The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-18
THE DOOM OF CAHABA,
The Once Gay Capital OF Alabama
WHIPPED Off The Map.

Ex-slave the Purchaser and $3.50
the Price.
From the St. Louis Republic.
Birmingham, Ala, Feb. S.-Perhana
the irony and the pathos of fate vera
never more strikingly exemplifed than
in sheriff's sale at Selma last Monday
The town site Of Cahaba, once the cafi.
| tai of the state and the center of an onu.
lent slaveholding aristocracy, was sold tn
satisfy taxes. The buyer was Henry
| Freeman, an eX-slave, and he paid S550
On the purchase are dozen houses, tyo
or three brick stores among the number.
but these will be torn down and the town
lots will be turned into cotton farm or
patch, " as it would have been contemptu.
ously styled in ante-bellum times.
BEAUTIFUL HOMES.
Situated at the confluence of tina
Cahaba and Alabama rivers, itonce ranked
among the important inland towns of tina
South. In the midst of the famous "black
| belt'' here the planters, whose thousands
OF fertile acres stretched for miles on
| either side of the broad and beautiful
Alabama, built their homes in the
architecture of the south of that day
| with broad verandas and wide halls and
| many windows. The grounds about each
were extensive, as they must have been
| to afford room for the quarters of the
numerous servants, the stables and other
| outbuildings. The cape jasmine and the
+ myrtle grew into trees in the gardens
! The mock orange and the Cherokee rose
! fringed the streets and made fences Of
! little use.
| PALACES THERE WERE.
! Some of the Weather reared piles OF
! brick after the fashion of the villas of old
/ England, and few others yet whose in
/ comes were princely dwelt in veritabla
/ palaces Of stone and marble, in the midst
OF parks, with winding drives bordered by
seml-tropical flowers, wet with the spray
of flashing. fountains. Here lived the
proudest families in the history of that
day and some of whom are yet powerful
in the affairs of the new era the Nor
gans. the Craigs, the Pettuses, the Dawsons
and others of greater or less celebrity
William l., Yancey's home was in
Lowndes county, just across the river,
and his was familiar figure on the
streets of the town.
BARoNIAL HOSPITALITY.
| During the sessions of the Legislature
every citizen kept open house. The law.
makers came with retinues of servants
and were welcomed with baronial hos
pitahty. Beauties of Dixie flocked
thither TO dance upon the waxened floors
and gallants in all their bravery to pay
court. There were state calls and din.
ners and weddings and duels galore. It
might be said that lawmaking was an
incident to the merry-making.
When the capital was removed to Tusca.
loOsa Cahaba lost prestige at first, but II
she was no longer the political Mecca, she
became still more the nucleus of wealth
and culture. Her trade was of no incon.
cfC s,N vol l.,
ers disdalned to ship their cotton to others
than tho factors of Mobile, who in turn
furnished all their yearly supplies, the
fifty and one hundred bale men, thrifty
farmers of tho middle class, bought and
sold III Cahaba. A feet of palatial steam.
ers, second only in appointment, if at all,
to those OF the Mississippi, piled the Ala.
bama, and the hoarse whistle of a descend
ing boat scarcely died away before the
BLUFFS around the bend echoed the
measured pufs of an upward-bound
craft.
DURING THE WAR.
! Such was Cahaba when the confede.
racy was born at Montgomery, hundred
and odd miles up the river. Though far
removed from the conflict, the shadow
fell upon her, too. Her men WENT to the
front and by and by her women wore
black and were red eyed as they stood
over the handmaidens as they wove the
homespun or plated the palmetto and
straw
The southernmost prison of the confed-
eracy was established here q tall grim
stockade, upon a high bluff, overlooking
the river. It's inmates always, a
goodly number, did not have to endure
the privatiOus of their comrades at An
derso1yille, but many boy in blue died
before his exchange came. The battle OF
Selma, 10 miles away, was the nearest
that actual war came; a raid by portion
OF Wilson'S cavalry and the visit of fleet
OF transports after the fall of Mobile were
the only occasions when the enemy in
arms was present.
REWARD FOR LINCoLN's HEAD.
All the same, Cahaba figured in a minor
way in the eliminating tragedy Of
the assassination of Lincoln. A year be-
fore DR.. Gayle, an eccentric individual,
had posted placards in all that country,
Offering 81 900 reward for the head Of
one Abe Lincoln" Immediately after
the assassination he was arrested and
incarcerated in Fort Warren. The
scaffold or Dry Tortugas seemed inevIta-
BILE; but his wife, with sublime courage,
FASTENED to Washington. For six weeks
she sought, amid scenes that were utterly
strange, not to say terrifying, an audience
with the President. Then Andy johnson
heard her, pardoned her husband and she
came home with him.
AN EXPIRING GASP.
The war over, new life was infused into
Cahaba. The empty shelves of the stores
were restocked with fresh and oftentimes
strange goods. The busting yankee
came TO buy cotton and traffic with the
natives. A daily paper made its
appearance and there was money in
plenty to purchase all that was offered
for sale.
But this prosperity was but the precur'
sor Of the doom OF Cahaba. Selma. her
rival, had railroads and the river
Cahaba, the river only People began TO
move to the more favored place. At last,
by popular vote, the county seat was
transferred. A hegira followed Many OF
the costly mansions were torn down 70
be regretted Ia the successful city.
Others were left TO the tenantcy Of the BAT
and the owl and the shiftless freedman.
Year by year the small remainder OF
population was diminished by death ana
removal, and now the blow Of the auc-
tioneer's hammer has Obliterated CANADA