The Alabama and Mississippi Railroad

From "Selma; Her Institutions, and Her Men" by John Hardy, pub. 1879:

Thus in twenty-two days there were thirty-seven deaths from the epidemic, six of whom were blacks. There were some eight or ten deaths, no doubt, from the disease, before it was pronounced yellow fever, on the 13th of October. About the 25th of September, a brisk cold east wind sprung up, prevailing mostly in the forenoon, and quite warm and dry in the middle of the day. Cool nights were also experienced form about the 25th of September until the 24th of October, on which night there was a cold copious rain, and on the morning of the 25th of October, a heavy frost. The weather for several days thereafter was fair and pleasant, cool, however, of nights. The river had been quite low during the summer, but from the rains of the night of the 24th, quite a rise in the river followed. During the summer numbers of cellars had been dug for new buildings, along Broad and Water streets, and much earth had been moved along these streets, an it was a marked fact, the disease prevailed mostly in the vicinity of those streets, which in all probability, had conducted largely to the generation of the disease. There were, as near as could be ascertained 175 cases of the disease in the city during the prevalence of the epidemic. After regular cold weather all our people returned to the city, but the season’s business had been materially interfered with, but energy and perseverance on the part of our business men soon caused the business of the city to assume a bright aspect, and the epidemic was soon forgotten.

In 1854, a rigid system f quarantine was established early in September, against all places infected with yellow fever, and was strictly enforced. We have had no yellow fever in Selma since 1853l All apprehensions of the prevalence of yellow fever had subsided by the winter of 1854; the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad completed to Montevallo; Col. W. S. Burr, of Selma, and Col. Marshal, of Vicksburg, Miss., having , through the newspapers of both States, urged the completion of the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad form Selma to Meridian. The feasibility of the scheme was comprehended at once by the wealthy planters along the proposed line, especially between Woodville and Selma. A charter was obtained for the road, and in a few months after, the books of subscription were opened, ample stock taken to build the road and equip it from Selma to the place--thirty miles, work was commenced and shoved forward with great energy, thus opening the immense products of the rich canebrake country to Selma. This road not only brought new business, but new men also, to Selma. With the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad reaching out its arms to the north and east and the Alabama and Mississippi Railroad to the west, had a most salutary influence upon Selma, and its advance I business and population was unexampled by any city in the South.

The limits of the city were extended by the Worley survey, the Goldsby addition, and the Shearer addition, and by 1865 we had a population of, at least, 10,000, and as thriving and go-a-head population as could be found in any little city. The receipts of cotton, the great staple that moved everything, rapidly increased.

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