Falling of the Stars,
The Great Leonid Meteor Storm
From "Selma; Her Institutions, and Her Men" by John Hardy, pub. 1879:
The negro population rapidly increased in both town and country. Large droves, some hundreds daily, were brought to the town by men like James Hall, Watson, Willis and Jordan whose business it was to trade in negroes. Several large buildings were erected in the town especially for the accommodation of negro traders and their property; the largest of which was erected on the present site of the Central City Hotel building. This was a large three story wooden building, sufficiently large to accommodate four or five hundred negroes. On the ground floor, a large sitting room was provided for the exhibition of negroes on the market; and from among them could be selected blacksmiths, carpenters, bright mulatto girls and women for seamstresses, field hands, women and children of all ages, sizes and quantities. To have seen the large droves of negroes arriving in the town every week, from about the first of September to the first of April each year, no one could be surprised at the fact that the negro population, increased in Dallas county, from 1830 to 1840, between twelve and fifteen thousand. The immense wooden building thus used for twenty years, on Water street, was taken away in 1854, by Dent Lamar, and some five or six buildings made out of it, some of them now located on the south side of Dallas street and most opposite the west Selma graveyard.
The mail facilities had been terribly neglected, and a spirit of improvement having sprung up in every department, proper attention was given to opening mail routes, A route was opened to Elyton, to the north; to Mobile, to the south; to Demopolis, to the west; and to Montgomery, to the east; with Wm. Tredwell as postmaster. Soon hacks and stages were put on these lines, and an immense run of travel soon followed, especially on the route to Mobile. Mobile was the point of trade with all this part of the country. The time on stage from Selma to Mobile being about three days, while that by the river would be five or six days. The greatest travel. Consequently, was by stage. So great did the travel increase on the Mobile line, and the line east, that three trips per week were sufficient for the demand. The Post Office Department offered large pay for daily mail service, Col. Fortune put on the line daily coaches, each coach capable of accommodating as many as twelve passengers, but frequently the accommodating drivers would allow twenty and sometimes as many as twenty-four passengers on their coaches at one time.
Patent medicines were about this time put upon the market. The sick people having become tired of having their arms cut to pieces with lancets, and their teeth rotted out of their heads with calomel by the doctors, greedily sought the store of McKinney, Drake & Co., where they found Coster & Cox’s “Fever and Ague Cure.”
A debating Society was formed for the benefit of the young men, at which, important questions were discussed, once a week, before large assemblies of the inhabitants, particularly the ladies, who evinced much interest.
Most energetic efforts were made to complete the construction of the Presbyterian and Methodist church buildings which had already began.
The greatest events of all was the "falling of the Stars" in November, 1833; the overflow of the country 1833; and the terrible sickly condition of the town and county. Sam Bogle opened a large hotel on the lots, from the now Telegraph building to Maas & Bloch’s corner, on Water street, called the “Bell Tavern.” It was the only boarding house in the town that had a large steamboat bell to ring to notify its customers of the readiness of meals. In this large building, a splendid set of rooms were allotted for balls, parties and shows, termed “Bogle’s Assembly Rooms.” And scarcely a week passed but these rooms were used for some kind of amusement.
<- PREVIOUS PAGE | INDEX | NEXT PAGE ->
site by Com'See
