History of Dallas County Alabama United States of America

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Population: White, 8,425; colored, 40,008. Area. 980 square miles. Woodland and Prairie, 830 square miles. Gravelly hills, with pine, 150 square miles.

Acres - In cotton (approximately, 115,631; in corn, 46,542; in oats, 8,260; in wheat, 71; in tobacco, 13; in sugar-cane, 18; in sweet potatoes, 2,256.

Approximate number of bales of cotton, 40,000.

County Seat-Selma; population, 10,500; situated on the Alabama river, 300 miles from its mouth: center of trade, in cotton, lumber, iron, and coal, at the terminus of the Western Railroad of Alabama; Selma & Pensacola: also Selma & Cincinnati. Selma & Mobile, and Selma & New Orleans Roads.

Postoffices in the County-Belknap, Berlin, Brown's, Burnsville, Cahaba, Central Mills, Crenshaw, Harrel,. Hazen, King's Landing, Marion Junction, Martin's Station. Massillon, Minter, Morrowville, Orrville, Plantersville, Pleasant Hill, Portland, Richmond, Selma, Shields' Mill, Soapstone, Summerfield, Tasso, Terry, Tilden.

Dallas County was organized in 1818, during Alabama's Territorial period, and was named in honor of Hon. A. J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. Pate of taxation. $1.05 on the $100. Bonded debt, for railroad purposes, $73,000. Floating debt none. About 144 miles of raiload cross the county in all directions, giving every portion ample shipping and market facilities.

The surface of the country is gently undulating, and in no portion is found barren soils. Along the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers the lands are famous for their depth, strength and fertility, and the second bottoms, or terraces found after the bottoms are passed are level and susceptible of a high state of cultivation. In the northwestern part, pine lands prevail and lumbering is the principal industry. This region is noted for its clear. swift-flowing streams, healthfulness and excellent pine timber, but as the forests disappear it is gradually being converted into an agricultural section, as cotton, corn, potatoes, fruits and vegetables are found to do most excellently there. All of the northern part is elevated and well adapted to general farming and stock-raising. Upon the table lands the soils are red and gray, friable, easily cultivated and very productive. Toward the center sandy lands are encountered, interspersed with flowing streams. These sandy lands are very productive. and by many preferred to either bottom or uplands. In the western portion are found the famous cane-brake lands, which for productiveness and location are unexcelled, while lower down on the western border are found variable soils, and a great diversity of forest growth and field vegetation.

Dallas produces more cotton than any other of Alabama's sixty-six counties, and its farm products exceed in value those of any other county in the State.

Land is worth from $2.50 to $40 per acre, and excellent farming land maybe purchased from $10 to $15 per acre. Government land, none. Titles axe perfect, and from the records kept at Selma, a perfect abstract title may be easily obtained.

The educational advantages of Dallas County are among its many attractive features. There are over one hundred public schools in the rural district, white or colored; the latter, while not enjoying educational privileges in common with the former, being, nevertheless well provided for in this direction, and the schools often taught by persons of their own race. Every neighborhood has its school-house and is provided with efficient teachers. Churches are also scattered plentifully throughout the county, and all the principal denominations are represented. Thus it will be seen that the new comer finds all the advantages of civilization, a well-ordered and regulated community, and as intelligent and law abiding a citizenship as that of his Northern and Western home. In the far West all these things must be acquired after many long years of frontier pioneering, full of danger, hardships and privation. It may be true that sectional feelings and strong prejudices against "Yankees" exist in the South, but if such is the case, the writer, who has spent ten years in traveling through every portion of that much-maligned division of this great republic, has failed to discover it. There are "cranks" and fools and ignorant persons in every part of the world, but no greater percentage of this class is found in the South than in the North, or elsewhere in the world, for that matter. No one need be deterred from going to Dallas County for fear of ostracism or unkindness on account of political predilections; because politics are less thought of now than money making, and every dollar of Northern capital invested in the South (and millions are invested annually) is an unanswerable argument in favor of the desirability, the advantages, resources and glorious future of that grand section, and a lie direct, given to malignant falsifiers of facts, who for political purposes would make it appear that neither Northern men nor northern capital are safe in the South.

Certain it is that great advantages will be found in Dallas County in the shape of fertility of soils, cheapness of lands, abundance of timber, ease of transportation, and the law-abiding disposition of the people. More productive lands cannot be found in the State than in this county, which is the very heart of the South's great cotton belt.

The class of immigrants wanted for the agricultural districts of the State (Alabama) is small farmers who understand our language and customs, men with money enough to pay their fares, purchase their farms and live independent of charity or assistance from the community in which they locate. And to this class every good citizen says, Come and be welcome sharers in the great favors which a bountiful nature has lavished upon our fair State. Compare advantages and resources with those of your Northern or Western homes. We offer yon the most fertile lands at prices that will enable you to pay for and improve them; we offer you a climate the most delightful that the mind can conceive of, and water as pure as the earth produces. We have ample and ever-increasing transportation facilities to carry your products to every market in the world, and we offer you good society, religious and educational advantages, a good, wise and economical State, county and municipal government: in short, all the advantages of civilization, and extend the right hand of fellowship, and welcome you most heartily, provided your object is to live among us, and aid in the grand work of developing our resources.

From: Northern Alabama, Historical and Biographical; Birmingham, Ala.: 1888

History of Dallas County Alabama

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