The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-29
m. OWENS LECTURE


 The members of the No Name Club were the hostesses to whom a large number of friends were indebted for m intellectual feast on Friday even Ing when under the auspices of the club Hon. Thomas M. Owen delivered nn illustrated lecture on Alabama his tory.
 The lecture was delivered in the au- ditorium of the Girls High School, and the sinterest of 1t was enhanced by the very efficient work of Mir. James west. who handled the stereopticon, and to whom MT. owen declares him- self deeply indebted for such impor- tant and able assistance.
 The first picture thrown on the can vas was an old map of Alabama, tax en from an Atlas of 1923. It was very curious and interesting, and illustrated the wonderful growth of the State Tn the intervening years While it was exposed Mir Owen gave brief outline and sketch of the State, in which he said:
 .'Stretching over an area of more than 52.000 square miles, in latitude which has witnessed the greatest achievements of man, with history cn-extensive with the known history of the two Americas. Alabama is not only first in the alphabetical roll of States, she is pre-eminently first in all of the excellencies of great common wealth. She abounds in wealth of farm and forest and mine. Of con- genial climate, her soil yields in rich abundance, and the husbandman had plenty and to spare. Historically we antedate the English settlements of the Atlantic seaboard; and long before the landing at Jamestown and Ply mouth Rock, De Soto with his steel clad warriors and white-stoled priests, passed like an angry meteor across the State. Afterwards came the settlement by the French at Mobile, the oldest city on the Gulf coast. On our soil for unnumbered generations. lived parts of the four greatest of the Indian tribes : the Creeks. Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws. Along our Southern border in the first years of the cen tury, Aaron Burr, former vice presi- dent, and then an escaping fugitive from the courts, was captured and by brave Alabamians, conducted to Rich mond for his dramatic trial. Alabama was more rapidly settled after the ex- tinguiushment of the Indian title to the public lands, and passed more rapidly from territorial pupilage than any other State. In our borders was built in 1880, 1881 and 1882 the first railroad track west of the Alleghany noun tains. She was the first of the cotton States to establish public school sys- tenn: and our legislature chartered the first female institution empowered to grant diplomas and confer degrees on women
 Following this in rapid succession came likenesses of De Soto, whose journey through Alabama territory has given us our first outlook on the early inhabitants of this region; LaSalle, the discoverer of the Mississippi river and It's first explorer; Iberville, the foun- der of Mobile, and the first Governor Of Louisiana, and Bienville, the build CT of Mobile and the mainstay of French influence on the Gulf for a haIf century In connection with these were next shown views of the tablet and monument erected in Mobile and on Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Alabama river respectively, by the citi- zens of Mobile to commemorate the 2o0th anniversary of the founding of that city The celebration took place Jan. 21 and 22, 1902. Then came a good view of oSe e the old cannon brought by Bienville 70 Fort Toulouse in l714, thss old relic k'eing now in the possess sion of the Department of Archives and History at the State Capitol through the generosity of Chief Adolph Gerald.
 The likeness of Sir Robert Farmer,
 
 Nomination, which was next shown, was taken from recently discovered miniature in the possession of his des- cendants in Washington City. The fol- lowing tribute 10 Governor Farmer by Aubry. the French Governor at New OrReans was read by MT. Owen:
 nThis Governor of Mobile is an ex- traordinary man. As he knows that I speak English, he occasionally writes to me in verse. He speaks to me of Francis J and Charles " He compares Pontiak, an Indian chief, to Mithri dates; he says that he goes to bed with Fdontesquieu. When there occur some petty difficulties between the in- habituuts of New Orleans and Mobile, he quotes to me from the Magma Charta and the laws of Great Britain 1t Is said that the English ministry sent him to Mobile to get rid of him, because he was one of the hottest in the opposition. He pays me handsome comuliments, which I duly return to him, and, upon the whole, he Is a man of parts, but a dangerous neighbor, against whom 1t is we'll to be on ones guard"
 The pioneer days of our history, from the formation of the Mississippi territory in 1TS9 up to the creation of Alabama territory, were presented in d most interesting way The views cov- erfng this period were Ephraim Kirby, first Superior Court judge in what is now Alabama: Aaron Burr, Vice Pres fdent of the United States, who was captured in Alabama in the early days of the last century; a realistic view of the massacre of Fort Mims in 1913; Pusbmataha, the greatest of the Choc- faw Indian chiefs; the Canoe fight in ISIS on the Alabama river; Gen. An drew Jackson and Gen. John Coffee leaders in the Creek War; the dra- matic surrender of Weatherford, "the Red Eagle" to Gen. Jackson at Fort Jackson: and the grave of Osceola, chief of the Seminoles, native of Ma con county, Ala.
 The territory of Alabama was form ed in 1877. From that date up to the war between the States MT. owen gave an unusually unique collection of views, a large number never before . known. These embrace Mt. Vernon: Fort Morgan, facsimile of the title page of the Journal of the first ses- sion Of the Legislative council of the AIaharna territory, 1873. which body consisted of but a single member, James Titus, of Madison county; Will liam R. King, one of Alabama's first United States Senators and later Vice President of the United States; view Of Cahaba, the first State capital, showing a dilapidated and struggling row of old buildings, which since the picture was taken have disappeared, leaving nothing whatever of a once