Barbour County AlArchives History .....Barbour County 1888
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III.
BARBOUR COUNTY.

    Population: White, 13,091; colored, 20,888. Area, 860 square miles.
Woodland, all. Oak, hickory and long-leaf pine, 610 square miles; Blue marsh
land, 250 square miles.

    Acres—In cotton (approximately), 100,000; in corn, 61,800; in oats, 10,300;
in wheat, 150; in rye, 100; in rice, 50; in tobacco, 25; in sugar-cane, 650; in
sweet potatoes, 1,300.

    Approximate number of bales of cotton, in round numbers, 26,100.

    County Seat—Clayton; population, 1,200; located seventy-five miles southeast
of Montgomery, and at the terminus of the Eufaula & Clayton Railroad.

    Newspapers published at County Seat—Courier, Democrat; at Eufaula, Mail,
Times, News—all Democratic.

    Postoffices in the County—Batesville, Belcher, Bush, Clayton, Clio,
Coleridge, Cotton Hill, Cowikee, Cox's Mill, Elamville, Eufaula, Harris,
Hawkinsville, Howe, Lodi, Louisville, McInness, Mount Andrew, New Topia,
Oateston, Pea River, Reeder's Mill, Star Hill, Tub, White Oak Springs, White Pond.

    The county was organized in 1832, and named in honor of Gov. James Barbour,
of Virginia. It lies in the eastern portion of the State, and is separated from
Georgia by the Chattahoochee River, which forms its entire eastern boundary.
Barbour ranks as one of the leading counties in the State.

    A line drawn cast and west through Harbour County, near the center, will
divide it into two parts which are quite dissimilar. The soils on the north of
this line are more or less calcareous, those on the south, sandy. The northern
half has a substratum of marl and limestone of the upper cretaceous formation,
which, acting upon the soil, gives rise to some of the best and safest cotton
lands in the State. This portion of the county is drained by the three forks of
Cowikee Creek, and is known thoughout the county as the Cowikee lands.

    The soil is moderately stiff, calcareous clay, with patches of what is known
as hog-wallow, which are seldom more than an acre or two in extent. In the
immediate vicinity of the streams the soil is much more sandy, but highly
productive. The general appearance of these lands is that of a gently
undulating, occasionally hilly region, somewhat resembling the prairies of the
Rotten Limestone country, but with reddish or light-colored soils. This region,
though fertile, is malarious, and is inhabited by comparatively few white
families. The negroes, however, appear to endure it very well. There is a
peculiar mixture of trees characterizing these lands, viz.: hickory, white and
Spanish oaks, sweet and sour gums, and long-leaf pine. The latter appears to be
out of place with such surroundings.

    The Chattahoochee River forms the eastern boundary of the county, and the
bottom lands of this stream are from one to three miles wide, and very
productive. Next to these are the second bottoms or hummocks, or pine Hats,
always safe and easy to cultivate. Bordering upon these are the foot-hills of
the pine uplands.

    Although the larger part of the surface of this county is occupied by brown
loams, with a growth of oak, hickory, and pine, yet the characteristic
agricultural features of Barbour depend upon the blue marls of the Cowikee and
other drainage areas of the northern half of the county. A large proportion
(more than half) of the cotton crop is produced in the northeastern part of the
county, where these marts give character to the soils. There is, perhaps, no
part of the State which ranks higher in the production of cotton than the blue
marl lands of adjacent parts of Russell, Harbour and Bullock Counties, whose
prevailing soils are light, sandy loams, easily worked, possessing a
comparatively high percentage of lime, by which they are rendered
extraordinarily thrifty.

    From the hills in the southwest have been gathered specimens of iron ore.
Lime rock prevails in abundance in different portions of Barbour, while
specimens of kaolin have been secured. In the town of Louisville is a bed of
green marl about twelve or eighteen feet below the surface, and in vast
quantities. Repeated experiments by gardeners prove its value.

    In the southern portion of the county, four miles above the line of Dale, is
a great natural curiosity in the form of a magnificent spring, the dimensions of
which are 40x80 feet. Its waters are of a bluish cast and so transparent that
the light glows through them. The eye of a fish is distinctly seen in their
shining depths. This was once a point of popular resort, but since the
destruction of the spacious hotel it has been abandoned as such. The waters of
this spring are supposed to possess wonderful curative powers. There issues
directly from it a large, bold stream.

    Clayton is the county seat, and is a pleasant little village. It is the seat
of several excellent institutions of learning.

    Eufaula, on the Chattahoochee, is the most important place in Eastern
Alabama. It is a city of between six and seven thousand people, and has a
promise of an extensive growth in the near future. Eufaula's commercial
importance will be greatly increased by the completion of several railroads
which are projected. Batesville and Louisville are the other towns of the county.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
COTTON BELT.


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