Perry County AlArchives History .....Perry 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 15, 2011, 12:14 pm XIII. PERRY COUNTY. Population: White, 7,500; colored, 22,591. Area, 700 square miles. Woodland, all. Gravelly hills, with long-leaf pine, 460 square miles. Prairie region, 325 square miles. Acres—In cotton, 75,303; in corn, 48,132; in oats, 6,003; in wheat, 440; in rye, 70; in rice, 27; in tobacco, 24; in sugar-cane, 20: in sweet potatoes, 1,107. Approximate-number of bales of cotton, 22,000. County Seat—Marion: population, 2,500; located 30 miles northwest of Selma, on Cincinnati, Selma, & Mobile branch of the Western Railroad. Newspapers published at County Seat—Standard, Normal Reporter, Howard Collegian and Judson Echoes. Postoffices in County—Augustin, Bush Creek, Chadwick, Cruess, Felix, Hamburgh, Ironville, Jericho, Le Vert, Marion, Morgan Springs, Museville, Oakmulgee, Perryville, Pine Tucky, Scott's Station, Sprott, Talmage, Theo, Uniontown, Vilula. Perry was created in 1819, and named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, of the United States Navy. The county lies between parallels 32 and 33 north latitude, and embraces most of the elevated lands between the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. Its maximum elevation is 470 feet, aud its minimum 190 feet above sea level. The face of the country is somewhat broken, though there are no great elevations. The extreme western portion of the country is drained by small streams emptying into the Tombigbee, while the country generally slopes off gently to the east, and its waters shed off into the Cahaba and its tributaries. The highest land is somewhat sandy; the chief growth is the long-leaf pine. Next comes the prairie, "a gently undulating trough-like plain lying between the drift hills on the north and similar ones on the south." The northern half of the county has an abundance of freestone water supplied by surface springs and wells: the prairie sections are supplied by pools and artesian wells. The climate is as mild and salubrious as can be found in the South. Our proximity to the Gulf gives us the benefit of its refreshing breezes. The summers are long, and the days are unfrequently very hot, but our nights are cool and pleasant. Sunstroke is very rare. Mean temperature for fourteen years: spring, 65.3: summer, 80.6; autumn, 65.5; winter, 50.4. No section on the globe can show a better health record than Perry County. The county occupies the high lands lying between the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, and it is almost above the miasma line. In the river bottoms there are more or less of chills and fever in the summer and fall. There is but little pneumonia, and consumption is rare among the whites. The State tax this year is levied on the basis of 5 1/2 mills, the county on 4 mills. There is a constitutional prohibition against any county levying a tax of more than 5 mills. County school funds for the year ending September 30, 1886, were $11,032. Numher of schools: white, 35; colored, 53; total, 88. Average number of teachers: white, 33: colored, 50; total, 83. Average number of pupils to teacher, 42. Average monthly pay of teachers, $30.90. School age, seven to twenty-one years. Average length of schools, eighty days. Marion and Uniontown enjoy very superior public schools. No section enjoys greater advantages than this county in the number and character of its higher educational institutions. Located at Marion are two institutions of learning that arc second to none in the South: Judson Female Institute, founded in 1839, denominational, Baptist; Marion Female Seminary, founded in 1836, non-sectarian. The prairie comprises about one-third of the county area, or about 170,000 acres. Sandy lands comprise the balance of the county area. There are no special features that are peculiar to these lands. Bottom lands lie along the branches, creeks and Cahaba River, and are a superior kind of soil. The prairie lands can be bought at from $10 to $15 per acre; the clay lands from $8 to $12 per acre: the sandy lands from $2 to $5, and the bottom lands from $8 to $12 per acre. TABULAR STATEMENT FOR PERRY COUNTY. Corn, average number of lbs. per acre 840 Collon, " " " " " " 414 Rye, " " " " " " 350 Wheat. " " " " " " 400 Oats. " " " " " " 450 Barley, " " " " " " 600 Potatoes, " " " " " " 4,500 Hay, " " " " " " 4,000 Average number of pounds per acre, 1,444. Total value of Perry County's products per acre about $25. Corn, rye, barley and oats do well in this county, and with the proper attention as much can be produced as anywhere else on the globe. Wheat usually suffers with rust. Forty years ago these lands produced, on an average, twenty bushels of wheat per acre. All grasses do well, but especially red clover, meliotus, Johnson grass, Japanese clover and Bermuda. Sorghum cane can be raised herein the greatest abundance, and if it will pay anywhere to raise it, it will pay nowhere better than here. Sugar-cane pays well on our mulatto lands. All kinds of vegetables grow here, and of most of them two crops can be made. Two crops of Irish potatoes, or Irish potatoes first and sweet potatoes next, on the same ground. The county is doing something in stock raising, and the success that has attended the little that has been done, promises to revolutionize the present surroundings. There are two railroads through the county; the Alabama Central and the Selma & Memphis: the Alabama Grand Trunk, leading from Mobile to Birmingham. is now under construction, and will be completed in about six months. This road will bisect the county from south to north, giving us direct communication with Mobile on the south, and Birmingham, Bessemer, Anniston, Decatur. Sheffield, etc., on the north. In addition to the above, the following roads have been chartered, and will run through the county: Chicago & Gulf Air Line: Baltimore, Birmingham & Gulf; Bessemer & Selma; Selma & Cahaba Valley, and a through trunk line to Pensacola. The Kansas City & Birmingham Railway will also be built through this county to the Gulf. Cahaba River, for all practical purposes, is past navigating. We have the very best society in this country, and this does not mean aristocracy in any sense. No section in the Union offers so many inducements to those who are seeking homes in the genial South than Perry County, Ala. With a climate mild and healthy, with the best of soil, and in great variety, with good prices for products and low prices for land and labor; with unsurpassed educational surroundings: with plenty of markets near at hand and good facilities to reach them; with great timber resources; with the best of society; with the greatest iron, limestone and coal beds in the world in the counties joining us on the north; with pure water, purer atmosphere, high and dry, we extend to the northern farmers a most cordial welcome to come and live amongst us, and reap the great harvest that is ready and waiting for the intelligent and progressive farmer. We say, and it is beyond the possibility of contradiction, that every acre of land in this county will yield enough in crop products to pay for itself in one year. If yon have the means to buy our land and sustain yourself for one year, you need have no misgivings on this score. The land will pay for itself in one year, acre for acre, that is cultivated. It will do it now, and if more could be asked of any land it is an unreasonable demand. Besides many smaller streams, there are the Cahaba River, and the Washington, Legreon, Blue Cat, Brush, Belcher's, Five Mile, Big and Bogue Chitta Creeks in Perry. A bounteous supply of water is furnished from the copious wells which are found in every portion of the county. The valuation of taxable property in Perry County, for the year 1887, is $2,977,890, as shown by the abstract of assesssment filed with the Auditor. 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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