encamped near the city.

While Mobile saw much of the sad and sorrowful side of life incident to war, there was also a bright and joyous side. Dancing was the order of the day, and after this the visits of the ladies to the camps of the soldiers, who were so appreciative of such attention that their bands never failed to entertain their fair visitors with the inspir- ing strains of "Dixie" and other Confederate airs.

In spite of the stress of war, literature or rather bookmaking did not become dormant in Mobile. School books were published for the use of the Confederate youth, and Madame Chaudon translated from the German the historical novels of Louisa Muhlbach, which were published by S. H. Goetzel and Company and were widely read. The same firm also published a reprint of Hardee's Tactics which was adopted and used in the Confederate armies.

The stores of the merchants were still kept open, but after the first year of the war, but little could be seen on the shelves but home spun goods. Only through the good fortune of a blockade runner was the mer- chant able to display any of his old time goods. Tea and coffee disappeared, but soon there came a substitute for coffee made from potatoes or rye. As the war progressed the purchasing power of Confederate money fell lower and lower. In 1865 it took two hun- dred dollars of the depreciated currency to buy a barrel of flour and twelve hundred to buy a suit of clothes. About the middle of the war the Mobile Supply Association was formed, its purpose being to procure food and clothing from the adjacent counties and sell them to the people at the lowest price, after deducting the expense. Agents of the company went up the Mobile and Ohio and the Montgomery railroads, and even as far as East Tennessee, and shipped back goods to Mobile. The railroads, though under military control, facilitated in every way the good work of the association. Corn, bacon and rye, and occasionally potatoes and cab- bages were shipped to Mobile, and through most of the war Mobile had in her market the best supplies of food in the Confederacy. As the war progressed nearly every family in Mobile had one or more relatives in the army and news was constantly sought from the front. Every battle, whether bringing victory or defeat to the southern armies meant death

to some household. After battle the news- paper offices were besieged by anxious citizens making inquiries about absent ones in the army, but with the interruption and irregu- larity of the mails it was frequently weeks be- fore the paper could publish lists of the killed and wounded.

The capture of Forts Morgan and Gaines by Admiral Farragut in August, 1864, with the loss of Blakey and Spanish Fort in the spring of 1865, brought Mobile into Federal possession and on May 8, 1865, General Rich- ard Taylor surrendered his entire Depart- ment, an event soon followed by the collapse everywhere of the last vestige of the Confed- erate government. Mobile now entered a new epoch with new environments and under widely different conditions, again under the Federal Government.

Modern Facts .- Passing over her history of fifty-five years following the War of Secession, Mobile is enjoying an unprecedented era of development. Her ship building industry is taking high rank. The channel has been so deepened by aid of the Federal government that the largest vessels can enter her harbor. Her population is 60,151. She has a hundred and fifty industrial plants and factories, varying from ship building to candy making.

Mobile has a commission form of govern- ment which became effective April 8, 1911. In 1915 the city boundaries were re-arranged, under legislative enactment.

The City Hall was built in 1850, but there is no available record of the cost of construc- tion. It stands within two blocks of the busi- ness center of the town, and near by is the city market. The city jail is of pre-war con- struction. The city is lighted by both gas and electricity, privately owned. The city waterworks system owned by the municipal- ity and known as "Spring Hill Station," was erected in 1899 at a cost of $525,000.00. In 1907 the "Bienville Station," erected by pri- vate capital at a cost of $700,000.00, was bought by the municipality for $350,000.00, and now has a value, including improvements, of $1,250,000.00. The Mobile fire depart- ment, consists of ten engine houses, some of which were formerly owned by the volunteer firemen. The first fire house was constructed about 1852, and the last in 1912.

In 1899 the city issued bonds to the value of $225,000.00 for a sanitary sewerage system; an additional issue of $60,000.00, in 1901, and $100,000.00 in 1912. The present value of the system, including extensions made from time to time, without the aid of hond issues, is $500,000.00.

Parks and Play Grounds .- The parks and play grounds of Mobile include Bienville Square, located in the heart of the business district, purchased a hundred years ago with the proceeds of a bond issue of $35,000.00; Washington Square, located in the western part of the city in a residential district; Lyons Park, located in the extreme western part of the residential section, consisting of about twenty acres, a combination park and play ground, equipped with baseball diamond, ten- nis court, swimming pool, and other amuse-

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ments; Bay Side Park, an extensive tract of land on the Bay front; Monroe Park, privately owned, situated on the Bay front.

There are about 175 miles of paved side- walks in the city.

The old horse car line was changed to an electric street car system in June, 1893.

The educational institutions consist of the following: Barton Academy, Semmes School, Russell's School, Oak Dale School, Clark's School, Crane School, Marechal School, Old Shell Road School, Spring Hill College, Mc- Gill Institute (Private), Baker's School ( Pri- vate), Knott High School (Private), Ebel- togts Shorthand and Typewriting School, Meux Business College, Mobile Business Col- lege, Shepard's School, University Military School, School of Medicine of the University of Alabama, Hunter's School (Private), Em- merson Institute (colored).

Churches .- There are a large number of churches in Mobile including every denomi- nation from the historic Catholic Cathedral of Colonial times to the modern church edifice of the Protestants. There are thirteen Bap- tist, sixteen Catholic, two Christian, one Chris- tian Science, eight Episcopal, one Lutheran, eleven Methodist, two Jewish Synagogues; a non-sectarian church, "Seamen's Bethel," two Salvation Army. The colored churches comprise twenty-three Baptist, one Episcopal, and twenty-one Methodist.

Mobile has ever been distinguished for be- nevolence. She has two Catholic orphan asy- lums, a Protestant home, two large hospitals, and infirmary under charge of the Sisters of Charity, a home for the aged and infirm, a home for widows, besides other smaller insti- tutions.

Markets: Owing to its warm climate and productive soil, many early fruits and vege- tables are raised in and around Mobile and shipped to northern markets. Mobile has a fine fish market and several oyster canneries.

Mobile Welcome Club .- An organization formed by a few public spirited citizens for the purpose of advertising Mobile as a tourist point. A bureau of information is maintained and the pleasure and interest of strangers are looked after while in the city. Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month. Among the charter members were Charles B. Hervy, S. H. Peck, W. H. Reynolds, and others. Gordon Smith was president in 1918.

REFERENCES .- Acts, 1819; Alabama Historical Society, Publications, v. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1900, 1897-98, 1898-99, 1899-1903; Alabama History Commis- sion, Report, vol. 1, 1900; Alabama State Board of Immigration, Alabama's New Era; Berney, Handbook of Alabama, p. 316-17; Brewer, Ala- bama, p. 386-88, 1872; Gulf States Historical Magazine, vol. 1, 1902-03; Hamilton, Colonial, Mobile, 1910; Hamilton, The Founding of Mo- bile, 1911; Hamilton, Mobile of the Five Flags, 1913; Hamilton and Others, Mobile Bicen- tennial, 1911; Mobile Catholic Church Records; Northern Alabama, p. 238, 1888; Owen's edi- tion, Pickett, Alabama, 1900; Toulmin, Digest.

MOBILE, PORT OF. Mobile is one of the four largest American ports on the Gulf coast. Its harbor is formed by Mobile Bay and Mo- bile River, the city being situated on the river just above the head of the upper bay. The harbor has a 27-foot channel from a point some distance above the city wharves to the lower bay. In 1915 efforts were made to se- cure a 30-foot channel, but without success. The bay is practically landlocked, and offers a safe and convenient harbor to vessels draw- ing less than 27 feet.

The port of Mobile enjoys the cheapest bunker coal prices of any port in the country, but because of the lack of sufficient depth of channel, it has not been able to derive the full benefit of the circumstances. Many of the large steamers which discharge and re- ceive cargoes at Mobile, and would also take coal there, are forced to obtain their coal in Atlantic ports where a sufficient depth of water is found.

Another advantage enjoyed by the port of Mobile is ample railroad facilities, afforded by through lines to all parts of the country. Three trunk lines enter the city, namely, Mo- bile & Ohio Railroad, Southern Railway, and Louisville & Nashville Railroad. In addition, there is the New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad which traverses parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The city of Mobile is distant from various important commercial and transportation cen- ters of the country, as follows: St. Louis, 647 miles; Chicago, 857 miles; Kansas City, 868 miles. The distances from Mobile to sev- eral foreign Gulf ports are: Colon, 1,375 miles; Havana, 375 miles; Vera Cruz, 700 miles; Progresso, 678 miles.

Recent Improvements .- The harbor has a river frontage on the west, or city side, of 24,800 feet, of which about half is improved; and a frontage on the east side of 20,400 feet, of which about one-sixth has been im- proved for the convenience of shipping. Since 1900 additions to the docking facilities of the port have been made, as follows: a slip, 500 feet long, affording docking facilities of 1,000 feet, constructed by the city at a cost of $75,000; a slip of the same dimensions and capacity, by the Southern Railway Co. at a cost of $200,000; fruit terminals and ware- houses with docking capacity of 660 feet, by the Mobile & Ohlo Railroad Co., at a cost of $250,000; a dock 1,500 feet long, by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. at a cost of $100,000; a pier with docking facilities of 1,800 feet, by the New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad Co. at a cost of $100,000; a pier and slip with docking capacity of 1,000 feet, by Markley & Miller, at a cost of $50,000; coal pier, by the Mobile Coal Co., at a cost of $50,000; the Turner, Hartwell dock, on the east bank of the river, with a capacity of 650 feet, at a cost of $50,000; and two other docks on the east bank, with combined capacity of 1,200 feet, costing $100,000.

Since the completion of the foregoing im- provements, additional docks, piers, slips, warehouses, and other facilities for shipping

REAR ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES, COMMANDER OF THE ALABAMA

CONFEDERATE FLAG PRESENTED TO ADMIRAL SEMMES BY LADIES OF ENGLAND THROUGH LADY DE HOGHTON, 1864

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have been undertaken whose aggregate cost will exceed $1,250,000. The harbor is further equipped with a dry-dock of 3,500 tons ca- pacity; a sectional dry-dock of 1,200 tons capacity; a marine railway of 1,650 tons ca- pacity, and a number of small marine-ways for tugs and small coasting vessels. There is also an adequate equipment of floating steam-derricks and wrecking machines.

History .- Mobile, like New Orleans, has al- ways been chiefly important as a port. It has never been a manufacturing city, and its growth and prosperity have been peculiarly dependent on the prosperity of its shipping interests. The city had attained considerable importance as a port before it became a part of American territory. As early as 1764 the harbor had been mapped, and a British Ad- miralty chart of 1771 showed the variations of depth-of-channel from the outer bay to the city. By 1819 the cotton alone handled through the port of Mobile aggregated 10,000 bales. By 1829 the business had increased to 103,000 bales, and until the outbreak of the War, the business of the port, imports and exports, continued to increase gradually, so that during the thirties, forties, and fifties Mobile was the second largest cotton port in the world. During several years prior to 1861 the average annual commerce in cotton of the port was 500,000 bales. An idea of the activity of Mobile Harbor may be obtained from the fact that on January 18, 1860, there were 116 vessels in the bay; 55 ships, 16 barks, 16 brigs, and 29 schooners.

During the War the port of Mobile became important in a different way. Its shipping was greatly hampered because of the necessity of obtaining supplies from foreign countries, not only for the inhabitants of Alabama, but also for those other States of the Confed- eracy, and the port became of the utmost military importance. Among the first mili- tary measures taken by the State were pre- cautions for the defense of the port of Mobile.

Government Improvement Projects. - Soon after the War the construction of rail- roads in various parts of the State was be- gun, and as a result, the water-borne com- merce of Mobile was greatly reduced. In fact, during the seventies the city had almost ceased to be a port. However, its citizens, with the aid of the United States Government, undertook the improvement of the harbor and docking facilities in order to reestablish the shipping industry. Their efforts have been successful, and for many years the port and the city have enjoyed a steadily increas- ing growth and prosperity. The first work done by the United States Government to- ward the improvement of the harbor was in 1827. From that time until 1856 a total of $226,830.68 was appropriated by Congress for the purpose. Nothing further was done until 1870, when efforts were made by the State to improve the harbor, but without much success. About the same time the Federal Government undertook a second pro- ject of improvement, and similar projects have been undertaken from time to time

which have resulted in the establishment and maintenance of a 27-foot channel.

Control of the Port .- All regulations gov- erning the use of the harbor and docking facilities of Mobile were for years adminis- tered by the city government. The ordi- nances governing shipping are found in the Code of Mobile, sections 455-457, 555-561, and appendix, pages 386-399. The active control of the harbor with respect to the erection of bulkheads, wharves, dry-docks, and similar structures was in the hands of the Mobile River Commission, the use of the docks and wharves being supervised by the harbor master and wardens, which office was first created by the legislature of Alabama Territory, November 21, 1818. The regula- tion of all features of the port's improve- ment, maintenance, and use are now gov- erned by the act of September 25, 1915, creat- ing the State harbor commission.

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History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography, Volume II, Part 54

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