The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-09
Chronicles of The CanebraRe
CHAPTER XII By JOHN wITHERsPOON DUBOsE

T7oLLOWING the parlance of the day,
 "Canebrake Square," on the hill
 4 at the present Prairieville post | office. gave name to the region of plan tations settled by Capt. Reuben Vaughan and his family, Col John McRae, MT Duval, the Tayloes, Robertson, MT. Chap- ron and others of the immediate vicin- age Soon Calhoun, Rev. Edward Baptist Adams the Minge brothers. pr. Harr1- son, settled plantations farther south and she social contact of the two neishpor- hoods extended the name, "Caneorake'
 over both alike. These two communi'les were known as St. Andrews and Se' Michaers parishes. Up to this stage or the narrative the biographical feature has been limited to those planters who lived within the arbitrarily defined areas indicated. A wider view of the same class of people living outside those par ishes may contribute to whatever hlstor- ical value attaches to the description or the former, and to this end we proceed. It may be said that all the land, about 20 miles from east to west, Uniontown on one border and Demopolis on the other, and about 30 miles from north to south. Greensboro on one border and Dayton on the other, is substantially of one quality, rolling prairie. in the natural state very heavily tmbered, with dense cane under growth The same system of plantation management prevailed over the 600 square miles, the agriculture was the same, the customs of society the same. In 1S60. so little timber was left that the area seemed ] one vast plain.
 It Is not yet satisfactorily explained to at1o0 ! ham Lincoln's objection to conditions contemporary with him, was, as they had developed In all that country. No immi- grafton of slaves came. On the contrary there was a marked disposition to trans fer those that were already there farther west, while the masters remained with ! their families in the matchless society 1 of the Canebrake. Dr. Harrison, Dr. Reese, MT. Du Val, MT. Edwin Glover, | MT. Montague, all planters between Un- | iontown and Demopolis, I recall, opened plantations in the Mississippi valley or Texas, in the last decade of slavery, and carried thither considerable number of slaves. MT. Jefferson lamented the act of | Congress, in his life time, drawing boundary line for slavery. His idea was to scatter the slaves among the states so ,that the more numerous whites would soon emancipate all. I saw certain plantation of the Canebrake red clover six acres of specially enriched land. The crop was moved and fed by soiling to about 300 head of mixed live stock, mules, hogs cows. The only expense of | the feeding was the labor of one second class negro field hand with blade to now, a blind mule and a tumble cart. The feeding lasted perhaps four months and the saving was estimated at 12Oo bushels of corn-200 bushels to the acre. The logical conclusion Is that soon as 11 a1 tIA orIra ct1nh Ia would cease to be devoted to cotton pro- duction, while cotton lands would be sought for slave labor elsewhere. In this |' connection there was a pending intimacy of relationship between the prospective development of the mineral wealth of Alabama and this blessed black belt re- zion. The cotton planter governor and the cotton planter legislature had al- ready, prior to the coming of Mr. Lin coin, chartered and surveyed the rail- roads-three in number-which completed, have made the city of Birmingham. need not argue the proposition. If the cot ton planters had been let alone Birming- ham would have contained in 1910 250.0o0 inhabitants and Mobile a greater num- ber. At any rate a population which had reached the eminence in civic virtues at tained to by the people of the Canebrake might have been safely entrusted with It's own future. John Brown and his dis ciples could contribute nothing to the predicates of the situation. There is no f corresponding example in the history of nations where a maturing civilization as at the south, was ruthlessly destroyed in It's foundations not to reform 1t, for there was no reformer, but to humiliate and conquer for the qualification of lust of gold. The longer we live in under standing of the Canebrake and what 1t stood for, the more liberal our minds be-
 -a 1fa IA clearer becomes view of the divine order of separate races of men on earth, and the safer our knowledge of the dis astrously premature interference of Mr. I.incoln's with the settled character, the broad intelligence and pure patriotism of the southern people.
 UNIONTOwN.
 Water falling on the eastern suburbs of this town flows toward the Alabama river, while that falling on the western flows toward the Tom Bigbee. The site Y of the place is so elevated that for years boring for artesian water proved unsuc- cessful, but continued effort has given most satisfactory results Nine miles north the Newberne bored well has been long famous for its medicinal properties. The prairie lands here described are not all of that class which are adjacent to Uniontown Hundreds of square miles lie in every direction around the town, in Perry and Dallas counties. continued in great platations, left over from the slave era.
 Henry Wood and his brother, John, are supposed to have built the earliest house upon the town. Henry Wood was the first in order of magistrates in the settle ment He held court in the log cabin In which he lived. The only parties to suits before him were gentlemen who lived in log huts and travelled the narrow paths between walls of cane. John Murphy soon opened department store hardby. He dealt in shot and powder, tobacco ana pipes trace cfsains and brogans.
 In little time the educated settlers be- came hungry for news. They sent for ward a petition in formal style for postoffice at Woodville. After much de- lay the authorities at Washington re- 1ected the prayer because there was a Woodville postoffice already in the state, among the northern hills. Woodville was incorrigible name, however. As late as July f. 1880, MT. Richard H. Adams or IA