MOBILE 



3868 



MOBILE BAY 



tensive machine shops of the Wabash Railway, 

 which employ 2,500 people. The city also has ' 

 a shoe factory, a large grain elevator and ce- 

 ment works. Moberly has a $70,000 Federal 

 building, a Y. M. C. A. building, Saint Mary's 

 Academy, a business school and a Carnegie Li- 

 brary. Forrest Park, covering 200 acres, is the 

 city's largest recreation ground. L.W.K. 



MOBILE, mobeel', ALA., the second largest 

 city and the only seaport of the state, is the 

 county seat of Mobile County. It is in the 

 southwest corner of the state, on the left bank 

 of the Mobile River, where that stream empties 

 into Mobile Bay. The city is thirty miles (the 

 length of the bay) north of the Gulf of Mexico 

 and 140 miles northeast of New Orleans. The 

 population, which was 51,521 in 1910, had in- 

 creased by 1916 to 58,221 (Federal estimate). 



Mobile has an extensive domestic and foreign 

 water commerce. Eighteen hundred miles of 

 navigable waterways enter Mobile Bay. Large 

 freight steamers ascend the Alabama River to 

 Montgomery, 410 miles northeast, and up the 

 Mobile and Tombigbee rivers to Demopolis, at 

 the entrance of Warrior River. There are 

 regular steamer routes from Mobile to New 

 Orleans, New York, Cuba, the West Indies, 

 Central America and South America. Water 

 transportation is supplemented by the Louis- 

 ville & Nashville, the Mobile & Ohio, the New 

 Orleans, Mobile & Chicago, the Southern and 

 the Alabama, Tennessee & Northern railroads. 

 Two short electric lines extend westward. 



The city has an area of nearly fifteen square 

 miles. It is fifteen feet above the river, and is 

 on a level, sandy plain which rises gradually 

 westward to low, wooded hills. Here are favor- 

 ite resorts during the heated season. Except 

 for the business section the city is not com- 

 pactly built; the pleasant homes, many of the 

 houses in colonial style, surrounded by gardens, 

 and the broad, regular streets lined with live 

 oaks and magnolias, give the place much charm. 

 Interesting and scenic features are the Bay and 

 the "shell road" along the shore extending to 

 New Orleans. 



Buildings. The chief buildings are a $250,000 

 Federal building, erected in 1916, the cotton ex- 

 change and chamber of commerce, courthouse 

 and the city hall. The Cathedral of the Immacu- 

 late Conception and Christ Episcopal Church 

 are two of the most prominent churches. 



Institutions. In Mobile is the medical school 

 of the University of Alabama, the Convent and 

 Academy of the Visitation, McGill Institute, 

 Evangelical Lutheran Institute and Barton 



Academy, the latter a part of the public school 

 system. Spring Hill College (Jesuit) is located 

 five miles from the city. There are three pub- 

 lic libraries. The city is the see of a Roman 

 Catholic bishop. There are also a United States 

 marine hospital, a city hospital and several in- 

 firmaries. 



Industries. The Federal government has at 

 various times financed the dredging of channels 

 in Mobile Bay, and at a cost of more than 

 $11,000,000 has completed the building of locks 

 on the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, to im- 

 prove and extend the river trade. During the 

 time from 1911 to 1914 the city made great 

 improvements along the Bay and built docks 

 which afford 1,500 feet of water front. The 

 value of exports in 1915 was nearly $29,500,000. 

 These consisted principally of cotton, cotton- 

 seed oil, lumber, timber and naval stores. The 

 imports for the same year totaled about $3,- 

 870,000, and consisted of tropical fruits, espe- 

 cially bananas, coffee, mahogany, asphalt, sisal 

 grass and manganese and sulphur ores. Mobile 

 holds an important position among the cotton 

 markets of the United States; quantities of cot- 

 ton, garden produce, especially beans and cab- 

 bage, and corn, cotton cloth, meat products, 

 live stock, and fish and oysters are shipped to 

 domestic markets. 



Industrial enterprises of the city include cot- 

 ton compresses and cotton mills, saw mills and 

 woodworking plants, an agricultural chemical 

 plant, a large steel plant, machine shops and a 

 shipbuilding yard. 



History. Mobile has belonged successively to 

 France, England, Spain and the United States. 

 In 1699 Sieur d'Iberville, the founder of Louisi- 

 ana, moved a settlement from Biloxi to Twenty- 

 Seven Mile Bluff, a point on the river about 

 twenty miles above the present site of Mobile. 

 After the floods of 1709 it was moved to the 

 third and permanent location. Until 1720 the 

 settlement was the capital of the French prov- 

 ince of Louisiana. In 1803 it became a part of 

 the United States as a result of the Louisiana 

 Purchase. In 1819 it was granted a city char- 

 ter. The commission form of government was 

 adopted in 1910. Epidemics of yellow fever 

 have been overcome by splendid sewerage and 

 water systems. The latter is owned by the city 

 and the supply is exceptionally pure. R.G.C. 



Consult Powell's Historic Towns of the South- 

 ern States ; Hamilton's Founding of Mobile. 



MOBILE BAY, BATTLE OF, a naval engage- 

 ment of the War of Secession, in which Farra- 

 gut, the commander of the Federal fleet, caused 



