Excerpt from History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 4 of 4 Laird, hervey woodford, business man. Was born June 26, 1869, at Beaver Ridge, Knox County, Tenn son of Orville Dyer and Mary Crawford (stephens) Laird. 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.
Excerpt from History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 1 of 4 Within these pages is to be found, under specific topics and biographical sketches, the history of a people mainly British by descent, conservatively progressive by tradi tion and habit, deeply rooted in love of country, and with a genius for politics and government. With as fine a record of achievement as characterizes any of our sister States, we have shown with them an equal indifference to preserving our annals for the enlightenment and inspiration of posterity. Dr. Owen hoped to repair this omis sion for Alabama. The work is especially rich in aboriginal, pioneer, local, political, and military history and in biographies of men who have been leaders in their several professions and walks of life in the State. Every important event and period of our history has been treated, from the advent of Desoto and his Spanish adventurers in 1540, to the welcome home accorded the returned soldiers of the World War, in 1919. A few persons worthy to appear in a book of this character are not included here owing to their failure to' furnish data which they were asked by the author to supply. We are, as a people, proud of our history. As individuals and families we boast of our good blood. But we have been careless about putting our claims into such form as will substantiate them to the satisfaction of future historians and critics. This work is an effort to overcome that failure, and to implant in the minds and hearts of Alabamians a consciousness of merit and of greatness, not that we may be boastful, but that we may realize our responsibility to those men and women who bore the brunt of pioneering, to those who staked all their hard earned gains upon the hazard of battle for honor's sake, who overthrew invasion, and who with dauntless courage preserved a civilization and brought a commonwealth to the forefront of a nation in science, material development, and civic aspirations. 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.
Excerpt from History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 2 of 4 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.
Lavishly illustrated with seventy-four color plates and fifty black-and-white photographs and drawings, Never for Want of Powder tells the story of a world-class munitions factory constructed by the Confederacy in 1861, the only large-scale permanent building project undertaken by a government often characterized as lacking modern industrial values. In this comprehensive examination of the powder works, five scholars--a historian, physicist, curator, architectural historian, and biographer--bring their combined expertise to the task of chronicling gunpowder production during the Civil War. In doing so, they make a major contribution to understanding the history of wartime technology and Confederate ingenuity. Early in the war President Jefferson Davis realized the Confederacy's need to supply its own gunpowder. Accordingly Davis selected Col. George Washington Rains to build a gunpowder factory. An engineer and West Point graduate, Rains relied primarily on a written pamphlet rather than on practical experience in building the powder mill, yet he succeeded in designing a model of efficiency and safety. He sited the facilities at Augusta, Georgia, because of the city's central location, canal transportation, access to water power, railroad facilities, and relative security from attack. As much a story of people as of machinery, Never for Want of Powder recounts the ingenuity of the individuals involved with the project. A cadre of talented subordinates--including Frederick Wright, C. Shaler Smith, William Pendleton, and Isadore P. Girardey--assisted Rains to a degree not previously appreciated by historians. This volume also documents the coordinated outflow of gunpowder and ammunition, and Rains's difficulty in preparing for the defense of Augusta. Today a lone chimney along the Savannah River stands as the only reminder of the munitions facility that once occupied that site. With its detailed reproductions of architectural and mechanical schematics and its expansive vista on the Confederacy, Never for Want of Powder restores the Augusta Powder Works to its rightful place in American lore.
In 1871 when the University of Alabama reopened after its destruction by Federal troops, Eugene Allen Smith returned to his alma mater as professor of geology and mineralogy. Until his death in 1927, this gifted man devoted his abundant energy and his stout heart to the welfare of the school and the state. After persuading the legislature to appoint him state geologist in 1873, he spent his summers enduring chills, fevers, and verbal abuse as he searched for industrial raw materials that could bring about better lives for destitute Alabamians. Traveling in a mule-drawn wagon, he recorded detailed observations, botanical and geological discoveries, and mineral analyses in his journal. He loaded the wagon with specimens for the university museum he dreamed of creating some day. He inventoried industries that had failed or been destroyed, judging whether they were worth salvaging. Interspersed with this information were pithy comments on people he met, frustrations he dealt with, historical notes, and poetic descriptions of rocks and creeks and mountains, giving a vivid picture of Alabama in transition. What he accomplished, against monumental odds, became the catalyst that transformed Alabama from an aimless and poverty-stricken agricultural state to an industrial giant to be reckoned with. How he accomplished what he did, with very little support and hardly any money, gave this diminutive and very human man a stature of mythic proportions in the history of the university and the state. The story of Little Doc, as told in Eugene Allen Smiths Alabama, is drawn from many sources: Smiths transcribed field notes, countless numbers of letters he received and the carbon copies of his replies, his published reports over a period of fifty years, wills, genealogical records, histories of the st
