The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-17
HISTORIC PLACE
 YIELDS ID CITY Last Hundred-Acre Fragment
 to Be Subdiyided SKETCH OF OLD EARLE FARM Streets of New Town Will Bear Given Names of Members of Family to
 Preserve Neighborhood
 Significance.
SKETCH OF OLD EARLE FARM

The Earle estate, or as it Is locally termed, "the old Greene place. which 1 is now being subdivided into lots has been, since early ill the last century. a | famous landmark on the old Jasper road It is the last hundred-acre fragment left | of that group of farms and plantations l once belonging to the early settlers of 1 Jefferson county, all of whose estates, l barring this one, have long since be- come important subdivisions of "The l Greater Birmingham
 l Wide, level streches of meadow land, high-lyng and wholesome, Earle place is l the pick of the ground whereabouts. For years past, the owners, being 10th to break up the estate, Earle place has been the missing link as it were, in l the long chain of home settlements, sub urban communities and subdivisions en- circlng the city.
 Homestead Will Be Preserved. l The homestead proper has, with it's inn mediate grounds, been preserved intact, and will so remain. In the nomenclature of the streets and avenues many of the family names of the original owners will
  serve to those interested the local histor- 1 ical relation and the family and neigh borhood significance of the place. Pertaining to this Earle estate there is, by the way, record of singular in- terest. an occurrence in real estate an nals in the south, rather extraordinary. In the year 1921 this very property with
 its original holdings, these also com prising the grounds where Owenton is now located. was ceded by special act of Congress to the Society of the Deaf and Dumb of Hartford, Conn., The &C., tion being taken at the request of Capt. William Ely founder of Elyton, and from whom Elyton derived it's name. The prop erty was sold soon afterwards and the proceeds were turned over to the society. Certain 1t was a Dutch trick on youth full Alabama and the old Yankee cap- tain stoutly rslntained his Flaw west of the Pecos." Not, as might be inferred, that he loved Alabama less but simply he loved Connecticut more All told this odd little circumstance adds a pungent flavor to the musty old record deeds of Earle place. How Place Derived It's Name. In 1887 the property was bought by Dr. Samuel Earle, practicing physi- | elan and planter from Pendleton, s. C., | from whom the place has derived its name.
 A small farmhouse was put up by pr. Earle and the several hundred acres of fertile ground about it converted into what was then Alabamas staple product, cotton and corn. Just this section, in fact, was formerly held to be the only ground worth while in the whole of Jef- ferson county; the Red Mountain district and all its precincts being condemned by the early surveys as sterile and no good to farmers
 Instead of coal and pig iron, everything in the Birmingham district in those days | was, as has been facetiously observed mules and niggers, cotton and corn: corn and cotton, niggers and mules" Among the large farms adjoining D. Earle's were those of the Walker fam fly, now Wentworth; the Mudd place in Elyton, now owned by MT. Munger; the old Smith house and prorepty now
 
 Elyton spring, the quaint tavern-the wayside inn of Alabamas early times and old Valley creek, now "the canal" were other prominent landmarks in the days before the war.
 Old Trees Still Standing. | A group of the original forest trees sur | rounded the Earle's house. Several of | these, clambered over by English ivy and 1 the scarlet creeper, stand there today, to- I gether with the tall old water oaks l planted seventy odd years ago. ] The same lilac bushes, the figs and 1 pomegranites, the hyacinths and lilies of the valley, the vlolets and roses, still re- main in the grasses there, fragrant and tourishing as in the old days l It has been the ambition of every home builder so far in the new Earle place to get some little slip. cutting or bulb of flower, plant or vine that grew in this old-fashioned garden.
 ] For there has even now clustered about | the old home site group of pleasant lit | tie homes with lawns and gardens | among then. on Sarah avenue, the resi- dences of Judge Samuel Earle Greene, Andrew w. BurSin, eX-sheriff of Jeffer-