The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-21

| and Henry County have Known since
1877.
The people OF Henry County are m
better fix than l have ever known
them" declared an old citizen in talk
ing of the crop year which had Just
closed. Prices for cotton. corn and
other farm products were exceptional
ly high, due to crop failures in other
sections, but around Abbeville the sea-
sons were splendid, all that we could
ashland We gathered one of the big
gest crops in our history. This crop
sold at the high water mark prices,
has given the merchants and the farm
ers more money than they have ever
had before"
It is notable fact, attributable in
some small measure to the influence of
the Southeast ALBANIA Agricultural
School at Abbeville, that the farmers
OF upper Henry after SO many years
are gradually coming into knowledge
and appreciation OF the benefits of Iii
versifed farming, of raising hogs of
high degree, of corn and of other pro-
ducts besides cotton. The change in
the methods delayed for three quarters
of century is being ushered in now,
slowly but surely. and In some degree
Is is responsible for the recent excsp-
tional prosperity OF, that section.
The Early Days.
When the upper end of Henry County
was being settled by men who were
sometimes the enemy and sometimes
the friends of the Creek Indians. Hem
ry County was a part OF Conecuh Coun-
ty. This was in the old territorial
days Of Alabama. from 1917 to 1919 At
the time Alabama became a State in
1919, Henry County was made into
big county of. the new State. Since
that time Henry County has given so
much of its territory to the making OF
new counties that 1t might be called
THE Mother of the Wiregrass." When
Henry County became q separate ter
ritorial political subdivision of Ala
bama. II embraced the counties OF Cow
ington, Dale. Coffee, Geneva. Houston,
the greater part of Pike, and parts of
Crenchaw and Barbour counties. Rich
mond, village that Is gone to return
no more, and which was situated In
what is now Dale County. was the first
county Seat, but this was removed to
Columbia in 1922. 1t remained until
1893, In which year Ii was moved to
Abbeville, where II has since been es-
tablished.
Henry county made a magnificent
contribution to the Confederate Army.
Few counties in Alabama. in this re-
spect can claim more glory. On one
OF, the streets of Abbeville. strong
substantial old house of village archi-
lecture, with square posts rising to the
height of one story. and set back In
a grove of cedars is pointed out as
the home for many years of General
William c. Oates, distinguished as a
Confederate soldier, an Alabama Con-
gresham and as Governor of Alabama.
But this list of men from Henry coun-
ty who served the Confederacy with
distinction is too long for publication
here. A word Is to be said of General
Alexander c. Gordon. that notable
man of Abbeville, whose life linked
Henry county of the pioneer perlodNt to
its late and modern time. General
Gordon was not noted as a soldier of
the Confederacy, but he was one of
Henry county's leading men for half
a century, a man who had his own ad-
ventures in the old Indian days. Gen
eral Gordon, when boy of six years
of age came to Henry county with his
uncle from Georgia. In 1921 when he
was only 10 years of age he was cap
tured by the Indians with his half
brother Irwin Rogers. then only years
of age. The Indians travelling in
caravan carried them Into what Is now
Dale county and later into Florida.
Later they were recognized by people
at Appalachicola anxious to get the
reward of $50 offered by the family for
the return OI IAiC tNO OOFo AASS
were taken from the Indians and car
ried back to their homes in Henry.
Life with the indiana.
Late in life, his head white with
the SHOWS of many winters, General
Gordon used to say of his romantic
life with the Indians:
TT was the happiest period Of my
entire life. / never so enjoyed living
as | did when 1 was with the Indians.
1 was a strong pioneer boy of ten,
hardy and somewhat accustomed to
riding and the hard pioneer life. The
Indians treated me as though were
an equal of their warriors. They
gave me a pony TO ride and gun to
shoot. 1 rode with them in the cara
van I sat at their feast and I Joined
in their dances. They were uniformly
kind and generous to me. You may
easily imagine, how that life appealed
to an adventurous boy, riding through
the woods. hunting and feasting and
dancing. So deep an impression did
that adventure make upon me that
several times / have intended to go
step by step over the route travelled
by me and my Indians eaptors