History of Montgomery County Alabama United States of America

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Local History Notes:

MONTGOMERY, a county in the S. E. central part of Alabama, has an area of 1010 square miles. The Tallapoosa and Alabama rivers form the N. boundary of the county. It is also drained by the Catama and Pintelala creeks. The surface is uneven, or hilly; the soil is generally fertile. Cotton and Indian corn are the staples. In 1850 there were raised 25,326 bales of cotton; 1,265,645 bushels of Indian corn; 293,488 of sweet potatoes, and 191,853 of oats. The quantities of sweet potatoes and oats were the greatest produced in any county of the state. There were 2 saw and grist mills, 1 flour mill, and 2 iron foundries. It contained 20 churches, and 10 newspaper offices; 366 pupils attending public schools, and 264 attending academies or other schools. The Alabama river is navigable by large steamboats through its whole course. The county is partly traversed by the Montgomery and West Point railroad, and another railroad is projected from Montgomery to Mobile bay. Several plank-roads have lately been made in the county. Montgomery is the county seat, and the capital of Alabama. Population, 29,795, of whom 10,284 were free, and 19,511, slaves.

Population: White, 15,000: colored, 30,000. Area, 740 square miles. Woodland, all. Level and hilly prairies, of which 75 square miles have a coating of drift, 640 square miles sandy and pebbly hills, with 100 square miles pine.

Acres-In cotton (approximately), 112,100; in corn, 62,300; in oats, 4,800; in wheat, 58; in sugar-cane, 174; in sweet potatoes, 1,720.

Approximate number of bales of cotton, 32,000.

County Seat-Montgomery; population, 25,000; on Alabama River, 197 miles northeast of Mobile, at the centering point of six railroads.

Newspapers published at the County Seat-Advertiser (Democratic), Dispatch (Democratic), Star, Alabama Baptist (Denominational), Herald (Republican), Odd Fellows' Journal.

Postoffices in the County-Ada, Arcadia, Barachias, Catoma, Chambers, Devenport, Hope Hull, Legrand, Mathews, Meadville, Montgomery, Mount Carmel, Mount Meigs, Myrtle, Panther, Patterson, Pike Road, Pine Level, Pugh, Raif Branch, Ramer, Snowdoun, Stoddard, Strata, Tharin, Woodley.

Montgomery was one of the first counties in the State, being erected by an act of the Legislature of the Territory of Mississippi, bearing date December 6, 1816. Originally this county was formed from Monroe County, and comprised almost the whole of Central Alabama, south of the mountains of Blount County, to the Cahaba River, from the watershed between Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers on the west, to the lands of the Creek Indians on the east. From the original territory of Montgomery the following counties have been wholly taken: Autauga, Bibb, Dallas and Shelby. St. Clair was formed entirely of the latter county. The following counties were formed in portion from the area of Montgomery directly: Bullock, Elmore, Lowndes and Perry, while other counties have been formed from counties which were constituted out of the territory taken from Montgomery County.

The principal products of the county are cotton and corn. Of late years considerable attention is being paid to the production of oats and grasses, while stock-raising is noted as growing, and the profits in this branch tends to the belief that it will become more general within the next few years. Fruits and early vegetables do well in this county, and largely increasing quantities of the latter are shipped north every year.

The forests are timbered with oak, hickory, short-leaf pine, poplar, gum, magnolia, beech, hawthorn, wild plum and ash.

The principal streams which water the county are the Alabama and Tallapoosa Rivers, Lime, Ramer, Catoma, Pintlala and other smaller and unimportant creeks.

The county is intersected by the Louisville & Nashville, the Western, the Montgomery & Eufaula, the Selma & Montgomery, the Mobile & Montgomery, and the Montgomery & Florida Railroads. The latter is a narrow-gauge road, which is now being built to the Florida line, through a very rich portion of Southeast Alabama. The following railroads are projected: the Alabama Midland, the Montgomery, Hayneville and Camden, and the Great Northwestern of Alabama, and the Montgomery & Chattanooga. The subject of building a railroad to connect with the Anniston Road at Svlacauga is being discussed.

The county is well provided with facilities for religious worship, there being in it churches of all denominations. The schools are the equal of any in the South, and in Montgomery the public schools will compare favorably with any similar institutions in the country.

From: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical by Smith and De Land; Birmingham: 1888

History of Montgomery County Alabama

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