60 THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 



For that which made the present pride of the Wiregrass were 

 the fanners who came into Dale, Geneva, Henry. Coffee, Hous- 

 ton, Covington and Crenshaw Counties. Pike might properly 

 be considered a part of the Wiregrass, but its agricultural de- 

 velopment, its complete settlement was of an older date. 

 Pike, like Barbour and Henry, furnished many of the 

 settlers. Others came from Middle Alabama, from 

 North Alabama, from Georgia, Carolina, Tennessee and as 

 far north as Kentucky. 



WINNING THE COUNTRY. 



They were poor men — these settlers. They hadn't much of 

 anything except children, dogs and hope. All they had came 

 in their wagons. 



The riches of the Wiregrass were grown within its own 

 limits. Its prosperity is its own product. Its' development 

 came from within and from itself. Practically nothing was 

 brought to it. The settlers came in, unhitched their teams, 

 staked out their farms and knocked together some sort of shack 

 that they could occupy for a time. The inviting, comfortable 

 homes, the fertile fields, the bank account, the seven or eight 

 bales' patiently waiting for cotton to rise, are the surplus 

 Vi'hich thrift and energy has wrested from the soil of the 

 Wiregrass. 



This thought was impressed upon me by C. C. Johnson, a 

 leading merchant of Geneva. 



"All that our farmers have," he said, "was raised and pro- 

 duced right here. You see they had nothing when they came 

 here. Some of them barely had a wagon to move in. Most of 

 them homesteaded their lands. I am speaking particularly of 

 those who came in twenty or twenty-five years ago. Once in 

 here they went to work and now bank accounts are the rule 

 rather than the exception. You would be surprised to see some 

 of the many comfortable homes about Geneva and I hardly 

 know of a farmer who is not holding some cotton for a better 

 price. And ?11 of this belongs to men who came in here with 

 practically nothing." 



