Montgomery, the Capital City of Alabama Part 2

City Tax Rate $1.12-1/2 --------- Total Taxes for all purposes $1.97-1/2

INSURANCE.

Basis Rate for Standard Store Building 1 per cent.

" " " Brick Metal-Roofed Dwelling 50 cents " " " Frame, s.h.i.+ngle-Roofed Dwelling 75 "

Industries rated according to the tariff of South Eastern Tariff a.s.sociation.

STATEMENT SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF CAPITAL INVESTED IN MONTGOMERY, AND AMOUNT OF BUSINESS DONE, TOGETHER WITH THE TOTAL OUTBOUND TICKET SALES AND FREIGHT TONNAGE FORWARDED AND RECEIVED FROM JAN. 1, 1887 TO DEC. 31, 1887.

CAPITAL. AMT. OF BUS.

Cotton Factors and Warehouses $2,490,000 $6,750,000 Cotton Mills and Factories 1,380,000 2,450,000 Groceries 1,680,000 6,900,000 General Stores 440,000 1,200,000 Hardware, China and Gla.s.sware 345,000 850,000 Foundries and Machine Shops 120,000 350,000 Plumbing 60,000 150,000 Carriages and Harness 70,000 220,000 Clothing, Hats, Caps, etc. 90,000 320,000 Dry Goods 960,000 2,850,000 Furniture 140,000 350,000 Paper, Twine, etc. 80,000 175,000 Coal, Wood and Lumber 160,000 750,000 Boots, Shoes and Leather 260,000 550,000 Drugs, Paints, etc. 285,000 450,000 Flour and Grist Mills 245,000 1,200,000 Cigars and Tobacco 80,000 450,000 Builders and Building Material 325,000 1,150,000 Printing and Stationery 140,000 270,000 Jewelry 70,000 100,000 Insurance Companies 300,000 250,000 Sundry Establishments, including Theatres, Hotels, Saloons, Auction Houses, Fancy Goods, Bakeries, Pickeries, Junk, Live Stock, etc. 260,000 2,200,000 Fertilizer Works 75,000 250,000 Residences and Business Houses 550,000 Oil Mills 250,000 Street Railroad 130,000 Furnace 175,000 Ochre Mines and Mills 20,000 Highland Park Improvement Co. 600,000 Riverside Improvement Co. 750,000 Banking Capital 2,600,000 Steam Boat Line 50,000 Water Works 450,000 Ice Factories 50,000 ----------- ----------- $15,680,000 $30,185,000

Total Pa.s.senger Ticket Sales $272,279.45 " Freight Tonnage forwarded by Rail 151,315 tons.

" " " received by Rail 354,570 "

" " " " " Trade Co's Boats 16,381 "

[Ill.u.s.tration: Capital City Water Works]

MONTGOMERY'S TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.

A glance at the State map must convince even the most casual observer that Montgomery possesses rail and water transportation facilities, which not only bring her in easy reach of the varied resources of the State, but also connect her with the large commercial cities of this land, and with foreign ports.

The Alabama river, which is navigable from Montgomery the entire year, is her water way to the Gulf, and is an important factor in the question of freights. Connecting her with New York and foreign ports, it is a perpetual check to freight discriminations against her by railroads. When the obstructions to the Coosa river are removed, a matter now engaging the attention of Congress, Montgomery will have water communication as far north as Rome, Ga., which will open up to her a country rich in mineral and agricultural wealth.

The great Louisville and Nashville system, which has contributed so largely to the development of the State, reaches out from Montgomery in two directions. It connects her with the markets of the entire country, north, northeast, northwest and south, and supplies her with coal and other products of the mineral districts of the State, and lumber from the timber belts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of John R. Tyson]

The Western Railroad of Alabama, from Montgomery to Atlanta, connecting with the Kennesaw and Piedmont Air Lines, is a link in the great line from New York to the Gulf. At Atlanta it connects with the Georgia Railroad, giving it a through line to Charleston, and at Opelika with the Central Railroad system, forming a direct route to Savannah, two of the most important ports on the Atlantic.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: Montgomery Theatre]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Views from Highland Park]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Club House Montgomery Shooting Club]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Glimpse of Jackson's Lake]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Exchange Hotel]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Windsor Hotel]

The Montgomery and Selma division opens up to her the rich agricultural districts of West Alabama and Mississippi, giving her a valuable trade.

The Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad, runs southeast from Montgomery, through rich, black prairie lands to Eufaula, where it connects with steamers on the Chattahoochee river. This road is a part of the Georgia Central system, and forms a direct line from Montgomery to Savannah. It offers unsurpa.s.sed facilities to Montgomery s.h.i.+ppers, giving through bills of lading over its own rail and steams.h.i.+p lines, to New York and Europe.

It is the most popular through route from the West to all Florida resorts.

The Florida and Northwest Railroad is being built south from Montgomery, and is now running fifty miles through a rich agricultural section to Luvern. From Luvern it will pa.s.s through the finest timber belt in the country, to some point on the Chattahoochee river. While this road will be a great feeder to Montgomery, it will also form the most direct route to Florida. Its extension from Montgomery, northwest to Maplesville, is generally conceded, where it will connect with the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia system, that great artery of commerce, that stretches its arms of steel from the Atlantic to the lakes, and from the mountains of Virginia to the plains of Texas. This system now enters Montgomery over the track of the Louisville and Nashville road.

The above is but a meager statement of Montgomery's transportation facilities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of Judge D. Clopton]

PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Our public schools consist of the Boys' High School, the Girls' High School, the Capital Hill Grammar School and the Sayre Street Grammar School for white children, and Swayne College and Cemetery Hill School for colored children.

There are employed in the white schools, twenty-six regular teachers and one supernumerary, and in the colored schools, ten teachers.

There has been an attendance during this year of about nine hundred and fifty white children, a larger number than ever before, and about four hundred and fifty colored children. The expenditures for the session 1887-8 have been about twenty-three thousand dollars, besides about four thousand dollars for buildings and repairs.

The income of the schools is derived from an annual appropriation by the city, an annual appropriation from the State, regulated by the number of school children in this school district, and from the poll tax collected from the citizens in this district.

The schools are in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition. The Superintendent is a competent, painstaking gentleman, and his a.s.sistants are for the most part well adapted and fitted to be his coadjutors in the good work.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Residence of A. A. Wiley]

The schools begin on the first Monday in October and end on the last Thursday in May, thus having an eight months' session. The children within the district who are able to pay it, are required to pay a fee of two dollars per session of eight months; those who are unable to pay this fee are admitted free. The students in the Boys' High School and in the highest cla.s.s of the Girls' High School pay a fee of ten dollars per session of eight months, if able to do so.

We have every prospect of continued prosperity in the schools.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Adams Cotton Mill

OFFICERS ADAMS COTTON MILL: J. R. ADAMS, PRESIDENT; J. B. SHERROD, SECRETARY AND TREASURER; W. L. DOLPHYN, SUPERINTENDENT. CAPACITY 5000 SPINDLES AND 150 LOOMS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: n.o.ble Boykin & Clopton Bldg.]

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

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

INDUSTRIES THAT WILL PAY IN MONTGOMERY.

Cotton Mills,--As shown elsewhere.

Bagging Factory,--From absence of any here, and the immense trade that Montgomery has in bagging for wrapping cotton, amounting to something like $200,000 per annum.

Iron Works of all Kinds,--As a furnace of fifty tons capacity will soon be completed in Montgomery, giving cheap charcoal iron of best grade; and unexcelled transportation facilities to reach the home and foreign markets.