History of Calhoun County Alabama United States of America

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Population: White: 14,872: colored, 4,921. Area, 640 square miles. Woodland, all. Coosa Valley and Coosa coal fields, 640 square miles.

Acres in cotton, approximately, 26,435; in corn, 33,714; in oats, 8,852; in wheat, 10,745; in rye, 287; in tobacco, 29; in sweet potatoes, 283. Approximate number of bales of cotton, 11,927.

County Seat-Jacksonville: population 5,000; on East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad.

Newspapers published at County Seat-Republican, democratic; at Anniston, Hot Blast, Watchman, and Southern Industry, all democratic; at Cross Plains, Post, democratic; at Oxford, Echo, local.

Postoffices in the County-Adelia, Alexandria, Allsup, Anniston, Beasley, Bera, Bruner, Bynum, Cane Creek, Choccolocco, Cross Plains, Davisville, De Armanville, Duke, Eulaton, Francis, Germania, Grayton, Hebron, Jacksonville, Jenkins, Ladiga, Mack, Marthadell, Martin's Cross-roads, Merrellton, Morrisville, Nance, Ohatchee, Ottery, Oxanna, Oxford, Peaceburgh, Peek's Hill, Rabbit Town, Randall, Weaver's Station, White Plains.

Calhoun County, in the northeastern part of the State, is bounded on the north by Etowah and Cherokee Counties, on the east by Cleburne, on the south by Cleburne and Talladega, and on the west by St. Clair. It was organized December 18, 1832, out of territory ceded the March before by the Creek Indians.

Exclusive of town lots, railroad rights of way, and public lands, 324,216 acres of land are assessed for taxation at a valuation of §1,461,722, town lots and improvements are valued at §1,469,671, and personal property at $2,066,078: in all $4,997,471. Since these values were fixed on the first of January last, there has been something like a "boom "in Anniston and other parts, and they would now be not less than fifty per cent. greater.

The county tax for all purposes is forty cents on the $100, one-third less than last year and previous years. Except about $14,000 for the new court-house, the county is out of debt.

There are 116 miles of railway in the county, as follows: The East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, 37.73 miles: the East & West Railroad, 36.58 miles: the Georgia Pacific Railroad, 30.50 miles; and the Anniston & Atlantic Railroad, 11.42 miles. These are valued at $855,078. In addition, the Jacksonville, Gadsden & Atalla Railroad is partly graded; and the Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad, from Anniston to Atalla, will be open for traffic by the first of February next. These will increase the railroad mileage of the county nearly forty miles. The Georgia Central Railroad extension, projected from Carrollton, Ga., to Decatur, Ala., has been surveyed through the county.

There are about 100,000 acres of improved lands in the county, which, in 1880, were divided into 1,906 farms, the annual products of which were worth more than $1,000,000 then, and are worth much more now.

Except the western slopes of the hills forming its eastern boundary, the county lies wholly in what is known as the Coosa Valley, which is a continuation of the valleys of Virginia and East Tennessee, and has the same physical and geological characteristics. It is a trough between the metamorphic area and the coal fields, broken by considerable sandstone elevations, with wide, beautiful, and fertile valleys, abundantly wooded and watered. These valleys, gently rolling, not swampy or subject to overflow, are finely adapted to cotton, corn, small grains, red clover, and all the grasses, and the whole county is specially suited for stock-growing.

The county is rich in minerals-perhaps the richest in the State. Almost everywhere brown hematite iron ore abounds, and around the bases and on the sides of the sandstone hills it is in amazing quantities and of the greatest richness. From Oxford to Cross Plains, in the Choccolocco and Alexandria valleys, and in the Colvin Mountains, there are the greatest masses of it everywhere exposed on the surface, and everywhere seemingly inexhaustible. There is not probably one single section of land in the county without ore. In the Colvin Mountains, in close proximity to the brown ores, there are veins of red hematite scarcely inferior in extent, and not inferior in quality, to those of the famous Red Mountain in Jefferson County.

Manganese, in greater or less quantity, is found in many of the brown hematite beds, and independently in large deposits. Limestone, and marble of excellent quality, are abundant, as, also, kaolin, sandstone, barite, and fire-brick clay, with some copper, lead, and lithographic stone. The Choccolocco, Terrapin, Tallasahatchie, Ohatchee, and Cane Creeks, and the Coosa River, furnish never-failing and almost limitless water-power. For all domestic and agricultural purposes, water abounds in every part of the county.

Attention has only recently been turned to the vast mineral wealth and unequaled manufacturing advantages of this county, and industrial development has only fairly begun. In 1873 the first furnace was erected in Anniston, which was followed six years later by a second, both owned by the Woodstock Iron Company, and two others are being erected there by the same company. Anniston has now in operation, in addition to the furnaces, car works with $50,000 capital; car-wheel works and rolling-mill. $200,000; compress and warehouse, $100,000; pipe works (in construction), $300,000; cotton mills, $250,000; steel bloomery, $50,000; fire-brick works. $25,000: boiler shops, machine shops, planing mills, etc., $250,000; three banks; land company, $3,000,000; and claims a population of over 9,000, with waterworks, electric lights, costly churches, first-class schools, well-graded streets, a large general merchandise business, and the finest hotel in the State. The capital of the Woodstock Iron Company is $3,000,000. Jacksonville, twelve miles north of Anniston, with mineral resources, manufacturing facilities, and location unsurpassed, has just organized a land and improvement company, with large capital, which has entered into negotiations for the early inauguration of several large industrial enterprises that will be under way by the close of the year. Oxford, four miles below Anniston, with 1,200 inhabitants, and Cross Plains, twelve miles north of Jacksonville, with 800 people, have situations in all respects as good as those of Anniston and Jacksonville, and are built up in the midst of the richest mineral deposits of this section. Alexandria, in the loveliest valley in the county, is on the line of the Anniston & Cincinnati Railroad, and has a bright future. There are other thriving villages, as White Plains, Germania, Oxanna, Morrisville, Cane Creek, Choccolocco, etc.

There is a State Normal School at Jacksonville, excellently conducted high schools at Anniston, Oxford, Cross Plains, and Alexandria, and good public schools and churches in every neighborhood. There are thirty-eight postoffices in the county, about half of which have daily mails. No person in the county lives more than five or six miles from a railroad. There is a good deal of government land subject to homestead entry. Improved lands can be bought at from $5 to $50 an acre, the cheaper lands being more or less broken, but well wooded and watered and fertile.

SOURCE: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical; Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land, 1888

History of Calhoun County Alabama

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