The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

waited to the quarter section in each of
the four townships in some crop or crops;
90 within seven years from the date of
the contract at least one acre in the
quarter section should be planted in the
than 500 olive trees should be set out in
the entire area of the grant unless it
should be previously established to the
satisfaction of the President that the
olive cannot be successfully cultivated
thereon american State Papers)
The selling price of this matchless land
to the exiles was 81 per acre, payable in
1SS4--a decade and a half.
Colonel Parmentier of the immigrants
wrote a friend in Philadelphia: whit
Bluff is one of the finest institutions /
ever saw in my life, and lands lying
around it are of the very finest quality"
q. C. DuBose's School History
The native majesty of the forest, for
miles and miles east of Chickasaw Bluff,
was unsurpassed. The surface was gen.
thy rolling, short, low hills, narrow val
leys-'many as the pillows, one as the
sea-" The sun hardly penetrated. Great
oaks, In several varieties, taller red gum,
towering ash, wide-spreadng cottonwood,
poplar, elm, red cedar, dogwood, walnut,
chestnut, every important tree of the eli
mate except the yellow pine, and of this
there was none. The entire face of the
earth, between the thick standing. tow
erng trees, was covered with cane, so
tall that its evergreen tops mingled with
the limbs and SO dense that a man on
foot must depend on his strong arms to
open a way for his progress. The lower
joints of cane, used as cups, held a pint.
The Bonapartists came up the river on
barges, landing safely after various ad-
ventures. There were 346 allottees sub
scribing to some 10 acres others $50. Mar
shall Grouchy subscribed to $50 acres, but
in Philadelphia an angry newspaper cor
respondence had been unfortunately in
dulged between this notable soldier and
some of his recent comrades in arms
among the exies. The purport was the
revival of the charge that the marshal
was responsible for the result at w ater-
loo and his denial. Under the circum-
stances he declined to form part of the
Bonapartist colony in Alabama. General
Lefebvre Desmouettes took $50 acres,
Colonel Ravul $50 General Laiemand
took $50 and General Van Damme and
Colonel Rigau the same number. Colonel
Charissin took 800 acres.
A serious disappointment came early.
among the IlFSt Steps taken was the ldy-
ing off of the town, Demopolis-cty of
the people-on the top of the bluff. Log
houses had been built and some olive
trees planted. but at last discovery was
made that the inexorable surveyors line.
which determined the limits of the land
grant, ran a short distance, half a mile,
perhaps, east of the town. A public
park had been laid off on top of the bluff,
bluff Hail." the residence and the law
office of Hon. F. S. Lyon. A boulevard
skirting the edge of the bluff and COM
handing a view up and down the course
of the river was part of the scheme OF
the town.
A second attempt was made to build
a town, and now the site selected was
mile perhaps to the east. and the
name was "Aiglesyille" Meantime Ar
cola was settled on the left bank of the
Warrior, three miles away. Fortune re-
fused itself to each town.
While all this enterprise was seen, the
immigrants encountered the adverse
claims of American squatters on their
grant. No difficulties of the situation
damped the native ardor of their spir-
its, however While corn was 81 to IS
a bushel. they enjoyed dancing and
music under the capboard roofs of each
other. Colonel Raoul, finding no use
for his 800 acres of magnificent forest
and canebrake, kept ferry nearby on
the Greensboro road. His young wife.
an Italian princess, MIXED the COW. and
travellers crossing the ferry the tradi-