V -^^ ^.^ '^^.* J" \ - 
 
 
 
 
 
 n O ^ <f>^ (0^ I I « 
 
 
■^, 
 
 
 o V 
 
J 
 
 •.•?!^SSSS5<-. 
 
 iSr.^SiiSSS^jSS&i:: 
 
 u 
 
 u 
 
BIRDS' EYE VIEW OF LEADING ROUTES TO TUSCALOOSA, ALA. 
 
THE 
 
 City of Tuskaloosa, 
 
 Its Many Advantages as a Manufacturing Point 
 
 AND as a Place of Residence, the Facts 
 
 THAT Make it the 
 
 PITTSBURGH of the SOUTH. 
 
 Including a Prospectus of the 
 
 Tuskaloosa Coal Iron & Land Company, 
 
 ORGANIZED JANUARY i^TH, 1887. 
 
 TUSKALOOSA, - - ALABAMA, 
 
 •:• 1887. •:• 
 
 Press of Keating & Co., Mercantile and General Printers, 
 130 ^Valnut street, Cincinnati. 
 

 S-5rCrcl&)^^^FATHN OOGA 
 
 G ULJP 
 
 KXPtANATIOA'S . 
 
 ^^^i^ CoAu Areas 
 •^"^^^ RE3 Iron One Ridges-. 
 <=''=> Bro«vv (RON Ore- Beds. 
 =— BROKEN LINES INCLOSE TOWNSHIPS WHEREIN ARE 
 SITUATED THE MINERAL LaNDS BELONGING TO THE 
 
 Tuscaloosa Coal. Iron and Land Co, 
 
 DiREcr River CoMMUNtcATian 
 
 BETWEEN THE NE-IGHSQRINQ MINERAL 
 
 Recioks and the gulf of MEXICO . 
 Scale 6 miles to one inth. 
 1SS7 
 
THE 
 
 CITY OF TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 T^== 
 
 I Uo Iv A LOOoA is situated upon a high, level and 
 
 I well-drained plateau at the head of navigation on the 
 
 I Warrior River. It has an abundant supply of the purest 
 
 * water, and the healthfulness of the locality is proverbial. 
 
 To the south stretches the broad alluvial bottoms of the Warrior 
 
 River, whose fertile acres yield the finest crops of corn, hay 
 
 and cotton, while to the north lies the great Warrior coal field, 
 
 which is now just on the eve of a mighty development. 
 
 In fact, the city itself, to use the strong language of Prof. 
 Henry McCalley, Assistant State Geologist of Alabama, in his 
 report upon the Warrior coal field, " Stands on the greatest thick- 
 ness of coal measures in the known world, and in thickness of 
 coal second only to that of West Virginia." 
 
 ITS PKESENT POPULATION, INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES AND 
 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Inside of the corporate limits of Tuskaloosa and its immediate 
 suburbs (including the town of Northport, which is imme- 
 diately across the Warrior River, and is connected with the city 
 by an iron bridge), is a population of at least six thousand souls. 
 A recent school census shows that this population is on a steady 
 increase, and even without any marked industrial awakening it 
 would continue to grow, on account of its fine agricultural sur- 
 roundings, large commercial territory, and superior educational 
 and social advantages It has two of the largest and best equipped 
 female colleges in the South: the "Alabama Central Female Col- 
 lege," and the " Tuskaloosa Female College." The University High 
 School for boys, in addition to its local patronage, draws a large 
 number of boarders from other points in the State, while as the 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 seat of the great University of Alabama, Tuskaloosa offers unri- 
 valled facilities to the young men of this and other States. And 
 the graded public schools of this city stand deservedly among the 
 first schools of the Nation. 
 
 But it is not alone as an educational centre that Tuskaloosa 
 stands already among the most prominent towns of Alabama ; 
 for it already has here and in the near vicinity, two large cotton 
 mills, a rope and yarn mill, and a cotton-seed oil mill in successful 
 operation; and its receipts of cotton range from twelve to seven- 
 teen thousand bales per annum ; and the erection of a compress 
 here (which is a matter of the near future), will largely increase 
 the amount of cotton handled. There are a number of other 
 industries now in successful operation in Tuskaloosa, such as 
 foundry, sash and blind factory, large brick and tile works, etc., etc. 
 The fact that Tuskaloosa was once the political capital of 
 Alabama — before the removal of the State government to Mont- 
 gomery, in 1846 — and that it has been since the earliest history of 
 the Commonwealth the educational centre of the State, has drawn 
 to its citizenship men of means and culture, and their taste is seen 
 in the many elegant homes that adorn the city. Many of the 
 most handsome residences are surrounded by spacious grounds 
 carefully laid out and ornamented with great variety of trees and 
 shrubbery. The streets are broad (avenues rather than streets), 
 and most of them shaded by triple rows of the magnificent w^ater- 
 oaks, which have given the place the name of the Druid City. 
 The principal streets are well graded, and the natural drainage of 
 the city is j^erfect. Tuskaloosa has two newspapers : the Ti7nes 
 and the Gazette ; and, in a word, the place has all the elements 
 of agreeable, healthful, cultivated living, with all the undeveloped 
 advantages and possibilities of a frontier-booming town — a con- 
 dition of affairs not often met with. Her healthfulness and beauty 
 of location and excellent agricultural surroundings, purest free- 
 stone spring and well water, perfect natural drainage into a 
 navigable river running through the corporation, combined with 
 immediate proximity to best quality cooking coal and fire clay 
 (underlying the city), iron ore (in five miles), lime-stone (less 
 than twelve miles), building-stone (less than five miles), and 
 virgin forests of long-leaf yellow pine, oak, poplar, ash, cyprus, 
 cedar, etc., etc., will challenge the world for a rival. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 ITS UATUEAL ADVANTAGES. 
 
 THE inestimable advantages of Tuskaloosa's location will be 
 better understood, perhaps, if we compare the geographical 
 features of the Alabama mineral region with those of another 
 great section of the country where mineral resources and manu- 
 facturing are the main interests. It may, in the first place, be 
 broadly stated, that in no section of the United States, or of the 
 world, does there exist a manufacturing city of the first class away 
 from a navigable stream. For the economical transportation of 
 articles of bulk and weight, such as the manufactured articles 
 of iron, mineral ore and coal, a waterway, either as an actual agent 
 of transport, or, as a controller of competition, has been proved 
 by long experience to be a necessity. This necessity has of late 
 been intensified by the passage of what is known as the " Inter- 
 State Commerce Bill," and, indeed, if this legislative enactment 
 is construed according to its apparent intent, it is diflficult to see 
 how Alabama iron can reach New York and the Eastern markets 
 with a heavy discrimination against it in freight, except by water, 
 or from points where railroad rates are conti'olled by water 
 competition. 
 
 Tuskaloosa is situated at the head of navigation of the only water 
 outlet to the Alabama mineral field, the Alabama not touching the 
 field at any point, and the Coosa being entirely closed, by obstruc- 
 tions and if we proceed to compare the Alabama mineral field with 
 its great counterpart, that of Pennsylvania, we will find that Tuska- 
 loosa is situated in regard to the former exactly as Pittsbui'g is to 
 the latter, each being at the head of navigation of the water outlet 
 of its respective section — and if, going further, we compare these 
 two waterways, we will find, strange as it may sound, that the 
 Warrior River even now is open to navigation more months in 
 the year than is the Ohio from Pittsburg to Cincinnati ; the period 
 during which the Warrior is open averaging seven months, while 
 the Ohio, counting the period of ice closure, which has no place 
 on the Warrior, is not open more than^T;^. 
 
 In illustration and proof of the above statement, the following 
 letter from the talented and experienced United States Engineer 
 now in charge of the river. Col. H. Harding, will be found of 
 much interest, containing, as it does, in compact and authoritative 
 shape the essential facts of the matter. Col. Harding says, in a 
 communication to the Mayor of Tuskaloosa, dated, 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 TusKALoosA, June 20th, 1886. 
 Hon. W. C. Jemison, Mayor ; 
 
 Dear Sir : — I take pleasure in complying with the request contained in 
 your note of May 15th, and regret that absence from home should have pre- 
 vented an earlier response. 
 
 In its present condition, the average boating season on the Warrior 
 extends from the middle of November to the middle of June, a period of seven 
 months. The past season (not yet closed, the river now being at 40 feet on 
 the gauge at this place), may be safely stated at 8)^ months. Occasionally, 
 as in 1877, we have ten months, and sometimes, on the other hand, not more 
 than six. But, for a fair average, we may take seven months as the duration 
 of the boating stage of not less than six feet, or four feet above low water. 
 Moreover, a boating stage of a week to ten day's duration, very generally 
 occurs from one to three times between June and November. 
 
 The width of the Warrior, below Tuskaloosa, is from 150 to 400 feet 
 between banks, but where bars occur, the full width is not available for navi- 
 gation at the lowest boating stage, the channel being confined to chutes of 100 
 to 125 feet in width at the water line, and not over 40 to 50 feet wide at the 
 6 feet depth. Hence for a full tow of three barges, (75 feet in width and 
 drawing 6 feet), the river is not at present navigable on a 4-foot stage above 
 low water ; an 8-foot stage would be required to give sufficient depth on the 
 bars or width in the chutes. 
 
 Perennial navigation below Tuskaloosa would require the adoption of 
 the slack-water system, for which the river is well adapted — the slope of the 
 low-water surface being but 4 inches to the mile, but few locks would be 
 required ; probably one to every 30 or 40 miles. 
 
 From Tuskaloosa to Demopolis, 140 miles, a tow on a good stage of water, 
 need not consist of less than 3 barges of the largest size, viz. : 130 x 24, 
 the capacity of the tow with 6 feet draft being 1,500 tons. Such a tow is 
 propelled on the Ohio, by a tug 90 x 20, which (writes a gentleman of large 
 experience in the business) '• handles three of the largest barges, landing them 
 in swift current at any time, and in storm, or in case of accident." 
 
 From Demopolis to Mobile, 250 miles, the Tombigbee has a width of 250 
 to 500 feet, and a tow of the size used on the Ohio would be practicable. 
 Probably these three tows irom the Warrior would be coupled together at 
 Demopolis, and taken to Mobile by a large-size tow-boat, the three small 
 boats returning up the Warrior with the empties brought up by the large 
 boat. 
 
 I have several times estimated from the best data obtainable the probable 
 cost of tonage from Tuskaloosa, and have never found it to be more than 35 
 cents per ton. The objection to such estimates is, that they lack verification 
 by experience. It is more satisfactory, therefore, to estimate by comparison 
 with similar cases elsewhere. Now the Pittsburg Board of Trade, in a me- 
 morial to Corgress, in 1S77, stated that coal was towed to Loviisville, 600 
 miles, at a cost of 25 cents per ton, and to New Orleans, 2000 miles, for 80 cents 
 per ton. The cost per mile is the same in each case, — 4. 10 of a mill per mile, — 
 and shows that the cost of transportation, other things being equal, varies as 
 to the distance. The capacity of the tows was stated at 4,000 tons. The gross 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 expense of running a small tow would not be quite as great as that of a large 
 one, owing to the smaller consumption of fuel, but assuming it to be the same, 
 we would have, as the cost of the Warrior tow (1,500 tons), 1.08 mills per ton 
 per mile, equal to 41 cents from Tuskaloosa to Mobile. But by coupling at 
 Demopolis, as suggested above, we would have a tow of 4.500 tons, for 240 
 miles, at 0.355 °f ^ mill, and the cost per ton would be 
 
 140 miles, at 1.08 mills 15 cents per ton. 
 
 240 " " 3-55 " 8>^" 
 
 Total 233^ " 
 
 If we should be obliged to limit ourselves to two barges, the cost would 
 even then (coupling at Demopolis as before) not exceed 35 cents per ton. 
 
 The present facilities aftbrded bj the Warrior, it seems to me, are not 
 fully appreciated or utilized as they might be. A river that gives seven 
 months of uninterrupted navigation, is a boon, that in manj' places would be 
 gladly accepted, and not treated with neglect because it did not give more. 
 
 The Erie Canal is open but eight months in the year, and many of the 
 Northern streams are closed by ice in the winter, yet these channels are 
 thronged with commerce while they can be used. 
 
 It may be interesting to compare the navigable season. of the Warrior 
 with that of the Ohio, and I accordingly give below a table of columns, of 
 which No. I shows from the records of 22 years, the average number of days 
 in each month during which the Ohio, at Pittsburg, had 6 feet and over in its 
 channel. 
 
 No. 2 shows the corresponding table for the Warrior, in 1885, and No. 3 
 the number of days, for the same year, during which a 10 feet depth existed. 
 
 I think the 3'ear 1885 gives a little better showing for the Warrior than a 
 just average ; but I use that year as it happens to be the only full record that 
 I have at hand : 
 
 No. I. No. 2. No. 3. 
 
 January iS 31 24 
 
 February 16 28 28 
 
 March 25 31 22 
 
 April 26 30 30 
 
 May 17 25 12 
 
 June 8 30 28 
 
 July 5 17 o 
 
 August 4 • o o 
 
 September 5 10 2 
 
 October 5 5 3 
 
 November 9 30 20 
 
 December 17 31 21 
 
 155 268 200 
 
 From the above it appears that, taking 1885 as a criterion, the Warrior 
 gives more days for towing, even in its present condition, than the Ohio, and 
 that with the contemplated improvements perfected, the towing season will 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 equal that of the Erie Canal. Of course, perennial navigation will add con- 
 siderably to the value of the Warrior, and it is not to be doubted that the 
 Government will provide for it when business demands, since the General 
 Goverment alone can undertake it. The work is as much outside the province 
 of private enterprise, or the State, as would be the building of a postoffice or 
 custom-house, and therefore when the commercial necessities of the com- 
 munity require it it will be the duty of the Government to afford the facilities 
 needed. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 H. HARDING, 
 
 (7. S. Rngineer i?i Charge. 
 
 Not only is this the case, but the Warrior, according to the 
 report of the United States Engineers, can be opened the entire 
 year., for the comparatively trifling sum of $400,000 (and this will, 
 beyond question, be done in the near future), while the Ohio, 
 after the expenditure of milHons upon it, has only attained the 
 maximum of five months stated above. Surveys are now being 
 made by the Government in order to formulate a plan for the 
 all-year-round opening of the lower Warrior (below Tuskaloosa), 
 and a large sum is available and will be expended this season on 
 the river above, with a view of opening up by water the heart of 
 the Warrior coal fields, through which it runs. 
 
 Not only is Tuskaloosa thus favored in having a water outlet, 
 but she is also favored in the geographical direction of it. Other 
 Southern towns have both mineral facilites and water trans- 
 portation ; Chattanooga, for instance ; and Sheffield and Florence ; 
 but there is one grand and cardinal distinction between the 
 Tennessee River and the Warrior. The Tennessee leads down 
 into the very focus and fiery-furnace of competition — down the 
 Ohio to meet products. Out of the Tennessee come the cheap 
 irons and coals of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia — down 
 the Missipppi, those of Missouri and lUinois. In other words, the 
 Tennessee leads to where iron and coal are both naturally at their 
 cheapest outside the South. 
 
 Heavy freights, however, down the Warrior, would go all 
 by water to the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where lie, as yet, 
 the great centers of consumption. In other words, away from 
 the centers of production, and, consequently, to where iron tends 
 to be dearest. And once the Isthmus is opened, as it certainly 
 will be soon, one way or the other, they would have the monopoly 
 of the Pacific coast, against heavy freights shipped say from 
 Pittsburg, across the entire continent by land. Moreover, when 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 the Isthmus is opened, the commerce of the world will be sucked, 
 so to speak, through the Gulf, and freights to the entire coast of the 
 United States would, by competition, be brought to a minimum, 
 and ballast freights even become common, and carriage from 
 Tuskaloosa to New York be brought lower on iron than from 
 Pittsburg, which would constitute a momentous revolution. We 
 turn now from the consideration of this great natural advantage of 
 water outlet which lacking, can by no human exertion be supplied, 
 to the subject of those great artificial highways, known as rail- 
 roads, and will proceed to show what are Tuskaloosa's present 
 and prospective advantages in this respect. By turning to the 
 map herewith attached, there will be seen at a glance the present 
 and future railroads running, and to run, into the place. The Ala- 
 bama Great Southern, the back-bone of the great Queen & 
 Crescent system, we already have. The Tuskaloosa Northern, 
 which will cut square through the heart of the great Warrior coal 
 field, developing the company's immense body of coal and tirriber- 
 lands at every step, and connecting tis with both the Kansas City 
 and Georgia Pacific roads, is being constructed as fast as it is in 
 the power of man to do it. The branch of the Louisville & 
 Nashville, known as the Mineral Road, has been for years extend- 
 ng itself towards Tuskaloosa, and is now lying at wait within 
 only twenty-five miles, with an exceptionally easy country between, 
 and will, beyond all question or doubt, come on as soon as our 
 various improvements are under way, and thus give us parallel 
 and competing lines to the railroad centre at Birmingham. The 
 road to Macon, Miss., will be built before a great while, and will 
 connect us with the great Mobile and Ohio stem, and as a road is 
 to be built from there to Jackson, Miss., will also connect us with 
 the Illinois Central at that place, and with the Mississippi River 
 at Natchez. These are all connections that can, we think, with 
 certainty be counted on as soon to be made. 
 
 Besides this, the Tuskaloosa Northern, or a connection there- 
 with, will ultimately go on and connect us with the Tennessee at 
 Florence and Sheffield, and a road going south will connect us by 
 an air line with Mobile. 
 
 So much for our present and future means of ingress and 
 egress for articles of manufacture and commerce. We will now, 
 as succinctly as possible, consider Tuskaloosa's facilities for the 
 production of the one, and the disposal of the other ; for the 
 advantages of the place are as great for the establishment of a 
 
LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE, ON WARRIOR COAL LANDS, NEAR TUSKALOOSA. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 commercial and jobbing center, as for the building up of a great 
 manufacturing city. 
 
 As to the manufacture of iron, it will give point and meaning 
 to what we wish to say, especially to a Northern ear, to state 
 broadly, that at Tuskaloosa we have all the raw materials, coal, ore 
 and lime-stone as cheap, as accessible and as abundant as at Birm- 
 ingham. . The details and figures showing this fact will be found 
 in the special article on the manufacture of iron and coke at Tuska- 
 loosa. See page I3. 
 
 For the manufacture of all articles made from wood our 
 resources and advantages are equally great. On the line of the 
 Tuskaloosa Northern Railroad is an immense body of the finest 
 virgin long-leaf yellow pine, within eight miles of town ; the 
 largest body of untouched timber so near a centre of consumption, 
 perhaps, in the State. On the same body of lands are great 
 quantities of hard woods : ash, oak, cedar, gum, beech, etc., 
 •suitable to the manufacture of almost everything made from wood ; 
 as agricultural implements, furniture, handles, staves, wooden- 
 ware, etc., etc. 
 
 Tuskaloosa's advantages for the manufacture of cotton, con- 
 sidering her proximity to both the cotton and the coal fields which 
 intersect exactly at this point, and the consequent fact that both 
 material and fuel will be at a minimum here, need only to be 
 stated to be recognized. 
 
 The facts connected with these various branches of industry 
 .are further elaborated in the special article on each, which follow 
 the general sketch of the advantages of Tuskaloosa. We turn 
 now to the commercial capabilities of the place. 
 
 South of it stretches what is known as the Great Black Belt 
 of Alabama, one of the finest countries of the world. A great 
 prairie, with soil of bottomless depth and inexhaustible fertility, 
 where cotton is the grand staple, and all other supplies are pur- 
 chased with the proceeds of this one crop. In other words, it is 
 a never-satiated market, for grain, meat, provisions and supplies 
 of all kinds, as well as for agricultural implements, plows, culti- 
 vators, reapers, mowers, wagons, furnitui"e, gin machinery ; in a 
 -word, all sorts of manufactured articles of both wood and iron, 
 nine-tenths of which now come from north of the Ohio River, but 
 -which should and will be manufactured here, from cheaper 
 material, and with the additional profit of the entire freight from 
 Northern points to this place. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 All that we have said in i-egard to the Alabama cotton belt 
 applies with equal force to the region of the Mississippi lying 
 west of us, and with which we will be connected by the Macon 
 Road. 
 
 Now over the Kansas City and over the A. G. S. R. R. will 
 come to us the cheap grain, meat and supplies of Kansas, Missouri, 
 Ohio and Illinois, to supply the demands of this great agricultural 
 region. Our river opens it up to us from end to end, and a road 
 to Mobile will pass directly through it. Under the present system 
 of Southern agriculture, the point furnishing the supplies to make 
 the cotton, controls the sale and secures the handling of it, and 
 the volume of trade thus centered here necessarily must be 
 immense. 
 
 Possessing then such a combination of advantages, we cannot 
 but feel that the future of the place is assured, and that the Tuska- 
 loosa of the future will in no great space of time, be one great 
 pulsing heart of manufacture and commerce, into which will pour 
 the breadstufts of the West and the cotton of the South, for 
 grateful interchange, and out from which will stream down the 
 Warrior the accumulated wealth of untold ages in the shape of all 
 manufactured articles of iron, wood and cotton, and piled up 
 barges of coal in unending flow to the ocean outlet at Mobile, to 
 be taken on all the winds and tides to all ports on the American 
 coast, while in ceaseless, shuttle-like play, back and forth over her 
 radiating roads, her never-resting trains will distribute her natural 
 and manufactured products to all points of the interior of our 
 great continent. This may sound like extravagance, but we are 
 convinced that it lacks only time to be fact instead of prophecy. 
 Tuskaloosa and Mobile are destined by nature to be the two 
 largest cities of Alabama. 
 
 In the following pages we add to the foregoing general state- 
 ment of the surroundings of the place a separte and succinct 
 summary of the various advantages which would be enjoyed by 
 particular lines of industry located here. This arrangement will 
 of course involve some repetition, but will, we think, from a 
 business point of view, be found satisfactory. 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF TUSKALOOSA AS A POINT TOR THE MANU- 
 FACTURE OF IRON AND OOKE. 
 
 THE advantages of the place in this respect can be very suc- 
 cinctly and convincingly stated. Tukaloosa has all the raw 
 materials for iron making as cheap and accessible as any place in 
 
TUSKALOOSA. I3 
 
 the State. The Red Mountain ores of Bii-mingham extend down 
 the A. G. S. R. R., unbroken to within 17 miles of Tuskaloosa. 
 
 There is ah'eady developed on the lands of the Tuskaloosa 
 Coal, Iron and Land Company, immediately on the line of 
 the A. G. S. R. R., a vein of fine, soft Red Ore, 16 feet 
 thick, which on a strictly business analysis of the entire face 
 of the vein shows 47 per cent, of metallic Iron and only 
 136 of phosphorus. In the immediate vicinity of this opening is a 
 very large deposit of fine limestone, assaying 95 per cent, pure 
 Carbonate of Lime. Within 5 miles of town are large deposits 
 of fine Brown Ore. On the L. & N. Mineral R. R., which will 
 unquestionably come into Tuskaloosa in a short time, the iron ore 
 comes down unbroken from Birmingham to below Woodstock, 
 or within about 30 miles, in inexhaustible profusion, both red and 
 brown. 
 
 As to coke, the situation is, if possible, even more favorable. 
 According to the opinion of the best posted geologists, the famous 
 Pratt vein, which is Birmingham's coke source, actually underlies 
 the town. The general character of the coal of the countv is set 
 forth in the following extracts from the last report of the State 
 Geologist : 
 
 The Coal Measures of this county are believed to be thicker than in any 
 other part of the Warrior field, or in any other field of the known world. 
 * * * There are in these measures some fifty-three seams of 
 
 coal, which vary in thickness from about two inches to fourteen feet, and which 
 have an aggregate thickness of about 125 feet of pure coal. Of these fifty- 
 three coal seams, twenty-five are of Avorkable thickness, or contain eighteen 
 inches and over of pure coal. Of these twenty-five seams, fourteen have two 
 feet six inches and over of coal ; of these fourteen seams, nine have over four 
 feet of coal ; and of these nine seams, three have more than six feet in thick- 
 ness of coal. * * * Among these coals are to be found, 
 seemingly, almost every variety of bituminous coal ; some of them are bright 
 and hard, and are well adapted to handling and stocking, while others are of 
 a duller color and are of a friable and crumbly nature ; some of them seem 
 to be especially fitted for coking and blacksmithing purposes, while others 
 might be called steam or heating coals, and others still gas coals. * * * 
 Much of this coal, however, stands weathering finely, for frequently around 
 the old pits there are piles of lumpy coal that have been lying out in the weather 
 for from thirty to forty years. * -■■ * The Warrior coal field has 
 inexhaustible quarries of the best of building and paving stones, and the 
 greatest quantitj' of as fine timber as can be found anywhere. — State Geo- 
 logical Report, 1886, Tuskaloosa Couyity. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company owns lands 
 all over the section referred to, and has already tested a thick 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 15 
 
 vein only eight miles from Tuskaloosa with fine results, produc- 
 ing a coke equal to any in the State. It also owns larg-e bodies 
 of land in the famous Big and Little Basin region, which will 
 furnish to Bessemer its coke, and whose coal has been fully 
 tested by the Bessemer Company. 
 
 In fact so abundant are coking coals in the region that, con- 
 sidering the advantages which Tuskaloosa will possess for ship- 
 ment, both by rail and by water, and the facilities which it will 
 thus possess for supplying both the furnace demand of the north 
 Alabama mineral district and the foundry, domestic, and general 
 coke trade of Mobile, New Orleans, Texas — and, when the Isth- 
 mus is opened, of the entire Pacific coast for general, and especi- 
 ally for smelting use in the silver and gold money industries tribu- 
 tary to that coast — it seems evident that here is the proper point 
 for the location of a Southern Connellsville, for which the time is 
 evidently ripe. 
 
 This question of a center of Southern coke supply is becom- 
 ing a very important and stringent one. The furnace development 
 of the section is so far in advance of the coke supply that there is 
 already a very serious scarcity which will soon become a famine. 
 The connection which has hitherto existed in Alabama between 
 iron making and coke making is a local and really an unnatural one. 
 Coke making should be made a business of itself, and there does 
 not exist a finer opportunity for the development of an immense 
 industry than is ofTered in Tuskaloosa in the manufacture of coke. 
 
 All the materials for the manufacture of iron are thus to be 
 had at Tuslialoosa as cheap and accessible as at Birmingham or 
 any point in the State. In net addition to this it has the finest 
 natural drainage, abundance of free water, (this costs one of the 
 Birmingham furnaces $20 per day) and, most important of all, a 
 water outlet for heavy freights. 
 
 Nowhere in the world does there exist a first-class manufac- 
 turing city away from a navigable river. Universal experience 
 has shown that as an actual avenue of transport, or as a controller 
 of competition, a water outlet is necessary to a manufacturing 
 point shipping heavy freights. Tuskaloosa has a river which is 
 now open seven or eight months in the year, or a longer 
 time than the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, which river 
 is under survey by the Government to be opened all year. This 
 power affords all water transportation to the entire Atlantic and 
 Gulf coast of the United States, and as soon as the Isthmus is 
 
RIVER ]}ANK WARRIOR COAI. FIELDS, TUSKALOOSA, ALA. FOOT SEAM. 
 
TUSKAI.OOSA. 17 
 
 Opened, to the Pacific coast Iron can be carried to Mobile all 
 down stream for 25 cents per ton. It can be carried to New 
 York or Boston for $2 from Mobile, in all say $2.25. It costs now 
 overland to these pomts perhaps four times this amount. In 
 addition, when the Isthmus opens, the shipping of the world 
 will pass through the Gulf and ballast freights to all points will 
 become common. 
 
 In a word, Tuskaloosa, with all other advantages enjoyed by 
 any other place in the State, and the addition of this water 
 way, which renders her independent of all Inter-State Commerce 
 Bills and railroad pooling, is certainly superior to them in natural 
 advantages for the manufacture of iron, coke, and the mining of 
 coal. 
 
 AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFAOTUEE OF OOTTON GOODS. 
 
 TUSKALOOSA'S advantages for this branch of manufacture 
 can be very clearly and convincingly stated. The cotton, 
 in the first place, is at her very door. She is on the head waters 
 of the Black Warrior River, and the Warrior River bottom is one 
 of the finest cotton producing sections in the South. Coal will 
 be cheaper heie, perhaps, than at any other point in the South. 
 The reasons why this will be so, are shown in the extracts from 
 the report of the State Geologist. Labor is also cheap, and thus, 
 all factors entering into the cost of production are, at Tuskaloosa, 
 at a minimum 
 
 The A. G. S. Railroad, by its extensive Texas connections, 
 gives fine entry into that immense market, and also runs through 
 north to Cincinnati and also south to New Orleans. 
 
 The river is a competing avenue to the same region, and will 
 ofTer a route to the Pacific coast, and to the great China market, 
 when the Isthmus is opened, which would guarantee cheaper 
 freights on cotton goods shipped all-water from Tuskaloosa to 
 these points than could possibly be obtained by the same goods 
 shipped by land across the entire width of the continent from 
 New England or other interior points. 
 
 In addition, the extension of the branch of the L. & N. Rail- 
 road, known as the " Mineral Road," to Tuskaloosa, is only a mat- 
 ter of a short time, and a road (The Tuskaloosa Northern), which 
 runs north through the lands of the Company to the Georgia Pa- 
 cific and Kansas City roads, is now under construction. A road has 
 been surveyed from Tuskaloosa west to Macon, Mississippi, which 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 will connect us both with the finest cotton fields of Mississippi 
 and with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and by a road which will 
 be built from Macon to Jackson, Miss., with the Mississippi River 
 at Natchez, making thus an outlet for cotton goods in all direc- 
 tions. 
 
 Tuskaloosa has the evidence of her adaptation to the cotton 
 cloth manufacturing, in two flourishing cotton mills, long since 
 established and in successful operation ; one on the river bank at 
 Tuskaloosa and one a short distance up the A. G. S. Railroad, at 
 Cottondale. Both these mills have run continuously through the 
 dullest times, and are of the most money-making establishments 
 in the country. 
 
 AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFAOTTJEE OF BEIGK. 
 
 THE Clays all around the place are most especially adapted to 
 brick-making. The public buildings, of which there are so 
 many about the place, have been built of brick made at Tuska- 
 loosa. 
 
 A large brick-making establishment recently established 
 here (The Tuskaloosa Brick and Tile Company), are making a 
 beautiful pressed brick which they are shipping in large quantities 
 to Bessemer, Birmingham and other points on the A. G S. R. R. 
 So fine is the clay that this company is making arrangements to 
 manufacture an oiled pressed brick for fine facing work. In ad- 
 dition to this fine material for common brick, immediately adja- 
 cent to the town, and on the railroad, are large deposits of a 
 superior quality of fire-clay, finely adapted to the manufacture of 
 coke-oven brick, drain tile, sewer-pipe and jug ware. It has been 
 already largely used for the last-named purpose. The common 
 brick material overlays, in many localities, the fire-clay, so that 
 both materials w^ould be upon the same ground, and no labor 
 lost in handling either. These facts, in view of the enormously in- 
 creasing demand for coke in the State, which will necessitate the 
 immediate erection of thousands of coke ovens, are of great im- 
 portance. The demand for brick of all sorts is already very great, 
 and far in excess of the supply, and profits calculated on the cost 
 of making brick at Tuskaloosa are very large. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company has, immedi- 
 ately upon the railroad, large bodies of this clay land, and is 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 prepared to make favorable arrangements with parties meaning 
 business in this connection. 
 
 There is every reason why Tuskaloosa should become an 
 immense Brick and Tile center. 
 
 AS A POINT rOE THE MANUFAOTUEE OF AGEIOULTUEAL IM- 
 PLEMENTS, WAGONS, AND FAEM APPLI- 
 ANCES GENEEALLY. 
 
 T^USKALOOSA is situated on the nothern edge of the great 
 " Black Belt,' one of the greatest cotton and corn-producing 
 regions in the South, and lies at the head of navigation on the 
 Warrior river, which flows into the Tombigbee, and in con- 
 nection with this last river, bisects and opens up to her this 
 entire region. She will shortly be connected by a road running 
 from Tuskaloosa to Macon, Miss., on the Mobile and Ohio, with 
 a similar region in Mississippi. Both these sections of country 
 are almost exclusively agricultural, and both are finely adapted, 
 (being level prairie and devoid of rocks) to the use of labor-saving 
 machinery; and as a matter of fact, are using to an increasing 
 extent every year, buggy-plows, cultivators, reapers, mowers, 
 corn and cotton-planters, besides, of course, an immense amount 
 of the ordinary' plows and farm utensils. All or nearly all of these 
 things come as yet from north of the Ohio river, being made of 
 higher- priced iron than the South affords, and coming to the 
 maiket loaded with a heavy freight rate. At Tuskaloosa iron and 
 coal will be at their cheapest, and on the lands of the company 
 north of town, which will be opened up by the Tuskaloosa North- 
 ern Railroad, are the greatest profusion of white ash, hickory, 
 white oak, red oak, and all hard woods necessary in the manu- 
 facture of the implements and machines mentioned. The saving 
 in freight would be a net addition of profit over the Northern- 
 made article. 
 
 In addition to the extensive territory immediately accessible 
 from the city, the wide-spreading Texas connections of the 
 A. G. S. R. R., bring that immense and ever-growing market in 
 easy reach. The Warrior River, by way of Mobile, affords 
 another and competing route to this territory. When the Isthmus 
 is opened, as it doubtless will be by one or other of the plans 
 contemplated, all heavy machinery should go by this all-water 
 route to the Pacific coast at a cheaper freight, than by any other 
 possible way. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 2l 
 
 This outlet to water to Mobile, coupled with the cheapness of 
 the material, makes Tuskaloosa an especially fine point for the 
 manufacture of farming machinery for shipment not only to all 
 points in the United States, but to South America, and with the 
 Isthmus opened to China, Japan, and the East in general, as well 
 as to its large immediately surrounding territory. 
 
 Manufacturers already having a trade in this section, would 
 certainly find it greatly to their advantage to establish branch 
 factories here, where material of all kinds is cheaper than at home, 
 and where the freight saved would be an additional profit, and 
 where they would, by such a step, forestall certain future local 
 competition. We commend these points especially to considera- 
 tion. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
 pared to oflfer every reasonable encouragement and assistance to 
 parties wishing to enter on the manufacture of such articles as are 
 mentioned in this circular, and solicits correspondence, and will 
 welcome visits of inspection from such parties. 
 
 AS A POINT FOE THE MANUFACTURE OF FURNITURE, 
 WOODENWARE, ETC. 
 
 ABOVE Tuskaloosa, on the lands of the Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron 
 Z' and Land Company, on the line of the Tuskaloosa Northern 
 Railroad, are large bodies of fine red cedar, poplar, long-leaf yellow 
 pine, white ash, black-gum, curl pine, beech, hickory, white and 
 other oaks and other woods adapted to the above uses. The value of 
 the red cedar for buckets, churns and all sorts of wooden -ware, is 
 a matter of course and needs no comment; so with the poplar 
 and ash and oak. The three last are finely adapted to furni- 
 ture-making. The curl pine makes a graining unsurpassed, far 
 superior to the oak. The black-gum makes a fine imitation walnut, 
 and is to be had in great quantities. The poplar is also in large 
 quantities and very fine, as is also the white oak and ash. The 
 nearest furniture factory of any size is, we believe, at Chattanooga, 
 and the nearest wooden-ware manufacturing establishment at 
 Nashville. Thus the supply of material is abundant and very 
 cheap, and the trade territory very large. The freight saved 
 would be a handsome additional profit over more distant manu- 
 factories. 
 
 We only ask an investigation of our claims from parties look- 
 
22 TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 ing to the establishment of such enterprises in the South. We 
 would also like to direct the attention of those in these lines of 
 manufacture now contemplating a change of situation, to the 
 great opening offered by the large territory sun'ounding Tuska- 
 loosa which di'aws its supplies from a distance at a heavy cost for 
 freight, and at the same time, to this abundance of cheap material 
 lying ready to be worked to supply their wants at home. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
 pared to offer every reasonable encouragement and assistance ta 
 parties wishing to enter on the manufacture of such articles as are 
 mentioned in this circular, and solicits correspondence, and will 
 welcome visits of inspection from such parties. 
 
 TAEMINa ADVANTAGES OP THE OOUNTRY ABOUND 
 TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 "TTHE farming lands around Tuskaloosa are divided into three 
 ^^ oreneral classes, ist, the bottom lands along: the Warrior 
 River, which are among the richest in the State, producing from 
 forty to sixty bushels of corn, and from a half to a bale of cotton^ 
 and two to four tons of hay, cut three times per season. These 
 lands are subject to malaria, but are handled as follows : At some 
 distance back from the river, a second tier of lands comes in, 
 locally called the second bottom. These, though quite fertile, are 
 higher, of thinner soil than the other, and quite healthy. Upon 
 this tier the resident owner lives in health and goes down into the 
 bottom only during the day to work, returning at night to sleep 
 on the dry and salubrious uplands. 
 
 The second tier, though not so luxuriantly fertile as the lower 
 one, is excellent land and is of great extent and suitable for all 
 sorts of grain; corn, oats, wheat, etc., as well as cotton. Back of 
 this comes the true upland table-land, upon which the city of 
 Tuskaloosa is situated. This is healthful, well watered, just roll- 
 ing enough for good drainage, and although the soil is thinner 
 than that of the other two regions, this portion of the country is 
 finely adapted for all sorts of truck farming and fruit growing. 
 It responds generously to manuixs, which is retained on account 
 of its level character and good clay foundation, and grows grapes, 
 peaches, melons, and berries to perfection, and brings them forward 
 early. It also makes, with manures, fine cotton and corn. Here,, 
 then, are all varieties of soil. The strong black river bottom for 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 heavy crops of corn, cotton and hay. The medium soil of the 
 second bottom, almost as productive as the othei and atiording 
 healthful residence, and the thinner sandy loam for market, gar- 
 den aSiid early fruits. With all this is a climate where an inch of 
 ice is a great rarity, and stock can go unhoused the winter long; 
 and where the farming season begins in February and does not 
 end until November, and as many as three crops, properly 
 selected, c;in be raised in a single year. 
 
 The region is finely adapted to stock raising It was formerly 
 deficient in natural grasses, but a singular circumstance has oc- 
 curred which has entirely changed the situation in this respect. 
 A variety of the clover family, known as Lespedeza, or Japanese 
 clover a hardy perennial, has, since the war, silently and almost 
 unperceived, overspread the entire region. Whence it came no 
 one knows, but its beneficent presence is now everywhere making 
 the vast " range " of the country capable of supporting great 
 quantities of cattle almost the entire season. 
 
 In the midst of this region a vast manufacturing development 
 is just now beginning, which will afford a never-satiated market, 
 in its hosts of consuming artisans and laborers, for the products of 
 all thfese coming farms, truck gardens, orchards and vineyards, 
 while the railroad connections, brought about by this develop- , 
 ment, will bear off to the early Northern markets, any surplus of 
 production which may occur. 
 
 Let all who wish to make their living by farming, where they 
 can economize in clothing, in fuel, in cattle feed, and live in health 
 and comfort the year round, away from blizzards, and snow, and all 
 winter discomforts, investigate for themselves, the claims of the 
 country around Tuskaloosa, the coming Pittsburg of the South, 
 
 These lands are adapted to raising corn, oats,wheat, rye, barley, 
 rice, in fact, all sorts of grain crops and cotton of course. Also, all 
 sort of root crops, turnips, potatoes, beets, carrots, etc. Peas, 
 hay, natural and seeded grasses, such as Hungarian, Bermuda, 
 Johnson, Millet, Clover, and Crabb grass, which is a natural 
 grass, and also two other valuable natural grasses, which are 
 known by local names. 
 
 Also grapes, peaches, apples, pears, quinces, apricots, straw- 
 berries, raspberries, blackberries in profusion, without cultivation, 
 also dewberries and huckleberries; in a word, almost all sorts of 
 small fruits, and melons. Almost everything grown in the temper- 
 ate and south temperate zones does well around Tuskaloosa. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 2^ 
 
 QUANTITIES PRODUCED. 
 
 River bottom lands will produce, on an average, 35 bushels of 
 corn to the acre. Some bottom lands vfill make as much as 80 
 bushels, same lands f to 3 bales cotton; 20 to 35 bushels oats; 15 
 to 25 bushels rye; 3 to 3 tons natural grasses, (hay); 2 to 5 tons 
 seeded grasses (hay). 
 
 Upland lands, of course, produce less, unless manured, but 
 when this is done, and the land properly treated, will produce as 
 much as the other. 
 
 PRICES OF I.AND 
 
 at present, range as follows: Good river lands from 3 to 5 miles 
 from town, from $5 to $20. Good upland lands from $3 to $15. 
 Large bodies of good farming land at a distance of over 5 miles 
 and less than 20 miles could be procured, for from $3 to $10. 
 Rights to agricultural use of lands in the Warrior coal fields, finely 
 adapted to fruit culture, could be gotten for nominal prices. 
 
 It may be asked, if the above statements are correct, why so 
 little, grain, hay, etc., comparatively, is raised in this section? For 
 this reason, we will proceed to state to the best of our judgment, it is 
 that the adaptability of the country to the raising of these crops is 
 only beginning to be appreciated, and, consequently, the mer- 
 cantile system of the country has not adapted itself to the changed 
 condition. The merchants of the South, as a rule, have been ac- 
 customed to handle cotton alone, and, consequentl}^ their capital 
 all being employed in this way, their attention and knowledge 
 being entirely directed to this quarter, they devoted no part of 
 their energies to the handling of these articles, consequently, the 
 active farmer who is, as a rule, compelled to depend upon ad- 
 vances from the merchants to carry on his business, can not obtain 
 this advance upon his corn and hay crops, and can not depend 
 with any certainty upon realizing upon them. The production is 
 limited by the extent of the home market. This, however, is an 
 entirely unnatural and necessarily temporary state of affairs, as 
 will be seen by the following statement of facts : 
 
 Certain kinds of hay grown in this section will produce three 
 crops a season and at least three tons per acre. This hay is 
 perennial: Once a stand is had, it needs no further attention ex- 
 cept an occasional bi'eaking up. The cost of cutting and baling 
 will not exceed $3 per ton. This hay is worth now in New 
 Orleans and Mobile markets $16 per ton. Corn on the average 
 
26 TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 land of this section, handled intelligently, will not cost over 
 twenty-five cents per bushel to raise and deliver at Tuskaloosa for 
 adjoining territory. This corn in the home mai'ket sells at sixty- 
 five cents the year round, worth now in Mobile and New Orleans 
 fifty -five cents. 
 
 This state of aftairs opens up to the enterprising farmer, used 
 to raising grain and hay, and to the factor or merchant who will 
 turn his attention to handling it, a splendid opportunity. When. 
 this is done it is only a question of a short time until the raising of 
 these crops, and of poultry, bacon, etc., to which the same chain 
 of reasoning applies, will be more profitable than cotton, and 
 Tuskaloosa and similar regions in the South will be the producing 
 and shipping points for the bulk of the feed supplies required by 
 the manufacturing district so rapidly developing, besides shipping 
 a great deal to foreign ports. All that we ask in this connection 
 is investigation. 
 
 AS A STOOK-EAISING, DAIEY-PARMING AND MEAT-OUEINa 
 
 POINT. 
 
 IN opening this article we would first refer the reader to the 
 article in this pamphlet of the farming advantages of the country 
 surrounding Tuskaloosa. He will find, on reading this, that large 
 tracts of the country immediately adjacent to the town and 
 immense bodies tributary thereto, are as finely adapted to raising 
 corn, hay and forage of various sorts, as the prairie lands of lUinios 
 or Kansas; that its open range is fine natural pasturage and mast, 
 and that the winters are so mild and open that ordinary stock 
 needs no housing and almost no attention during the winter. 
 
 These conditions for the economical raising of all kinds of 
 stock — cattle, sheep, mules, horses, and hogs — exist at the inter- 
 section of two large sections of country which for different reasons, 
 buy from abroad the bulk of their meat and daily supplies. North 
 and northeast lies the rapidly developing mineral and manufactur- 
 ino- section of the State known so well to all the world. This, as 
 a manufacturing district, and as being in addition a barren and 
 unproductive district agriculturally, is a great and constantly-in- 
 creasing market for meats and dairy products, draught stock and 
 cattle which it now imports from the North and West. To the 
 south is the famous " Black Belt," the great cotton raising section 
 of the State, while to the west is a similar region in Mississippi. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. " 2^ 
 
 These, on account of their exclusive devotion to cotton raising, also 
 import their meats and live stock. There is no reason why the 
 mules, horses and cattle imported into these sections from Ten- 
 nessee and Kentucky should not be raised around Tuskaloosa and 
 sold at the same profit which the stock raisers of those States 
 realize, with the diflference of freight added, nor why the pork 
 they use should not be raised on the corn of the Warrior river bot- 
 toms, and packed and cured in a Tuskaloosa packing house, with 
 the same additional profit. 
 
 In addition there is growing up a large export trade in live 
 hogs to Mexico and South America from the port "of New Orleans 
 with which we are in direct connection, by the A. G. S. R. R., in 
 which we should share. 
 
 With as cheap feed as other points, and the additional advan- 
 tage of mild winters, this locality should be a large exporter of 
 meats, live stock and dairy products. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron and Land Company stands pre- 
 pared to off'er every reasonable encouragement and assistance to 
 parties wishing to embark in any of the industries mentioned 
 above, and sohcits correspondence and will welcome visits of m- 
 spection from such parties. 
 
 AS A JOBBING AND EETAIL MERCANTILE CENTER. 
 
 THE trade of Tuskaloosa, in view of the coming development of 
 the place, may be divided into four classes: ist, the jobbing 
 trade; 2d, the retail trade with the farming class; 3d, the retail 
 trade with the manufacturing class; 4th, the export trade. We 
 will treat them in the order named. 
 
 The place lies at the head of navigation of a stream which, in 
 connection with the main stream into which it flows (the Tom- 
 bigbee river), cuts clear through the famous Black Belt, the great 
 agricultural region of the State, and one of the finest cotton-pro- 
 ducing sections of the South; and a railroad has already been 
 surveyed and will soon be built, from Tuskaloosa to Macon, Miss., 
 connecting this city with a similar region in that State. The 
 jobbing territory of the town at the present time extends, also, 
 twenty-five miles up the A. G. S. R. R., in the direction of 
 Birmingham, and a considerably further distance in the direction 
 of Meridian. Throughout the cotton belt are small towns and 
 country cross-road stores, and as it is the peculiarity of this section 
 
28 
 
 TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 to buy the bulk of their suppHes of all kinds, the trade of this 
 region is very large in proportion to its resources and population. 
 
 To supply this demand the railroad connections of the city, 
 present and future, are most aptly adapted. The Queen and 
 Crescent line, which we already have, connects us directly 
 with the great meat and grain producing sections of Ohio and 
 Illinois. The Tuskaloosa Northern, cutting the Kansas City route, 
 will bring to us the even cheaper bread-stuffs and meats of Kansas, 
 Missouri, and the great trans-Mississippi food-producing States. 
 Under the present condition of Southern agriculture, the point 
 which can furnish the supplies most cheaply, conti'ols the handling 
 of the cotton — the money crop of the section. A Cotton Com- 
 press, which will shortly be erected in Tuskaloosa, will further 
 largely increase the cotton receipts. In fact, the want of this has 
 been the only reason that the receipts of cotton at Tuskaloosa 
 have not been at least three times their present amount. The 
 laws of the State in regard to mortgage liens and garnishments, 
 are framed in the interest of the merchant and the creditor gener- 
 ally, and this circumstance renders trade very safe for the seller, 
 both jobber and retailer, and, coupled with the general fact that 
 the consumer is compelled to buy on long time, makes the prices 
 realized for goods high, and, consequently, the business very 
 lucrative. 
 
 2nd. The retail trade of Tuskaloosa with the surrounding 
 farming population is quite considerable, and is governed by the 
 same conditions in regard to safe dealings and large profits stated 
 in connection with the jobbing trade. In addition to the country 
 trade, the public institutions located at and near the town, consist- 
 ing of the State Insane Asylum and University of Alabama, furnish 
 a consiuning population of over 1=500 in addition to the population 
 of the town proper. 
 
 3d. The whole purport of the present movement in Tuska- 
 loosa is to establish there a large manufacturing population. This 
 class is, as a rule, a spendthrift class. Their wages will average 
 twice those of the same number of farmers, and are nearly all spent 
 from week to week. The building, hardware and supply trade, 
 will be necessarily greatly stimulated by the building up of the 
 place. The present mercantile plant of the town, if we may use 
 such an expression, is only sufficient to the present demand of the 
 town, and any increase of manufacturing (which is a certainty) 
 will immediatelv call for a large increase of the mercantile facili- 
 ties of the place. 
 
lUSKALOOSA. • 29 
 
 4th. The increase of the cotton export which will result from 
 the establishment of the compress, and the addition to the railroad 
 connections of the place, has already been alluded to. There is, 
 however, a branch of export business which is yet undeveloped, 
 but which possesses great possibilities. This is the fruit and 
 early vegetable export trade The country around Tuskaloosa is 
 finely adapted to the early raising of all kinds of small fruits, 
 vegetables, grapes, pears, etc., which could be shipped North from 
 Tuskaloosa at great profit. 
 
 In addition to this, the opportunity is opened at Tuskaloosa 
 for the building up of a large export grain and hay trade. As a 
 hay country, the region tributary to Tuskaloosa is unsurpassed, 
 and certain kinds of hay— Johnson grass, for instance— will make 
 as many as three crops a season, and producing on good bottom 
 lands at least three tons per acre. This hay is perennial. Once a 
 stand is had, it needs no further attention except an occasional 
 breaking up. The cost of cutting and bailing will not exceed $4 
 per ton. This hay is worth now, in New Orleans and Mobile 
 markets, $16 per ton. This is only one of many sorts of hay to 
 which the soil is adapted; in fact, when land is thrown out, a 
 simple breaking up will cause the growth of a heavy stand of Crab 
 grass, Lespedeza and other native grasses which will cut from 
 three-fourths to one-and-a-half tons per acre. Corn, on the 
 average land of the country, handled intelligently, will not cost 
 over twenty-five cents per bushel to raise and deliver at Tuska- 
 loosa from the adjoining territory. This corn, in the home market, 
 sells at an average of sixty-five cents per bushel the year round 
 and is worth now in New Orleans and Mobile fifty- five cents. 
 The only reason that this grain and hay is not exported largely, is 
 that the merchants have devoted their entire attention and 
 capital to the handling of cotton. There being thus no organized 
 system, the ""armer can not realize with any certainty upon this 
 branch of his crop, although the margin on these articles is very 
 much greater than on cotton. This is not only the case in regard 
 to these staple crops, but applies, as is alluded to above, to the 
 , fruit crop; also to poultry, eggs, bacon and vegetables. In a 
 word, the situation is this: That the country around is adapted as 
 well to the raising of these articles, as to cotton, while the mer- 
 cantile organization is adapted only to the handhng of cotton. 
 This affords the opening alluded to, which is certainly an unques- 
 tionable one. 
 
c^ 
 
 f 
 
 \P M 
 
 W 
 
 f-^, 
 
 .<1i 
 
 y^^T^^wfm 
 
 «^Cf1G^^,?«3' 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 Q 
 
 M 
 
 CO 
 
THE TUSKALOOSA 
 
 COAL, IRON AND LAND CO. 
 
 T 
 
 O STIMULATE the development of all these advantages, 
 whose full extent we have, in the foregoing pages, very 
 inadequately set forth, and, of course, to profit thereby. 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron, and Land Company, 
 of Tuskaloosa, Alabama, was formed, and in the follow- 
 ing way : 
 
 ITS OEGANIZATION. 
 
 On the 7th day of January, 1S87, a party of some twenty-five 
 citizens of Tuskaloosa, all of whom were owners of lands lying 
 in and around the city of Tuskaloosa, met at the Washington 
 Hotel and decided to organize a company, with the main object of 
 developing their lands. At that meeting a committee of three of 
 the number present was appointed by ballot to report upon the 
 value of the lands to an adjourned meeting, with the understand- 
 ing that if any person should be dissatisfied with the valuation 
 placed upon his lands by this committee, he could appeal to a dis- 
 interested board of arbitration, the decision of which should be 
 final. It was further decided that books of subscription to the 
 stock of the proposed company be opened, and ,that persons 
 not owning lands should be invited to join in the enterprise 
 with their money, it being the spirit and sense of the meeting 
 that the lands should be put into the Company, as near as 
 might be, at their actual cash value. Immediately a subscription 
 was raised of $1,000,000 in cash and in lands at the valuation 
 fixed by the committee heretofore mentioned. On the 15th day 
 of January, 1887, the stockholders met in the rooms of the Oak 
 City Club and organized The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron, and 
 Land Company, under a charter duly obtained from the Pro- 
 bate Judge of Tuskaloosa County, under the general incor- 
 poration laws of Alabama. Subsequently their charter was con- 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 firmed and amended by on Act of the General Assembly of the 
 State of Alabama, approved February 26th, 18S7, entitled "An 
 Act to Confirm the Incorporation and Organization of the Tuska- 
 loosa Coal, Iron, and Land Company, and to Define and Declare 
 the Powers of said Company." At the meeting of the stock- 
 holders just mentioned, the following Directors were elected : 
 W. C. Jemison, B. Friedman, G. A. Searcy, W. G. Cochrane, and 
 J. J. Harris, of Tuskaloosa ; J. W. Castleman, of Brierfield ; 
 Robert Jemison, of Birmingham, and H. H. Peek, of Cincinnati. 
 At a meeting of the Directors, held immediately after the adjourn- 
 ment of the stockholders' meeting, the following officers were 
 elected : W. C. Jemison, President ; B, Friedman, Vice-Presi- 
 dent ; G. A. Searcy, Treasurer ; and J. W. Castleman, Secretary. 
 
 LANDS or THE COMPANY. 
 
 ZTHE suburban lands owned by the Company amount to about 
 Four Thousand Six Hundred (4,600) acres, giving ample 
 frontage on the Warrior River and on the Alabama Great South- 
 ern Railroad, and almost entirely belting the present city of Tuska- 
 loosa. As will be seen by accompanying maps, a large part of 
 these lands lie between the Alabama Great Southern Railroad 
 and the river, having one and one-half miles frontage on the rail- 
 road and about the same on the river, and, so far as railroad and 
 river facilities are concerned, its lots are more valuable than any 
 in the present corporate limits of the city. In addition to its 
 magnificent body of suburban lands, the Directors of the Com- 
 pany purchased for it, at the rate of ten dollars per acre, about 
 forty-three thousand acres of coal and iron lands, which are be- 
 heved to be as valuable as any in Alabama. This purchase makes 
 the total average cost to the Company for its lands, mineral and 
 suburban, about sixteen dollars ($16.00) per acre. 
 
 Competent experts have recently unearthed a vein of red 
 hemetite on the Company's land, near Vance's Station, on the 
 Alabama Great Southern Railroad, which is over sixteen feet 
 thick, and which shows by actual working business analysis nearly 
 fifty per cent, of iron. This is believed to be one of the most 
 valuable deposits of iron ore in Alabama, and the ease with which 
 it can be mined and its convenience of location — being right along 
 the railroad — make its discovery of the greatest importance in the 
 future development of Tuskaloosa's iron interests. This iron land 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 33 
 
 is a part of the forty-three thousand acres purchased by the Com- 
 pany at $io per acre ; but the great bulk of these lands lie in the 
 Warrior Coal Fields, and afford the greatest abundance and variety 
 of coals, long-leaf yellow pine and other timbers. The coal 
 property and timber lands of the Company, when developed by 
 a railroad from Tuskaloosa to a junction with the Georgia Pacific 
 and Kansas City railroads in Walker county, will probably be the 
 most valuable pi'operty of the kind in Alabama. 
 
 PUEPOSES or THE COMPANY. 
 
 ZTHE principal object in the organization of Tme Tuskaloosa 
 ^^ Coal, Irox, and Land Company was to develop the valu- 
 able lands owned by the Company in and around the city of Tus- 
 kaloosa, by mapping thereon an addition to the present city, and 
 inducing the location on or near these lands of all manner of in- 
 dustrial enterprises. In furtherance of this main object, the Com- 
 pany purchased the mineral lands, before mentioned, in order that 
 they might be able to offer to manufacturers cheap fuel in the 
 greatest abundance. To accomplish this last object the Company has 
 effected an arrangement with the Tuskaloosa Northern Railroad 
 Company, by which the building of this road is secured. It will 
 extend from Tuskaloosa northward through the heart of the War- 
 rior Coal Field, and of the Company's coal and timber lands to 
 the Georgia Pacific Railroad, developing the Company's property 
 and assuring to all industries an abundant supply of cheap fuel. 
 The Company's coal and timber lands will be reached on this line 
 in eight or ten miles. When this road is completed it is be- 
 lieved that no other point in the State will be able to furnish coal 
 as cheap as Tuskaloosa, The Company is in a position to foster 
 successfully the manufacture of pig iron, from the fact that it owns 
 a supply of both red and brown ores at convenient distances from 
 Tuskaloosa, and, in addition, exhaustless veins of coal, the coking 
 qualities of which have been thoroughly demonstrated. It is the 
 purpose of the management of the Company to use every means 
 at its command to build up a great manufacturing city at this point, 
 and the following section from the act of the General Assembly 
 of Alabama, confirming its-organization, shows the almost unlim- 
 ited powers conferred, in this direction, by its charter : 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 35 
 
 Section 3. Be it further enacted that " The Tl skaloosa Coal, Iron 
 AND Land Company " has power to lay off its lands into lots and parcels, 
 and to lease, sell, donate, and convey the same : To make donations of its 
 lands or other property or effects to individuals or to other corporations for 
 the construction of railroads leading to and from the city of Tuskaloosa or its 
 vicinity, or to and from the mines and quarries of said corporation ; or to in- 
 dividuals, or to other corporations to aid in the erection or operation of fur- 
 naces, mills, factories, workshops, foundries, or other industrial enterprises in 
 the city of Tuskaloosa or its vicinity ; or to become a stockholder in any and 
 all private corporations organized for the carrying on in said citj' or vicinity 
 of any industrial enterprise or business : To construct and operate furnaces, 
 mills, foundries, presses, compresses, wharves, elevators, factories, workshops, 
 and machine shops in said city of Tuskaloosa, and vicinitj- : To own and 
 operate ferries, steamboats, barges, and other water craft crossing or navi- 
 gating the Warrior River and other rivers of the State : To erect and operate 
 in said city of Tuskaloosa and vicinity, gas works, electric light and power 
 works, and water works for supplying said city of Tuskaloosa and vicinity 
 with light and water : To construct and operate in said city of Tuskaloosa 
 and its vicinity, for a distance of ten miles from the present corporate limits 
 of said city, railways for the carriage of persons or the transportation of 
 property, for reasonable fare or tolls, and using such motive power as may be 
 deemed best, but without the consent of the corporate authorities of said city, 
 must not use the streets thereof : To keep and maintain wharves, depots and 
 warehouses on its own land in or near said city of Tuskaloosa : To take 
 and subscribe for stock in any railroad which may be projected or constructed 
 from Tuskaloosa or vicinity in the direction of Florence, Decatur, or Mont- 
 gomery, in the State of Alabama, or Macon, in the State of Mississippi. 
 
 The company has ah"eady effected a large and successful sale 
 of its suburban lots, and expects to have another in the course of 
 the coming autumn (1887). It is, as fast as pi-acticable, grading 
 its streets through its suburban property, and running dummy 
 lines to afford communication to parties building business or dwel- 
 ing houses thereon. The accompanying map shows the position 
 of this property, almost encircling the present town, and lying, in 
 a large measure, between it and the railroad, the slightest develop- 
 ment of the place in almost any direction will immediately com- 
 mence to overrun it. On the other side of it is the location of the 
 Friedman furnace, a 100-ton coke furnace, which will be built 
 immediately, and draw after it, in all probability, a rolling mill, 
 foundry and machine shops, etc.; in other words, the nucleus 
 of another town to spread out over it from the other direction. 
 The terms of purchase are easy — one-fourth cash, balance in one, 
 two, and three years with interest from date. Special terms 
 TV^ill be given to parties who will improve their purchases. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 O/ 
 
 Sites and all reasonable inducements are offered to parties 
 who will locate manufacturing plants. The Company has a num- 
 ber of desirable lots and also farming lands which it will sell at 
 private sale on the terms stated above. 
 
 For all information desired about the town and Companj', 
 write or apply to 
 
 W. C. jEMISON, President, 
 TrsKALoosA Coal, Iron and Land Companv, 
 
 Ttiskaloosa^ Alabama. 
 
Appendix. 
 
 HISTORY OF TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 TUSKALOOSA having not only a great future, but also a 
 very interesting past, w^e have thought that a sketch of this 
 last, by vi'ay of appendix, would be pertinent and also of use to 
 our readers, showing why the present educational, religious and 
 social advantages of the place are so unusual. 
 
 Tuskaloosa means " Black Warrior," from the two Choctaw 
 words Tusca, " warrior," and Ltisa, "black." The town took its 
 name from the beautiful river on whose banks it is located, for the 
 aboriginal name of the river we now call Black Warrior was 
 Tuscaloosa. The Creeks called the river Petka Hatche, which 
 means "River of Canes." 
 
 The region about the Black Warrior, where Tuskaloosa now 
 stands, was in time long past claimed by the Choctaws. When 
 De Soto crossed the Black Warrior on his memorable expedition 
 in the year 1541, the Choctaws doubtless held all the region around 
 Tuskaloosa. But as the Creeks and Choctaws were perpetually 
 at war, and the Creeks were the more warlike and aggressive of 
 the two tribes, the Choctaws were gradually pushed further 
 towards the West, and the country about the Tuskaloosa River 
 became a neutral, or, rather, debatable ground between the two 
 tribes. In 1809 a Creek chief, Preechee JE?nathla, built a village 
 below the falls of the river. The site of this old Indian village 
 was west of Newtown, on lands which are now the property of 
 J. M. Van Hoose, Esq. This town was destroyed by a band of 
 Chickasaws, under the command of Col. John McKee, in the 
 year 1S13. 
 
 In 1816 Emanuel York and John Bartow, two white men 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 41 
 
 from Tennessee, settled on the plain where now stands the city of 
 Tuskaloosa and raised a crop of corn. In 1818 the population 
 consisted of 600 souls. The next year the town was laid out bv 
 the general government, lots were sold and the town increased 
 rapidly in population. 
 
 In 1835 Tuskaloosa was chosen by the State Legislature as 
 the seat of government. The first session was opened in Novem- 
 ber, 1836, in Bell's Tavern, now the Washington Hotel. A site 
 for the capitol was selected, and work on it commenced in 1827. 
 In the same year the State Bank was located and its erection com- 
 menced. The building is now occupied by J. H. Fitts, Esq., as a 
 residence. To provide for the temporary accommodation of the 
 State government a two-story frame building was built, in which 
 the sessions of 1827 and 1828 were held. In 1829 the Legislature 
 for the first time occupied its new house, and continued to meet 
 there until the removal of the capital to Montgomery, in 1845. 
 Tuskaloosa had been the capital of the State just twenty years. 
 
 The State University, whose first endowment consisted of 14 
 sections of land, reserved for that purpose in the Act of Congress 
 admitting Alabama as a State, was chartered and located at Tuska- 
 loosa in 182 1, but not opened until 1831. The University grew 
 and flourished from the first. 
 
 After it had been made the capitol of the State, the young 
 city grew rapidly. Many of the owners of the rich plantations 
 on the bottoms of the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, and in the 
 famous "Black Belt," made Tuskaloosa their home. The erection 
 of handsome private residences distinguished this period. The 
 present residence of Hon. H. M. Somerville, shown in one of the 
 illustrations, was erected in 1830 by Capt. Deering. It served on 
 several occasions as the gubernatorial mansion. 
 
 The trade of the city increased rapidly with the increase of 
 population in the surrounding country, and in 1845, when the 
 capital was removed to Montgomery, Tuskaloosa was the com- 
 mercial center of West Alabama. Not a little, perhaps the most, 
 of this progress was due to the Warrior River, before the days of 
 railroads one of the most important waterways of the State In 
 1835 ^^^^ ^^'^^ bridge spanned the river at the point where the 
 present elegant structure stands. 
 
 The removal of the capital was a sore blow to the city. 
 Many families which had made it their home followed the 
 State government to its new seat ; but Tuskaloosa's spirit could. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 
 
 43 
 
 at that time, not be broken. Immediately afterwards, in 1846, a 
 stock company was organized and a cotton mill constructed and 
 operated till the war. A foundry and machine shop was built in 
 1848 by Leach & Avery. Plows, and other agricultural imple- 
 ments, which soon acquired a wide-spread reputation, were the 
 principal goods manufactured, but many other pieces of ma- 
 chinery, and during the war even several canons, left the establish- 
 ment. During that time a hat manufactory was run in connection 
 with the establishment, and many thousands gray hats left Tuska- 
 loosa to cover the heads of Confederate soldiers. In 1858 the 
 watchman of the foundry was murdered and the establishment 
 set on fire to conceal the crime. It was at once rebuilt, only to be 
 again reduced to ashes by Federal soldiers, under Croxton, in 1S65. 
 
 A paper mill, now used as a warp and thread mill, was erected 
 about the same time and successfully operated until the end of 
 the war. 
 
 Phcenix-like, the foundry rose from the ashes for the second 
 time, under the name of S. J. Leach & Sons, Mr. Avery having 
 in the meantime died. But, in 1879, it was transformed into a cot- 
 ton factory, under the name of Tuskaloosa Cotton Mills, owned 
 by a stock company, of which J. H. Fitts, Esq., is president. The 
 mills have been making money and constantly enlarging their 
 capacity, even during the dullest times, and last year declared a 
 dividend of 20 per cent. They employ now 150 hands, run 170 
 looms, and produce 54,000 yards of cotton plaids a week. Their 
 capital stock is $40,000. 
 
 Tuskaloosa was early famed for her educational facilities. 
 Even before the opening of the University, in 1S31, the schools of 
 the town were exceptionally good, and within a few years after 
 that event there were three flourishing female seminaries. 
 
 One of those, which is represented on one of the plates, the 
 Tuskaloosa Female College, was originally opened by the Baptists 
 as a denominational school under the name of the Alabama Fe- 
 male Atheneum. The financial crash of 1837 put it heavily into 
 debt. After several years of struggle it was sold, and in i860 it 
 passed into the hands of the Methodist Episcopal Conference, 
 who for a number of years directed a successful female college in 
 it. In 1871 it was sold to Rev. Mr. Larabee, who made extensive 
 improvements, but became involved in debt and the building was 
 sold to satisfy his creditors — purchased by private parties, and in 
 1876 re-sold to Pi-of. Alonzo Hill, who opened in it the "Tuska- 
 
TUSKAI-OOSA. 
 
 45 
 
 loosa Female College.'' The school started with about lOO schol- 
 ars, one-third boarders, and eight teachers. The last catalogue 
 shows an enrollment of 3ii scholars and a staff of 19 teachers 
 and officers. It is one of the very best, and one of the most suc- 
 cessful and deservedly popular female institutes in the South. 
 
 The Alabama Central Female College owes its origin to the 
 removal of the capital. On the subject of removal public opinion 
 was almost equally divided, and many politicians were appre- 
 hensive that the continued ownership of the old capitol by the 
 State might induce a return to it by the Legislature. Accordingly 
 they gave it by legislative act to the University. This institution 
 being at the time unable to use it, and as it was difficult to derive 
 an income from it, the building got out of repair. A petition, 
 signed by the trustees of the University, and by citizens generally, 
 induced the Legislature to lease the property to a company of 
 stockholders for ninety-nine years, without charge, on the simple 
 condition, "• a school shall be kept " in the building. The year 
 1857 saw the old capitol opened as a female college, and as such 
 it is conducted to-day. For many years it has been a most flour- 
 ishing school and offers superior educational advantages. The 
 building is one of the best pieces of architecture dating from the 
 period of its erection. 
 
 Among the illustrations are the residences of Col. A. C. Har- 
 grove, erected in 1856 by Robt. Jemison, Esq., one of the most 
 enterprising, energetic and patriotic citizens of which Tuskaloosa 
 ever boasted. 
 
 The Baptist Church, the most elegant structure of its kind in 
 Tuskaloosa, was completed in 1885, and owes its origin mainly to 
 the liberality of Miss Sallie Moody, now Mrs. D. L Purser, of 
 Birmingham, who gave the large and now exceedingly valuable 
 lot and contributed most liberally to the building fund. 
 
 The erection of the fine building for the Merchants National 
 Bank and the hotel on the corner of Market and Cotton streets, 
 as well as the new public school building, have been commenced, 
 and will add very much to the number of modern buildings in 
 Tuskaloosa, and assist in revolutionizing the appearance of the 
 venerable city. 
 
 The old University, as heretofore stated, was destroyed by 
 Federal troops in 1865, but partly re-erected a few years later. A 
 grant by Congress of 46,000 acres of public land, to be located by 
 the trustees of the University, made a few years ago, promises — 
 as the lands have all been located in the richest mineral region of 
 
BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 47 
 
 Alabama — to make that institution in a few years one of the wealth- 
 iest in the country. A resolution of the board of trustees, passed 
 at their last session in June, has made tuition absolutely free. Two 
 new buildings, Clark and Manly Hall, were added two years ago, 
 and this summer will see the completion of Garland Hall, the 
 third. 
 
 Alabama has good cause to be proud of its University. The 
 militai'y system was adopted, and has been continued ever since. 
 It is not allowed to interfere with the studies, but serves to give 
 the students exercise and improves the discipline. 
 
 The Alabama Insane Hospital, the pride not only of Tuska- 
 loosa, but of the State, was first endowed by the Legislature about 
 1855. It was a very modest institution at the beginning, but has 
 grown to magnificent proportions. But more than in size has it 
 grown in reputation. It was one of the first institutions of the 
 kind in this country in which all force and physical punishment 
 in the management of patients were abandoned and kindness of 
 treatment instituted. The patients are kept employed, and 
 dances, billiards and theatricals contribute to their amusement. 
 The superior administrative talent of Dr. P. Bryce, director of the 
 institution, since its foundation has made it the best managed 
 insane hospital in the United States, while his attainments as a 
 physician and a specialist on mental diseases have procured for 
 him a world-wide reputation. The patients are better housed, 
 better fed, and better cared for than anywhere else, and the cost 
 per capita, at the same time, is lower by about 40 per cent, than 
 that of any similar institution. The Hospital mines its own coal, 
 mikes its own gas, bricks, etc., and raises a large portion of its 
 own food. Not a little of this work is done by the patients them- 
 selves. 
 
 Among other notable buildings in the city proper is the 
 Atlanta Store. It is erected on the site of a hotel known as 
 Washington Hall, which was burned in 1865. It was erected by 
 Stephen Miller, and the plans were made by Col. J. T. Menifee, 
 now president of Howard College, Marion, Ala. 
 
 The bridge across the Warrior River, built in 1835, ^^^ torn 
 down and rebuilt in 1S52. Both v^^ere covered wooden bridges, 
 and the new bridge was burned by Croxton in April, 1S65, at the 
 same time that the University and the iron foundry fell victims to 
 the fury of the war. Re-erected in 1872, it was blown down by 
 a fearful storm in July, 1878. The owners of the franchise sur- 
 rendered it to the county, and an iron bridge was finished in 1882, 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 49 
 
 at a cost of $40,000, which has stood the tests of storms and floods. 
 
 The crowning glory of the city, the feature which gives the 
 Athens of Alabama its beautiful name of City of Oaks, are the 
 rows of magnificent water oaks which line the broad streets and 
 avenues. A glance at the illustrations of Market and Broad 
 streets, in this pamphlet, will convince anyone that those who first 
 planted these trees, and those who continued the work " builded 
 better than they knew." The first trees were planted by private 
 parties in 1839, and in 1842 the public, that is, the city corporation, 
 took charge of this beneficial w^ork and completed it to their ever- 
 lasting glory. 
 
 The youngest, but the most beneficial of Tuskaloosa's schools, 
 is the public graded school, presided over by Prof. Carleton 
 Mitchell. The schools were established by act of Legislature in 
 1885, and have just completed their second year. The largest 
 share of the credit of their establishment belongs to Hon. W. C. 
 Jamison, the Mayor of the city, and the nearly 600 children which 
 visited it last year are indebted to him more than anyone else for 
 the inestimable privilege. A new building will be erected this 
 summer, and in September the school will be able to rank, not 
 only in excellence of system and method, which it has always 
 done, but in regard to exterior and interior beauty and conven- 
 ience, with the best of the country. 
 
 The many advantages which Tuskaloosa offers to the manu- 
 facturer, the farmer, and the lumberman, are set forth in other 
 parts of this work. The sketch of its public institutions, its his- 
 tory, and its educational advantages, must show it to be a desirable 
 place of residence. The influence of the many schools have made 
 the community one of unusual refinement and intelligence, and 
 the location of the city, on a high plateau, 140 feet above the 
 level of the river, is exceptionally healthy and free from malarial 
 influences. A climate where an inch of ice is a rarity, and where 
 the thermometer never reaches a hundred degrees, where spring, 
 as charming as the traditional May-morning, lasts for three months^ 
 and where the fall is merely a gradual fading of the glory of sum- 
 mer, merging into a winter so short and mild that the new leaves 
 commence to grow before the old ones have quite disappeared, a 
 city every street of which is a miniature park, and where even 
 the hottest day is tempered by a breeze — surely furnish attractions 
 enough for even the most fastidious. We ask not that our state- 
 ments be taken on trust ; all we ask is, come and see, and we can 
 assure you of a most hearty welcome. 
 
LIST OK 
 
 Industrial Enterprises Now in Operation 
 
 TUSKALOOSA, ALABAMA. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Cotton Mills, value about $80,000; employ 145 
 hands. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Yarn Mills, value $15,000; 35 hands, 
 
 Tuskaloosa Street Railway, completed and in operation to 
 Lake Lorraine. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Cotton-Seed Oil Co., value $40,000; 40 hands. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Brick and Tile Co., value $35,000; 50 hands. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Foundry and Manufacturing Co., value $35,000; 
 13 hands. 
 
 Warrior Foundry and Machine Works, value $3,500; 4 hands. 
 
 Robt. Wilson, Grist Mill and Wool Carding, value $4,000. 
 
 Suspender Factory, value $3,000; 5 hands. 
 
 Davis & Daniel (col.). Brick Yard, value $600; it hands. 
 
 Taylor & Turner (col.). Brick Yard, value $1,000; 13 hands. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Manufacturing Co., paid-up capital of $90,- 
 000; 7^500 spindles, 340 looms, 275 hands; makes 750,000 pounds 
 yarn and 3,600,000 yards plaids, checks and stripes per year. 
 
LIST OK 
 
 Enterprises Under Contract and Building 
 
 TUSKALOOSA, ALABAMA. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Northern Railway. 
 
 The Friedman Furnace, capital stock $300,ocx). 
 
 Warrior Brick and Building Co.; 20 employes. 
 
 W. F. Adams & Co., Brick Yard; 18 employes. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Cotton-Seed Oil Mills, Cotton Gin, value $5,000. 
 There is but pne other Cotton Gin in the country of equal ex- 
 cellence with this one. 
 
 G. T. Ingraham, Lumber, Coal and Wood Yard. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Building and Loan Association, capital stock, 
 $200,000. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Belt Line, steam motor, passenger and freight 
 traffic. Supplies all purchased. Line will be in operation in 
 November. 
 
 Macon & Tuskaloosa Railway. Charter recently amended to 
 Macon, Tuskaloosa & Birmingham R. R. 
 
 The Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron & Land Company has erected a 
 number of houses for sale and rent, and will build more. 
 
 A new hotel, constructed of brick, four stories, is now ap- 
 proaching completion. 
 
 The Merchants' National Bank is just completing a new 
 building, pressed brick and terra cotta, one of the handsomest 
 banking houses in the South. 
 
 A large and commodious public school building is also build- 
 ing. 
 
 The Allen & Jemison Co., Lumber Yard and Planing Mill. 
 
 Tuskaloosa Electric Light, Ice & Power Co., capital stock, 
 $30,000. 
 
TUSKALOOSA. 55 
 
 Many other buildings are under contract for construction, 
 other industries are negotiating for location, and other enterprises 
 are reasonably certain of being established here in the near 
 future. Those we have mentioned, however, are actuaiyac/^y, and 
 those mentioned under the second heading have all been secured 
 to Tuskaloosa since the organization of the Tuskaloosa Coal, Iron 
 & Land Company, in January last. 
 
 Within the last few weeks, and since this book was prepared 
 for the press, some important discoveries have been made, touch- 
 ing the natural resources of Tuskaloosa, and many^enterprises in- 
 augurated that are destined to prove of the greatest benefit to the 
 city. We have not the space to speak of these matters in detail, 
 but, briefly mentioned, they are as follows: 
 
 Inexhaustible beds of both fire and pottery clay have been 
 discovered immediately adjoining the city and the railroads. These 
 clays have been tested with satisfactory results. Several veins 
 of coal, averaging five feet in thickness, have been opened 
 within ten miles of the city, on the line of the Tuskaloosa 
 Northern R. R., from which coke of the first quality has been 
 made. The Chicago & Gulf R. R., from Chicago to Mobile, has 
 been located through the city. The projected railroad from 
 Tuskaloosa to Montgomery, Ala., is taking practical shape. A 
 diamond drill of the latest and most approved pattern is now bor- 
 ing near the city, prospecting for coal, oil, gas, water or other 
 hidden treasures. This drill will penej:rate 2,000 feet. 
 

 IT <^ 
 
 
 ^ J. - - " « v^ ^-^ - » o i ' \' V -"C^. 
 
 <^^°<v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 O V\. * o „ o o <^^ 
 
 '• '* "V v^ , 
 
-^ '^-^^.^ ^^"'"^^ ^^JIWS J^\ ^^*g^,^ ^^ 
 
 '/.^^>>o A^^'.^^^^X C^^^<>o .^^\^