The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-09
NORTH ALABAMA Is SECTION BLESSED BY PROVIDENCE Sheffield Is Surrounded By Immeasurable POssi-
 bilities WHAT JACKSON SAW IN THE EARLY DAYS Sheffield Had a Boom Which Was Almost Fatal But Reasons for
 Its Being Still
 Exist
RY HIGH N. ROBERTS

Sheffield. october Especial. )-De pressed in that the residents of th' Tennessee valley had failed. by ignor' ing opportunity, to make of the gar den spot of the world, the industria center of the universe, the late Senator John T. Morgan once remarked; "Ho" God has blessed north Alabama in ev' erything save men!'
 This section of the state is the gar den spot of the world. It is said thai General Jackson when, at the head oi his Indian fighters, he reached the spot on which Florence is today, stood awed by the beauty of the workman ship of nature, and that, subsequent ly. he predicted that the wilderness oi that day would eventually be the site of one of the greatest industrial cities of the world.
 There is every reason why another Birmingham should be manufacturing the products needed of the world or the banks of the Tennessee and every reason why around that Birmingham should be a population grown rich through agriculture. The magnificent 1tnuEsote lS lllN cobit NiiC N4'tAA StNA The land of the valley does not only receive fertilization readily but Is so constructed that it retains fertiliza- l tion for an indefinite period. Every thing known to the southern farmer can grow in the fields around Sheffield. And that talent which the government is burying in the ground, Muscle Shaols, contains enough latent power to turn the wheels of industry in every city of the south.
 Boom in Sheffield
 Sheffield was founded in the year 1888, the same year, incidentally, in which Anniston announced it's birth to the world. When Sheffield arrived it found to its north, just across the river, Florence, and to it's south, Tus- cumbia, it's neighbors having been cities since the good year 1922. An niston outstripped Sheffield for several reasons. Florence and Tuscumbia im- peded the growth of their younger sis ter. The people of Sheffield attempted the manufacturing of iron, concerning g which they knew not enough to pros per. And, again, Sheffield was a boom city, and the enforced upward trend of the pendulum, necessarily, had it's reaction.
 l Where Sheffield now stands was in 1882 the plantation of the Habbler fam 1 fly. It is said that when a corner lot in the young town of Sheffield was sold for a sum equal to that which the promoters paid for the entire popula- . tion, Mir Rabbler wep. tears. Sheffield was literally blown up. It was sur rounded by the most beautiful scenery in America, as beautiful as the pal isades of the Hudson. The climate was hardly equalled within the borders of the state. There was every essential for health. The splendid Tennessee swept by in all it's majesty. The soil was rich and able to produce everything which the world eats and everything which the world wears. It's hills were filled with iron and coal. Soon fur naces sent smoke into the heavens, and people from everywhere rushed to the new found Utopia. The boom was IT 1887. Then burst the bubble. And Shef- field is what it is today.
 Shoals the Hope
 Still there is hope On the development of Muscle shoals, $5,000,000 have been ex- | ditch in Panama, employed his skill to- ward harnessing the greatest water power in the bounds of America. A canal was dug by means of which boats can pass the shoals. But the power of the shoals lies idle. But 1t will never disap- , pear and therein is the hope of Sheffield. Furnaces still do their work. Indus- trial development is slow, but develop ment is under way. The government is spending money at the present time on the Tennessee river, and eventually Shef- field will be the point from which boats will distribute their freight throughout Alabama. So Sheffield will exist and will grow. When the government har- nesses Muscle shoals, Sheffield will boom again, and the boom will be as lasting as the world.
 There are many interesting spots around the city of Sheffield. Just across the river stretches the magnificent bot tom lands comprising the plantation of the late Gen. John Coffee. Because of his brilliant services in Jacksons campaign against the gallant Indians of Alabama, the government gave to the old fighter as fine a bit of country as could be found on the map. The descendants of Genera Coffee still reside in Florence, and the plantation still is theirs. It stretches for niles down the river. and furnishes the Tennessee with northern bank.
 | Jackson's York Bluff
 | Just out of Sheffield is Jackson's town | of York Bluff. It is simply a plat of II ground just as Jackson found it. The | old general. however. was so impressed Il with his idea of the magnificent future | ir store for a city on the banks of the II Tennessee that he had his engineers to II lay out a township. He called it York II Bluff. A house was never built But a map, an original drawing, showing the | location and each lot of the dream city is in the possession of John w. Worth ington That mapj is a testimonial tc the fact that Jackson could do other things than fight Indians and attain the | presidency of his country. He was able to stand in the heart of great and beau. tiful wilderness, and with the murmui of the Tennessee in his ear, see through ages to come. a city with furnaces, witt churches, with schoolsi Jackson's cits did not materialize. But Florence wal born, and Tuscumbia. And later came Sheffield. Were the three combined they would form center of 12,000 people, Ant if is possible that they would lose satis faction in the knowledge that with theil | lot they have enough. They might 1T spite of years of idleness stretch ou l tl.of..