The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-24

On February 1. 1850, the legislature of Alabama passed an act signed by Governor Collier, that the state should assist in connecting by railroad the Tennessee river with the navigable waters of Mobile bay It must not be assumed that the act involved the use of d dollar of the taxes of the state. The federal government had bestowed upon the treasury of Alabama, first and later per cent of the proceeds of sales of public lands within the bounds of the state, to be applied to internal Improvements.
 In order to promote the purpose of inc act of February, 1850, the legisla- ture appropriated one full half of the per cent fund in the treasury. Lewis Trocst of Mobile was made chief engi- nocr and he surveyed the line from Selma on the Alabama river to Gun tersville on the Tennessee. The line was the Alabama and Tennessee River railroad" When it reached Montevallo, coal mining began and small shipments were made to Mobile by the regular steamers from Selma About the win ter of 1858 d cotton factor of Mobile,
 
 blazing Monteyallo coal in his office grate, the first l had seen. He re- marked. My wife will not permit Il to come into my house, because of the dust and smoke it makes At that time, most of the cotton arriving at Mobile was shipped direct to Liver pool. by sailing vessels The ballast of these incoming ships was the dust less, smok eless Liverpool coal that sold cheap.
 After the Alabama and Tennessee River railroad had been chartered and surveyed and tardily, and with great difficulties overcome, built to the lower border of the coal fields, the great man. Michael Tuomey, walked through the dense forest northward with ham mer in hand, seeking the mineral de- posits His wonderful discoveries and his enthusiasm aroused the state
 The Alabama and Tennessee River road had not been located, except m cidentally to develop the coal trade. II was intended to make easy connection between the five countieS-ShelbN, lal- ladega, Cherokee Marshall, with Mo- bile for the advantages of commerce in cotton and for promoting closer polftical sympathies between the up
 
 ton plantations and negro slaves were found From the time when the Ca haba was the capital and long be- fore railroads, the legislature had been anxiously discussing state wagon road to connect the upper and middle counties of the state.
 We have seen that the railroad lesis- Iation of the democratic legislature or 1S55-57, had been rudely vetoed by the democratic governor. John A. winston At the next biennial election, August, 1857, Andrew R. Moore was elected governor and again a legislature was chosen favorable to state aid to rali- road building.
 Late in the first session of the new legislature u bill was passed to take the first step toward penetrating, by q railroad, the heart of the mineral wealth explored by Tuomey, state geol- ogist. on February Andrew E. Moore. governor, approved it. Years before then. Sir Charles LyelIa an Eng fish eeoIogist. had visited Professor luomey at the university of the state and had visited Dr. Robert w. Withers on his plantation, in Greene county Their information induced him to ride through a part of the country where tGal seams cropped out ana great loulders of iron ore lay on the surface
 I.ven's published descriptions, sus- 1afned by Tuomey's official report, pre- vailed with the legislattSa to appro- ,,riate S1O000. to come from the pei cent government fund, to survey a branch road, that would leave the Alabama and Tennessee River line somewhere about Montevallo, pass through the mineral region on 10 the