The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06
Roebuck Springs and Its Romantic Histor,

As far back as the year 1920, saw the granting of a tract of land by James Monroe, President of the United States. to one Audly Hamilton, the said land being "the west half of the north ship IT, of range two, west, in the dis trict of Tuscaloosa, in the state of Ala bama," containing 79.76 acres.
 This land was the original grant that Is now the beautiful residence sec- tion called Roebuck Springs.
 Most people in speaking OF thinking of Birmingham and its suburbs think and speak of 1t as mushroom town, and so it may be called when we com pare 1t to the older cities of even our own state--Mobile, Tuscaloosa and others-but this section, too, Is old, and has its ancestral backing, and it, too, has been graced with grand danes and chivalrous gentlemen long before the war.
 The Wilson's of Roebuck Springs are the direct descendants of the Eamil- ton family, to whom this land was originally given, and still hold in their possession the original certificate of the grant of the lands made to Audly Hamilton by Presidents Monroe and Van Buren.
 At that time all of the land was known as Jefferson county, but the property was registered and salable ill Tuscaloosa. The Van Buren grant was made in 1889.
 Audly Hamiltons daughter married James Wilson, the grandfather of the present family and the land was dt- vided half given to the daughter, Mrs. James Wilson, and the other half sold to a man by the name of Hawkins, who afterward sold the land to Mrs. Roe- puck, for whose family the suburb was named. It was said of this Hawkins that he was the largest slave owner in the county
 Standing as the landmark of this sec tion is the original James Wilson nome, somewhat changed in outward appearance, but still telling the story Of it's years of buried history of this charming section. The strongly built log house is now covered with modern covering and the addition of a porch has done much to stay away from the old colonial architecture
 During the boom in the Birmingham section in 1888, East Lake, which was the name then given to the whole tract of land now known as Roebuck h'Pi h6S, was UOuBnL lTOIIl the Or1SlnaI owners by local firm The transac- tion brought the owner, MT. James Wilson, ST., price of S200 per acre. This price was considered remarkable. but property around the Birmingham section at that time was being bought Tor almost any price, and this section, too, was on the boom. Property around here was being bought so rapidly and so exorbitantly that two days after the sale of the Wilson land the same person was offered $100 an acre more. Then came the panic, and stranded real estate men were as thick around Bir- mingham as peas. Every section showed the ravages of the boom, and East Lake was as dead as Hector" be- sides being an entire loss. For 27 years this section lay undeveloped and un- used and, strange to say, when the present land company that has the sec- tion bought it back they paid the same price for it as had been paid dur ing the boom.
 Perhaps one of the most quaintly TO- mantle spots in the whole section is the Wilson family graveyard. All along it's approach may be seen small pointed stones that mark the graves of the Hamilton and Wilson slaves One old nanny several years ago hear ing a public road was to go near the