Shelby County AlArchives History .....Helena 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 13, 2011, 12:37 am HELENA. HELENA is a mining and manufacturing town in Shelby County, situated on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company's main line from Louisville to New Orleans, and within five miles of the half-way point between the above two cities, also about a half-mile from the half-way point between Birmingham and Calera. The town is mostly in the valley that skirts the Cahaba coal fields along the full length of its eastern boundary, and is near the middle of township 20, S. range 3 west of the Huntsville Meridian. The population within a radius of one and one half miles from the railroad depot is about 1,700. Buck Creek, a rocky, swift-flowing stream passes almost in a direct line across the valley and through the town to the Cahaba River, joining the river about a mile north-west of the town. The town contains three churches built by the white people of the place, and the two churches (Methodist and Baptist) built by the colored inhabitants. The oldest church in the place is Harmony Church (Presbyterian), the Rev. J. C. Hale being pastor; by a special law of the State, all liquors are forbid being sold within five miles of this church. The Baptist denomination have a good substantial church on Main street, of which the Rev. H. C. Taul is pastor. The Methodists have a handsome new church about a block west of the Baptist Church, with the Rev. I. B. McKane as pastor. The above three churches have a fair attendance, are out of debt, and increasing in strength. The town has a good, large well-lighted frame school-house, owned by the towns-people, in which the rising generation are ably taught by Professor Moses Crittenden, assisted by Miss Fanny Hale; the atetndance is large, some of the pupils coming three or four miles to this school. The people of Helena are mostly engaged in coal mining and iron manufacturing. The Eureka Company, of Oxmoor, employ about 150 men in mining and coking coal for their furnaces at Oxmoor and outside markets. Said company are now enlarging their works here, building new coke ovens, and opening up new mines, contemplating a large output of coal and coke in the future. Mr. R. Fell, Sr., his son-in-law, the Hon. R. W. Cobb, and three sons, Charles, Richard and Albert Fell, forming the Central Iron Works Company, have a well-fitted up rolling-mill here for the manufacture of merchant bar iron and cut nails. The oldest member of the firm, Mr. R. Fell, Sr., has had over fifty years' experience in the manufacture of wrought iron. The Fell Brothers have an excellent water-power grist-mill and cotton-gin within a few yards of the railroad depot here. The Cahaba Company are contemplating the opening up of the Cahaba Mines. The company have almost entire control of the basin of the Cahaba seam, which can be worked from three different slopes. The altitude of Helena is 400 feet above sea level, and is located in what is generally known as Possum Valley, a valley remarkable for healthiness along its whole length of forty or fifty miles. Said valley is nearly solely drained by the heads of small tributaries of the Cahaba River, having no large streams in it except Buck Creek, at Helena, and the east prong of Cahaba River crossing it at right angles. The valley, consequently, is entirely free from malaria. Doctor Tucker, a practicing physician at Helena for the sixteen years just past, states that he has never known a single case of disease from malarious causes that originated at Helena. The gap in Conglomerate Ridge on the west side, and the gap in New Hope Mountain on the east side of the town, keep the air currents constantly moving from one gap to the other across the town. This is the secret of Helena's healthfulness. Helena is mostly located on the geological formation usually classified as "Quebec" or Knox shales and Knox sandstones and dolomites, but partly on the Cahaba coal measures, the two being divided by an immense upthrow or "fault" of the measures of over a mile in vertical displacement at the railroad culvert, 300 yards west of the railroad depot. The measures are all thrown up, to an angle of from twenty-eight degrees to vertical, thus giving a greater variety of spring waters than any other place along the lines of railroads, at least for a distance of twenty miles from Birmingham. There are seven springs, each affording entirely different water from the rest, within a radius of 500 yards from the railroad depot. One of them the "Alum Spring" has already become famous for its benefits in certain chronic diseases; quantities of it have been shipped to parties continuing its use after returning home. A railroad from Helena to Blocton is expected to be built shortly, and said road will be the best coal road in the State, giving Helena with its abundance of water, first-class manufacturing advantages. The scenery around Helena is remarkably picturesque; that on the west side, where the creek and railroad go through the gap in conglomerate ridge, closely resembling (on a small scale) the valley and surroundings of Mauch Chunk, Penn. The town has six stores doing a dry goods and grocery business, one drug store, two hotels, and several boarding houses. 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. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/shelby/history/other/helena379gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb