History of Greene County Alabama United States of America

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Population: White, 3,765: colored. 18,166. Area, 520 square miles. Woodland all, except about twenty-five square miles of prairie.

Acres-In cotton (approximately), 63,643; in corn, 31,826: in oats, 2,163; in wheat, 214; in rye, 25; in sugar-cane. 25; in tobacco, 41: in sweet potatoes, 705.

Approximate number of bales of cotton, 15,800.

County seat-Eutaw: population 1,100; situated on the Alabama & Great Western Railroad, thirty-five miles from Tuscaloosa, and sixty miles west of Selma.

Newspapers published at County Seat-Mirror, Whig and Observer (all Democratic).

Postoffices in the County-Boligee, Burton's Hill, Clinton, Dobbs, Eutaw, Forkland, Knoxville, Mantua, Mount Hebron, Pleasant Ridge, Tishabee, Union, West Greene.

The county bounded is on the north by the Sipsey River, on the east and southeast by the Warrior River, and on the west and southwest by the Tombigbee River; is .situated in the western part of Alabama, and. agriculturally considered, is one of the best counties in the State. Its county seat, Eutaw, is situated on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, and three miles west of a steamboat landing on the Warrior River. Its other towns are Forkland, 300 inhabitants, in the southern part of the county, near the junction of the Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers; Boligee, on the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, 300 inhabitants; Mount Hebron, West Greene and Pleasant Ridge, in the western part of the county, near the Tombigbee River, each containing about 150 inhabitants; Knoxville, 200 inhabitants, and Union and Mantua, two small villages in the northern part of the county. The Alabama Great Southern Railroad crosses the county from east to west. The lands lying south of this railroad, with a few exceptions, are what are known as "canebrake lands," and much resemble the prairies of the North and Northwest. They are very productive, an average crop being one-half bale of cotton or thirty bushels of corn per acre. These lands are worth from six to fifteen dollars per acre, according to locality and fertility. North of the river is a small belt of black or canebrake lands, but the main body of the lands lying north of this railroad are either dark red or gray sandy lands. These sandy lands are good for all kinds of farming, and respond generously to judicious fertilizing. They are worth from two to twelve dollars per acre, according to locality and quality. The principal products of the county are com, cotton, peas, potatoes, molasses, and vegetables. Large bodies of cane are to be found upon the uncleared lands of this county, which form a splendid winter pasture for stock, and owing to the splendid climate, fertility of soil and abundance of water, and its adaptability to the growth of clover, this county would be a splendid locality for stock raisers. Greene County contains large bodies of virgin timber, consisting of oak, red and white, ash, poplar, cypress, hickory and pine, and the Sipsey, Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers would be splendid places for the lumber mills. Greene County lies seventy miles south of Birmingham, and "truck farming" there would yield good and immediate profits.

Among the great men given to the State by this county are to be mentioned the brilliant advocate, William M. Murphy; the eminent jurist, John Erwin; the well-known Chancellor Clark. These men are now dead. Among the living are to be mentioned Thomas Seay, the present Governor of Alabama, who was born in Greene County, and Thomas W. Coleman, the present efficient Chancellor of the Southwestern Chancery Division of this State. Educational and religions facilities of the county are good.

FROM: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical, Birmingham, Ala.: 1888

History of Greene County Alabama

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