St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-20
LOOKING TO DIXIE.
Homeseekers Beginning to
Turn Their Attention to
Northern Alabama.
The Wonderful Bluffs Of Iron
Ore Around the Town
Of Button.
A Company Which Proposes
to Build a Manufacturing
Center There.
Lots to Be Sold at Reasonable
Figures and on Reasona-
BILE Terms.

To the Editor of the Globe.
HURON, S. D., April IS.-The prevail
ing low prices of grain and cattle, to-
gether with dr0uth and the consequent
inability of the farmer in some eases to
pay the principal, and in many cases
the interest on the mortgages which
cover these Western farms like man
tie, have caused the capitalist and the
homeseeker to look South in search of
field for his enterprise, his toll and his
money. With these thoughts in mind
the writer some weeks ago turned his
face toward that marvellous section.
Northern Alabama. The quickest and
most convenient route from this section
is over the Northwestern to Chicago,
the Panhandle to Cincinnati and the
Cincinnati Southern, which pierces the
very center of the coal and iron region
OF the South.
On the East Tennessee, Virginia &
Georgia railway. on its line from Chat
tanooga to Selma, twenty-siX miles from
Rome, Ca, and thirty-seven miles from
Admission, Ala, is located the town OF
Button, in Cherokee county, Alabama,
the town taking its name from the Won
derfuI bluffs of solid iron ore which
here tower from the valley. The town
site company owns 1900 acres or
town lands, beside mineral lands which
contain immense deposits of brown
hematite iron ore. The ore banks, or
more properly bluffs, because instead
of being deposits beneath the surface
they stand above it, are without an
equal in the entire South. These bluffs
rise in some places to an altitude OF
eighty feet above the surface soil, and
the only work required to mine the ore
is to drill and blast it off in carload lots
at a single discharge. A gentleman
largely connected with the manufacture
of pig iron in the South said that as boy
and man he had been engaged In the
furnace business for eighteen years,
and had visited the largest deposits OF
iron ore in the Union, but had never
seen such massive ore bank in all his
life, nor one that could compare with it
in all its magnitude.
The quality of this ore is being shown
by the daily output of the four adjOin-
ing furnaces, whose ore lands lie in the
same belt and adjoining the deposits of
| the BlufftoD company; all of these fur
naces bear an enviable reputation for
| the high grade car wheel iron which
they have been producing for the past
| few years; one, the Etna, shipping its
entire output to the Pullman company.
Bluffton is in the same mineral region
Pirpinuhon and Admission hOth
of which have had SO marvellous a
| development and growth in the last
| half-doZen years. and is more favOrably
| located with reference to mineral than
| either of them: for while the ore used
| at Admission is brought from the
neighborhood of Cedartown, Ca, and
| that used at Birmingham is shipped
| from tile Immediate vicinity of Button,
| the BlufftuniteS have an ineXhauStible
supply at their very doors and are ship
/ ping 100 tons per day to Chattanooga.
| Here, too, are inexhaustible supplies of
| limestone for fluxing purposes. timber
| for charcoal. and the celebrated COOSa
| and Black Warrior coal fields for coke,
| thus demonstrating that pig iron can be
made cheaper at Blutfton than at any
| other point in the South.
The Bluifton Company has laid out
| portion of it's land into town lots, and
| purposes to build up great manufact-
| uring center for the development of
its mineral properly. Handsome ave-
| nues and wide streets have been laid
| out, and large force of men and teams
have been employed for weeks in grad
| Ing and otherwise improving the town
| site. A bank with $4,000 capital has
heen organized; rolling mill. for
which the entire capital stock of $780,
600 has been subscribed, will be built at
once: an elegant and commodious hotel
has been completed and furnished
at a cost of $4,000. lighted with cleo
! trIcity and heated with steam; an cleo
| trio light plant and woodworking es-
adjustment are already in operation,
and a foundry aud firearms manufact-
! uring company are assured. Several
/ fine brick blocks, substantial church
! and many handsome residences are
already completed and occupied.
This sale will open on April 30 and
lots will be sold at reasonable figures
/
be no auction sale nor hurrah about the
matter, and sales will be conducted
quietly and ON business principles.
| The projectors of this new town are
substantial capitalists from Maine, Mas
sachusetts and New York, together with
| HI. r. Shorter, president of the Ala
bama railroad commission, and Col.
| Cary Wilson. an Alabama railroad mag
| nate. The reputation which the pro-
moters OF this enterprise bear in their
respe tive communities is a sufficient
guarantee of the success of any under
| taking they may have in hand.
| Biuffton has been selected as the site
of the new university which, under the
! auspices of the Methodist EpiScO-
| ing educational institution of the
i South. The main building. which is to
be constructed of stone and brick, will
| be 800 feet long and five stories high,
| and without doubt one of the finest ed
| ucational buildings in the country. Sc
/ lected. as BlufftOn was, after several
| wears of careful investigation by DIR. q.
T.. Mann, superintendent of education
| of the Methodist church, because of its
| superior advantages in climatic, sani-
| tary and scenic conditions. there will
| be drawn to 1t thousands of people to
| take advantage of this institution of
1 learning. Here men can engage i'll
| profitable business enterprises and pro-
| vide homes for their families.
| The great tide of immigration and in
| vestment that was formerly Westward
has now fairly turned to the South, and
happy will be he who goes in the van.
| Homes and fortunes can be made in
/ the next five years with less eXerti0n
and less risk than IN any other section
of our country. Sectional prejudice has
worn away, and Northern people are
/ cordially welcomed and royalty treated.
1t is confidently believed that invest
ments made in Bluffton at the coming
sale will double in value within ninety
days; the policy of the company will be
! very liberal, and free sites will be given
to manufacturing enterprises wishing to
locate here; the company will also take
stock in any meritOrlous enterprise
which will establish plant at Blutfton.
Excursion rates will be granted on all
| raadc IN the 22d at one fare for the