The age-herald., 1901-07-28
Secretary Gibson Gives Some h. terestiOg Figures on the h.
 dustriaI Situation
PEN PICTURE OF 30 YEARS AGO
Birmingham Was Then a Wilderness Without Railroads-Tuscaioos Was the Nearest Market-A
 List of industries.

To the Editor of the Age-Herald-It is with extreme reluctance that I undertake at this late day, Friday, to comply with your request that I write an article on Birmingham for your Industrial Edition of Sunday, 18th, for the reason that I will be unable in so short time, after at tending to my other duties, to suggest anything new, or that has not been all ready covered many times by the daily press of the city
 Many things might be said, but my sto- ry shall be confined to the industrial and commercial development of the dis- trict during the past, with some suggest ions as to the future
 In order to appreciate more fully Bir- mingham of today, 1t Is well to review the conditions which obtained during the period when it was founded.
 Thirty years ago the territory known as the Birmingham district was a wilderness without railroads or other means of transportation which would even suggest industrial development The good people living here then were en- gagged in agricultural pursuits They used and enjoyed but few things which were not the products of their own la .bors. Their nearest market WI Tusca- loosa, to which they hauled their cotton in wagons drawn by mules or oxen over .. dirt roads which were generally in such a condition as to render the journey te- dious and vexatious. In common with the people of other sections of the South rol- lowing the civil war, they were discour- aged and bankrupt. The farms had been laid waste and their homes were In ruin anl desolation. It was hard for old men Af.1 k4Nw. r O fortunes, while young men found them selves not only deprived of the accumu- lated wealth of a generation and with out capital but confronted with social, economic and political problems new and untr1ed and for which there was abso- lutely no precedent. There was such uni- versal need for thought and labor In re- building homes, maintaining cherished in- stitutions and bring system and order out of chaos and confusion that little atten- ton could be given to Industrial improve nent.
 Coal Abundant.
 It had long been known that coal was abundant in the district, but with no railroads to transport 1t and no factories to consume it, the local blacksmith was the only man who was specially interest ed In 1t. It was also generally known that iron ore was plentiful, but without
  Iy wished the Paint Rock out of the way so that cotton would grow better.
 At this time Jefferson County was con- sidered one of the poorest and most back ward in the state. The auditors report for the fiscal year ending June 50, lSiO, shows its total assessed property valua- ton to be only s, ,34O, ,734o0 and that not a single share of stock in an incorporated company or single mile of railroad ap- pears in the assessment, while the stocks of merchandise in the entire county were assessed for the small sum of $42,OOO.
 The census of 1870 gave the county a population of 12, 345.
 The building of what are now known as the Alabama Great Southern rail- road and the Louisville and Nashville railroad concentrated public attention to this district.
 Thorough examinations and tests were made and it was found that at the top of Red Mountain one could stand on a vein of red ore A feet thick and see the great Warrior coal fields on one side and the Cahaba and Coosa on the other with limestone and dolomite in in exhaustible quantities in the valleys, all in such proximity as to guarantee the production of pig iron cheaper than at any other place on the globe.
 Further Investigation showed that this vein of red ore extended along the line of the A. c. s. R. R. for l6O miles and that brown ore was abundant in all North Alabama while the country aboun- ded in sand, sandstone. marble, ochre, kaonne and clays suitable for making pottery, tile. common and pressed brick, paving and fire brick
 The prospect was so glorious and bright that development had to come. Inexperience and poverty could hold 1t back no longer.
 Under the leadership of Col John R. Powell, the Elyton Land Co.,, was or ganized and the city of Birmingham was laid out with the prophecy that 1t would soon grow to be great city and become the center of industrial develop ment in the South.
 The Early Furnaces.
 There were small charcoal furnaces built in Alabama before the war, notable among which was the furnace of the Shelby Iron Works, which made the can non mounted on the old battleship Ala bama. The real development of the iron industry in Alabama began soon after the founding of the city of Birmingham in July, 1871, and the growth of the one has since that time been the exponent of the