Henry County AlArchives History .....Henry County 1888
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 17, 2011, 12:38 pm

XI.
HENRY COUNTY.

  Population: White, 12,000; colored, 6,500. Area, 1,000 square miles. Woodland,
all. Oak, hickory and brown loam lands, 100 square miles; pine uplands and
undulating pine lands, also red lime-lands, 450 square miles.

  Acres—In cotton (approximately), 54,000; in corn, 48,665: in oats, 790: in
rye, 265; in wheat, 195; in tobacco, 24; in rice, 25; in sugar-cane, 670; in
sweet potatoes, 1,266.

  Approximate number of bales of cotton, 12,600.

  County Seat — Abbeville; population, 500; located 90 miles southeast of
Montgomery.

  Newspapers published at County Seat—Spirit of the Age, Times: at Columbia,
population 700, Enterprise, Democratic.

  Postoffices in the County—Abbeville, Baker, Balkum, Brackin, Columbia,
Cottonwood, Cowarts, Crosby, Cureton's Bridge, Dothen, Gordon, Grafton, Granger,
Haleburgh, Hardwicksburgh, Headland, Hilliardsville, Kinsey, Lawrenceville,
Otho, Pleasant Plains, Shorterville, Smithville, Wesley, Zornville.

  Henry County was created in the same year that Alabama became a State, 1819.
It derived its name from that of the great Virginia orator, Patrick Henry. It
lies in the extreme southeastern corner of the State, having on the east
Georgia, from which it is separated by the Chattahooche, and on the south, Florida.

  It was originally composed of the territory now constituting Henry, Dale, and
a large portion of Geneva and Coffee Counties.

  The county seat was then at "Old Richmond," a place now marked only by a
single church and a beautiful spring known as the "Wiggins Spring," twenty miles
due west from Columbia. After some of its western territory had been cut off,
the court-house was removed to Columbia — a town situated on a beautiful plateau
overlooking the Chattahooche River, a half-mile to the east, and the clear,
health-giving and rippling waters of the Omercee Creek a half-mile to the west,
and which was then the trading and shipping point for all the country one
hundred miles west. After the county of Dale had been cut off on the west, the
county was left in an oblong shape, being about twenty-two miles wide, while
from north to south along the line of the Chattahooche, measured a distance of
some sixty miles.

  In 1834, the court-house was removed to Abbeville, a point situated near the
center of the eastern and western boundaries, but within twelve miles of the
northern. This portion of the county is very much broken and cut up by the
streams of the Choctawhatchee River. Abbey Creek, and their tributaries.

  At the time of the removal of the court-house, this portion of the county was
very thickly settled. the lands being fresh and fertile, while the lower or
southeast portion was but sparsely settled except along the Chattahoochee River,
where there was a continuous line of large and rich farms.

  The Chattahoochee River on the eastern border of the county, furnishes to the
inhabitants an avenue for the cheapest transportation of all her products to all
portions of the world. Nine different railroads, though not all under different
management, now tap the river, requiring only a small local tariff to the boats,
to give them the advantage of either, besides the open outlet to the gulf
through the point at Appalachicola, which is at the mouth of the river.

  The people are solicitous of, and welcome, immigration.

  Rare bargains can yet be had by those seeking profitable investments in lands
and real estate. Some of the lands are yet public, and may be entered under the
homestead act at $1.25 per acre. Improved lands vary in valuation according to
improvements and location. The level pine lands, convenient to market, being
preferred and ranging from $2 to $15 per acre.

  An educational system prevails through the county, and is equally accessible
by all classes.

  Churches, mainly of Baptist and Methodist denominations, prevail throughout
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.
TIMBER BELT.


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