The age-herald., 1898-04-10

With her many natural advantages, with her population of live, go-ahead business men, it has been predicted that Demopolis shall one day be the Manchester to Mo- biles Liverpool, and this prediction is very likely to become a reality. One thing that is badly needed-more railroads. But this is being supplied. A road extending from Demopois to Pensacola, Fla. is now being constructed and when completed it will open up very rich section for the "Clty of the People," The future of this city is indeed bright.
 Just short sketch of the early settle ment of Demopolis will be of much inter- est Its early history furnishes romantic reading. It was founded in ISIS, by French colony. A writer says the excel lent site for town was first noticed by the Spanish explorer Hernando De soto, who, in 1540, fought the battle of Manhela, on the north bank of the Alabama river, not far from this point, where he met the mighty chief, Tuscaloosa, and slew 900 of his braves. The following short sketch is quoted from Wm. F. Sayner:
 After St. Helena had received into it's imposing care the man whose name would have gone down to imperishable memory as representing alone the Hero of the Alps, Louis XVIII. undertook the eplsodicai task, cruel in it's vigorous persistence, of driving Napoleon's followers out of France. Multitudes of them came to America. Philadelphia welcomed some, and in that city a society was formed which had Tor its aim the permanent settlement of French refugees on American soil. The f deral government was asked for concessions of land. It was hoped by the applicants that they would be enabled to colonlZe and live together under conditions resembling and reminding them of their own country in it's peaceful and palmy days. While they were destined to partially realize these hopes they were unhappiy doomed to experi- ence harpships which kept them for years in a state well-ngh bordering upon de5- peration.
 The government allotted them four town ships on fourteen years credit at $2 Ter acre, it being stipulated that thsy would cultivate the vine and olive. There were some three hundred and forty allottees who decided to settle near the confluence of
 the Tombigbee and Warrior rivers in this section of the sunny south.
 The party chartered a schooner and set sail, reaching Mobile Point one May eve ming in 1918. After a narrow escape with their lives from shipwreck, and lay over of several days at Mobile, they proceeded up the river on barge furnished by Adkin Lewis, collector of the port, visiting. en route, Judge Tolmain at Fort Stoddart General Gaines at Fort Montgomery, and MT. George A. Gaines, who was then Unit ed States Choctaw factor at old Fort Tom Beckbe, from all of whom they received hospitable treatment.
 Resolving to establish themselves in the neighborhood of the White Bluffs, then an immense forest of trees and cane, inter- spersed with prairie, they began to erect rude cabins and homes for the'r families At this period the Choctaw Ind ans had possession of the west side of the Tom bigby and the Creeks of the east.
 Now came the hour of trial. Not only was there considerable confusion in the se- lection of lots, but it was afterwards found hot Df I1A44 T been made by the Philadelphia Vine and Olive company, were not those selected by the refugees, and on which thy had made Improvements Time and time again were these poor French people dprived of their lands and driven further back into the for ests.
 Meanwhile a town had been laid out. which, at the suggestion or request of Count Real, of Philadelphia, was called Demopolis-City of the People-which after wards was proved not to be in the town ships of the French grant, and which was later on purchased from the government by an American company at $52 per acre. Here is an anamoly in social development that people who had been accustomed to city life, and were, therefore, seemingly qualified to build up town of proportions, were so unbusiness-like as to lose their grip on such a noble location for a city as Demopolis, allowed themselves to be ban- ished further into the woods, where they once more took up the tangled threads of their existence, only, alas! to re-encounter the bitter experience of being deprived of their lands by the superior stealth. cum ming, if you like intelligence, of another race. Strange anomaly, indeed.
 But these Frenchmen were not qualified to transform the wids of Alabama into fertile farms and plantations. They were unprovided with the implements and con- veniencies requisite to conduct successful agriculture. They were unftted both by education, experience and intuition for the work of pioneers. They were all more fa- mliar with the etiquette and fine manners of court life than the barbarsm of prime val forests, and, owning slaves, they experienced the greatest difficulty in trans- forming their woods into cultivated tracts. They struggled to keep faith with the gov ernment but finally found it impossible to cultivate the vines and olives, which were killed each winter by the frosts. Poverty instead of prosperity ensued; the colony be- came wretchedly poor, and many sold their grants to Americans, who opened large plantations, and accomplished what the elegant, refined and honest French people were unable to do in thSse wondrous soli- tudes of the southwest. General Desnottes, of whom a more detailed personal account Is given elsewhere, was the most pros- porous of the colonists. but even he was indebted to remitances from France, where he had rich and influential connections, for the capital which enabled him to maintain his position in the colony.
 Thus the early history of Demopolis is entertaining, because it is bound up with the severe, long protracted struggles and final failure of exiles who were worthy of brighter fate It was not stormy in its character, although conflicts between the French and the Indians who resented the intrusion of the former upon their lands, frequently took place, the "Choc- Jaw Gallery receiving that name ~because f1,aH afcy aoda nf nal from which they fired down upon the boats bringing additions to the French set dement's as they approached the landing. The Tombigbee has had blood mingled with its crystal waters. for before western Ala, bama was settled there were sanguinary encounters between the Indians and the