Dallas County AlArchives History .....Dallas County 1888
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 14, 2011, 11:41 am

V.
DALLAS COUNTY.

  Population: White, 8,425; colored, 40,008. Area. 980 square miles. Woodland
and Prairie, 830 square miles. Gravelly hills, with pine, 150 square miles.

  Acres — In cotton (approximately, 115,631; in corn, 46,542; in oats, 8,260; in
wheat, 71; in tobacco, 13; in sugar-cane, 18; in sweet potatoes, 2,256.

  Approximate number of bales of cotton, 40,000.

  County Seat—Selma; population, 10,500; situated on the Alabama river, 300
miles from its mouth: center of trade, in cotton, lumber, iron, and coal, at the
terminus of the Western Railroad of Alabama; Selma & Pensacola: also Selma &
Cincinnati. Selma & Mobile, and Selma & New Orleans Roads.

  Postoffices in the County—Belknap, Berlin, Brown's, Burnsville, Cahaba,
Central Mills, Crenshaw, Harrel,. Hazen, King's Landing, Marion Junction,
Martin's Station. Massillon, Minter, Morrowville, Orrville, Plantersville,
Pleasant Hill, Portland, Richmond, Selma, Shields' Mill, Soapstone, Summerfield,
Tasso, Terry, Tilden.

  Dallas County was organized in 1818, during Alabama's Territorial period, and
was named in honor of Hon. A. J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. Pate of taxation.
$1.05 on the $100. Bonded debt, for railroad purposes, $73,000. Floating debt
none. About 144 miles of raiload cross the county in all directions, giving
every portion ample shipping and market facilities.

  The surface of the country is gently undulating, and in no portion is found
barren soils. Along the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers the lands are famous for their
depth, strength and fertility, and the second bottoms, or terraces found after
the bottoms are passed are level and susceptible of a high state of cultivation.
In the northwestern part, pine lands prevail and lumbering is the principal
industry. This region is noted for its clear. swift-flowing streams,
healthfulness and excellent pine timber, but as the forests disappear it is
gradually being converted into an agricultural section, as cotton, corn,
potatoes, fruits and vegetables are found to do most excellently there. All of
the northern part is elevated and well adapted to general farming and
stock-raising. Upon the table lands the soils are red and gray, friable, easily
cultivated and very productive. Toward the center sandy lands are encountered,
interspersed with flowing streams. These sandy lands are very productive. and by
many preferred to either bottom or uplands. In the western portion are found the
famous cane-brake lands, which for productiveness and location are unexcelled,
while lower down on the western border are found variable soils, and a great
diversity of forest growth and field vegetation.

  Dallas produces more cotton than any other of Alabama's sixty-six counties,
and its farm products exceed in value those of any other county in the State.

  Land is worth from $2.50 to $40 per acre, and excellent farming land maybe
purchased from $10 to $15 per acre. Government land, none. Titles axe perfect,
and from the records kept at Selma, a perfect abstract title may be easily
obtained.

  The educational advantages of Dallas County are among its many attractive
features. There are over one hundred public schools in the rural district, white
or colored; the latter, while not enjoying educational privileges in common with
the former, being, nevertheless well provided for in this direction, and the
schools often taught by persons of their own race. Every neighborhood has its
school-house and is provided with efficient teachers. Churches are also
scattered plentifully throughout the county, and all the principal denominations
are represented. Thus it will be seen that the new comer finds all the
advantages of civilization, a well-ordered and regulated community, and as
intelligent and law abiding a citizenship as that of his Northern and Western
home. In the far West all these things must be acquired after many long years of
frontier pioneering, full of danger, hardships and privation. It may be true
that sectional feelings and strong prejudices against "Yankees" exist in the
South, but if such is the case, the writer, who has spent ten years in traveling
through every portion of that much-maligned division of this great republic, has
failed to discover it. There are "cranks" and fools and ignorant persons in
every part of the world, but no greater percentage of this class is found in the
South than in the North, or elsewhere in the world, for that matter. No one need
be deterred from going to Dallas County for fear of ostracism or unkindness on
account of political predilections; because politics are less thought of now
than money making, and every dollar of Northern capital invested in the South
(and millions are invested annually) is an unanswerable argument in favor of the
desirability, the advantages, resources and glorious future of that grand
section, and a lie direct, given to malignant falsifiers of facts, who for
political purposes would make it appear that neither Northern men nor northern
capital are safe in the South.

  Certain it is that great advantages will be found in Dallas County in the
shape of fertility of soils, cheapness of lands, abundance of timber, ease of
transportation, and the law-abiding disposition of the people. More productive
lands cannot be found in the State than in this county, which is the very heart
of the South's great cotton belt.

  The class of immigrants wanted for the agricultural districts of the State
(Alabama) is small farmers who understand our language and customs, men with
money enough to pay their fares, purchase their farms and live independent of
charity or assistance from the community in which they locate. And to this class
every good citizen says, Come and be welcome sharers in the great favors which a
bountiful nature has lavished upon our fair State. Compare advantages and
resources with those of your Northern or Western homes. We offer yon the most
fertile lands at prices that will enable you to pay for and improve them; we
offer you a climate the most delightful that the mind can conceive of, and water
as pure as the earth produces. We have ample and ever-increasing transportation
facilities to carry your products to every market in the world, and we offer you
good society, religious and educational advantages, a good, wise and economical
State, county and municipal government: in short, all the advantages of
civilization, and extend the right hand of fellowship, and welcome you most
heartily, provided your object is to live among us, and aid in the grand work of
developing our resources.


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.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/dallas/history/other/dallasco392gms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 7.3 Kb