Calhoun County AlArchives History .....Calhoun County 
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III.
CALHOUN COUNTY.

    Population: White: 14,872: colored, 4,921. Area, 640 square miles. Woodland,
all. Coosa Valley and Coosa coal fields, 640 square miles.

    Acres in cotton, approximately, 26,435; in corn, 33,714; in oats, 8,852; in
wheat, 10,745; in rye, 287; in tobacco, 29; in sweet potatoes, 283. Approximate
number of bales of cotton, 11,927.

    County Seat—Jacksonville: population 5,000; on East Tennessee, Virginia &
Georgia Railroad.

    N'ewspapers published at County Seat—Republican, democratic; at Anniston,
Hot Blast, Watchman, and Southern Industry, all democratic; at Cross Plains,
Post, democratic; at Oxford, Echo, local.

    Postoffices in the County—Adelia, Alexandria, Allsup, Anniston, Beasley,
Bera, Bruner, Bynum, Cane Creek, Choccolocco, Cross Plains, Davisville, De
Armanville, Duke, Eulaton, Francis, Germania, Grayton, Hebron, Jacksonville,
Jenkins, Ladiga, Mack, Marthadell, Martin's Cross-roads, Merrellton,
Morrisville, Nance, Ohatchee, Ottery, Oxanna, Oxford, Peaceburgh, Peek's Hill,
Rabbit Town, Randall, Weaver's Station, White Plains.

    Calhoun County, in the northeastern part of the State, is bounded on the
north by Etowah and Cherokee Counties, on the east by Cleburne, on the south by
Cleburne and Talladega, and on the west by St. Clair. It was organized December
18, 1832, out of territory ceded the March before by the Creek Indians.

    Exclusive of town lots, railroad rights of way, and public lands, 324,216
acres of land are assessed for taxation at a valuation of §1,461,722, town lots
and improvements are valued at §1,469,671, and personal property at $2,066,078:
in all $4,997,471. Since these values were fixed on the first of January last,
there has been something like a "boom "in Anniston and other parts, and they
would now be not less than fifty per cent. greater.

    The county tax for all purposes is forty cents on the $100, one-third less
than last year and previous years. Except about $14,000 for the new court-house,
the county is out of debt.

    There are 116 miles of railway in the county, as follows: The East
Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, 37.73 miles: the East & West Railroad,
36.58 miles: the Georgia Pacific Railroad, 30.50 miles; and the Anniston &
Atlantic Railroad, 11.42 miles. These are valued at $855,078. In addition, the
Jacksonville, Gadsden & Atalla Railroad is partly graded; and the Anniston &
Cincinnati Railroad, from Anniston to Atalla, will be open for traffic by the
first of February next. These will increase the railroad mileage of the county
nearly forty miles. The Georgia Central Railroad extension, projected from
Carrollton, Ga., to Decatur, Ala., has been surveyed through the county.

    There are about 100,000 acres of improved lands in the county, which, in
1880, were divided into 1,906 farms, the annual products of which were worth
more than $1,000,000 then, and are worth much more now.

    Except the western slopes of the hills forming its eastern boundary, the
county lies wholly in what is known as the Coosa Valley, which is a continuation
of the valleys of Virginia and East Tennessee, and has the same physical and
geological characteristics. It is a trough between the metamorphic area and the
coal fields, broken by considerable sandstone elevations, with wide, beautiful,
and fertile valleys, abundantly wooded and watered. These valleys, gently
rolling, not swampy or subject to overflow, are finely adapted to cotton, corn,
small grains, red clover, and all the grasses, and the whole county is specially
suited for stock-growing.

    The county is rich in minerals—perhaps the richest in the State. Almost
everywhere brown hematite iron ore abounds, and around the bases and on the
sides of the sandstone hills it is in amazing quantities and of the greatest
richness. From Oxford to Cross Plains, in the Choccolocco and Alexandria
valleys, and in the Colvin Mountains, there are the greatest masses of it
everywhere exposed on the surface, and everywhere seemingly inexhaustible. There
is not probably one single section of land in the county without ore. In the
Colvin Mountains, in close proximity to the brown ores, there are veins of red
hematite scarcely inferior in extent, and not inferior in quality, to those of
the famous Red Mountain in Jefferson County.

    Manganese, in greater or less quantity, is found in many of the brown
hematite beds, and independently in large deposits. Limestone, and marble of
excellent quality, are abundant, as, also, kaolin, sandstone, barite, and
fire-brick clay, with some copper, lead, and lithographic stone. The
Choccolocco, Terrapin, Tallasahatchie, Ohatchee, and Cane Creeks, and the Coosa
River, furnish never-failing and almost limitless water-power. For all domestic
and agricultural purposes, water abonnds in every part of the county.

    Attention has only recently been turned to the vast mineral wealth and
unequaled manufacturing advantages of this county, and industrial development
has only fairly begun. In 1873 the first furnace was erected in Anniston, which
was followed six years later by a second, both owned by the Woodstock Iron
Company, and two others are being erected there by the same company. Anniston
has now in operation, in addition to the furnaces, car works with $50,000
capital; car-wheel works and rolling-mill. $200,000; compress and warehouse,
$100,000; pipe works (in construction), $300,000; cotton mills, $250,000; steel
bloomery, $50,000; fire-brick works. $25,000: boiler shops, machine shops,
planing mills, etc., $250,000; three banks; land company, $3,000,000; and claims
a population of over 9,000, with waterworks, electric lights, costly churches,
first-class schools, well-graded streets, a large general merchandise business,
and the finest hotel in the State. The capital of the Woodstock Iron Company is
$3,000,000. Jacksonville, twelve miles north of Anniston, with mineral
resources, manufacturing facilities, and location unsurpassed, has just
organized a land and improvement company, with large capital, which has entered
into negotiations for the early inauguration of several large industrial
enterprises that will be under way by the close of the year. Oxford, four miles
below Anniston, with 1,200 inhabitants, and Cross Plains, twelve miles north of
Jacksonville, with 800 people, have situations in all respects as good as those
of Anniston and Jacksonville, and are built up in the midst of the richest
mineral deposits of this section. Alexandria, in the loveliest valley in the
county, is on the line of the Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad, and has a bright
future. There are other thriving villages, as White Plains, Germania, Oxanna,
Morrisville, Cane Creek, Choccolocco, etc.

    There is a State Normal School at Jacksonville, excellently conducted high
schools at Anniston, Oxford, Cross Plains, and Alexandria, and good public
schools and churches in every neighborhood. There are thirty-eight postoffices
in the county, about half of which have daily mails. No person in the county
lives more than five or six miles from a railroad. There is a good deal of
government land subject to homestead entry. Improved lands can be bought at from
$5 to $50 an acre, the cheaper lands being more or less broken, but well wooded
and watered and fertile.


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.
MINERAL BELT.

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