The age-herald., 1898-02-17
 WITH CARNIVAL,
 FEAST AND DANCE AnniStOn Has Her Sixteenth Birthday
 Party. TEN THOUSAND VISITORS Present to JOlliiy With the Model City
 Over Its Good Fortune. WAS AN INFANT 16 YEARS AGO Now Thriving City of Fifteen Thousand Inhab- itants-Ruins of the Old Woodstock Char coal Furnace, From Which the City
 Sprang, Still Standing.
WAS AN INFANT IS YEARS ACC
Special to The Age-Herald.


 ented founders of Anniston-Samuel Noble
 and Daniel Tyler-iyede until today they would have seen the supreme effort of their lives crowned With the most glorious
 success.
 When those two sturdy souls came into this region of hills less than quarter of a century ago they found wilderness. They touched the ground with the magic of their energy and out of that wilderness they
 caused to grow city which stands today monument to their energy, generosity and forethought.
 Sixteen years ago the furnace village of "Woodstock' ceased to exist and the city of Anniston began to assume shape and to take on the airs of manufacturing city. With each succeeding year the town has grown in beauty, in importance and in size.
 The metamorphosis from a mountain vil lage to manufacturing city has been complete. The hills have yielded up their riches and the town has been the bene- fciary. Today Anniston invites compari- son and criticism. The boast of her people is that they have a "model city," and all who come here from the outside world readily agree with the justly proud Annis- tonians.
 Sixteenth Anniversary Today Anniston is celebrating its six teenth birthday. The event is one of ex- traordnary importance to Anniston, and of unusual interest to thousands of people in Alabama and Georgia Never before was sixteenth birthday observed in such | magnificent style. Never before have so many people so spontaneously and so cor dially extended the compliments of the sea- son to sixteen-year-old municipality. After many weeks of aborious prepara.- tfon and the liberal, almost lavish expendi- n hrthd hdotx No,tx, has been given. To that party had been invited the world-at-large, with especial in- vitations to the people of Alabama and Georgia. The invitation was accepted by ! many. They came, ten thousand strong, from far and near, and tonight the closing scene of most successful and enjoyable
 birthday party is being enacted. The car nival ball is in progress and to the soft strains of inspiring music the youth and beauty of the land are dancing away the closing hours of Annistons most memora- ble day.
 Sixteen years ago when the plans for building here model manufacturing and commercial city were put into execution, it was determined that whatever was done in Anniston should De we'll done Before the town was thrown open to settlers, while it was yet the property of the Woodstock Iron company, streets and pavements had been laid, school houses. churches, busi- ness blocks, factories and water works erected, and it was all done in the most substantial manner.
 City Without Ruins Today Anniston is a city without ruins save one-that of the old Woodstock char coal furnace, which, having outlived it's usefulness, stands as a sentinel over the city which its labors brought into being The old furnace is the Mecca of sight seers, and today hundreds have visited it's
 ruins. No furnace in the land has more
 remarkable record. Few have proven as profitable. The men whose generosity has added to the glory and magnifcence of Anniston derived their fortunes from it.
 From 1t grew the town and it's fame was almost world wide before the same of An niston had been originated.
 One of the principal features of today's
 celebration was the carnival parade and
 trades display. It was unique in every
 particular and was received with interest
 by not less than thirty thousand people,.
 On Noble street, near Twelfth, there had
 been erected by one of Anniston's public
 spirited citizens MT. William H. Zinn a
 large reviewing stand From this stand,
 which commanded most excellent view
 of the parade, were a hundred or more
 of the distinguished visitors to the city,
 among them Governor Johnston, Gen.
 Roy E. Stone, Hon. Seaborn Wright anl5
 other noted men,
 In the parade were. one hundred floats
 representing the various manufacturing
 and commercial interests or AnnlStOn
 military companies from Rome. Ga Gads-
 den, Oxford and Anniston, six companies
 in all; fire companies from Oxford and
 Anniston, picturesque horseback riders
 from the neighboring hills and valleys,
 gaily decked bicycles and citizens in car
 rages. Two brass bands furnished music
 for the occasion and every one who saw
 the parakle contributed to the enhhms-
 iasm.
 Exhibition Drills
 After the parade there were exhibition drills by the military companies and fire companies, and at 12:30 a free dinner was given to the visitors.
 The exercises at the opera house began shortly after 2 o'clock and consisted of
 eloquent addresses by Hon. Seaborn Wright, of Rome, Ga., and Hon. John w. Abercrombie, state senator from this dis trfct and president of the Southern Female seminary, in this city.
 Senator Abercrombie, in his address, gave
 the following brief resume of Anniston's development:
 "In 1872 Samuel Noble and his brothers John w. and William Noble, together with Gen. Daniel Tyler and his sons, A. l.. and E. L. Tyler, formed the Woodstock Iron company. For many years prior to the formation of the company, the Nondes, who were born in England had resided in Rome Ga, where they were known for their integrity, for their energy, for their
 intelligence, and for their true worth. When the Nobles came, Rome lost DOT tion of her best citizenship.
 "The Tylers, also of English ancesty,
 came from Connecticut. and were men of
 high moral character. of unsullied family
 standing, and of extraordinary business
 sagacity The Tylers have been benedic-
 tion to this section. U,
 For many years after the founding of
 the Woodstock Iron company, no one else
 owned a foot of land upon which the city
 now stands. The name of the place was
 first called woodstock. Afterwards is was
 changed to Anniston, a contraction of An
 nie's town. in honor of the accomplished
 wife of MT. A. L. Tyler.
 About sixteen years ago the place had
 attracted so much attention. its matchless