The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-05-25

miles of here handled proportionately as
much. Most of this produce is shipped to
Birmingham.
The plant of the Standard Stove Works
is located here. This concern started
in a small way six years ago, and are
now turning out between 90 and 10 COM
plete stoves, both cooking and heating,
daily, besides n large quantity OF hollow
ware Frank Rodgers, the superintend-
Ont of this Industry and who is per-
haps the most successful stove plate man.
ufacturer In the South, was telling me
this morning that they were now ship
ping stoves on orders In car load lots,
which Is very unusual for this time OF the
year. They were loading a solid car OF
stoves this morning for birmingham
! concern.
Mr. frank Rodgers. besides being SUI
nerintendent of the stove works, model
citizen and all round good fellow, is also
president of the Standard Lime Company
of this place, manufacturers OF the fine
| building lime with an annual capacity Of
| 100 900 barrels, and he Is as successful In
| the manufacture of lime as he is In the
perfect production of stove castings.
A branch of the Caldwell Foundry &
Machine Company of Toledo Ohio, was
recently located here. This concern
makes a speciality of the manufacture
of heating furnaces. They will soon In
| crease their force to several hundred
men, and 1t Is now regarded as one of
| the permanent institutions of Fort
| Payne.
There Is also located here one of the
| largest potteries in the state, but which
is not now in operation. This offers a
| splendid inducement to parties with a
little capital and plenty of progressive
ness, as the clays found In this region
| are said to be of the finest character
for the manufacture of all pottery prod
ucts. A large fire clay works is another
| idle industry which Colonel Traphagan,
who Is controlling 1t and other large in
terests in this section. promises to start
up in a very short while.
Fort Payne has one of the handsomest
hotels In the state. the DeKalb, which
has 125 rooms and every room an out
side room. 1t is under the direction of
mine hostRainey. who. besides being a
| good hotel man, Is said to be the hand
soonest man in all of North Alabama.
was talking with Mr.. w. w. Russell
| the mayor of the city and one of the
| largest merchants here today. In speak
| ing of the general Improvement and ad-
vancement of Fort Payne. Mr.. Russell
said: II consider the prospects of this
city never better. Taking for example
the increase of my business this year
| over last, which is about 40 per cent for
| the first five months, and which Is a
| fair indication of the general increase
in prosperity in this section, it certainly
seems to me that we will soon take our
place among the first towns in the state
| We can offer any inducement here to be
| found elsewhere, and much more. We
| have the finest climate and purest water
to be found anywhere. Living is cheap
and lands are cheaper. In fact, our
| land hereabouts has been too cheap
which in former years tended to draw a
class of undesirable farmers both from
the North and the South, who after pur-
| chasing a few acres of land, had no
money to operate on, and apparently did
not want any, and who were a drawback
rather than a help But I am glad to
say that the shiftless class have about
| all disappeared, and their places are
being taken by farmers of energy and
enterprise. The raising of fruits and
vegetables have begun here In a small
way and l believe will soon be one of
the most important enterprises of this
section. The possibilities of farms of
| this character here are unlimited.
! know of one party who is now prepar-
| ing to plant 40 acres in liberia peaches
and this Is but the beginning of what
| will be a few years hence.