Book Description

Excerpt from Alabama Girls Industrial School Bulletin, 1908, Vol. 3: Historical Number Montevallo is very near the center of the State of Alabama, in Shelby County. Record evidence of its early history is entirely lacking, and facts handed down by its first citizens are meagre. Among its first settlers were the Wilson family, from whom it was called "Wilson's Hill." Doubtless it had been a favorite locality with the aborigines, on account of its beautiful and abundant springs and its then nut-bearing forests, replete with game. Many arrow heads, and bits of pottery are yet to be found in the vicinity, and tradition tells of a famous play ground, which the Indians periodically visited, about three miles from the town, on what has been known as the Dison Place. Congress, in the Act admitting the State of Alabama into the Union, in 1819, made a munificent grant of public lands (72 sections, 46,080 acres), to the State, in trust for a University to be established. All the public lands about Montevallo were selected under this grant; but it seems that at least Edmund King and Edmund Powell, two extensive early proprietors, anticipated the commissioners to the extent of selection of their homesteads, in 1821; probably two years before the University fixed upon its lands. The first President of the University of Alabama, Rev. Alva Woods, D. D., selected this place for the University, the particular site being the hill afterwards occupied by the residence of Burwell B. Lewis, later owned by Jno. D. McMath, and now attached to the property of the Alabama Girls' Industrial School. The town was laid off by the University authorities, which accounts for the streets running at right angles - an ususual thing for the oldest towns. The place was rechristened, Montevallo, by the President of the University. The suggestiveness and appropriateness of this Italian name is very readily appreciated, when we translate it: "On a mound, in a valley." Fortune has shown her fickleness many times to the little town, and began by moving the site of the University before the structural work was begun, to Tuscaloosa, where it remains. Lots in the town were sold by the University, as early as 1823, according to memoranda on the county roads. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.