The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-07
AnpEvILLE SOUTHERN.
MIN Over the Line-Sketches of
! LIZ ~ the Thriving Towns.


Las OIsssant trip over the Abbeville Southern
pp.;Iroad. made with a party of Thomas
r a. conitalists, as the guests Of Presi-
VIZ e McLendon, of the Abbeville
uoI. .,orn The party was met by Supt.
SCUM of the Alabama Midland, at
p,ISthaTi1le junction, with number of
AI otGIs1len from Montgomery. We were
gs gen at the depot by a depnta-
ne ne of citizens of Aobeville,
StIsaded by. Col. j. w; Foster
anu ", ST tleSrtained. The AbbeviIle Southern
by anIv recently been ready for traffic.
Ia3 V won tv-seven miles long, connecting
II d ,1obama Midland with Abbeville, and
, s!o Entirely in Henry county, Alabama.
Ies .,a-,s M, one Of the finest farming sec
~ UT Alabama and makes it properly
. aGs,1 TO Savannah. Henry county
y. yerv large and fertile county. 1t is 60
Lsiias long and viii average "A miles in
Lli5tb living in the extreme southeastern
.rner 0f the state. 1t adjoins jackson
county in Florida While the ChatLahoo-
w. w. liver divides it from Decatur, Early,
CioI, and Ouitman counties in Georgia.
nv nv nonulation of the county is %, 600 and
I. = en- large that it has the novelty of
~ conrt houses, one at Abbeville and
wv at Columbia. The records of the
O onTntv are kept at the former place, but
oOurt is held at both places. Around Alb
S SoviIIe and for a third of the county the
iord is rich red clay
mixed with considerable coarse
sond and splendidly adapted to cotton.
These lands are mostly cleared, and COM
nose large plantations titled by white
po noDts The landlords have not aban-
Soned their plantations here as in some
cher sections. The other two-thirds of
tbe county are pine lands, not naturally
sn fertile and not so billy. These pine
lands we're once considered worthless,
and IL was not until after the war that
thew we're entered upon as government
lands and settled. The settlers have
nrOspered and multiplied until at the
present time the pine sections bid fair TO
outstrip in prosperity and development
The older and more aristocratic portions
Of the county. The price of land ranges
from S. to SO per acre. Henry
county has 10 beats or voting precincts,
70 towns. chief of which are Dothan, Co
lumbia, Abbeville. Gordon and Headland.
If has eleven railroad stations
and dozen steam boat land
inps on the Chattahoochee river.
Abbeville, though not the largest, is the
oldest town and the county site. 1t is a
charming and quiet little old-fashioned
country town of 700 people, being
40 miles from the Florida lime,
p miles to Columbia and Is to
Fort Gaines; % to Eufaula, all on the
river; q miles to the main line of Ala
bama Midland, $40 miles to Montgomery,
and 1856 70 Savannah. 1t has au elevation
of 700 feet, and looks from a distance of
three or four miles like village of cliff
dwellers set upon the edge of hill. The
water is free stone, the climate salubrl-
Gus, being almost free from malaria. The
people are unusually well-to-do educated
and refined. Just sixty-one years ago Alb
beville began its history. The early set
tiers came from Georgia and pitched their
tents in this goodly land. The benignant
climate and generous soil has produced a
race of superior men and women.
The little city lays secluded from
the great rushing world without, genial
and kind and helping, like a large
healthy family. The dwellings spread
themselves out in old-time style, scorn-
ing to pile story on story, in yards large
enough for small farms. The merchants
stores especially, seem as wide as they
are long, with roofs protruding over long
verandas in front, and expansive gables
facing sJreetward.. On these veraEdas
two generations of yeomanry have gath
cred and talked crops and whitfield white
pine boxes for siXty-one years agone.
But these things shall change now. The
railroad has come, and the railroad will
put new ideas into mems heads. They
even do say the depot master makes the
people pay the freight, aye, cash
down before the goods are let
CO. 1t really does seem a pity
10 spoil so pretty picture-but
let US take hope-from the ruins will
spring tairer and prouder and stronger
olty-even as sweet flowers and nutri-
tlous corn lift themselves out of the rot
ung bodies OF their predecessors. ...s
Inc Aooeville of to-day has thirteen
business houses, four lawyers, four doc
tors ana two preachers, one newspaper,
ana 700 people. The iron horse has
powed a huge furrow in the towns main
street. and the crop will soon be $500 peo-
PIE, with merchants and lawyers, aud
doctors, preachers and teachers and all
manner OF other mortals. Yes, the iron
morse mas come at last and 1900 souls
gatnered to see him on his first appear
ahGe-brawny sons of the soil, old wives
ana little children. They came from the
L quarters-from the valleys and the
s atlis OF old Henry, 2,000
strong, and camped amid the old
Uans Where the iron monster
rested tethered to the strong steel bands
and breathing hot steam from its fiery
uOsIflls. These primitive people came
1 enG saw and went away to ponder and
yak Of the new thing that had came to
pass. Ihey had waited long for this thing
I Inu worked for it, too, in their way. Away
oacA IN the sixties they tried TO build
a ROAD TO Fort Gaines and failed. Later
ley eSsayed towards Fort Gaines again
S nnu again failed. Nothing dauuted, the
N Man. enorI was to build the Eufaula and
s soI,ia railroad via Abbeville, with like
ho TaiV' s though the countyvoted and issued
ana liI - Ior Vhe purpose, Then the Eufaula
o1 15 Cldrk VIA Abbeville was attempted
~ abandoned. The next effort was the
he'll ana 81. Andrews Bay via, Alb
F.onie' which never materialiZed.
tba ~ disappointment had made
c ritz PEOPLE sick of heart. Sturdy little
a ,TvD were sprlnging up in a deadly circle
Tfo ~ ADDevllle, and were sapping its
fs;ts osoou' A few more years and its
absr5 5u sons would have been forced to
The aN SoI The pretty place to the owls and
mvs. oa!s' when word came from some
a Tos grlous poWer-some great man-that
heorS9 Wds 10 be built. The news was
wa WIN doubling and with hope. 1t
ipdood Tue That great mau-great,
wro,,o, oy the work which he has
MAJ 83O[H. B.. Plant had said it, and
admit, d. Durham, the indefatigable and
MidlaSa99 Ie superintendent of the Alabama
mncS onu, man who probably has as
WORT OK OK perlence in all lines Of railway
agar n RON the shop to the. general man
takat ~ as any man living, and who
WORT sI2eclat pride in always doing his
atelv sst sI la, as engineer-in-chief immedi-