The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-18


 lives and farms among the hills. In the northern portion of Pickens are the hills. and there lives among the hiiis. the small farmer, the man or hmftea capital. who either carves his small farm out of the woods or buys 1t for a small amount which comes from the toll of himself and of his family.
 Dwellerx on the Plain.
 So in Pickens County here are the plains and here are the hils, and on the plains are the big estates and In the hills are the small farms and the cottage homes. On the plains the wealthy emigrants from the southern States of the Atlantic seaboard came and made the picturesque civilization which was so attractive to Jo Baldwin and of which the gifted Alabamian wrote in his Flush Times in Alabama. The Virginia, the North Carolinian, the Georgian, with the heritage of two cen- turies in the train of wagons that fol- lowed them came into the new Ei Dor ado of agriculture when Alabama was young and founded family dynasty, which in many instances has endured through the vicissitudes of the years. The whole section Is characterized by an air of solidity and of permanence. The large estates in most instances have been kept intact; they have each year furnished the family with the ac- 
 of education and refinement
 They were prosperous, these old plan tations in the sixty years or seventy years which intervened between their esta blishment and the coming sof the railroad. The coming of the railroad through that section ushers in new era which seems to clasp hands and have fellowship with the pioneer days, the old flush times" when money was easy and fortunes grew like Jo- nah's gourd. New towns have sprung up, the old plantation lands have jump ed forward in values and new mer- chants, clerks, farmers and professional men are moving into the new country along the railroad lines
 The line as originally planned by Mir. Cochrane went to the old county seat of Carrollton. New life came Into the town with it. Houses were built, stores were constructed and the scope
 of the towns business was widened.
 The road was then known as the Car rollton Short Line. It was pushed for ward two years ago for eleven miles to pierce the cotton plantations And in the midst of a cotton plantation the line stopped and on its terminal was
 built a new and lively town which was
 named Aliceville, in honor of Mrs. Coch-
 rane.
 It is an infant town, and as an in-
 fant town it is a subject of interesting study. The residence portion of the town has hardly been started. When
 town springs up suddenly the stores, the places of business, are first put to-
 gether, hotels are built and when the
 strain of the new energy wears off the
 business men take time to build homes.
 In the meanwhile the hotels are filled
 with people who come in to help do the
 business of the place and who can not | find accomm odations elsewhere.
 The Infant TOwn.
 The few residences that have been built in Aliceville are indicative of the permanence of the place. They are large, substantial and above the aver age cost of Alabama homes If the pace which has been set keeps up, AL icevflle may feel proud of the residence section of the place, as 1t is even now proud of the business portion.
 Less than two years old, Aliceville
 has twelve storehouses, enclosing pros porous business houses Only a frac- ton of them are of wood. The vast majority are substantial and permanent structures made of brick and some of them have iron fronts shipped down l from Birmingham. In every detail the | town looks as though 1t was built for | keeps and that what 1t is now Is only
 the basis to build a prediction of what
 1t will be in the future. There are | two blocks of these stores, facing each | other from opposite sides of a broad
 thoroughfare. In the distance few
 wooden cottages have been put up and | others are assuming shape. As yet peo- | pie have not had time to build homes. | A fine school building is going up, | building 1t would seem, large enough | for a town twice the size of Aliceville. In these latter days no new town can get along well without a school that
 1t can boast about. The educational
 movement has become so widespread in | Alabama that nearly every town has
 something that is, apparently, especially | fine in the way of schools, and Alice
 vile, less than two years old, is pre- pairing to meet competition.
 The appearance of the town reminds
 one of the rapid overgrown places in | the boom days of the West. The store | houses, so numerous, the residences so | few in comparison, and to heighten the
 resemblance one or two men who arc | doing business have not been able to wait for stores to be built for their accommodation. They have rigged up canvas stores upon wooden frames, to
 have their share of the new business
 in the new town.
 There is no little of this business.
 During last winter Aliceville received
 nearly 10000 bales of cotton. It is a | remarkable record. an unusual record | for a town less than two years of age But the plantations on the plains along | the Tomhigbee are rich and fertile and | their products have been switched away | from all the old routes and the ways of shipment along the new ways to the
 new town of Aliceville.
 The vital force that brought many of | the improvements into Pickens County and which built Aliceville from a cot ton patch, was the personal energy of John T Cochrane, who is at present down in Washington County, where he | is engaged in operating another of the railroads he has constructed. The line | Is known as the Tombigbee Valley
 Road, and it runs from Calvert, on the Southern, to Healing Springs, in Wash lngton County, a distance of fifty miles | But Mir Cochran, over and above his | railroad property, is deeply interested | in Alicevilles financial and commer-
 cial welfare. In the first place, he is the President of the Aliceville Bank and
 Trust Company, a banking institution
 that Is handsomely housed in a substan- tial and costly brick structure. The other oficers are J. M. Summerville, Vice. President, and J. N Butler, cashier. | Mir Cochrane is also the moving spirit | in the Allceville Improvement and De- velopment Company.
 Conditions fin AliceviIIe.
 The growth and prosperity of Alice vile and of Pickens County are built l Cashier Butler Tn the first place | Pfckens County is naturally one of the richest counties in the State The new movement which has Set i'm is
 only a development of those natural