The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13

I was the most destructive that had visited the town
 Cahaba's people left 1t as though 1t had
 been plague-stricken. Family after fauif- ly packed up their household goods and left for other places. Merchants sold out
 remnants of their stocks to other towns.
 The doors of business houses were locked
 and grass grew green In their doorways.
 The few families who loved their cd home, the town and its traditions and sought to remain among cd familiar
 scenes, found themselves deserted and
 lonely. Even these. one by one. reiuctant- iy left the scenes of happy memories Today only two white families live In
 deserted homes a widow of straitened cir- cumstances makes her home.
 On the outskirts of the old town in an impressive ante-bellurn home lives Clifton Kirkpatrick The Kirlxpatricxs own much of the rich and fertile prairie lands In and around Cahaba. To superintend these large planting interest Mir. Kirkpatrick with his family and three or four young assistants In business live in the old Barker house The house itself, which is the first noticeable point of interest on entertin the town along the Selma
 read has history. It was built during tho war by . proni- nent citizen of Cahaba oolloquiaIiy known as {"Shoestring's Barker. IL is of the old familiar Southern, type. two stories in height With big Corinthian columns in front. It was said to have been built at cost of between S2S.0o0 and 1o.ooa It's builder never lived day in the house. It was purchased a few years after the few hundred dollars.
 Much of the land within the corporate
 limits of old Cahaba b owned by thrifty negroes Many negroes live ln the old town. They mako their homes, some times in servant house of one of the old homes. sometimes in the old homes themselves, and again the brick buildings in the bushes portion of the city. There now remains eight or ten of the old brick buildings. and between thirty five and forty of the old residence6 rapidly
 faliiug into decay.
 Many oe the old homes and stores have been torn down and removed to other
 places. Several buildings in Selma were
 erected with material which was first
 used in Cahaba.
 The famous old Perrins home, the beau-
 ty of which is preserved in tradition was
 torn down several years ago for utilition purposes. It was built bs Edward n. Perrine, a wealthy merchant of Cahaba
 at cost, it is said. of Si00ooO. MT. Perrfne, 1t is said. brought decorators from New York to beautify it's interior. Today a pile of bricks and the wilderness Of the ones extensive and beautifui grounds are all that remain of it's former glorleg. tts
 n a trip through the town the remains If the sito of the old homes of the Bao- cocks the yassers. the Trcys. the Tay- lore. the Wcodsusthe Evans, the Craass and others are stiiI pointed out THE OLD CE1EETERx.
 h q iittls rise to the west of the site Of the town ln tDcated the. old cemetery. | lfi Espt aqi tangled. but beautiful still ! GenttesNd fhrouaii it are expeneivs Iron fences ana costly niohttnetitss erected n | uthar days. A lew squares clean and l orderly chow that in their absence some families remember the resting place of | then dead Tn the past ten years some new graves have been made The wlsns | of some former residents of the old town
 to be buried by the side of their loveo ones have been ohAeTved Their dust is | unouIdering with the dust cf Cahaoa. A. short distance away Is long. mar
 row excavation. This scar In the green
 eaarth 1t is explained was once the last
 resting place of number of Federal sol. aires. They died while several thousand | of them were prisoners of war In Ca | haba warehouse Some years after the
 war the Federal government had their remains disinterred and removed to national cemeteries.
 With all It's ruins the old town Is beautiful spot. After all these years the perennial flowers that adorned the hand- some yards of ante-bellum Cahaba struS-
 gle annually into bloom. The Cherokee