Montgomery, the Capital City of Alabama Part 1

Montgomery, the Capital City of Alabama.

by Anonymous.

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.

The year 1865 saw Montgomery an utterly exhausted little town of some six thousand people, with three broken-down railroads.

The year 1888 finds her a city of 30,000 people, with six well-equipped railroads. Her sole resource was trade with the cotton planters of the surrounding country, and such enterprise as men might exhibit who started life over without a dollar. This difference between 1865 and 1888 is stated to show the discerning reader that there is a source of wealth here, and that the people have utilized it as fast as they could acc.u.mulate capital to develop it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of W. B. Davidson]

Unaided by the influx of capital and enterprise from the East and from Europe, that has so rapidly built other sections of the country, she accomplished so much. What could be done with that aid need not be written to be appreciated. Both enterprise and capital are turning to the South now, and both have found Alabama their best field of operation. It is the purpose of this little pamphlet to show that Montgomery is the place of places for the enterprise that seeks a field for development, for the capital that seeks investment, and for the citizen of a more northern lat.i.tude who desires a change of residence to a prosperous city in a more genial clime.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Government Building]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Court House]

Montgomery is the capital of Alabama, a State whose area is more than fifty thousand square miles, and whose population is nearly or quite one million and a half. She is near the geographical center of the State, exactly in the center of the three great sources of wealth that are giving such an impetus to Alabama's development, and has such close connection with every part of the State that, leaving her depot in the morning, every station on Alabama's nearly 3,000 miles of railroad may be reached before night. When it is added that the Alabama river, navigable all the year round, connects her with the Gulf of Mexico, it will be seen that her facilities as a trade and business center leave little to be desired.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Jos. Goetter's Residence]

[Ill.u.s.tration: I. Pollak's Residence]

No city is more completely equipped with all the conveniences that make the modern city than Montgomery. Her water works supply her with 5,000,000 gallons of pure artesian water daily. Her streets are lighted by the Brush electric light, and her dwellings and business houses by the incandescent electric light and gas. She has a complete system of street railway, and is just completing a thorough system of sanitary sewerage. That such a city should have good hotels, churches, free public schools, theatres, telephones, etc., etc., goes without the saying.

[Ill.u.s.tration: City Hall]

[Ill.u.s.tration: County Jail]

That Montgomery does an annual business of over $30,000,000; that her manufactures are rapidly becoming an important element of her wealth; that she has recently expended millions in improvements, and that she offers the lowest death rate of any city on this continent, is all hereafter set out in detail. She here invites attention to the claim that she offers the best location for purposes of business, commercial or manufacturing, that the developing South affords.

Alabama has three sources of wealth--agricultural, mineral and timber. The Mineral belt lies across the Northern third of the State, and there more than a hundred million of dollars have been expended within the last five years in opening coal and iron deposits that surpa.s.s those of Pennsylvania.

The Timber belt lies across the Southern third of the State, and there billions of feet of yellow pine stand untouched in the virgin forest, while a hundred saw mills are humming along the railroads and rivers.

The Agricultural belt lies across the center of the State from East to West. A belt of prairie, fertile as that of Illinois, is separated from the Timber belt on the south and the Mineral belt on the north, by wide stretches of fertile uplands. Along the streams and in the uncleared forests of this central belt are vast quant.i.ties of hard woods, suited to every purpose of manufacture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. W. Dimmick's Residence]

In the heart of this Agricultural belt, sits Montgomery, with her river and six railroads. She is the commercial emporium of this farming region, while a few miles north or south brings her to the cheap fuel and the cheap lumber of the Mineral and Timber regions of a State more richly endowed in these respects than any State in the American Union.

These rich farming lands, already recovered from the revolution in the labor system, are still to be had for from $3 to $15 per acre, while vast bodies of timber lands are still in the hands of the government, at $1.25 per acre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of O. O. Nelson]

Montgomery only asks that the man of enterprise and the man of capital shall come and see for himself. Cheap iron, cheap fuel, cheap cotton, cheap lumber and a consuming population of 500,000 farmers hold out inducements to the manufacturer, unsurpa.s.sed on the American continent.

MONTGOMERY AS A HEALTH RESORT.

We have long believed, and are now prepared to show by facts, figures and an experience of twenty-one years in the Health Department of Montgomery, that it is ent.i.tled to rank amongst the healthiest cities in America. We make this a.s.sertion in no boastful spirit, but with security born of experience, and sustained by the following carefully prepared statistical tables, compiled from data furnished by a number of American and foreign cities:

| | ANNUAL DEATH AMERICA. | POPULATION. | RATE PER 1,000.

-----------------------|-------------|---------------- Baltimore, Md. | 400,000 | 19.63 Brooklyn, N. Y. | 600,000 | 20.46 Boston, Ma.s.s. | 375,000 | 19.46 Buffalo, N. Y. | 150,000 | 16.52 Cambridge, Ma.s.s. | 60,000 | 23.51 Charleston, S. C. | 60,000 | 28.68 Chicago, Illinois | 500,000 | 14.19 Cincinnati, Ohio | 300,000 | 12.84 Cleveland, Ohio | 170,000 | 21.50 Elmira, N. Y. | 20,583 | 18.69 Erie, Penn. | 200,000 | 13.35 Fall River, Ma.s.s. | 50,000 | 20.39 Lawrence, Ma.s.s. | 40,000 | 23.80 Lowell, Ma.s.s. | 60,000 | 16.73 Lynn, Ma.s.s. | 35,000 | 18.96 Memphis, Tenn. | 80,000 | 16.08 Milwaukee, Wis. | 150,000 | 21.55 New Haven, Conn. | 80,000 | 15.50 Norfolk, Va. | 25,000 | 19.82 New Orleans, La. | 220,000 | 22.78 New York City | 2,500,000 | 22.74 Philadelphia, Pa. | 100,000 | 19.37 Providence, R. I. | 105,000 | 21.20 Richmond, Va. | 100,000 | 18.11 San Francisco, Cal. | 350,000 | 16.04 St. Louis, Mo. | 600,000 | 18.94 Washington, D. C. | 175,000 | 31.12 Worcester, Ma.s.s. | 55,000 | 22.07 Yonkers, N. Y. | 20,000 | 15.33 MONTGOMERY, ALA. | 30,000 |White 9.50 " " | |Col'd. 18.00 " " | |Total 13.00 | | FOREIGN. | | Amsterdam, Holland | 289,982 | 33.01 Antwerp, Belgium | 150,000 | 19.07 Basle, Switzerland | 49,158 | 17.

Belfast, Ireland | 180,412 | 28.

Berlin, Germany | 200,000 | 23.9 Berne, Switzerland | 40,168 | 20.2 Birmingham, England | 400,436 | 28.5 Bombay, India | | 42.7 Breslau, Germany | 260,000 | 25.9 Brussels, Belgium | 173,000 | 20.2 Buda Pesth, Hungary | 60,000 | 39.6 Calcutta, India | 892,000 | 49.4 Christiana, Norway | 80,000 | 21.4 Copenhagen, Denmark | 200,500 | 24.6 Cork, Ireland | 580,076 | 41.6 Dublin, Ireland | 334,666 | 31.7 Dundee, Scotland | 145,600 | 31.5 Edingburgh, Scotland | 220,729 | 28.

Geneva, Switzerland | 46,783 | 19.

Ghent, Belgium | 127,653 | 32.6 Glasgow, Scotland | 560,933 | 24.

Liverpool, England | 600,000 | 32.6 London, England | 3,560,802 | 25.7 Madras, India | 397,352 | 98.6 Manchester, England | 360,212 | 19.8 Messina, Italy | 80,136 | 16.8 Munich, Bavaria | 200,000 | 32.

Naples, Italy | 907,000 | 25.7 Paris, France | 2,500,000 | 25.4 Rome, Italy | 286,000 | 21.3 Rotterdam, Holland | 125,097 | 28.2 Sidney, Australia | 60,079 | 25.5 St. Petersburg, Russia | 210,000 | 45.80 Stockholm, Sweden | 165,677 | 27.2 The Hague, Holland | 105,000 | 29.5 Treiste, Austria | 127,936 | 41.1 Turin, Italy | 225,488 | 32.2 Valparaiso, Chili | 111,500 | 44.3 Venice, Italy | 140,796 | 29.8 Vienna, Austria | 1,500,000 | 32.24 Warsaw, Poland | 300,000 | 21.58

[Ill.u.s.tration: Synagogue]

[Ill.u.s.tration: St. Peters Catholic Church]

It will be seen from the foregoing tables that Montgomery stands first in the list, the annual death rate being only 9.50 per 1,000 of the white population, 18 per 1,000 of the colored population, and 13 per 1,000 of both races. It is from these facts, representing as they do, the vital changes of a people, that values of health are obtained. Hence they are not only priceless to us as citizens, but to representatives of our own and of foreign countries, who, with their families, design making this city their home. These ask and expect what we hope to give them, namely, immunity and protection from all influences prejudicial to health.

[Ill.u.s.tration: M. I. Moses' Residence]

It would be well, just here, perhaps, to answer the many questions put to us about the location, general appearance and sanitary advantages claimed for Montgomery. This may be done by the following simple ill.u.s.tration.

Take an ordinary soup dish. Cut out one third of the rim, and place the cut surface due north, and you have the city in miniature. Explanation: The bottom of the dish represents the business or commercial center; the rim the hills. From this flat, containing about eighty acres, the ascent is gradual to the crest or water shed. Back of this is a sweep of green, undulating country, which Nature seems wisely to have placed there for the free and un.o.bstructed outlet of storm waste and surface acc.u.mulations.

Extending from this water shed to the river, is a net-work of large underground water mains and conduits, of sufficient capacity and strength to resist the pressure of the tons of water that flow through them at every heavy rain fall, thus carrying off the debris, closet refuse and other matters to be wasted in the Alabama river. The Waring system of sewerage is now being added to that already in operation. When completed, the drainage of our city will be as perfect as human ingenuity can make it. These natural advantages, aided and controlled by a liberal government and a wise, energetic Health Board, will ever render Montgomery a charming and safe resort for the tourist, and a home for the invalid. How can this be otherwise when Nature has bestowed upon us this gift of position, and invested our city with broad avenues, shaded by endless lines of the water oak, elm and maple. These give charm to our parks and add beauty and attractiveness to the many handsome public buildings and private residences to be seen on every hand.

Apart from these attractive features, and above price, is our exhaustless supply of pure artesian water. Its const.i.tution, source and chemically pure composition bear directly and remotely upon the sickness and death rate of our people. That many disorders, some of grave character, are justly due to contagion contained in the water we drink, is an established fact; and we should know this when the question of choosing a home is under consideration.

Again, Montgomery is wholly exempt from those wasting blizzards, cyclones and storms so destructive to life and property in other sections of the country. Such are unknown here, whilst around us, yearly visitations of wind storms are common. No disease, especially of epidemic kind, as small-pox, cholera, diphtheria, etc., takes hold here, and we do not dread them. As a

WINTER RESORT,

Montgomery has superior advantages. Our mild winter, our clean bills of health, hotel accommodations, churches, schools, and domestic help--the least annoying of any in the world--are some of the many advantages offered to those in quest of health and homes.

WATER.

The city is supplied with water, both for domestic consumption and fire purposes, by "The Capital City Water Co.," with whom a contract was made for twenty years, late in 1885. The company completed the construction of this system in June, 1886, and the same was tested to the satisfaction of all in July. The supply, which appears to be ample for all the wants of the city for years to come, is obtained from five artesian wells, which flow into three reservoirs of 4,000,000 gallons capacity. Two of these reservoirs are kept full of water at all times as a reserve, and in case of fire. The pumping plant consists of two duplex pumping engines, having a capacity of 5,000,000 gallons in twenty-four hours, and a battery of six ninety horse power boilers, together with all the necessary feed pumps, condensers, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: St. Johns Episcopal Church]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Presbyterian Church]

[Ill.u.s.tration: First Baptist Church]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Court St. M. E. Church]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of J. B. Nicrosi]