The age-herald., 1900-04-22
Her Present Wonderful Proportions and Future Possibilities Gaph-
 ca|y Described in Pen Picture,

and building brick 50.0O0; men employed, 70; capital invested, $50,OOO
 Sheppard Lumber company-Saw and blaming mills, 20,000 feet lumber; men em- ployed, 60; capital invested, s25, ,OOO.
 Ensley Wood Working company-Planing mills, 15,000 feet lumber; men employed, 25; capital invested, s10,000
 Steel Casting works-F'ifty tons; men em- ployed. 150; capital invested, s125.0O0.
 Raibel & Co.-Staves. kegs and barrels, 5,000 kegs; men employed, 75; capital in- vested, $50,000.
 About 5000 men, who are producers are daily at work, with a pay roll of $30O,O0O per month; and $9,0OOOOO invested here in manufacturing enterprises.
 Does the reader wonder then that Ensley Is attracting so much attention at home and abroad?
 Shifting Scene
 How the scene has shifted; and how unerring was the prophetic finger which pointed to this spot as the site of a great manufacturing center, which would one day eclipse anything of the kind upon the American continent. This is not your cor respondents first visit to Ensley. He was here in 1894 during the progress of that unfortunate strike, when the Ensley that now is was a military camp. His reco- lection is that there were three buildings here then, and these three still stand. To them have been added more than one thousand. There was no sign of industrial work-no sound of the steam whistle, the saw, hammer and trowel. The tread of the feet of the volunteer soldier boys, the camp chats around the tents, and the whispering winds sounding through the then thickly wooded forests, were the onl sounds that broke the silence of the day Still they called it "Ensley City, and few men were willing to stake a dollar upon, the forlorn prospect of this ever becoming even a crossroads town.
 fntorcai F cts
 The inside history of the town of Ensley will interest your readers In about the year 1886. Col. Enoch Ensley, now deceased (peace to his ashes, for he was great man), was president of the Tennessee Loal Iron & k. k. Company. He set Hart some 4O0O acres of land belonging me Tennessee company for the site of me- chanics town. He then organized the Ensey Land company and deeded to 1t the 4,O00 acres in exchange for its capital stock Later little less than majority of ths stock was sold to the public. The balance still remains among the assets of the Ten nessee Coal and Iron company.
 . ,.udtI Town
 In building this town Coionel Ensley pro- posed to carry out all the modern ideas for a model mechanics town. His personal friend, MT. George Pullman became inter- ested in the undertaking, and all of the papers providing for the location of the southern works of the Pullman Palace Car company at Ensley were agreed upon and signed Having regard for the lm- mense value of such holding of land on the edge of the great Warrior coal fields, the trustee trust company declined to per init the bonus of the Ensley Land stock provided for to be given to MT. Pullman, and the plan adopted by Messrs Pullman carried out.
 The necessity of providing superior ac- commoda tions for the operatives of the mines, coke ovens and blast furnaces was fully recognized even at that early date by Colonel Ensley, whose wisdom and foresight has long since been recognized by this district Failing to carry out his plans with MT Pullman. Colonel Ensley set about the development in the town 10 which he had given his name, plans look ing to the production at this point of an output of pig iron, which in point of cost of production and in point of output should set high mark for the iron world. Back of all this lay his cherished hope of pro- ducing steel in all of it's forms. and in record making cost and quantity right here at Ensley.
 Patunca and Progress By slow and at times by painful process | the officers of the Tennessee company | have progressed with this work. It took | some years for MT. Baxter to convince the | world that southern iron was good iron. | It took many more years of patient labor before MT. Baxter completed the next step l of making the world know that the south ern basic iron was as good steel iron as | the world produced. Only those on the inside knew the long struggle against prejudice and competing interests which finally eliminated in what Is now com | monly called the new steel plant. Yet it | is not new. It is the visible evidence, of | tot -,rlr rxrnt oh preceded it. Not until 5O0OOO tons of steel making iron had been marketed with the 1 steelmakers of the world did MT. Baxter hazard the making of steel here.
 In brief Colonel Ensley at the time | of his lamented death building a monu- ment this city, which should dictate prices | of iron and steel to the entire world; his | basis being the fact that from within a ! radius of ten miles his town could draw coal, iron ore and limestone in inexhausti- ble quantities while his freight rate to the sea would shut out all competition on ex- i pot business.
 1 It Is to this spirit of conservatism that 1 the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company owes its present strong position These plans clearly defined and well known | to those in control have been the influ- ence which for so many years has kept the Ensley Land company's holdings out 1 of the market
 The clearness of the judgment which fixed the site of Ensley is evidenced by the building up just outside the property lines of the Ensley Land company's hold ings of three distinct towns: Pratt City | with 5000 population: Vivian with 220t i and Averett with 500. These attest the de- mand for lands at this point. The amazing i growth of Ensley from 400 population r 1898 to 5000 at the present time is some i indication of how rapid development ol | the original plan may be expected Enslay a Macnet
 Within a few years we will witness one