The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-04
BUILDING RAILROADS AND
 PROSPERITY IN CLAY COUNTY

editor, in his earlier life, some forty yoars ago. They are good houses' these old buildings, because the major , built good houses as he writes good editorials.
 At the present time the first brick store is going up in Ashland on one corner of the square. A new bank mas been organized with William E. Hol- loway of Montgomery as president ID make room for this new enterprise one | of the old wooden stores is to De torn down and brick structure put up Tn | its stead. It Is not to be forgotten either that the total cost of building the six miles of railroad from Ashland l to Pyriton was borne by the citizens Of Ashland and 1t Is not a large town either. for which the burden that each of the contributors had to bear was no little one. These accomplished and pending Improvements indicate that the old county site is about to grow
 out of its olden appearance and arouse
 to the possibilities which are its by reason of the fine country and the
 white citizenship of Clay County. The Town of Lineville.
 Six miles to the east Is the other old town of Lineville. Lineville before
 the County of Clay was established was on the line which separated Talladega and Clay Counties. There are no big
 towns in Clay County. The two iarg-
 est are Lineville and Ashland. Both of them have less than nine hundred inhabitants. The visitor early learns that an intense rivalry exists between
 the two places. Ashland has reasons to believe that Lineville has designs upan the courthouse and no doubt the fears of Ashland are well grounded. Beyond doubt the future will show a hot courthouse contest of some sort in Clay, a fight that will be wagei around one of two questions. either the build ing of a new courthouse at Ashland or the removal of the old courthouse to Lineville.
 The rivalry of the two towns no doubt had an important bearing upon the building of the two independent railroads from both places to Pyriton. The Llneville people claim that as soon
 as the people of Ashland found that
 Lineville was to have railroad they
 whirled in and constructed their road as fast as it could be done. Ashland just now is pointing out with satisfac- tion that its road is completed and trains running upon 1t every day. while
 the men are, still working upon the
 Linevlle road.
 Lineville has a more distinctly mod
 ern appearance than Ashland. For one
 thing 1t has more than a dozen brick
 stores to the one brick structure that
 is going up in Ashland. The people of
 Ashland. however. say that progress
 and prosperity have come in with the
 new road and that whatever the town
 lacked in the past, as a modern town
 it will have 1t in the future. Lineville
 with its dozen stores of brick. its depot
 its road now under construction and It's
 energetic land company which Is boom- ing lots in Lineville, Is, and probably
 with some reason. inclined to assume
 superior airs over the surrounding
 towns. It makes the claim with some
 justice that It's prosperity is of the
 present and not of the future. It
 makes the claim that Linevile's pros / perity is not of the future. but that 1t has already arrived There is in Lineville beyond doubt, a strong and | energetic movement for progress. due fin great measure to the presence
 there of John S. Jemison, formerly of l Montgomery, but later of Birmingham. President of the First National Bank of Lineville, President of the Lineville and Birmingham Railroad and Presi-
 dent of the Lineville Land and Im-
 provement Company In the various enterprises which are expected to ,re-
 dound to the credit of Lineville he has
 an active lieutenant in Robert Ivey.
 well known in Middle Alabama. 4*. The White Farmer.
 Clay County has the strongest basis for prosperity that any county or any State or any section may have. the white farmer who owns his home and
 who lives on his farm. If one could forget the topography of the county and look away from the topped peaks of the Talladega mountains to the north he might fancy that he was
 in the rich farming country of South east Alabama. The thoroughness and cleanliness of farming operations which puts to shame the slipshod style of the | negro tenantry is noted here even as 1t is noted in the red and gray cotton | lands of Southeast Alabama. The white men are the tillers of the soil, the workers who not only make each year living for themselves and their | families but whose industry and thrift | contributes to the general prosperity of | the country Out of such condition where the farms are inhabited and titled by white farmers there comes the frmest basis of general prosperity. 1 It does not mean that so many towns | or that large towns are built up l throughout the county, but 1t does mean | that prosperous communities and vil- | lages grown up in the hills and plains | of Clay. that the interests of the public ! schools are guarded almost as jealously as the interests of the church
 | "Our people of Clay County are an | agricultural people" said State Sena-
 tor Walter S. Smith. of Lineville. in | discussing this phase of life in Clay. | They are not given to moving to | towns. Our farms are owned and op- erated by white farmers. You would l be ast onished at the number of farm CTS who own their places unencumbered l by any mortgages. I dare say that there Is a larger percentage of farmers in Clay who own farms without mort gages than in any other county of the | State"
 We have but a few negroes in Clay. | In fact ninety-five per cent of our population Is white. There is not a | registered negro voter in all of Clay
 County. Here in Clay we have never | been troubled by anything like the
 race question. Since the new consti- tuition went into effect we have a | larger voting strength than our
 neighboring county of Talladega which l Is generally supposed somehow by the people of the State to be a much larg- CT county than Clay. Moreover. we have larger vote than Lowndes | the Fifth Congressional District and
 which for so many years waged so large an influence in the affaiA of the l district.
 AS I have said before our people
 are those who live on the farm and who are producers. Lineville, as you
 have seen is growing rapidly. This | growth is not made up so much of peo- pie who come in from the surrounding
 country as it is of people who move
 from the towns of other counties | drawn here by the splendid surround 1 ing country and the prosperity of that
 country"
 l Lineville Development.
 In nf | In