The age-herald., 1900-08-05
BY LUCIEN JULIEN WALKER

BY LUCIEN JULIEN WALKER
 Fleeing from oppression and intolerance real or imaginary; themselves most prob ably of oppressive and intolerant spirit braving in poor hulks of little ships the perils of the ocean; landing on wild coast and struggling inland through primeval wildernesses peopled by savages; building in the shadow of the Appalachian mountains rudest huts of logs, toiling for the bread the forest refused them, and battling with murderous foes ceaselessly; with few books but their Bibles and few inspirations but such were born of their prayers; with their own virtues as examples and their own clear consciences as their mentors; with their hearts clean and stout and brave, and their own lives unspotted from the world offered as daily sacrifices; and with no ambition above human liberty and no purposes but hon. estyl
 Such is truth concerning some men and women who quilted our mother country to become pioneers in blazing pathways of development through the trackless wilds of Britain's possessions which now constitute the South Atlantic and Gulf States of the American Union; and the descendants of those brave spirits are now great forces In great Birmingham.
 .,IH . and their descendants of today constitute one of the most intensely interesting studies in all the range of sociology and economies. Their ancestors who found the : foothills of the Appalachian range grew :, restless, and one by one they followed the mountain southward, seeking for new ad- ' ventures, new fields of toll. and softer cline; fighting savages every step of their Way, and overcoming difficulties that would have broken hearts less brave. They i'x.,ap rhA orad nnfh h1rf Finally those pioneers reached the end of the mountain range, and here in Jeffer- son County they rested of their long jour- neyings from Thames and Tyne. Tweed and Shannon, across the sea, and through the wide world of American wilderness. And here they began to build their homes, to clear the land, to open roads, to erect schoolhouses and churches, and to estab- fish an orderly, industrious and vfrtuous community. Some of them doubtless knew of mines and mining in the old world, but they did not dream that they had come at the end of the mountain to build above and, near unto enough coal and iron to sup ply the world for centuries!
 These settlers of Jefferson prospered slowly; but their wants were few. Other folk from elsewhere came to take up the round of life amongst them, and to pros per and be happy. The soil was fertile, the climate incomparable. The number of in habitants increased until civil organization became necessary. The pioneers worked. to that end. Neighborhoods were organized, with head men. In time the neighborhood became the county; the county prepared the way for the State. The men who led these movements were powerful to lead; and all the honors the inhabitants had to give they gave to their real leaders.
 Jefferson County grew rapidly in popu- lation and expanded in development, and through the years as they came and sped the pioneers and their sons. and their sons descendants deserved the honors and the offices and received and filled them with integrity, straightforwardness and dis tipction These men led all the better move- ments and governed wisely and happily.
 The law-givers the law-makers, the law officers, the lawyers, the doctors. preach CTS, merchants, money-lenders, indepen- dent farmers-these were mostly the rep resentatiyes of those pioneers, the real first families of Jefferson County, whose sturd- ness of character, whose courage, intellect, sense of justice, and wisdom led them through. many a winding way over many an obstacle to the first places in a com munity of great achievements and of vastly greater promises!
 Our winter down twenty-nine years ago the old folk walked up to find Birmingham here in the valley. There was founded a new city with an old-world name and the blood of that ancient Birmingham over the sea still pulsing in this valley, the sin was not that of the old folk of Jeff ferson that this place amongst the south- ern hills of the Appalachian range was christened without rhyme reason with the ugly name of an ugly old English city, There were thousand beautiful native names that meant something to select