The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-17
BARBOUR COUNTY PROUD OF HER SONS Has Furnished the State Many
 Notable Men DOMINATED THE STATE In Former Days in Political Matters It wns Always Said "As Goes
 Barbour So Goes the
 State"
DOMINATED THE STATl
BY HUGH ". ROBERTS e

OldyIOn, DeCeI1Der -kSpeCldl. J-Inere was time when Barbour county's only rival for the political control of Alabama was Dallas, and Dallas attained that honor only after Senator Pugh was de- feated by Edmund w. Pettus. In those days the slogan was "as Barbour goes, so goes the state.' And so able were tho men that this county sent to the conventions, to the legislature and Con- gress, and so great was their influence that Barbour became known as the third grand division of Alabama, the first and second being north and south Alabama, respectively.
 But when the ingenuity of man extract stores of riches which the omnipotent had concealed, the northern counties de-
 veloped in day as it were, and cities densely populated stood forth as if con- structed by some magic wand, the pres tige of Barbour waned. The good people of this county, however, find consola-
 ton in the fact that its representatives
 in every other county in the state have
 attained position and assisted materially
 in the mapping out of the policies of the
 state which have ranked Alabama high in the list of the members of the union. Many Notable Men
 To point out every individual who with
 Barbour county birth as his main asset has attained prominence throughout Ala
 bama would require every column of a Sunday issue of The Age-Herald No other county has furnished as many gov | ernors as Barbour and it's number or three would have been increased to four but for some exceedingly clumsy ballot stuffing and irregular counting which, though then charged and denied, is now | admitted more or less generally. During the last state campaign, as is remem- bered, some person asked Captain Kolb | why he didn't make the race for gover- nor. He replied that he had been elected | twice. and was opposed to any man hay ing a third term.
 | Barbour has furnished distinguished congressman of it's own, and distin- guished men who represented other dis tricts in the Congress of the nation. Col. A. A. Wiley was native of this city,
 and when he died, his brother, also a native, became the representative of the
 Second, or Montgomery, district And
 the present representative of that dis | trjct. Hugh Dent, first saw the sun in Barbour
 When the ladies of Montgomery pre- sented the accession convention with the
 first flag of the confederacy 1t was Capt Alpheus Baker of Barbour, a splendid
 lawyer and orator who ranked with Will
 liam L. Yancey, who made the speech of
 acceptance, the eloquence of which rat
 tied the wine glasses on tine banquet table
 of the Capitola hostelry and fired the
 breast of every nearer with that patriot
 ism which knows no defeat Barbour sent to the fields of war more soldiers
 in proportion to population than any
 other Alabama county, and one Of them,
 Gen. Henry deLamar Clayton, attained
 nationwide fame. He was afterwards
 judge of the Third judicial circuit. mar
 rowly missed the governorship, and
 finally became president of the University of Alabama
 Prominent BIrm1nSnam feOpie l Barbour county men have done muct toward the development of Birmingham That Gov B. B. Conner. who, in spite oi
 his numerous critics, is master hant
 in business, in politics and at figures, ii | a native of Barbour, is common knowl edge. Until he disposed of his vast es
 tate near Spring Hill, to J. o. Thompson
 he was the payer of a sum for taxes l greater than any other turned into the coffers of the state from this county Governor Conner still retains the ole
 homestead, valuable property within | itself.
 l It is also common knowledge that Gov w. D. Jelks is a native of Barbour. Ht | came to Eufaula some years ago retaining | within him the country out of whicf I he had come. He was known as "Bill' | Jelks, and when he started the Eufauls | Times there were broad smiles from tn, 1 very wise. But "Bill' Jelks was a goot